It’s almost as if the person who wrote the Garmin data field on that page hadn’t seen or used power meters on other Garmin Edge units or even competitor units!
That seems odd. What if you classify them as normal bike rides?
my takeaways (before the release I was leaning towards the 840, | can forward the 530 to my wife ;):
- the 540 seems a bit criple with the “new” interface and no touchscreen, the new interface looks like it has been designed with a focus on touch (build for the 1040).
- the downside of the 840 is gone (backup buttons when rain, mud, gloves, … interfere
- additional storage of the 840 is convenient
- solar is still a gimmick, it doesn’t add enough to be usefull, unless you are using battery saver mode a lot and doing reeeaaally long rides
- price is currently too high, I will wait for prices below the defaults
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Has anyone been able to connect the 540/840 to a Bowflex C6 or Schwinn IC4? I can get the cadence and speed to connect, but not the power. All three connect to the TR app and Zwift just fine. Thanks
Yeah, last night I did a workout
using only the Garmin default workout screen:
and to be honest I’m 100% ok with using it. A few notes:
- the 530 default workout page was both better and worse, I like having more data on the 840
- except for the occasional 10 mile Time Trial that I do, there is no reason for Step Distance to exist on that screen
- that field is
workout comparison +Step Distance - I simply ignored the Step Distance and I could easily use the 840 default workout screen for all my outside workouts.
- apparently if the workout has a second target (cadence, heart rate, etc),
that field (workout comparison +step distance gets replaced with secondary target
Also, wanted to toss this out to anyone wishing for TR to give you an compliance score…
That was for a group ride from Sunday. My goal was to keep it easy endurance so even though it was a group ride I loaded a workout and here it is in TrainingPeaks:
TP allows you to define arbitrary zones, so I have one for Endurance 66-79% FTP which was the target for 100 minutes.
Ignoring the warmup, cooldown, and bonus minutes, I spent 37.5 minutes “in the zone” during a 128 minute workout. After reading the Garmin help for Execution Score, I applied overly simplistic math 37.5/128 = 29% and thats basically the 28% execution score I received.
However using common sense, look visually at that workout / group ride and I’d say it was mission accomplished. Kept it easy, kept it “endurance” paced, and no long departures going for a 2-minute KOM or anything like that.
Like any metric, sometimes its worth looking at, and sometimes its not.
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The Garmin workout page is worthless, I just made my own for my 1040. Everyone was complaining about step distance when that came out, I don’t expect Garmin to address it at this point
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Believe it is only possible to use the rewind button from the default workout screen, my goal was to have as useful as a default screen as possible.
IMHO it is not worthless. After I stopped complaining and actually used it, seems perfectly fine and I had no issues using it last night. The lap distance is pointless for most of my workouts, except for time trials.
On the 530 I have 2 other screens for workouts, and I’ve already added them to the 840.
I finally bought a bike computer, as I need one for Unbound. I bought the 840. Non solar. Seems like the best option based on feedback from this thread and DC/GP. I’m interested to see how well it navigates off road routes.
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Damn. I stepped into that trap as well. Thanks for the heads up. 
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That is the only bug I’ve encountered so far. Otherwise the 840 has been rock solid.
The device does appear to need its own rides to use some of the Firstbeat metrics, for example my 530 had ftp in 260s and last week I got a 229 ftp estimate from the 840, and last night I received a 250W estimate after my workout.
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I switched from a 530 (which had a broken mount on the back, if it had not been for that, I would not have switched). Anyway, I’m quite satisfied with the unit. Some minor criticisms, some have already been mentioned:
- The wider case of the unit looks wrong, the large bezels are stupid without “solar”
- Overall responsiveness of the unit seems to have improved, but if you tax it, the UI still get’s very slow. I navigated a 250km race last weekend, with 22 climbs on the route, and Powerguide active as well. (A pacing help, new to me). When switching from the power guide to the upcoming climbs page the unit took several seconds to load the screen. Also when switching to the map. Not ideal on the road (but granted, a heavy use scenario).
- No issues with the touchscreen in the rain.
- Having the buttons is nice.
- New UI takes some getting used to, but works fine with the touchscreen (on the bike I still prefer the buttons)
- Stability very good so far (when the 530 was new it crashed regulary on me)
- Ok, this is stupid, but: when turned off, the display of the 530 was all black. The 840 is grey. The 530 looked sleeker
. (Not sure if this is the touchscreen). - As @WindWarrior pointed out, some data screens are not editable when transfering from an older unit. Be aware…
Cheers!
Would you share your Workout-Screens? Am always interested If I can improve something. I use pretty much the screens advised by TR here: Outside Workouts: Garmin Setup - TrainerRoad Blog
I got my 840 yesterday. The main reason I got a bike computer is that I’ll need one for real-time navigation during Unbound.
I haven’t had a chance to ride yet and test it out. For people who use a Garmin 8xx or 5xx for navigation vs a pre-loaded route, do you have any tips on how to set up the device to best enable this?
A few specific Qs:
-
I’d like to be notified in advance about upcoming turns (how does this work for off-road?), and notified if I have missed a turn. Does the device do this automatically, or do I need to enable something in one of the myriad of menus?
-
how well does the auto zoom function for the map work, or do you need to adjust with the buttons/touchscreen while riding?
-
similar question on the climb functionality - does the device automatically select the climb to show on screen based on where I am on the route, or do I need to scroll to the appropriate climb profile?
-
can I set up a field to show distance remaining. There is a field called “distance ahead” - is this the same as distance remaining?
-
any other things to be aware of / tips to get the most out of the device for navigation?
I used a 1030 Plus at unbound in 2021. I downloaded the official maps which, IIRC were hosted on Garmin Connect (which makes sense since they are/were a title sponsor). I had turn by turn navigation including turn notifications. I don’t remember if I ever went off course, but if I had I would have been notified. It’s not so much that you are riding off-road at unbound as that you are riding on unpaved roads that people’s homes and businesses are located on so the roads are all “mapped”.
I think turn prompting is on by default, but like with every part of your unbound setup (i.e. nutrition), try it out before you race.
I’m unaware of an auto-zoom function, but I don’t have a 540/840, and just got a 1040 but have not had it outside yet. I would use the touch screen to move the map around and change zoom if needed while riding.
If you you have DI2, I would configure the “hood” buttons to perform functions with your Garmin like page forward, page backward, go to map, etc. If you don’t have DI2, I would recommend getting on of the small 3 button circular ANT+ remote. I don’t have DI2 on my gravel bike so that’s what I used. I mounted it near the right side hood where I could reach and press it using my thumb.
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It really is pretty easy to use. Just load some courses and use it a few times.
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I’m still playing around with screens, yesterday took a screenshot of a 3 minute surge above threshold on the 840:
If it was a longer interval, say 100 minutes of endurance, I’d replace the Lap power with Normalized Power. Super easy to do that while riding with the 840 touchscreen.
Anyways that screen is a swipe away from the default workout - this screenshot is from last week during a different workout:
and so I’m thinking of some changes to the layout of my screen because HR/power are on bottom of the default workout screen, but the top of my custom screen. So I should move those to the bottom of my custom screen, and move time-to-go (and speed) to top. Stuff like that is the reason for the “still playing around with screens” comment above.
I’ll post some more later.
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Thx. I think I’m figuring it out. Hard to do sitting on the couch, and not actually moving and being able to follow a route. Have plenty of time to figure it out.
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A quick observation: This is my first bike computer. I specifically picked the Garmin because of 1. the battery life and 2. Integration with Trailforks for MTB navigation.
But the user interface is severely lacking vs. what we have all gotten used to with smartphones. If it wasn’t for the companion Connect app, I’d be driven bonkers trying to work things on the device itself. And even the Connect app needs work.
If Hammerhead can address their battery longevity issues, and add MTB trails on the next gen of the Karoo, that’ll be significantly more appealing to a first generation user like me who isnt anchored on legacy devices/interfaces.
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The good thing is that once you have it figured out, set up, and tweaked I think you are really going to like it. The 840 is a really nice head unit and the battery life crazy good. The multiband GPS is really fantastic when you go off road and under the tree canopy.
One day in the future if you upgrade to a new unit, your settings will transfer, so that helps a lot with the pain of the initial set up.
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The UI is fine once you get used to it. We’ve rented cars a handful of times in last year+, most recently was given a free upgrade to a 2023 Mercedes SUV and the car nav/radio/etc UI was mind boggling and unlike a smartphone. Eventually got used to it, after a day or two. Same when I went down to visit relatives and ride BWR AZ, had a Nissan something and that UI was completely different and also took some adjusting. But once you get used to it, pretty easy to navigate.
last night I played around some more with Garmin and my own custom screens. Just throwing out some ideas and these screen shots are somewhat stream of consciousness until the end:
Stamina screen with real-time power graph and real-time workout comparison:
Think this came with the 840 and I modified it:
This is what I’ve been using on the 530 when a workout is not loaded:
Default workout screen - you need this screen to swipe up and rewind a workout step:
Two right-to-left swipes from default:
This is a right-to-left swipe after the default workout screen, I played around with this one a bit:
variation with gears:
variation with real-time power graph on top row:
just disabled that warning.
swapping gears and power graph (really quick and easy while riding):
840 screen is a little cramped when Varia radar goes off:
real-time HR graph top row, time-to-go bottom left:
swapping HR graph and time-to-go, again this is fast&easy while riding:
By the end of ride, settled on this variant:
Going to try that for awhile.
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