010-02060-00 Edge 530, GPS Cycling/Bike Computer with Mapping, Dynamic Performance Monitoring and Popularity Routing

Great bike computer that has some awesome capabilities and features. I mainly mountain bike so those are the features I use often. The jump tracking is surprisingly very good and neat to see your stats and attempt to beat them. This is the same with the flow and grit statistics that offer a cool analysis to compete with. It shows nearby routes for mountain biking trails which is awesome especially if going to a new trail you can try a route to stay on course and not get lost. GPS is superb for tracking even in the woods. With that, battery was not affected too much, ~45 min ride in the woods in 26 degree weather with GPS + GLONASS enabled (most battery consumption) lost 4% battery. The Garmin connect app is very good, I've had zero issues and really like what it has to offer and the user interface along with viewing my activities. It is on par with strava and almost makes me want to buy a garmin smartwatch honestly. Having no touchscreen may be a plus for me actually, I use gloves often so a touchscreen would be painful. Also, the buttons work well and are easy to get use to after playing around with the device here and there. I have more features to try out but so far this is a awesome bike computer and I have no things that bother me about it at all so far. I've seen reviews saying it's too complicated and took long to setup. The app walks you through setup that takes 5 minutes and if you want to customize all your screens/profiles that display while riding that will take a bit longer but that is not setup. This is a electronic device that offers some great features and yes using some of these features requires technical prowess. But what electronic device doesn't, phones, tablets, laptops, computers etc do. There will be a learning curve as there is with many things in life. For me I am highly technologically skilled in consumer and some business electronics(IT professional) this device is relatively easy to use for me. For others it may be similar to buying a phone from another manufacturer or a new model with a new operating system. The point is it will take a bit of time to get use to like most things. If it's too complicated I suggest another bike computer that has much less features such as it only tracks speed/distance/time/clock. But if you want to up your cycling skills this will help with its advanced data and analysis along with some features to smile about.

Replaced for same 530 that was damaged on ride. Great middle of the road Garmin bike computer. Has more capabilities than what I use it for. Syncs with my phone, watch and Varia tail light.

I have had and enjoyed using an Edge 520 for a number of years. But the battery has lost significant capacity and I decided it was time for a new one. And I decided I should get something with a few more bells and whistles, specifically navigation wise. So I opted for this. The layout is standard Garmin: on-off and scroll buttons on the left, enter and back buttons on the right, and start-stop and lap buttons on the bottom. No touch screen on this, but I didn’t want a touchscreen. I haven’t yet familiarized myself with all the screens available but I imagine there’s a screen for just about any purpose. I found it pretty easy to pair up with my phone, and also to pair up with my hr and cadence sensors. I have 2 bikes with 2 different cadence sensors and so far it seems to switch seamlessly between the two. My old Edge sometimes wouldn’t switch for reasons I never quite managed to figure out. The display visibility can be tricky. I have found it to be somewhat sensitive to the angle you have it mounted at. For me, having the display face flat instead of slanted a bit back is better. Time of day and season is a factor too. Late afternoon in winter, when the sun is low, can cause difficulties. I might add at this point, that my eyesight is not the best, someone with good vision might have fewer problems. But now that I have the display angle worked out, I can see it pretty well when in the saddle. Having the backlight turned on helps. Battery life is pretty good. I average about an hour to 90 minutes a day, 7 days a week and I can go well over a week before I need to recharge.

The Edge 530 is a very good GPS enabled bike computer. It does everything I expected of it, and did it better than any predecessor. Reading other reviews, there appear to be buyers who do not understand what they are buying. This computer is: 1) A consumer electronic device. That means it is not perfect and will require updates. 2) A fancy bike computer. No 2 ways about that! It isn't the top of the line Garmin, but it is much more than a speedometer. I don't have any bad details to report, so I will move on to the good: 1) Very good battery life. My Edge 520 was good for 7-8 hours (GPS, power meter, HR, cadence, etc). The 530 ran on STP (Seattle to Portland) for 12+ hours and had 38% battery remaining at the end. 2) Good connectivity. No issues connecting to HR, power meter, phone, speed sensor, etc. 3) Maps out of the box. On the Edge 520 I needed to upload maps of an area, not any more. It is all built in. 4) No touch screen. For me that is a good point. The interface is very similar to the 520...good for me! 5) GLONASS - added accuracy 6) Strava segment improvements. Not for everyone, but it handles favorited segments very well (compares you to KOM, PB, recent best, last time, friends best) The possibility of programming your own screens is not new, but it is a very nice feature. This takes the possibilities to a new level. This is part of the Connect IQ and allows you to download custom data fields/screens and make your device really work for you.

Had an Edge 705 for years and loved it. The hardware was bombproof, but the software was…kind of third rate. Once I got used to it’s quirks, it was fine. Still, I wanted some of the new features, so I moved to a Wahoo. That was fine…until it wasn’t. Disgusted with them, I went back to Garmin. First ride - eager to try my new toy, I just accepted the default setup and went for a ride. About a hundred yards from the house, I notice the timer is running, but none of the other fields were changing. Then I get an error message “GPS is off”. This left me frantically poking at buttons on the side of the road, without my glasses, trying to find where to turn GPS on. I finally gave up, shoved the Garmin in my pocket and finished the ride. Silly me for thinking the default state of a GPS should be with GPS on. When I got home, after much button mashing, I found it and turned it on. Next ride, I used my “Fatbike” setup. Two minutes into that ride, the screen went black. I managed to figure out how to turn the screen on and have it STAY on - otherwise I might as well use an app on the smartphone in my pocket. Next ride, I start the ride and get a weather warning: Winter Storm Warning - telling me about a storm that wasn’t due until the NEXT DAY. Got home and figured out how to kill that “helpful” feature. A couple of rides later, I go to leave on a ride, and I get a nag about an update. I blow that off and go ride, but when I get back, I try to find said update…and can’t. I do this a couple of times and finally give in and say “ok” and then sit there for a couple of minutes while it updates, before I can go ride my damned bike. The latest feature is that Live Track -which has been working fine - fails and gives me an error code 400. Live Track was the ONE feature I wanted in a GPS and now it’s not working. I may as well have kept my 705 or just ziptied a piece of black plastic to my bars. If I weren’t just outside the Amazon return window, I’d be sending this back with a jar of vaseline.

It does a lot or shall i say it can do a lot more than what I use it for. I just use it to keep track of my rides (not training related for me, just to motivate myself). I also used it to track walks and skiing too, again neither for training just interested in seeing how active or inactive i have been. I like the maps to be able to figure out where i am on trails and determine if i want to do offshoots or not and to get an ideal of how much more distance I have to go till i get back to where i started. Overall layout is okay, and it's functional, but the button are awkward to use in a day when so many things are touchscreen. If it's not in the mount it's pretty much a two handed device. Once I got it set up, I pretty much start the tracking and have a map up or stats up and leave it till my ride, walk or skiing is done. Setting this up is not the most intuitive process. Maybe because I am not looking for it to guide training, but just a data logger. I can see how it would be useful for setting a pace and maintaining it and many other road riding things. But for me I just wanted to see maps and track my rides. I did not want my cell on the handle bars (seemed to easy to break). It has nifty features to show texts and calls to your phone but I don't really use those features. The safety feature to send an alert and to send someone updates on your location (through you phone) is a nice feature when riding alone. Also nice that it sync with other services and uploads data wirelessly.

This little bike computer does a great job with providing metrics to my bike rides. I use it to collect data from my speed sensor, cadence sensor, and the smart trainer. It is also fairly tough, I had a disagreement with the pavement and the computer was fine. I did not need the better graphics of the Edge 540 yet and this computer is good as an entry level bike computer for someone getting into cycling.

easy to set up and great interface.. customize the screens and add sensors