Author Topic: Edge touring- worth a punt?  (Read 3583 times)

Edge touring- worth a punt?
« on: 13 November, 2017, 10:33:41 am »
Hi all, I'm thinking about a lot owned edge touring, but a Google session sees the reviews very split  with half loving them and half slaying them. It's going for £100 and mainly want it as an interest thing while I pootle along on day rides (along with my much loved paper maps) and very occasional long weekend passes.
Is it worth a punt? Or something better for my pennies in this dept? Thanks 

Karla

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Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #1 on: 13 November, 2017, 10:45:20 am »
If you buy it secondhand for £100, you can sell it secondhand for £100. 

I haven't used one but the feedback I read seems to be that while the concept was great, the software was buggy.
 Garmin have released software updates for it, so those might fix the issues that people were having. 

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #2 on: 13 November, 2017, 12:20:45 pm »
They mostly fetch £80 - £120 on Ebay, so £100 sounds right but not particularly a bargain.  I'm not sure it's good value as you can buy new for £150 and if it's well used the battery will have degraded, My three year old on has lost about 20% of it's run time, down to 8 hours from 10.  You can get replacements or run it off an external battery, it's just something I'd consider when valuing a secondhand one.
There are some bugs with all the Edge units, I've had mine just switching off a couple of times and once when it didn't record the track, that's been over several hundred uses and mostly it's been fine.  A lot of the complaints I read are from people who have an expectation of it's capabilities that it was never going to deliver, it's no car sat nav, the use of the routing should come with a warning. If recording a track is important, them a back up is always a good idea, as is having some other form of mapping.  To get the best from it requires a bit of learning and trial and error, the way someone else uses theirs might not be best for you. I like mine, adds loads to my cycling, I plot more complex routes than I do when using a map knowing that I won't have to keep stopping to check and it's interesting to download and record where I've been.

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #3 on: 13 November, 2017, 12:39:53 pm »
I have one and it works perfectly for me; either recording rides I've just completed, or following a route/track/course that
I've download. I have the heart-rate belt too, but prefer using my Suunto T6c.




Graeme

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Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #4 on: 13 November, 2017, 02:12:09 pm »
I have the touring plus with altimeter. It just works... All the time. Never a problem. Battery life for mine (from new but about one year old) is a solid twelve hours. I've paired it with an HR belt and love seeing the data from altitude and HR combined. Mainly I use it for audax / DIY events but I divide my routes up into 100-150km segments. It charges on the go no problem - for more than 12 hours I either use a battery backup or the USB dickey from my dynamo.

The touring doesn't have lots of racing/training data... That doesn't bother you? I'm happy knowing where I've been, where I'm going, how long I've been riding, the time of day, sunrise/sunset, temperature, gradient, average speed and calories burnt (so I know when I've earned a burger).

Shop around. The are good deals on new units.
G.

Samuel D

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #5 on: 13 November, 2017, 02:27:35 pm »
A lot of the complaints I read are from people who have an expectation of it's capabilities that it was never going to deliver, it's no car sat nav, the use of the routing should come with a warning.

You’re right, but that’s precisely how it’s advertised by Garmin:

“Edge Touring works like the GPS navigator you use in your car, only with maps and features specifically designed to help you find your way by bike.”

In the end, I couldn’t stand the software bugs (plus whatever makes it randomly turn off at certain spots on certain roads; hardware or software?). But it was no worse than most other Edge units I’ve used, Edge 520 excepted (which was noticeably better but also useless for navigation, not having proper maps or routing).

I now use an eTrex 20, which is even harder to use but more reliable. One of those might be an alternative for you too. One problem is that there is no satisfactory way to mount an eTrex on a bicycle, the mount being large, ugly, and reliant on zip ties.

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #6 on: 13 November, 2017, 02:32:33 pm »
I'm sure I remember Halfords doing them new for about £100 a while back, though I might be wrong. I would have been tempted at that price, but they don't have ANT+ support.

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #7 on: 13 November, 2017, 02:38:41 pm »

In the end, I couldn’t stand the software bugs (plus whatever makes it randomly turn off at certain spots on certain roads; hardware or software?). But it was no worse than most other Edge units I’ve used, Edge 520 excepted (which was noticeably better but also useless for navigation, not having proper maps or routing).

If you connect it to Garmin Express it'll automatically upload any updates. :thumbsup:

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #8 on: 13 November, 2017, 02:41:24 pm »
Mine works faultlessly, but some have had horror story's to tell, maybe I got a good one

robgul

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Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #9 on: 13 November, 2017, 03:26:32 pm »
I've had one about 3 years - comments:
1 The "give me a route from a - b" is total crap
2 It has been known to just switch off from time to time
3 The settings that you want displayed when navigating - e.g "time of day/clock" and "distance" sometimes change from the settings I requested
4 Battery life is OK but has degraded - I have an Anker power pack to recharge/run it when the battery dips
5 I have the OS 1-50000 SD card in mine - the supplied mapping is adequate but not brilliant

It does what I want - which is NOT all the performance data - just navigating on routes I have plotted on Memory Map and uploaded.

Rob

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #10 on: 13 November, 2017, 03:39:17 pm »

5 I have the OS 1-50000 SD card in mine - the supplied mapping is adequate but not brilliant

That must have cost more than the unit itself.

robgul

  • Cycle:End-to-End webmaster
  • cyclist, Cytech accredited mechanic & woodworker
    • Cycle:End-to-End
Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #11 on: 13 November, 2017, 03:42:50 pm »

5 I have the OS 1-50000 SD card in mine - the supplied mapping is adequate but not brilliant

That must have cost more than the unit itself.

Not exactly - it was a bundle deal from Go Outdoors where the ticket price was better than keen against the usual online suspects but I paid £5 to "join" and then immediately got a 15% discount on my purchase.

Rob

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #12 on: 13 November, 2017, 03:44:36 pm »
I find the mapping ok, but don't want to shell out >£150 on a 1:50,000 sd card.

frankly frankie

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Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #13 on: 13 November, 2017, 04:00:57 pm »
... if it's well used the battery will have degraded, My three year old on has lost about 20% of it's run time, down to 8 hours from 10. ...

AIUI Li-ion batteries degrade over time, but not with usage.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Kim

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Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #14 on: 13 November, 2017, 05:12:13 pm »
I've got custody of one of cycleman's, trying to troubleshoot a battery life problem (initial theory was that the battery was shagged and would benefit from replacement, but it takes a reasonable amount of charge, and will run for a good[1] 8-9 hours just sat on my desk logging a track, falling to about 4 hours if you make it keep recalculating routes, so I'm thinking it's actually a software issue).  I've done a major firmware upgrade, and keep forgetting to take it out on bike rides to see how it performs when routing under real-world conditions...   :facepalm:

Anyway, coming from an eTrex 30 (and various other eTrexen before that), I'm extremely underwhelmed.  It's a bit smaller, and the make-me-a-circular-bike-ride feature is nice, but A-to-B routing is equally (but differently, because the maps aren't the same and the Edge Touring is elevation-aware) poor, the touchscreen UI is a bit meh[2], it suffers from the usual Edge concept of 'starting' and 'stopping' recording (which is basically a way to set you up to fail to record a ride), and the battery life (even if it matched the official spec) is atrocious, exacerbated by not being able to simply swap batteries at the roadside.  I haven't experimented with the more advanced features.  The UI seems simpler, and that's a win if you're only interested in the features that Mr Garmin thinks a cyclist cares about - in comparison the eTrex is a navigational Swiss Army Knife, and contains a lot of UI decisions that date back to the days when a GPS receiver was something you'd use alongside a paper map and TomTom were a company that made barcode readers.



[1] By Garmin Edge standards.
[2] I have a rational hatred of touchscreens generally.

Re: Edge touring- worth a punt?
« Reply #15 on: 13 November, 2017, 09:04:23 pm »
Thank you all for your experiences and information, it all kinds of matches with a broad Google review search. I want reliable rather than overly complicated whistle and bells. Common sense suggests I hold fire little, and you never know Black Friday might throw something tempting up.
All your input was appreciated