mihlbach

I have a new Garmin Edge 830. I have numerous bikes in regular rotation (commuter, gravel, mountain bike, road bike etc) and have no interest in paying full retail price for additional Garmin handlebar mounts.
I see there are several third party handlebar mounts on ebay that are compatible with my computer and much cheaper than the official Garmin mounts. Does anyone have experience with any of these cheaper mounts and whether or not the savings are worthwhile?

Steve B.

Pretty much any cheap plastic out front, stem cap or stem bolt unit works. I like cheap especially in an out-front as if the unit takes a hit, I’d rather lose the $15 mount then the mounting bracket on the unit. I do use the tether Garmin provides.

August West

Agree with the tether. Since it comes with the 830 I use it religiously in case the mount decides to break on one of the many rough roads I ride. I figure why not, it only takes a few seconds to use, is pretty much invisible and could save me $400 if the 830 goes crashing to the tarmac at 40 mph.

Tourist in MSN

I occasionally do not put my Garmin 64 in the handlebar bracket quite right and it can fall out - user error. That GPS model is a general recreation GPS, not a cycling specific one. I have bought some cheap copies of the handlebar bracket from Asia, they do not hold it as well as the Garmin one and I use an elastic to keep it from sliding out of those. Part of my problem with putting the Garmin in the Garmin bracket is that the genuine Garmin brackets are so tight that it is hard to put it in, I have resorted to using sand paper or a file on the genuine brackets to loosen them up a bit.

I ALWAYS use a lanyard to keep the GPS attached to the handlebar so that it stays with the bike if it slides out of the bracket. That saves my GPS once or twice a year.

I can't speak for the mount the OP is interested in, but giving the price savings, I would certainly buy more asian copies of the bracket I use. But these days shipping from asia can take a month or two, so if you are in a hurry, that can be a bad plan. I have a GPS mount on six bikes and one on a solo canoe.

Buy one, they are cheap, if you do not like it then do not use it. But use a lanyard to make sure you do not lose it.

fishboat

I picked up a cheap bike mount for my Etrex 20 and the unit snapped into the mount so loose that it was useless. I heated the mount toward the lock end with a heat gun and bent it slightly. Hold the mount slightly bent while it cools..it works perfect now. ..and I always use a lanyard.

mibike

I always use a lanyard after I had an Etrex 20 fly off when I hit a bump on a downhill at 50mph+ on my tandem. I have an Etrex 20 a GPSMAP64s and also Garman bike GPSs The mounts are totally different between the recreation units and bike units. I don't think the bike units would bounce out like the recreation units do.

How ever some if not all mounts for the bike units are designed to break to protect the GPS if it is hit. I use K-edge mounts on most of my bikes. The instructions that come with them explain that the plastic insert is designed to break and they sell replacement inserts. So there is always the chance that if the GPS gets bumped and the insert cracked it could finish breaking when you hit a bump. It only takes a second to use the lanyard so I figure it's better to be safe then sorry.

Iride01 

If you want to try them, then do so. You'll never know until you do.

I fully agree with using the tether. My edge 500 didn't have a place for a tether. But it never fell out of my Garmin mounts for the more than ten years I owned it. I just got an Edge 530. Since it came with a tether I loop it around my bars every time I put my Edge 530 in the Garmin mounts. Never hurts to be extra safe for some things that you might consider a little costly to replace. I've seen the Garmin's and other devices skittering down the pavement as they fell off the bikes of others.

Tourist in MSN

I mentioned above that I use an elastic to hold my Garmin 64 in my bracket, it is the black elastic wrapped around the antenae, and the lanyard is the black and yellow cord to the right of the GPS.



Fishboat, thanks for the suggestion to apply some heat, but the elastic serves that purpose. So, I'm good.

Sideview, you can see the bracket, held on with zip ties.

August West

I never was either until last year while on a descent the aftermarket adapter on my Cateye Volt 700 snapped in two while going over a cattle guard and dumped the light on the road at 35 mph.

fishboat

Yep, that's the same mount I have for my Etrex 20. I think it was $5..much more reasonable than the Garmin version. Fortunately I was able to "adjust it" into working.

Looks like you have it well in hand..figured you did. I know the deal with having a number of bikes. I don't need one mount..I need 4-5...so $5 is looking pretty good.

Steve B.

Surprisingly, I see on occasion a post on our mt. bike club FB page that somebody had their Garmin come off the bar somewhere on the trail. Dunno, I’d spend the rest of the entire day looking. We always recommend the tether.

unterhausen

People lose their garmins all the time. Any wahoo users reading this for schadenfreude should probably use their tether, I have seen a couple of reports that the ears on the unit itself broke.

I like the o-ring mounts. 2 for $13, and they work fine.

Steve B.

When I see a post as to somebody losing their Garmin they rarely list the details as to how - crash ?, crappy mount ?, don't know, the device just got itself lost. As it's a mt. bike FB page where I see these posts, I assume a crash. Thus mention the lanyard, which folks forget to use, I did for all the years I had a 1000.

Dino_Sore

That was my experience for many years of mountain, road and gravel riding...until my Garmin 520 mysteriously disappeared on a ride over relatively mild terrain. I now use the tether.

LarryBSky

I have 2 of the $13.99 ones from Amazon for my 830 - No problems

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0743B5ZFS

Russ Roth

Haven't lost one yet but don't use it that much. Was able to hand someone their lost garmin at a mtb park, they were quite relieved to see it, so they do get randomly lost.

adamrice 

I've used a couple. One I got from Amazon has been fine (from a no-name Chinese company). One I got from Ali Express (and probably couldn't find again) has some parts that are nicely milled aluminum, but the plastic parts—including the Garmin insert—are brittle plastic. The Garmin insert started chipping around the flange after ~100 miles, and quickly became unusable. Fortunately those inserts are more or less commodity items, and I was able to get another that works better.