New GPS unit! Help me decide

[Johnno]

Hello!

Planning for the 2022 Pinyons and Pines in May if this year and looking into new GPS units. Currently using a garmin edge 520 that?s 5-6 years old. It does ok with routing but I?ve had my share of issues of big rides and I?m losing faith. I?m looking into the Karoo Hammerhead 2 or the Garmin Edge 830/1030 plus. 95% of my riding is mtb on local trails but I still like to put in my route in daily rides. I?m getting into longer expedition style rides and I?m curious on others thoughts. The Karoo has all the YouTubers and writers all over it but the present some ?small? issues that may be big out 30/40/50 miles from towns. The Garmin seems to be a logical choice but man, it?s spendy. Ultimately in the middle of the night and dealing with issues being lost I will not care about the extra $100 I should have spent so that not really a concern. I want something that will work for years to come. And I?d love to hear the group thoughts. Thanks!

[evdog]

I'm an outlier on this one having used a Garmin Oregon 400/600 for the last 10+ yrs.  Runs off AA's which is a key selling point for bikepacking.   Easy to use, nice screen and you can import any topo base map or custom map if geo-referenced.  Great for mapping and exploring but has no cycling features and won't beep if you're off route.  You just have to follow the line on the nice map, and you can easily pan around to view terrain ahead or see where other roads/trails go.  Unfortunately my Oregon recently died and is no longer made. 

I initially looked at the Montana 700 and GPSmap 66 since each include Inreach satellite tech and thus could replace both my Oregon and Inreach with a single unit.  But they are bigger than I'd want on my handlebars and have internal battery only.  Tradeoffs....

Instead I picked up a Garmin 830 to test as a replacement as it had some features I was interested in, namely integration with apps like Trailforks and RideWithGPS and display of upcoming climb profile when following a route.  I track progress by elevation a lot in the mountains so this would be very useful.  You can load .tcx tracks directly or use app integrations to follow routes (requires wifi connection with phone).  It has an ok base map which includes a lot singletrack trails, but you can't seem to pan around the topo map when you're exploring, only zoom in/out.  Seems like if you want to follow a route using the 830 the route has to be built in the direction you plan to ride or the unit won't follow the track (will constantly tell you you're off route and features such as climb profile coming up won't work).  This is easy to get right for bikepacking routes but for stacked loop type systems on daily rides I often deviate from what I came up with online and add, cut out, or ride parts backwards.  I use Trailforks more for these type rides so not a huge deal, but you have get it right if you do want to follow a route.   I'm still learning how to use it so its possible I just haven't figured it out.  It has an internal battery that seems to last about 12-14 hours ride time.  The main thing that would keep me from using it on longer bikepacks is the internal battery - one more thing to have to keep charged.   But I've used it on a couple shorter over night trips and it's been fine. 

The eTrex series is another one to look at.  Less expensive, uses AAs and has good functionality.  Lots of bikepackers/racers use these and seem happy with them.  This is the closest current Garmin option to the Oregon I have been using.

I probably should have gone with an eTrex but I found a used Oregon 600 on ebay for a good price and bought it.  So now I'll use the 830 for most day rides and the Oregon for bikepacking and backcountry bushwack rides where battery life and ability to better use the topo map is important.

I haven't used the Wahoo, Karoo or any other brands.  But they likely have a lot of similar features and limitations to the Edge units as they are designed for cycling.  People seem to like them. 

[Salubrious]

I've been looking at the Wahoo Elemnt Roam for use on the Tour Divide. My experience so far is mixed. I like the battery life (about 17 hours claimed, about double what my Edge 1000 can do) and it has membranes to control functions instead of a touch screen. I'm not a fan of the touch screen on my Garmin; during rain it can change screens and more than once I've found it gone from displaying the route to a settings page! So buttons seems a better idea since rain is simply a thing on the Divide.

But the Roam has its own ...personality. It really seems as if its really meant for shorter routes, like a 100 mile race or the like. It took a while figuring a way to load last year's TDR gpx file. Wahoo recommended loading it directly from a computer and not using the app. But the Roam refuses to be recognized when I plug it in to the USB port on my Mac.

To talk to it you have to use the app which you install on your phone. There are good and bad things about that. You have to enable Bluetooth, and it wants location services on too. Its a gps and doesn't need my location! or shouldn't. I don't get that part. The app isn't that well laid out; IMO they needed to get a User Experience Analyst to work out some of the usability bugs. One of them on my iphone 12 is that when I want to load the route (and the TDR being the only one I have loaded) you have to navigate the menus and it does not show up on the route page- until you have scroll it to see it listed. On my Garmin to load a route is a lot easier- you can see what to do as soon as it boots up. 

The other thing it wants to do is sync between the phone and the gps itself. This apparently takes a while. I'm just at home right now, but the way this seems to be playing out is that to run the Roam on any given day I'll have to interface it with the phone on each day, load and sync... which will be a 5-7 minute delay?? If that's real I'll be looking at something else. With my old Garmin I can just start where I left off...

[tex92]

I'm an outlier on this one having used a Garmin Oregon 400/600 for the last 10+ yrs.  Runs off AA's which is a key selling point for bikepacking.   Easy to use, nice screen and you can import any topo base map or custom map if geo-referenced.  Great for mapping and exploring but has no cycling features and won't beep if you're off route.  You just have to follow the line on the nice map, and you can easily pan around to view terrain ahead or see where other roads/trails go.  Unfortunately my Oregon recently died and is no longer made. 

I initially looked at the Montana 700 and GPSmap 66 since each include Inreach satellite tech and thus could replace both my Oregon and Inreach with a single unit.  But they are bigger than I'd want on my handlebars and have internal battery only.  Tradeoffs....

Instead I picked up a Garmin 830 to test as a replacement as it had some features I was interested in, namely integration with apps like Trailforks and RideWithGPS and display of upcoming climb profile when following a route.  I track progress by elevation a lot in the mountains so this would be very useful.  You can load .tcx tracks directly or use app integrations to follow routes (requires wifi connection with phone).  It has an ok base map which includes a lot singletrack trails, but you can't seem to pan around the topo map when you're exploring, only zoom in/out.  Seems like if you want to follow a route using the 830 the route has to be built in the direction you plan to ride or the unit won't follow the track (will constantly tell you you're off route and features such as climb profile coming up won't work).  This is easy to get right for bikepacking routes but for stacked loop type systems on daily rides I often deviate from what I came up with online and add, cut out, or ride parts backwards.  I use Trailforks more for these type rides so not a huge deal, but you have get it right if you do want to follow a route.   I'm still learning how to use it so its possible I just haven't figured it out.  It has an internal battery that seems to last about 12-14 hours ride time.  The main thing that would keep me from using it on longer bikepacks is the internal battery - one more thing to have to keep charged.   But I've used it on a couple shorter over night trips and it's been fine. 

The eTrex series is another one to look at.  Less expensive, uses AAs and has good functionality.  Lots of bikepackers/racers use these and seem happy with them.  This is the closest current Garmin option to the Oregon I have been using.

I probably should have gone with an eTrex but I found a used Oregon 600 on ebay for a good price and bought it.  So now I'll use the 830 for most day rides and the Oregon for bikepacking and backcountry bushwack rides where battery life and ability to better use the topo map is important.

I haven't used the Wahoo, Karoo or any other brands.  But they likely have a lot of similar features and limitations to the Edge units as they are designed for cycling.  People seem to like them. 

You can pan around in  the Garmin 830 map by pressing the hand icon on the map.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tex92]

You can pan around in  the Garmin 830 map by pressing the hand icon on the map.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looks like you can reverse a course in the Garmin Connect app by clicking on the edit button and then selecting reverse course. But I notice that not all courses I have in the app are editable.
Not sure why that is, I wonder if depends on where I got the route or perhaps the format it was in (tcx, fit, gpx)?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[strempke]

I'd go with the Edge 830. The X30 series is a huge step up from the 520 you have been using. 20hr battery life (more if you disable Bluetooth and put it in battery save mode) is so nice for bikepacking and the small battery inside recharges quickly. I've yet to lose a ride from the latest gen Edges.

Regarding navigating a course backwards, you can modify the course on a computer or phone app, or if you don't need turn by turn prompts, just set it to "always display" under course settings. Then it's just a line on your map you can follow. It won't tell you you're off course, but sometimes it's better that way.

[SlowRide]

Garmin eTrex 20 did the triple crown of bikepacking and all my rides for recreation and training for years and years with no issues. Good battery life, rugged, simple. Maybe better options out there these days but this is an old standard.