Tourist in MSN

Thanks.

In the past I have found the Open Street maps list of businesses or whatever to be adequate for locating that sort of thing on my GPS when I load a map at home shortly before my trip so that the maps have the most up to date list.

But I can see where it could come in handy if you do not update your maps before a trip.

estasnyc

It looks like Garmin is currently discounting some of their bike tech, such as the Edge 1040 and Varia radar series, but not the Edge Explorer 2. Not yet anyway but Black Friday will be at the end of next week and there will probably also be an after-Christmas sale as well if you can be patient.

Around July 4th week I contemplated getting the Edge Explorer 2 myself for navigation when it went on sale for $50 off for the first time that I took notice of this.

Being cynical as I was, my first thought was that this may be because Garmin might be discontinuing Edge Explorer 2. I inquired about this here and was told that an occasional discount is quite normal for Garmin and doesn't necessarily mean anything else.

Anyway, someone suggested that I should create a spreadsheet for comparing the different Edge models. At first, this struck me as being ridiculous overkill but it did remind me to get rid of the tunnel-vision I was having, of either getting or not getting the Edge Explore 2, and see what my other options might be.

Turns out, by plain dumb luck, I found the Edge 1030 Plus being heavily discounted and I got it for $305 + tax.

I don't know what features that the Edge 1040 has that the 1030 Plus doesn't but the 1030 Plus does have a bigger screen and longer battery life than Edge Explore 2. My thinking was that, for my practical purposes, I was spending an extra $55 to essentially get an "Edge Explore 2XL".

The Edge 1030 Plus discount offer was very brief and went back up to full price not long after i pulled the trigger on my order and before i could post a message here giving a heads-up for anybody else who might have been interested. The $50 discount on the Edge Explore 2 did continue for a little while longer.

Be patient.

Steve B.

How do you know that ?

roadcrankr

This thread keeps giving! Okay...I'll play.
I never understood the need for a Garmin. Just mount your smartphone on your stem and use Strava.
My setup uses a Quad Lock for the phone, with an accessory battery bar extension.
Got it on Amazon for less than twenty bucks. Both USB-A and USB-C plugs.
Never got around to buying a shorter cable. Someday will do it. lol
It keeps my phone 100% charged for five hours, with my screen full on the entire ride.
That blue-lit button allows me to turn off the charger, for whatever reason.
My attached integrated-battery headlight can likewise accept a charge or give out a charge.

john m flores 

Christo613 If your primary issue with your current setup is battery life, this will work. I've been using a phone + charger/battery bank for bicycle and motorcycle trips for the past 15+ years. The biggest issue with a setup like this is rain; if water gets into your phones charging port, the phone won't charge.

estasnyc

See for yourself -
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/sport...er-headlights/

I should clarify that I have no inside knowledge about specific dates. Let's just say sooner or later.

Steve B.

Could be 2 years out

Russ Roth

Be slightly careful where you buy your garmin from, I bought my edge explore from a Euro site for under 200 and, logically enough, it came with maps of the EU. Garmin doesn't seem to appreciate people saving money by buying from overseas and upcharges significantly for a US map. I ended up finding regional maps of the US that include more details than the garmin maps have so I upload those as needed and rides that use mapping to tell you where to go always have their own garmin file to download to it anyways so haven't needed the garmin US map. I do have had an updated map of Europe that been waiting to be downloaded for the last 5 years, hoping I get to use it next sept.


Just see rain as the main issue as someone else mentioned. I have never been someone who bothers with computers for general riding or heading off without caring where I'm going or how long I plan to take. So I only bother with computers when I'm doing something long distance or multi-day, in which case rain can be a significant issue and the phone has to be locked in a ziplock bag which won't work well with a handlebar holder. A garmin on the other hand doesn't seem to care about spending 2 hours riding through a warm summer rain to the camp site.

roadcrankr

Just trying to provide an option for the OP. He resides in Ottawa, so it could present an issue with rain.
I bought a clear "rain jacket" with my Quad Lock, which covers everything quite nicely.
Only used it a few times in inclement weather and it kept things dry.
In heavy rain, it becomes the least of my worries!

Christo613

The battery pack would actually work well, if they weren't so hefty. The ones I've seen were around 400g, and even then you only get a few phone charges.
This weekend, I actually got to try a Garmin Edge 530. It was steeply discounted at my LBS, and the guy suggested I take it home to play with it and return it if not happy. I was very unimpressed. The poor map made me feel like I was going back to playing Space Invaders after having known Skyrim. I tried every way I could to import my routes from RWGPS, which has fantastic maps, but wasn't able to.
I need this primarily for multiday bikepacking and cross-country ski trips. There's no way I'd want to be stuck in a blizzard trying to find the trail on this unit.
I don't need this for a couple more months, so will keep an eye out for the Explore 2

Tourist in MSN

Some phones are very hard to read in bright sunlight.

Even if I could see my phone in bright sun, it uses up power much faster than my GPS. For bike touring where I might not have access to an outlet for several days at a time, I want to be able to charge all my devices from a dynohub and I doubt that I could do that if I tried to use a phone instead of a GPS. Most of my tours are remote enough that I might go for over a week without access to an outlet.

john m flores 

There's an energy cost for all the things you prefer about a phone - bigger, brighter, higher resolution screen, connectivity, etc. That cost can be mitigated by downloading maps and routes, using airplane mode, using Dark Mode (for OLED screens), and (the biggest battery drain of all) turning off the screen when you don't need it. The OSMand mapping app is supposed to do that automatically (working with your phone's energy saving mode) but I've never gotten it to work reliably.

On the last trip, I had the phone charging via a battery bank I stuffed in a feedbag. I just started researching rugged, weatherproof Android phones with large (10,000 mAh and more) batteries. I saw one that also had a large speaker - I enjoy some music once in a while - so I may try it out.

Whether or not this will work for you depends on how often you will have access to charging.

Yan 

Garmin products are always discounted several times a year. They are currently discounted for Black Friday. The last time they were discounted was a summer sale at the beginning of July.

You don't have to wait 2 years.

Tourist in MSN

Since I have only used general recreation GPS units, I do not know if or how to load alternative maps to a cycling GPS, or even if it is possible or not. In post number 4 above I listed two links for maps that I use for non-cycling GPS units. But one of them, I can't really explain how to get the maps from the site to my GPS, as I do not remember how I did it. But the BBB bike maps were pretty easy for me to load into my Garmin 64. NJKayaker knows how to use those sites, ask him if it works and how to.

njkayaker

The Edges use the same maps that your unit does.

Copy the “img” file to the \Garmin folder on the device.

The Edges need the “Latin” maps (Unicode doesn’t work).

The alternative maps aren’t really going to look better than the maps that come with the device. Though, people might prefer different looks.

The bbbike site is a good source (there are other good sources too). I like having the option to create custom versions (bbbike provides custom regions).

https://extract.bbbike.org/

Alphamoose

Is the question here about loading a route onto an Edge device, or about changing the base map?
Loading a route is straightforward and supported by any of the Edge devices for the last ten years or so.
You export a .fit file from rwgps or whoever and copy it into the New Files folder on the Garmin device. Or else link the RideWithGps accounts with Garmin account and you just favorite the route on rwgps and over it goes.

Classtime 

I'm pretty happy with my Explore 2 purchased direct from Garmin. They were good to me and my running gps watches.

wrt the phone on the handle bar as a gps, mine does not work worth a darn in the rain or last very long and I only need the gps on long rides in unfamiliar territory.

The Chemist

I bought my Edge Explore 2 here in China and of course it came with Chinese maps. But I switched them to maps of Canada for a trip there this past summer, and Garmin didn't charge me anything for those maps - I was able to download and install them through Garmin Express for free (and back to the Chinese maps when I returned to China after my holiday too).

BK007

That was exactly what I did ..
Can't go wrong with Garmin.