CLP wrote:That price would certainly be attractive.
I'm unsure whether i'd go for one myself, simply because of the size. But if you can deal with that aspect, then they look pretty good. They can also be used in landscape mode, which i reckon would be pretty neat mounted out front of the bar.
Maybe factor in the cost of a screen protector, given it's a touch screen and you're likely to be using it with gloves. While the the Garmin screens are quite robust using them with bare fingers, even a single sand grain caught in the tip of your glove swiped across your screen will remind you for quite a while that you should have gone the screen protector route :/
Good points thanks CLP.
I got my first use with it yesterday and I must say im impressed. I had GPS + GOLNAS on for the tracking and it kept dropping satellites like the plague, switched it to just GPS and its super solid, super impressed. Each loop was bang on, rode with my old S3 in my pocket and saved the ride as private to serve as a comparison the difference was striking in GPS accuracy! Distance and speed was pretty much bang on but no GPS drift.
Only major annoyance ive discovered after I got my head around Garmin Connect's software and what will work best for me is the vast difference in calorie count estimations between Garmin Connect and Strava. Been doing a bit of reading up on it and it looks like im not the only one with this feeling and its been going on for years! Oh well, not a deal breaker but it is nice to know intake vs burn rate for weight loss reasons.
Ive setup 3 main data screens and I gotta say its VERY nice to be able to tell the time, elevation gain, heart rate, speed ect ect without having to pull the phone out of the pocket, just glance down. Battery life is epic compared to a phone, even with the screen constantly on. I have a main screen with a lot of info and two trimmed back screens for focusing on certain data sets, that's a winner for me. I loaded the Openstreetmaps onto it and I have to say its fucking nice to have a map set that ive been editing for the last year and a half which includes ALL the dirt trail links in my area and routable. Not that that's a issue as I know my way around but its great to not have holes in the map when I want to check something out on the fly.
The units size wasnt an issue for me in my cockpit setup. Out the front mounting is out of the question as it makes the entire cockpit feel waaaaay too large. I reversed the mount and it almost replicated the K-Edge top cap mounting location which felt too close to my body. I have ordered a K-Edge adjustable stem mount as itll place it in the ctr of my stem and allow for some pitch adjustment which I think will be prefect for what im after. The circle mount and rubber bands wont attach to my stubby stem, not enough meat in the stems throw for it.
I didnt have to compromise too much with my bar lights mounting location with the mount flipped so im pretty happy with the basic setup. I have made a screen protector from a spare mobile unit I have so its at least got some basic scratch protection till I can source a tempered glass screen protector.
At present im impressed, think I might hang onto this unit. Much better than using a phone which is great as it can go back to being in the pack for emergencies and not flog the battery life whilst on a long ride.