No. The 820 has full navigation, like on your phone or in your car. Even the 520 navigation is better than Bolt.
I love my Bolt. It’s like wahoo took care of all the things I didn’t like on the edge and put them in a simple to use package.
I looked at both the Bolt and the 520 Plus. The Varia tail light is what finally helped with the decision. The Varia has become indispensable on rides - never had a false alert or a missed overtaking car. I do feel like the Bolt had advantages but can live with the quirks of the Garmin.
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I have an 820 and did have a Bolt before I returned it. I kept having issues with the Bolt reading both Vector power meters properly. The Bolt is good and has a great UI, but the Garmin has more features.
Hmmm maybe I’m mistaken then.
I have both the Bolt and 520, I prefer the Bolt, I find the display much easier to read, setting up the data pages via the app very quick to do, and I find the Strava KOM segment page better as well. I kept the 520 for the same reason a few others have stated, the Varia radar.
CA600 just to throw something different out there. It’s based on Wahoo hardware but it will allow full integration with the Cyclo-Sphere software (I’m assuming you use it if you have a CA500). Plus, the CA600 has ANT rebroadcast which the wahoo does not.
I just went thru a trial with a friend’s Wahoo as allegedly Pioneer and Wahoo have partnered together. This is true and you can see all of the nice pedalling system metrics but here’s the kicker - you can’t get that data afterwards for analysis. Wahoo and Pioneer can’t/won’t talk to each other to use the data for post analysis. I went thru both company’s support and they said “we’ll take it under advisement but no current plans to do it”.
I like the Bolt, it just plain works. The only downside is that I LOVE Varia Radar, and currently I have to have it sync to my Fenix 5 watch, is much prefer it on my computer. I really wish Wahoo and Garmin would play nice and let Varia communicate with the Bolt.
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I went Bolt based upon battery life. The much shorter than claimed battery life with full sensors was a major turnoff(?) for me for the 520 or 520 plus (which didn’t address the battery life).
I’ve done 200km Audax, with turn by turn navigation, power meter, hrm, speed sensor on. Overall time around just under 9 (I didn’t turn off at controls) and moving time of just under 8, the bolt was still showing 37% battery when I plugged it in to recharge.
And I do get true turn-by-turn using “ride with GPS”. I’m not sure on the fly navigation is a big selling point for me, given every web option I’ve tried point to point has given me options I wouldn’t pick (i.e. they pick cycling friendly, not most direct).
The bolt turn by turn navigation is excellent if you set it up correctly on something like ride with gps.
Bolt for me! I had a Garmin 810 for 5 years, constant frustration, terrible navigation, shut downs, lost rides etc.
Bolt is easy to read in sunlight, great navigation…has never failed me, superb battery ( I still had 30% left after the Mallorca 312) And I vastly prefer using the button over touch screen, its simple and it works!
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I have a lot of experience with the Garmin 520, none with the Bolt. I’m going to tell you all the things that are wrong with the 520.
1.) Don’t trust it for navigation. If you go off course sometimes the 520 will lock up. If you power it down it re-starts & then powers itself back off. So in this respect the 520 can most definitely get you into trouble but can’t get you out of trouble.
Other times the nave will inexplicably screw up North/South…turn your little arrow around backwards…show you going to the wrong way. It’s very confusing.
2.) You can’t see the display during the day. Not enough contrast.
3.) Battery life is not stellar. With what I’ll call ‘typical use’ battery life is less than 9 hours for sure. On a cold day maybe less than 7. Typical use means a few devices connected.
Just to give you an idea if I’m on a ride where Nav is important I’ll use a Garmin 200 as my navigation device and the Garmin 520 just as a data headunit.
I’ve also used a Giant Neostrack. For all it’s problems if I had to do a 100 mile self-navigated gravel ride I would FOR SURE rely on the Neostrack before the Garmin 520.
I mean, it can also sync rides directly from RWGPS. That’s what I use to create routes now rather than Strava’s route finder.
I’ve had many issues with Garmin…unfortunately. First unit was replaced after a few weeks (it turned off for good) and the battery life was much better at the beginning. A few times, during epic rides in The Alps, the unit just turned off and the files with activities were corrupted. I could fix a few of them using an online tool but 2 times I just lost part of the activity. Occasionally, the unit freezes during the ride. I have used it for 3 years now. Maybe it’s just bad luck/bad unit. So I bought a Wahoo because I was sick of the Garmin failes. But from the features/usabillity point of view I am looking for something similar to your description: color display, color maps, turn by turn navigation, activity profiles and long battery life (like 15 hours). For me, integration with Varia etc. is not important. New Stages units are interesting but I want to wait untill all bugs and childhood illnesses are cured.
520 (not plus) for 179€ at Wiggle, Bolt at 238€ anywhere.
60€ difference, that’s quite.
I’ve been using a Garmin Forerunner 235, but doesn’t read power. I just want power data to ride and train outside. Don’t care about navigation. Garmin screen isn’t a problem for me.
I still don’t see why paying 60€ more for better screen and easy app configuration.
Any chance you could go into a bit more detail on the mega c? I am looking for a new computer and it looks like it might be the best option but I can’t find much in the way of reviews or feature comparisons.
My main concerns are:
If you miss a turn while navigating what does it do?
What do you use for ride data uploads? (My current Garmin 500 syncs to Garmin connect through the PC then starva and tp pull from Garmin)
How does it handle multiple bikes/sensors/pm? (I use different power meters on my tt bike vs road bike)
Does it store sensor data so when you are at a race it knows to pair to your sensors and not someone else’s?
Does it gracefully handle a missing sensor (Ie. Forgot to wear my heart rate monitor. Garmin 500 has pm calibration issues when I forget my heart strap)
Any issues with data loss?
Any frustrating things with it?
Have you ridden with it in the rain? (A few reviews I have seen seem to demonstrate issues with rain)
+1 for the bolt
If you can wait another month I’ll have more experience with it. If someone else has more experience than me, please chime in, in-case I get something wrong.
The Lezyne replaced a Garmin 510 which kept locking up and needed constant re-formatting. I got the Lezyne late last fall (Canada has had a long winter) and only took it out for 4 or 5 rides in good weather. I used it with a 4iiii PM and Garmin HR strap, no problems locking in. Mapping (street maps versus lines) is done on your cell phone and transferred to the computer before the ride, you do not store routes on the Mega-C, they are on your phone. Maps are stored on your cell phone app off-line (just like Google off-line maps).
GPS while navigating was very accurate. I was getting turn by turn directions with multiple notifications as a turn approached (i.e., 90 m, 50 m, 10m to the turn). As I recall, if you keep your phone connected during your ride, re-routing will happen if you miss a turn.
I think I was uploading to Strava directly, and then to TR through a BLE connection with my phone. Like any BLE connection you have to approve any pairing of devices. There is a list of supported sensors on the GPS root website. There is a new link on the GPS Root website indicating that Strava Routes integration is under development.
Like the Bolt, you do a lot of configuring through the phone app. So far I like it, but I haven’t had it long enough to ferret out all the idiosyncrasies.
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I ended up just picking a 520 Plus over the Bolt because I wanted the Varia radar. If not for that it would have been the Bolt.
The Plus seems to have fixed the battery issues that many complain about. I’ll know once I start using it.
Is the OP looking at the 520 or 520 Plus? I never had a 520, but I have used the 520 Plus and Bolt both extensively. The 520 Plus is clearly better imho in several ways, but it should be, it is a much newer model.
But if I was in the market I think I’d compare the Plus and the Bolt.
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