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-   -   Garmin Edge 1040 (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=1254011)

Badger6 06-23-22 01:09 PM

Garmin Edge 1040
 
Not sure who else got one when they were introduced a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve seen plenty of folks offering their opinions in the "Buy the 1030+ or wait?“ thread, but as far as I can tell, no one has posted any actual review/testimonial of personal use of the 1040 besides a few online magazines and DC Rainmakers very through review of the 1040 Solar. I’m here to offer up some personal use observations, and none of it is thorough, because I don’t have the time, patience, or focus to do anything with the device other than use it for my own needs which fall into 3 categories: record every ride I do (commutes included), run workouts on some rides, and navigate if I am login places I haven’t been before or I am doing ride captain duties for my local club.

Let’s talk basic bike computer functions first. It records everything, and it works. It displays all the data from the connected sensors, and there is no reason to believe it isn’t accurate. There are some people on the Garmin forums claiming they are getting incessant dropouts and buggy data, but between myself and a local ride partner, neither of us experienced a single dropout in 2 weeks, and about 25 hours of riding between us. While I have not done any scientific tests or compared 1040 data to my older 1030, nothing I’ve seen while riding or while analyzing the data post ride makes me believe the data is not accurate, or at least consistent.

Navigation, since thats the thing so many are interested in anyhow. It works. It works really well. First, I can pull up a route of any length, and start the process of calculating it…and the device is indeed ready to navigate in about 3 seconds (disclaimer: I haven’t used a stopwatch, but suffice to say I am not waiting on the 1040 to get going). Satellite lock up is super fast, as in instant, or at least after boot up/wake up, it is ready by the time the route I’ve selected is ready to go. Oh, and it is scary accurate on the position. I don't use “lock on road” due to some wonky tracks that can generate. I do use the multi-GNSS setting, and I have to say that (a) the track it records is not wonky in the “hard” environments like lots of tree cover or "urban canyons”, it tracks very close to true, and (b) that true track enables accurate positioning in relationship the roads/tracks you’re riding, and if you use Wandrer will enable you to accurately tick off where you’ve ridden without the back and forth across a street that all other units gave us to this point. There is no other device this accurate, that I’ve experimented with or used to this point. (For reference, I’ve used mil grade GPS to do mil grade stuff…this thing is the first civilian GPS receiver I trust to actually tell me where I am.)

Performance features are the real feature this unit is based on, ranging from the Climb Pro to algorithmic calculations of things like VO2Max or FTP. First off the elevation plot, and the color coded gradient Climb Pro gives you when navigating a course or a segment is amazing, on the 1030 it gave a general idea of when it would get hard, on the 1040, it’s dead on based on my use on hills and climbs I know an use regularly (like Moskesstraat and Smeysberg, just a few kms from my house). VO2Max and FTP are performing as expected and based on what I’ve experienced already from the autocalc seem to be a little more realistic than the results I got off the 1030. Remember, to use these you will need an HRM and a PM. I use a crank spider based PM from Quarq that I trust is accurate and a chest strap HRM regularly. Even if you might be worried Garmin’s autocalc or structured tests to find results are off, at least they offer it, and as I said, they seem reasonably accurate.

Screen. For all the hullabaloo about the 1030 series and the news that the 1040 screen panel is the same, honestly the screen issues on the 1030 were a function of the underlying hardware (chips and stuff), the software, and the “cover” that was between the user and the pane. Why do I say this? The 1040 supposedly uses the same panel. And it is way more responsive to touch, and way more discriminating in the rain, which tells me that they’ve made significant improvements "under the hood” and potentially on the covering layer (the glass). Either way the display is excellent. There is only one device on market with a visually better display, the Hammerhead Karoo 2…bear in mind it has a mobile phone quality display to include touch function, which has some significant impacts on...

Battery life. Astounding. Nothing else to say. No other device even gets close to this. The Karoo2 with its mobile phone quality display is the biggest loser here with a display that voraciously eats battery power. Garmin stuck with a slightly older display tech likely because a true multi-touch smartphone display would have crushed the battery life they were seeking.

Mobile connection is interesting. No Garmin Edge before this one let you do setup from the mobile device/app. This does. Period. Most of the setup is best performed through the app. Trick is, you need to have the device on and connected to your phone with the app open and connected. And most of the setup is best performed on the phone using the app. And it happens in real time.

Okay, I’m getting to the end of my ADD brain. Happy to discuss or further test/experiment with the device and provide feedback. I’m not sure the 1040 series (Solar being the one I have) is the “best,” but it offers a lot that many other devices don’t. The question people need to ask now is if they need all the things the 1040 offers, or are they content with a mobile phone/wifi connected computer that records the rides and has okay GPS quality.

Seattle Forrest 06-26-22 10:09 PM

Thanks for posting this. 🙂

It's interesting to watch how bike computers evolve. Garmin is the undisputed ruler of battery life and HammerHead will have to respond by bringing the K3 up to at least 20 hours. Competition is good for everybody!! 🙂 I wish Garmin would put more pixels into their displays but they do a good job with what they have and it's a trade off for battery life.

Your Edge is the 2nd or 3rd generation Garmin with solar now, depending how you count. The Fenix 6 had a solar option 3 years ago, they hadn't figured out how to do solar and sapphire together at that point so you could only have one or the other. Now the Fenix 7 has a solar sapphire option and lots of solar models, and the Forerunner 955 has a solar option. The 2nd gen solar watches have been out a few months now, I have an F7. No doubt the new solar Edge leverages all that experience.

Badger6 06-28-22 11:32 AM

Totally agree more pixels would be nice. However, I've discovered after several rides that (a) manual zoom (controlling it by using the +/- roundels in the corners of the map) is far superior for me in terms of reading the map at intersections/roundabouts, such as in the city where sometimes up to 6 streets are joining, and (b) the new fonts are much easier to read at a glance. I think Garmin have sufficiently tweaked the graphical user interface that despite the lower pixel count, the screen is plenty readable on a bike, on the move.

I really have no way to evaluate the solar feature efficacy, other than check at the end of a ride how much it has added to my time. Honestly, it’s not astounding, ~20% in sunny conditions? Friday I was out in mixed cloudy/rainy weather for just under 5 hours and the device claims it added ~45m battery life. Last Saturday, it was sunny, and on a 6 hour ride it added 1h31m. So brightness definitely matters, but even at optimal conditions, it won’t prevent the eventual complete drain of the battery.

Badger6 07-03-22 06:34 AM

Rode into the center of Brussels today, filling in the map on wandrer.earth…narrow residential streets with 4-5 story townhouses on either side have always been quite challenging for any GPS I’ve used, probably more so than tree cover, but not by much, if I am guessing.

Initial impression using it in these challenging environments: the GPS fix is bang on accurate. At one point, according to wandrer, which derives its “cyclable” routes from OSM, there were two paths side by side. One was the street, and 5m offset was a bike path. I rode down the street, and back up the bike path to see if it would differentiate my position enough that wandrer would credit both. In the past, with my 1030, the line I would ride would drift enough that I’d get parts of each, but not both. The 1040 track shows me going down the street with no perceptible drift, and then back up the bike path which is right up against a building (which with the 1030 made the drift even more pronounced). I’m shocked at how precise it fixed my position, even with lots of turns and hooking tight corners, etc. Similarly, I rode across the Bois de la Cambre (think Central Park in NYC), this time of year, there is a lot of tree cover, and it faithfully recorded my tracks on the trails…but it might be worth updating OSM, if you catch my “drift."

NoWhammies 07-03-22 05:34 PM

As the starter of the Buy the 1030+ or wait thread thank you posting your review. Very information and interesting to read.

I am still happy with my 1030+. The unit does everything I need a bike computer to do. Plus the level of features offered in the 1030+ are compatible with my Forerunner 745. That is, one unit does not have more functionality (like HRV for example) that the other does not.

That said, I am a numbers junkie and the added stats would definitely be of interest to me.

Badger6 07-04-22 01:46 AM

I used a 1030 (did not have the 1030+) until I replaced it with the 1040, and honestly speaking, the 1030 was perfectly fine to do what I needed, and it did it very well. Upgrading to a 1040 from a 1030+ I imagine is a tough sell. But, in my experience, the 1040 so far does not disappoint. As I said, and was roundly criticized, in the thread you started, the teething issues that people claim seem like internet urban legends to me. I have had exactly 2 incidents, both reported to Garmin, that were easily resolved without losing data. Two other people I ride with regularly have had no issues. We all use Power Meters (one has a pedal based PM), HRMs, two use radars, and we record everything. Our different sensors have caused no issues that we can tell when comparing notes….though we aren’t using any of the types reported universally to have issues.

First: the device had a random shutdown about 20 minutes after setting off last Thursday. I realized it within seconds, so I stopped, restarted the computer and continued recording. Second: a few days ago I loaded a course, and then pressed the start key, and it kept saying I was off course, and recalculating. The map showed the course, and rather than following the roads/paths I designated, seemed to be a series of straight lines between the “course nodes” I had plotted. I stopped the course, and reloaded it, and proceeded to ride another 120km over the next four and a half hours with no issue, to include utilizing two tunnels and lost satellite connection while underground with nearly instant reconnection once it had a clear view of the sky again.

Other than these, the BT connection has been rock solid, and there have still been zero sensor drops.

rm -rf 07-04-22 08:26 AM

Is it usable for hiking? With the accurate positioning, it sounds like it would be excellent.
My old 705 was reasonably good for recording walking / hiking. But I use my phone instead of the 1030. It's been a few years since I tried the 1030 on hikes, but I think it went to "pause" way too often.

Badger6 07-04-22 10:36 AM

I’ve never attempted to use any Edge computer for hiking. I’ve heard of people doing it, with one of the complaints being the auto pause. The simple fix for that would be to simply set it not “auto pause” when stopped (which means below a certain very low speed). The other option are the newer Garmin multi-sport (FENIX7) or running (255/955) watches. They use the same or similar chipsets.

Seattle Forrest 07-04-22 11:11 PM

It should be usable for hiking, but inconvenient. It has MTB trails but might not have hiking trails that don't allow bikes. It will sync your hikes as rides. A lot of its features aren't really relevant to hiking and neither is the form factor. If none of that is a show stopper it'll work, you can use a chest strap for HR, the map is more useful than not having one and it has a barometer. As @Badger6 mentioned, a watch like the excellent Fenix is much more suited to hiking, as is the Instinct for much less $$.

I hiked Teanaway Ridge today. I use multiband for hiking and regular GPS for everything else. Absolutely flawless track, even under thick tree cover.

Seattle Forrest 07-06-22 06:38 PM

Somebody made a data field for Garmin solar devices that logs solar intensity to the file you record.

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/d...6-b3353665796e

gecho 07-22-22 03:17 PM

The 1040 is supposed to compute routes faster. Has anyone tried starting a complex route about half way through to see how long it takes? On my 830 it has to step through every turn one by one and can take upwards of a minute to do. I'm not sure if that's a computation issue or if there is a built in delay between turns so they can all be shown on the screen. The map becomes unusable while it is stepping through turns.

njkayaker 07-22-22 04:26 PM


Originally Posted by gecho (Post 22584090)
The 1040 is supposed to compute routes faster. Has anyone tried starting a complex route about half way through to see how long it takes? On my 830 it has to step through every turn one by one and can take upwards of a minute to do. I'm not sure if that's a computation issue or if there is a built in delay between turns so they can all be shown on the screen. The map becomes unusable while it is stepping through turns.

It's a computation issue. The 1030+ is noticeably faster than the 1030 at calculating routes. The 1040 should be even faster. I think the 1030+ is faster than the 830.

The route calculation has to figure-out what roads/paths on the installed map the loaded track appears to be following. It does that by "walking" the track.

They seem to start at the beginning of the course. Starting at the closest point would be faster but I wonder how often that is done.

Badger6 07-25-22 12:21 AM


Originally Posted by gecho (Post 22584090)
The 1040 is supposed to compute routes faster. Has anyone tried starting a complex route about half way through to see how long it takes?

Yes. It is virtually instant. This is because the device appears to start showing you the track as soon as it has a few hundred meters calculated, while it finishes the rest in the background.

Steve B. 07-25-22 08:33 AM


Originally Posted by njkayaker (Post 22584153)
It's a computation issue. The 1030+ is noticeably faster than the 1030 at calculating routes. The 1040 should be even faster. I think the 1030+ is faster than the 830.

The route calculation has to figure-out what roads/paths on the installed map the loaded track appears to be following. It does that by "walking" the track.

They seem to start at the beginning of the course. Starting at the closest point would be faster but I wonder how often that is done.

I saw an interesting question on the 1030 FB group, a rider was on vacation somewhere, was able to find a RWGP route in his area, didnt want to drive to where the route start was located, instead just wanted a route from a different start to where he could then intersect the RWGPS route and ride from there. Seemed like a reasonable request. The older 1030 could not create a "ride to intersect" route, where as the improved navigation of the 1030 Plus could do this.

njkayaker 07-25-22 08:46 AM


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22586779)
I saw an interesting question on the 1030 FB group, a rider was on vacation somewhere, was able to find a RWGP route in his area, didnt want to drive to where the route start was located, instead just wanted a route from a different start to where he could then intersect the RWGPS route and ride from there. Seemed like a reasonable request. The older 1030 could not create a "ride to intersect" route, where as the improved navigation of the 1030 Plus could do this.

The 1030+ does appear to do that. I just tried a "squashed" loop ride where the farthest point of the course was much closer to my location than the start point. The 1030+ gave the standard "navigate to start" option.

I wonder if the person triggered the off-course rerouting (which is different). That works better than the 1030.

Badger6 07-25-22 10:12 AM


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22586779)
The older 1030 could not create a "ride to intersect" route, where as the improved navigation of the 1030 Plus could do this.

My 1030 definitely would ONLY offer to route to the start. No idea on the 1030+ never used one. Are you saying that the 1030+ offers the option to navigate to a point that interests the course, vice just the start point?

njkayaker 07-25-22 01:10 PM


Originally Posted by Badger6 (Post 22586895)
My 1030 definitely would ONLY offer to route to the start. No idea on the 1030+ never used one. Are you saying that the 1030+ offers the option to navigate to a point that interests the course, vice just the start point?

I think he's saying that it might. I have a 1030+. The 1030+ only provides the standard "navigate to start" option.

Steve B. 07-25-22 01:14 PM


Originally Posted by Badger6 (Post 22586895)
My 1030 definitely would ONLY offer to route to the start. No idea on the 1030+ never used one. Are you saying that the 1030+ offers the option to navigate to a point that interests the course, vice just the start point?

There's literally nothing in the 1030 Plus manual about this, but DC Rainmakers review said this if you leave the route:

) Re-join where you left the course
B) Skip ahead to the next logical point to re-join course
C) Cut across the course to somewhere way downstream

Thus as I understand it, you could download and start a route. It will know you are not on the route and will then allow a "Re-Join" which will then calculate a new route to the route you are trying to follow. Or "Skip Ahead" and presumably will prompt you as to a location where you want to re-join. I don't have a Plus so cannot tell how this works.

njkayaker 07-25-22 01:56 PM


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587166)
There's literally nothing in the 1030 Plus manual about this, but DC Rainmakers review said this if you leave the route:
....
Thus as I understand it, you could download and start a route. It will know you are not on the route and will then allow a "Re-Join" which will then calculate a new route to the route you are trying to follow. Or "Skip Ahead" and presumably will prompt you as to a location where you want to re-join.

No, he's saying "leave the route" (that is, go off course).

When you start a route, you only get the standard "navigate to start" option.


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587166)
I don't have a Plus so cannot tell how this works.

I have one and I said I verified that you get only the standard "navigate to start" option.

Steve B. 07-25-22 02:33 PM


Originally Posted by njkayaker (Post 22587216)

I have one and I said I verified that you get only the standard "navigate to start" option.

Would you take a minute and describe what the options are for getting to a route if you are not actually on it ?, the routing should be similar to a scenario where you go off course - or leave the route. I had read they had greatly improved options for this, such as a described in my quote from DC Rainmakers review. It appeared that you had several options to get onto the course if you were not starting on the actual course. When I had read of these improved options, I was hoping they would port down to the 1030, they did not, unfortunately.

prj71 07-25-22 02:42 PM

At $750...the answer is no I don't need one. My Edge 530 does everything I need it to.

Since I have wheel sensors the GPS quality doesn't matter to me. Since I will never ride 45 hours straight or even 20 hours straight (battery life of edge 530) the increased battery life doesn't mean anything. Longest ride I have ever done is 12 hours straight.

njkayaker 07-25-22 02:48 PM


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587277)
Would you take a minute and describe what the options are for getting to a route if you are not actually on it ?

??? I did that. If you start/load a route and you are not on it, you get one option: the standard "navigate to start" option.


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587277)
...the routing should be similar to a scenario where you go off course - or leave the route.

I get that it could be similar but you don't get the same options when starting a route.


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587277)
I had read they had greatly improved options for this, such as a described in my quote from DC Rainmakers review.

The quote you provided from DC Rainmaker talked about leaving a route. Again, the 1030+ is better than the 1030 (I had one and still have it in the family) is better (but not perfect) when leaving a route.


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587277)
It appeared that you had several options to get onto the course if you were not starting on the actual course.

I don't get how you are seeing starting a route as the same thing as leaving a route. "Start" and "leave" are different words.

(It's not unreasonable to expect that the two different cases would have similar options. But they don't.)

Seattle Forrest 07-25-22 03:01 PM


Originally Posted by Steve B. (Post 22587166)
There's literally nothing in the 1030 Plus manual about this, but DC Rainmakers review said this if you leave the route:

) Re-join where you left the course
B) Skip ahead to the next logical point to re-join course
C) Cut across the course to somewhere way downstream

Thus as I understand it, you could download and start a route. It will know you are not on the route and will then allow a "Re-Join" which will then calculate a new route to the route you are trying to follow. Or "Skip Ahead" and presumably will prompt you as to a location where you want to re-join. I don't have a Plus so cannot tell how this works.

This is incredibly annoying. The 1030+ is very obnoxious about navigation. I hope the 1040 is better. I got the 1030+ for its screen size for mapping, but my watch is much more pleasant and he's annoying to use for this purpose.

njkayaker 07-25-22 03:02 PM


Originally Posted by prj71 (Post 22587283)
At $750...the answer is no I don't need one. My Edge 530 does everything I need it to.

??? It's $600 for the regular 1040 (which is the same price as the 1000, 1030, 1030+). The 530 is completely fine.

prj71 07-25-22 03:46 PM

I was thinking the 1040 Solar which is $750. Even $600 is too much for me.


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