Coospo Realroad CS500 GPS Bike Computer

The Coospo Realroad CS500 is a well-specced GPS budget bike computer that even features route guidance capabilities. But while its selection of riding stats and data is impressive and will work even for indoor training, don't expect multi-coloured mapping with that route guidance – its graphics are pre-smartphone quality.

> Buy now: Coospo Realroad CS500 for £73 from Coospo

For more options, check out our guide to the best cycling computers, and for GPS on a budget, our best cheap cycling computers buyer's guide.

Coospo's top-of-the-range CS500 comes with a comprehensive range of more than 140 metrics on tap, including old favourites such as speed, time and distance, as well as slightly rarer options like temperature, calories burned, elevation and gradient.

However, when combined with third-party Bluetooth and ANT+ sensors it is also able to record heart rate, power, cadence, as well as recognise smart trainers, Shimano Di2 shifting and radar light devices. In fact, thanks to this affinity for third-party sensors, it will work nicely as an indoor training computer.

Indoors isn't where it does its party trick, though. I mentioned the CS500 is Coospo's flagship computer, but don't be fooled by that title: Coospo is very much a budget – although perfectly worthy – brand. So, perhaps the most interesting thing about this ultra-affordable device is the fact it also offers route guidance – albeit of a fairly limited type.

Setting up

The CS500 has an IPX7 waterproof plastic body that has the same kind of footprint as a business card (remember them?) at around 50mm x 80mm, with a thickness of 15mm. There's a 2.6in screen, and six buttons around the device edge are used to access functions and cycle through menus – this does not feature a touchscreen. In fact, on-screen graphics are very basic, resembling an old-school Nokia phone rather than anything more current.

In the box you'll find two rubber o-rings, a plastic Garmin-style handlebar mount, a USB A to USB C cable, and a little safety cord for the device. Showing just how special the CS500 is, it even comes with a screen protector – no such concern is afforded to Coospo's more humble alternatives.

Getting set up is fairly straightforward. Because the CS500 uses GPS to ascertain your basic ride data, there's no need to fit any sensors. You just wave it around in the air a bit while it picks up a signal.

The CS500 then has a home screen of sorts, with a choice of four options: Cycling, Navigation, Training and Setting.

Cycling takes you straight to one of six ride information screens – you can scroll through them using the two lower right side buttons.

Navigation takes you to your previous rides or any 'Courses' or gpx routes you've transferred to the device through the Coospo app.

Training takes you to any Training Courses you've transferred from Training Peaks; or Target Training settings such as distance, distance and time, or distance and speed; or will allow you to connect to a smart trainer.

And Setting(s) does what you'd expect, including adding any extraneous sensors.

As with any Coospo product, to really get to grips with the device and follow an easier and more complete setup, I'd recommend pairing the CS500 with your phone via the CoospoRide app. Through this, you can then customise any or all of the ride information screens – adjusting layout and choosing exactly which data you want displayed.

In use

Once set up, it's time to let the CS500 loose, and it's all very straightforward. Either load up a course you wish to follow or select the Cycling option and press the play/pause button to start recording your ride.

With the option to set up your display screens exactly as you want them, it's really very easy to make sure all the data you want is readily to hand. And when it comes to data, the CS500 uses five satellites for its positioning – it seems to be accurate and quick at recognising changes as you cycle.

Beyond simple ride data, the route navigation function is perfectly usable but rudimentary, especially in terms of graphics. Don't expect multi-coloured mapping here. Keeping in the spirit of those Nokia aesthetics I mentioned earlier, this is far more a case of monochrome Snake than Candy Crush. That said, it works.

Then, when you're done with a ride, simply go into the Cycling menu to select Save to preserve you efforts. If you've enabled auto sync in the settings, all your stats will be transferred to the Coospo app.

Within the app you can see your ride route transposed onto an actual map, or look at your ride data in numerical or graph form. You can export your rides to your laptop as .fit files. And if you hunt through the settings even more, you can also switch on Strava or TrainingPeaks app authorisation, so all your rides will sync with those systems automatically, too.

Value

We've tested a few budget GPS computers over the years, but it's fair to say that at this end of the market the CS500's biggest rivals are probably its Coospo siblings. I tested the CS500 alongside the cheaper CS300 (RRP £68 – review coming soon) and that lesser option is fab if you just need pure stats without the navigation.

On the flip side, if navigation is almost all you need, the Beeline Velo 2 is a cute device and costs £99.99.

And if you want a bit of everything, the Magene C606 is a slightly more refined choice, with the ability to show colours and maps, but it does come at an equally more refined price of £129.99.

Conclusion

Taken as a whole, and despite its obvious graphical limitations, the CS500 is a very decent piece of kit for the money. Ironically, the CS500's low-res navigational display actually does it a disservice and makes it look more like a budget offering than the data-only CS300. But if you can forget about that one negative and focus on what it does provide rather than where it falls slightly short, there's a lot here to recommend it.

> Buy now: Coospo Realroad CS500 for £73 from Coospo

Verdict

Very capable budget computer at a great price – if you keep expectations realistic, you'll be very pleasantly surprised