Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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26 comments
Of course this is the morning I go to use my car to get to an Aldi, breaks down. Great...
Phone apps are rubbish for long rides and you still need a cycle computer for speed /distance read out
Am I missing something here? I bought an rsp bike computer for about £20 five years ago (and have only had to change the battery twice!) which does everything this does except for GPS tracking. It's so quick and easy to track on a phone app these days and much simpler to upload your ride than with this, so I really can't understand why anyone would want to pay £80 for this computer, never mind the normal retail price!
Can anyone please enlighten me?!
Because I don't want to flatten my phone battery or have a wheel speed sensor?
It's a single device doing both jobs, you can play against previous route and let it pace you.
And when you're bored with it, it's still worth £70 on ebay.
I don't use my phone to track as the GPS (amongst other things) drains the battery pretty quick and I want to use the phone as a phone; in particular in emergencies or when my family need to get hold of me, i'd like to be able to actually use it. So no GPS tracking with the RSP unless you actually take a phone with you and use it for tracking (and make sure it's somewhere waterproof).
As far as I can see, RSP do no computers which are ANT+ compliant - so none of the sensors I have would work (and I don't have an ANT+ enabled phone, which I wouldn't use for that anyway except on short rides for the previous reasons). Uploads happen automatically with the Garmin when I charge it and are mirrored to Strava without me doing anything, so no hassle there.
AFAICS the RSP has no support for cadence, slope, basic navigation (route profile/stats, turn-by-turn, bread-crumbs, turn warning), HR or power over any protocol - all of which can be used with the Garmin 500 via ANT+ or other, similar, head-units over ANT+, BTLE or propriety wireless.
Much of that may not be wanted by some folk but if you do, the extra cash - and convenience of not running your phone down - is easily worth it. The RSP looks fine for what it does (I used a similar Cateye for a while, which was rather good) but saving money won't make up for not having the features you use.
My tired old eyes have made my Garmin 800 redundant so I now use a quad lock iPhone 6 combination. I am going to put the 800 up for sale in the for sale section with maps, cadence counter, heart strap and possibly even an out in front mount.
In February 2015 I bought one of these from Amazon ("Today's Deals") for £79.99. Worth keeping an eye out for repeats.
If anyone misses out on these (or can't face going to Aldi) then you're welcome to buy mine for the same.......
I love it, just wish Garmin had seen fit to include the 500 on the d-fly firmware update. Bandits.
One of the best Garmin devices I've used and continue to use. Had same Edge 500 since June 2012 and it's never failed. Uploads to Garmin Connect and strava like a dream. Neat size too - just sits perfectly on my stem and easily transferable across all my bikes.
Hi everyone, this is my 1st posting here. I have 3 questions:
1. Do you know if this works with the Sunnto heart beat strap?
2. Does it work with Strava? I'm only interested in this if I can upload to Strava. I understand it does not have Bluetooth? I use a mac normally, would that suffice?
3. The grey carbon & blue does not appeal to me, would the black & red be available does anyone know?
probably, yes, maybe...
In answer to 2. It works great with Strava. You link your Garmin Connect account with Strava and download Garmin Express onto your Mac. Get home from the ride, plug the Edge into your Mac and the ride gets put onto Strava whilst you're in the shower.
I use a macbook pro and it works seamlessly.
Can't help on the other two questions.
If it's like when Aldi had the 200 they will only have 3 in store.
I'll still try and get one, my other half can have my 200 then.
I've gone through 4 of these and I'll keep replacing them with the same model as and when they wear out or I break them. On a functional level, theses devices nail it.
I have an 810 and considering this for the Mrs...
Does it have the Bluetooth integration to instantly upload when you save a ride?
No Bluetooth, but that isn't really a problem given that you have to plug in the USB to recharge it anyway.
Err no, it's basic but does the job.
Design classic, compact and bijou and loaded with all the metrics you could possibly need.
I might buy a few at £79.99, hang on to then and sell them on for a tidy profit! It's interesting to note none of the big cycle stores are discounting as much as this on the 500. The cheapest on ebay is £101.
Asshole.
Let someone else have a bargain and don't be such a greedy little shit.
I hope that's said in jest mate no ned to be abusive.
Yeah, you're right...I've got a grump on, some idiot 'friend' on farcebook is reposting vaguely nationalistic stuff coming from BNP morons re refugees for the second time in 24hrs - possibly mistakenly - but he's also in our small cycle club...I'm gonna have to have words
That said, it wasn't in jest, no reason to be greedy either, and checking out ebay prices and like of smilies would suggest that he wasn't joking either A bit bloomin off IMO..
Chaps, no offense taken!
In all seriousness, I'm not going to buy any up and sell them on! I did think about it though (the capitalist in me), as the big bike stores don't appear to be discounting the 500 down to anywhere near £80.
Having said that, if you want a top notch bike GPS system, you won't get anything as good for the under £80.00
I never liked mine, fiddly buttons, freezing courses and the altimeter and thermometer are useless. The 800 is much better.
Agreed. Love mine and have absolutely no desire to upgrade. At that price it's worth getting one for my commuter.
Bugger. That's the bottom dropped out of the second hand price for people wanting to upgrade to a 520!
Hopefully they've five in stock....
Arguably still the best all rounder Garmin has made - Loved the small size, long battery life and great feature set on this guy.