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review
£369.99
VERDICT:
An absolute joy to use, with a host of unique but useful features
Weight:
130g
Contact:
www.paligap.cc
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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Navigation company Mio describe their Cyclo 505 GPS as "the best experience in bicycle navigation". This unit is at the top of their cycle range of GPS computers, putting it directly into the firing line of Garmin's top dog GPS, the Edge 810.
At 369.99 the Mio is just slightly cheaper than a bog standard 810. At this price, the Mio comes with maps, a heart rate monitor, and a cadence/speed sensor. Meanwhile the Garmin comes with none of the above.
A Garmin Edge 810 with performance and navigation bundle costs £420, so while the 505 HC is by no means cheap, it does look like slightly better value than an 810, considering what you get in the box.
However, nowadays there is so much more to GPS units than simply having as many fancy dongles as possible. In my experience, Garmin has always been at the top of the pile when it comes to user interfaces. In fact thats often the reason I've been prepared to fork out a bit extra for one.
I can't really say a bad word about the Mio's user interface though. It works flawlessly. I haven't had a single crash, glitch or frozen screen (meanwhile I had my 810 freeze twice in the same month - albeit due to not updating software). Data fields are displayed in a very similar manner to any Garmin and navigation between them is facilitated by to arrows at the bottom of the screen.
The only thing to be wary of is that stopping a ride - amongst some other functions - takes a couple of seconds for the unit to process and compile. If you are used to the instant response of most smartphones and electric gizmos today, this is a bit unnerving to start with but I got used to it very quickly and it's just how the interface works.
When interacting with the Mio, the single push button on the unit works in a similar way to the 'home' button on an iPhone and then everything else is taken care of by the touch screen.
When sizing up the Mio against the competition, there is no getting around the fact that this is a big unit. It dwarfed my 810, which I already consider fairly big. The screen itself is massive at 3 inches. I never ran out of space, though, and all the touch features had a big enough surface area for my gloved fingers to hit with no real issue.
On the flip side, this big size means some stem set-ups might present problems. If you have a short stem and a steerer that extends much above it, then you might not be able to mount the Mio on the stem. Mine fit fine with a 100mm stem, but I wouldn't want to go much shorter.
On the main data display screen, the set up is very similar to many other GPS units. You can customise how many data fields you see, and what data is displayed in each of them. One slight niggle is that the distance fields only display three significant figures. That means if you're riding a route over 100km, you don't see the tenths of a kilometre. It's only a small thing but I actually found it quite irritating. I knew the unit was still measuring the kilometers down to the tenth and possibly even the hundredth, but it just wasn't displaying them. Plus, you know, it's ruined my speed readings when I'm flying down my downhill commute at 100+kph. Yeah that definitely happens.
While I'm on the subject of the screen - the visibility is good, but its not quite perfect. In bright sunlight I found that it was not quite as easy to read as some I have used in the past.
As with any part that's going to sit on my bike - and costs over 350 quid - I'm going to want it to be as good as welded to my stem/bars. And for me, this was the Mio's main problem. The single mount provided uses the tried and tested attachment method of zipties. As any home mechanic knows, pretty much everything can be fixed with zipties so I had no real issues with attaching the mount to my bikes. However in an ideal world I'd have preferred to have a more easily interchanged attachment.
I ride four bikes with varying levels of frequency - all with a GPS - and having to fiddle about with zipties is a bit of a pain. At this price, I would expect Mio to provide more than one mount in the box. Extra mounts are available, both in standard stem and popular 'out-front' configurations, but for pretty steep prices.
Attaching the Mio to the mount also takes a bit of care. It uses a 'twist to lock' method similar to all Garmins nowadays but it is certainly possible to miss engaging one side of the mount to when in a hurry. It's obvious you've done it wrong when you do and easy to fix, but it didn't fill me with confidence.
The main reason for buying my first ever GPS was maps. I loved the idea of being able to get completely lost and then pinpoint yourself on a map when you've had enough of being lost. Mio have done fantastically with their maps. The unit comes preloaded with the whole of Europe - to put this into perspective, Garmin City Navigator software for all of Europe will set you back £74.99. Mio claim that their maps will cover all roads and, even more impressively, bicycle routes. I found the road maps excellent. Easily as good as Garmin's maps, and in my opinion actually clearer to read. It's a lot harder to comment on the bicycle routes as that kind of depends what you consider a bicycle route, and whether Mio agree with that. All I can say is that the Mio picked up all the bicycle routes I rode on, which were mainly around the Bath/Bristol area.
My absolute favourite thing about the Mio was how it handled following a planned route that I'd uploaded to the unit. The sheer volume and variation of data available to you as you follow a route is incredible. It's like having a live-view road book. You get an elevation profile showing your progress - like ones that accompany a pro bike race on the telly. You also get the distance to the next major hill on the route, and information about that hill, like its average grade and length. You also get the average grade for the next 5km of road. This list goes on and on; I was hugely impressed with the Mio's navigation capabilities.
But what if you haven't uploaded a route? What if you know you want to ride - but don't know where to go? Mio have got you covered here too, with their 'Surprise Me' function. It's a brilliant idea. The 505 HC is capable of making up three route options on its own, based on the time or distance you tell it you want to ride for. It provides elevation profiles for you to preview and stats such as the total climbing you'll have to do, and the maximum slope you'll encounter. For me this is a massive one-up for Mio over many of the devices out there at the moment.
Now it's definitely worth saying that not every route the Mio produces for you is perfect. Generally if you ask it to make up a short loop in a dense city, you're going to end up following a route reminiscent of a labyrinth, winding its way up and down all the streets it can find. I'd also be wary of following it 100% blind as you never know how busy or fast a road is until you're on it. Nonetheless, this is a very cool feature, and one that I really enjoyed using.
The Mio has wifi capability which means you essentially don't need to plug it in, and can download direct to the software provided. Sadly I didn't try this feature so can't particularly comment. I stuck to the trusty Strava to analyse data, which worked fine. Oddly, despite the Mio having a built in thermometer, it didn't seem to export temperature data in the .gpx file it produced for Strava to read. Strava also doesn't currently have a plugin for Mio units, so you'll have to download the file manually - which hardly takes any longer, so no problems there.
The last GPS I tested was woeful in the rain and consequently, I made sure that waterproofing was one of the first things I tested on the 505 HC. Mio state that it is rated to waterproofing standard IPX7, which means that it is 'protected against water immersion - Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter'. So it sounds like you're safe, unless you're going to try and equal Dave's bog snorkelling world championship record. Certainly I had no water based frustrations with the unit, despite many downpours during the test period.
Battery life is stated at 12 hours. I didn't run the unit down from 100% to zero at any point to properly get a value for this but I started more than one ride with a less than ideal amount of charge and got round fine.
Verdict
An absolute joy to use, with a host of unique but useful features.
road.cc test report
Make and model: Mio Cyclo 505 HC
Size tested: White, to be returned 3/02/14
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Meet the Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC: the lightweight, easy-to-use bicycle navigation device, designed with a stylish flat screen and built-in WIFI. With bicycle and road maps pre-installed, you are able to get started right out of the box. And thanks to the integrated WIFI sensor, you don't even have to connect manually to your PC anymore. You just press the button 'WIFI sync' and all your tracks from MioShare™ are right there on your device waiting for you.
The Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC allows you to navigate easily from point A to B or to follow your own preferred routes. However, if you choose to use the unique Surprise Me™ feature, the Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC will offer you three surprising bicycle routes based upon your entered time, distance or destination. This is the ideal feature for anyone who doesn't feel like going through all the hassle of downloading tracks. And if you are riding with more people, you just use the Shake and Share feature, which allows you to share your selected route with your friends by simply shaking your Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC
The flat, anti-glare 3' touch screen and lightweight design make the Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC perfect for anyone who enjoys style and wants a slim device to fit on their lightweight bicycle. The turn-by-turn navigation effortlessly guides you, indicating every instruction with a clear sound alert. With the simple menu structure and clear on-screen buttons, the Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC offers you true ease of use.
With the MioShare™ desktop application you are able to store your data and manage your route history. The easy-to-use application allows you to download routes and enjoy new roads and areas that others find interesting.
Thanks to the integrated WIFI in the Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC, you can connect with MioShare™ without even turning on your PC. So if you found a track online, and saved it on your MioShare™, you simply press the 'WIFI sync' button and the track will be uploaded to your device. It works the other way around as well: when you are done cycling, you just press the same button and your track will be uploaded to your MioShare™ account in just a couple of minutes.
The Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC is fully equipped for the competitive cycler and mountain biker. Apart from measuring everything you need to know about your performance, it also offers you workout programs, that can be done outdoor, but also indoor when the weather is not allowing you to cycle outside. And it comes with a built-in ANT+™ sensor, to easily connect with the included wireless heart-rate monitor and wheel- and cadence sensors. The Mio Cyclo™ 505 HC is also compatible with most power meters.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Processor
Type: Samsung 6443
Clock speed: 533 MHz
Navigation Hardware
GPS Chipset: SiRFstar III built-in
GPS Channels: 20
External antenna connection: no
TMC: no
Battery
Battery type: Rechargeable integrated Li-ION
Battery capacity: 1500mAh
Replaceable battery: no, built-in
Physical Attributes
Width: 61 mm
Height: 103 mm
Depth: 19.6 mm
Weight: 129 g
Real keyboard: no
Antenna: built-in
Memory
Internal RAM memory: 128 MB
Internal ROM memory: 4 GB
Hard disc size: n/a
Memory card possible: no
Display
Touchscreen: yes
Color display: yes
Display resolution: 240 x 400
Display size: 7.62cm (3")
Orientation: Portrait
Audio (input & output)
Speaker: no
Microphone: no
Earphone jack: no
Rate the product for quality of construction:
8/10
The single button and screen are nicely integrated into what certainly feels like a quality product, but the overall package loses out a bit due to the mounts being slightly under par.
Rate the product for performance:
9/10
Navigation is easily a ten out of ten here, but the little niggles with significant figures and the screen being a bit tricky to read meant I couldn't rate it as perfect.
Rate the product for durability:
9/10
No issues during the test period.
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
9/10
At a claimed weight of 129g, it is just under 50g heavier than the claimed weight of an 810. If you are a proper weight weenie this might bother you, but I can't say I even batted an eyelid at 50g.
Rate the product for value:
9/10
Certainly not cheap - but in my eyes, significantly better value than Garmin's top offering when you consider what you get straight out of the box.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Fantastically. Navigation was excellent, along with a hugely impressive array of data available to the user.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
The "Surprise Me" features and the information you got while out following a route you've preloaded onto the unit.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
The mounting system. Only one mount in the box, and it required a bit of concentration to make sure that the mount and unit were properly mated together.
Did you enjoy using the product? Definitely.
Would you consider buying the product? Yes.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Definitely.
About the tester
Age: 21 Height: 182cm Weight: 73kg
I usually ride: On-One Carbon Whippet Single Speed MTB/Kinesis Pro6 My best bike is: Scott CR1 Pro
I've been riding for: 10-20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo cross, commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb,
Latest Comments
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I guess the logic runs: this is an A road and a main distributor / artery into the city (despite going through in the middle of a residential area,...
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Why does the Cervelo 'Paris-Green' look yellow? Is this that blue/gold dress again?
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I see a car go through a red light at almost every single cycle at every single junction. ...
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Also don't forget - Sustrans are a charity *....
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Yes ... but (just due to the large numbers of people affected) this likely would only proceed in the UK at a very ... cautious ... pace....
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Arsehole in the van not with standing, how did they manage to get a risk assessment allowing a race (a group not a TT) group to be competing on ...
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Can't believe that child threw his bike on the floor at the end of that. Young people today have no respect... ;))
Add new comment
33 comments
I've just started testing this unit. The first impression was great, but aftet few whiles came a huge dissapointment. It lacks as basic feature as laps. How can I do any excercies, interveal etc. without laps? Without it all those fancy features are useless
I used one of these units on my Trans Pennines trail C2C, utterly useless. It sent us the wrong way with 7 miles of leaving Southport, and when your attempting to do the whole 215 miles in under 24 hours it was worrying. We stuck with it until we got to our 1st food\water stop around 60 miles in & by then the screen had freezes numerous times, sent us the wrong way many times and turned its self off as well. We ditched it in the service van. Although the way marking is OK at best, with the maps & a I phone we managed it. But a working GPS unit would definitely of helped.
Can the 500 (or 310) connect to a HR monitor? I don't want to by the 505HC or 315HC because I don't need all the other gubbins. Besides, I want a dark computer.
I tried to email Mio, but their email page is malfunctioning. Rather like a lot of their website.
Come to think of it, am I being stupid even thinking of giving them my money?
IIRC the difference between 500 and 505 is the wireless.
I can't comment on your intelligence
Nope, the difference between the 3xx and 5xx series is wireless.
The difference between the 500 and 505 is ANT+.
Bought one a few months ago from Box on the basis of reviews and comments, so thanks all! Working well so far. Couple of things to add:
Mioshare mapping is very clunky. I've given up on it as it stubbornly refuses to map a route I use frequently round a reservoir on public road that Strava and MapMy both happily follow.
If you download a .gpx that someone else has done it won't let you pick up the route mid way. It goes hysterical trying to get you to go back to the 'start' and only then will it navigate. So you need to map routes specifically.
Not sure how much it's worth having wireless over the 305. In the end went for 505 to future proof. Links to phone but can't manage playlist yet.
Not found issue with rain and screen jumping as some reported. Setting screen lock to 10 secs sorts that out.
Other than these minor things, it's impressive value so far. Tonne of Dashboard customisation, mapping and alerts work fine, cadence and heart monitor feel accurate, syncs with Strava without issue. Hopefully Mio will continue to update the device as update 4 has really moved it on.
Mine was GB maps but it does appear to have Euro. A few weeks in France in the summer will tell how accurate they are. Can download IGN France for 99Euro which seems steep. They do sound detailed though (from the Mio website):
Due to the large size of IGN maps, some European countries will be deleted from your device. People with Western European maps will be asked to delete one of the two European regions to free up disk space. European islands including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Finland Germany and Austria. These maps can be easily restored to your device at any time using the MioEasy software
Can you tell me if the prei installed maps for France any good? As I have a cycling trip planned next week.
Might be a bit late, but they worked fine for me. I can't see, for road cycling, what other detail you would need. I used the surprise me function quite a bit and it sent me down some pretty agricultural routes ( glad I was on a CX bike on 32 marathons). Maybe I could have tweaked in options but in terms of level of detail for roads, I can't see what the IGN would add.
Also, update 4.1 came out recently and seems to have cured the recording bugs I had previously and made the screen a touch more responsive to prods.
Got mine yesterday from box, lovely kit. Comes with western Europe maps although it only says UK and Ireland on the box, updates bare this out. Free up front mount too, bargain in my book at 254. Only problem is data isn't showing accurately in strava but I'm sure it'll be sorted soon enough..
Good shout - just ordered a base 505 - £198 plus £4.80 shipping - £100 less than Wiggle, £50 less than box.
EU maps unit sold out.
Just to let you all know Sports pursuit have a load of the Mio devices on offer at the moment I have ordered the top of the range Mio 505 HC with the European maps plus all the sensors for £240 plus P&P
I thought it was UK only but I just had a look and Europe appears to be there!
Couldn't check navigation as it said it was limited to 120 mile chunks.
I might be able to make a track and test it that way.
Do the MIO 505HCs from box.co.uk come with UK maps only, or with Europe as well? Do you get the out front mount?
Just bought one today (on the strength of this review, no pressure) from Box on eBay. £258 with 'free' up front mount, due to be delivered tomorrow by DPD.
IF it turns up, and IF it's not an empty box and an ebay rip-off I reckon I'll be a fairly happy Mountainboy.
Looking at one of these myself, you had chance to test it out yet?
Yep, arrived on time, mounted and configured without problems.
I use Macs so had to 'register' it on a Windoze PC but used it with Strava on the Mac thereafter.
Did a 60 miler on Saturday to check out the 'Surprise Me' function, I ended up doing a great loop on roads I would never have thought to try. I had a couple of hiccoughs until I got used to turning when it told me to rather than thinking I knew better, once you get accustomed to how it handles 'reroutes' it's pretty painless when you go wrong.
I need to remember to switch off the thing that constantly looks for sensors as it asked me if I wanted to connect to a power meter that must have been used by a whippet who passed me.
Other than a bike I think it's probably the best biking kit I've bought, but I'm only one ride in...
I'm a Mac only user, and this has been the only thing deterring me from one of these. Full Mac compatibility has been promised for June, but, in the meantime, can you explain what you had to do to register it? Presumably it will work out of the box without going near a computer, or will it not?
Yes, I think so...
I think it was working ok, but to use the Mioshare thing I think it needs to be registered, maybe to update the firmware too, but my memory of the order all that happened in is a bit fuzzy now.
Now it is registered, and mioshare is all set up, I finish a ride, hit the wifi sync button and 30 seconds later the ride data has gone to Mioshare & then, automatically to Strava. I don't connect it to a computer at all.
Can't you get hold of a Win PC for a day or two? I believe Argos have a 14 day returns policy...
The 305 hc is the same apart from wifi. It has built in temperature.
There were software issues last august time with the update but the new October update solved any issues. Picked mine up last July for £140 from halfords including the cadence and hrm sensors. Still going strong not one crash or freeze since.
Useful fields on this for me are the temperature and sunset time as I can go out in the bst and know when it gets dark. Very useful feature.
Mio share isn't the best and I use it purely as a link between the data and strava. Once downloaded it populates strava which you can then view and link to veloviewer for a decent analysis of your ride and segments.
The list price of the Garmin 810 is £319:
https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/sports/cycling/edge-810/prod112912.html
I've had one of these for a little while now replacing a garmin 605 and am really pleased with it. The 'surprise me' feature is great fun and the user interface is easy to use and very configurable to suit what I want. To answer the previous poster you can upload the GPX files from the mio to garmin connect - just use the manual upload feature (I've used this with the cycling weekly site as well).as the device just behaves like a USB drive when plugged in. If you don't want to plug it in you can export the GPX file from the mio site to your computer easily. As another poster noted you can automatically update strata from the mio site if you want to and then use the mio analysis tools.
The mio site is a bit limited in options but provides a good basic interface and route naming seems to be based on the nearest town you get to? But you can easily edit that if you want.
Yes it's a bit pricey but compared to the garmin it provides better value for money and outperforms on screen display and usability. It has also performed well in the rain even with my gloves on. You do have to get used to the lag when you switch off though as I have found myself stabbing at it a few times to see if it was really going off. The only other oddity I would warn about is that even though on the mio site it shows the average speed for moving time accurately when you upload to other sites it may show total time (with a much lower average) change the setting to look at distance rather than time.
There is a Facebook page for support and responses are pretty quick and helpful.
Overall one of the best gadgets I own for the bike.
edwardbmason wrote:
"In my experience, Garmin has always been at the top of the pile when it comes to user interfaces".
Hey Ed, your joking right? Are you sure you shouldn't have gone to Spec Savers?
If you don't like zip ties, then there is an 'out front' mount available, which, as I said, Wiggle are including in the price.
Dave, I think the Mac issue is uploading gpx files - I don't have a Mio to try, but the MioShare site works fine in Safari.
Hard not to lose interest after reading zip ties since I hate them.
But I'm fed up with Garmin and their lousy software. it took them a year to get the Edge 510 working as it should. I have no interest in their new computer because I assume the same will be true of it. I don't see MIO so not sure if they are sold in the U.S. but will take a look.
Hey Snooks, DC Rainmaker said that the Cyclo 505 should be released in the US soon under the Magellan brand (Mio is the European part of Magellan). Hope that helps.
As simpleSimon states, I have had a few niggles and sent it back a couple of times. Though in all cases they have turned it around quickly and without issue.
1 of them was a firmware update that crashed the unit needed a reset greater tahn I could administer and the second was a mapping issue. Great service from MIO and lately I have had nothing but a happy experience from using it. The only downside is that the web based user interface is a bit basic and produces confusing graphs that cannot be investigated, Oh and no records for fastest mile, 10 miles, 50 miles etc...
I have a MioCyclco305 and it has been sent back to the factory on at least 4 occasions. Rear mount broke on a ride, sending the unit into the road; software faults when updating (factory had to fix this twice); system crashes whilst on a ride and so on.
It seemed so promising to see competition to Garmin where the interface was easy to use, easy to see and a device which included maps in the price.
Another niggle is that my club produces club runs on Garmin Connect, and despite much effort I have not found a way to get routes from there onto the Mio, which means recreating the route from scratch in MioShare.
I was looking at the new Garmins, but if the 505 is REALLY as good as reviewed then I might stick with the brand.
My club had a discount deal with Mio and it was a no-brainer for me. I ended up getting a 305HC with eurpoean maps for a fraction of the price of anything comparable. I am delighted with it. Battery life was an issue but turning down screen brightness has made a huge difference. The 305 doesn't have wifi or temperature but otherwise a similar spec to the 505 I believe. Worth mentioning - Mio have an outlet on their website where they resell reconditioned units at substantial discount.
According to DCRainmaker, there is a very big firmware update coming, adding lots of features, inc Di2 display and ANT+ trainer control (very expensive details on his site) and in June we're promised full Mac compatibility, at which point I will happily hand over my money. There may also be OS maps. I had a look at a Garmin Touring, in Millets of all places, and was shocked at how poor the screen resolution was. My LBS is stocking the Mio, and the owner uses one himself, and having had a play with it, I liked it a lot. He sells far more of these than Garmin and has far fewer complaints about them as well.
Wiggle are shipping them with the 'out front' mount included FOC.
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