do you have auto zoom on, or are you locked to a specific zoom level? Mine will auto zoom in as I approach turns.
An interesting thread on garmin forums about what MAY be your problem.
âOne way that I have obtained, what I understand you are looking for, is to switch the âAlways Displayâ on, in the settings of a given course, where you can also choose the color of the line on the map. That way you can see and ride the course, without pop-ups, prompts, recalculations or other disturbances, as it is simply shown on the map, even if you havenât chosen to navigate it. Only consideration is to remember to toggle the âAlways Displayâ off, for the courses that you do not want to see, so that the map doesnât get too cluttered.â
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Hello everyone, Iâm interested in switching from my trusty old Elemnt Bolt to the 1040.
After reading the whole thread Iâve seen mostly positing things, but there are some things Iâve seen people complaining over on the Garmin forums that have had me worried about transitioning.
Mainly, the delay updating gradient changes, the auto stop/auto start activity delay and the incorrect temperature readings.
Iâm not sure whether these things are isolated cases or more general âbugs turned into featuresâ.
I could live with these issues, but it annoys me that the most expensive Bike Computer on the market, by quite a margin, has issues that have been known for two or three generations and little has been done to address them.
For now, I canât justify paying so much money for a bike computer that has âbasicâ flaws.
But maybe I am overreacting.
What are your opinions on these issues?
I think the biggest thing is asking yourself what youre looking for in the bike computer, and what youâre missing right now.
Going either to the newer Garmins, or to a new Wahoo, will be a big jump.
So what are your priorities in a bike computer, and what are you missing now? And maybe we can help better in guiding you 
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I have yet to see a bike computer(from any brand) that has realistic temperature readings. I also donât need my bike computer to confirm if itâs hot or cold out. YMMV.
I personally donât use âgradientâ as a data field, Iâve seen Garmin respond to this as it isnât a bug and its designed with that delay, so I wouldnât go in with expectations that it would get better if it is something you value.
I havenât used auto start, but I have used auto pause on my 530 and I donât detect any delay. It pauses within a second or two of coming to a complete stop and restarts within a second or two of moving.
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Iâve done that analysis before and I was all set (still am) on getting the 1040.
But that is not the point of my comment.
My point is about spending so much money on a flawed product.
And the flaws are not new, they existed already in previous generations.
Also, they do not seem to be impossible to fix either, because not only did the competition overcome them but also (judging by the comments I have read) these things worked fine before, for example on the Edge 1000.
I agree with you on the temperature not being essential. It is not like I base my riding or any other thing on the temperature shown by the computer. But it worked fine (or better) on previous generations, then it did not anymore and now with this new iteration it still does not work properly.
About the gradient, that is just a lame excuse from Garmin, they basically turned a bug into a feature by saying that. Why would anyone design a delay into gradient changes?
When I say delay I do not mean a few ms delay, I mean "you were on a descent and then you start climbing and only after 50m or more does the gradient switch from negative to positive delay.
Though I doubt many use the gradient metric itself, there are functionalities, like the ClimbPro feature, that are based on the current gradient, and if you use ClimbPro and it isnât accurate what is the point of it?
The Power guide, which I really like the concept, also seems to use the gradient as a metric in its calculations. It will also be inaccurate.
As for the auto-pause, I use it on my Wahoo and it also isnât instant. The problem with the 1040 seems to be its relatively long delay to detect a stop / start.
Again, these are things that I can live with, it just annoys me the idea of having to pay so much money for a product that has basic, avoidable flaws.
My old 820, Wahoo Elemnt, and my 530 all have been laughable in the temperature department. I havenât used a device as(at this point in time) outdated as an Edge 1000 so no data to compare there.
I would tend to agree(although I have ZERO experience in how to design how the gradient measurement occurs) that Garmin is punting on this. Iâm sure they could improve itâs ability to adjust quicker.
My auto-pause experience is with the 530, and itâs been well within reason. My new 1040 should be here either tomorrow or Monday, I can report back a comparison between the two when it arrives.
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Also, I wonder if there is a difference between âSmartâ and 1-Second recording in relation to gradient lag, and possibly auto-pause?
Use windfield for temperature. Amazing widgit that gives you much more than temperature. I do find the auto start annoying. I have to go into the settings and mess with it. When I finish an activity and stop and save it⌠if I am moving at all, on the bike or in the car it starts an activity. So I just have to remove auto start new activity some how. As for stop and start while on a ride there is sometimes a small delay but it works well. For gradient it seems to be off a little. But in the end I feel it all averages out.
I love mine mostly⌠lol
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Well it seems you have a choice then. If it annoys you that much then dont buy it. If it doesnt annoy you that much then buy it and use it and get over it.
Navigation is the big thing for me. If gradient is off and it keeps me on course I dont care. Temperature⌠Doesnt matter.
I have a bike packing race next month. that will be a real test.
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this doesnât use the new 1040 but it seems people have complained about this lag in the X30 series too.
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Yes. My climbs are always off. They start late or early and finish late or early⌠For me its good to know a climb is coming and I know its over when I get to the top.
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Great post!!! Thank you.
I donât really see how temperature is going to be accurate for a small device that is often in full sunlight, especially when temperature is one of the lower importance things it measures. I would not want my head unit larger, or have probes sticking out in order to have more accurate temperature, and my guess is this would be unpopular in general. I guess the could have multiple temperature sensors around the unit, and use the temperature gradient in the device as well as movement speed to calculate a better estimate of the actual air temperature. I doubt that this data is important enough for them to go to all that trouble.
Regarding climb gradient measurement, do any head units have quick and accurate displays? I donât use those much, but I recall it being slow to respond on wahoo as well as my 530. My understanding/assumption of how these work is to look at changes in distance and elevation, and based on those display the gradient. Since neither GPS nor barometric sensors are going to provide highly accurate and stable elevation readings, this being slow to update (and really telling you the gradient that you just rode) seems quite reasonable. To do otherwise would either require some kind on inclinometer that would need to be manually calibrated, or would require some kind of auto-calibration. Since the auto-calibration would be based on distance/elevation measurements as described above, I donât think it would provide good accuracy. Just because something updates more quickly doesnât mean it is more accurate.
Even if it had road/surface grade data and used that instead, it still wouldnât be that accurate on an instantaneous basis, as in most places that data isnât super detailed.
I think both of these data fields are going to be problematic on pretty much every head unit.
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Iâll have to pay attention to how long the delay is on my Lezyne GPS. Whatever it is I take the gradient field as an approximation as opposed to an exact measurement so any delay hasnât bothered my yet.
ClimbPro uses a route with elevation data and supposedly isnât subject to the elevation lag issue.
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That is good to know and it totally invalidates my point!
Thanks for letting me know.
Love my 1040 solar for the screen size mainly. So good and the battery is 50 hours before solar.
There is a gradient lag but does not bother me. Navigation super quick, stamina data fields are cool and looking forward to trying power plan.
Keeping my 530 for mtb but wonât ever go back.
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An annoying thing with the power plan feature is that it has a distance limitation. But could always break a course down to smaller segments.
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