I like the 1030 I use on my roadie, but it’s not needed. It is nice for the big nav screen, and I like to explore random roads on occasion with it, but that’s not necessary. The Varia indicator is nice, but I don’t find the Varia to be the game changer everyone else swears it is either. Tracking the jumps on my mountain bike is fun, but not needed (think my current record is 30 MPH for a 40’ gap).
Only time I need data is if I’m doing sweet spot efforts, but that’s rare. Otherwise I did VO2 work with my Fenix on my wrist on my MTB last night.
I did buy one of those Garmin quick turn mounts as I get wrist pain on harder MTB trails. But I am not training on those trails and I don’t race with data.
Mostly “at a glance” features due to a bigger screen. On my Garmin 840 during a workout it’s nice seeing the last 2 minutes of power vs target, and seeing if any interval changes are coming up in the next 2 minutes. Nice to have, not need to have. And when cycling in a new area, having turn instructions pop up. And on out-of-town roads, when its windy, getting an incoming car alert before I can hear it (wind) and seeing how many cars. At-a-glance stuff that you either don’t get or is harder to see (at-a-glance) on a watch mounted to the handlebars.
Good to hear others are good; I specifically said compared to mine (a viveo active 3) its sh1te. I think they’re getting better all the time That’s the only reason I’d buy another watch; my 130+ and 1030 gather enough data, that don’t make me feel desperate to do so.
Magene is like the Garmin of China and most of their products seem like a generation or two behind but I’m tempted to try one next time because I’m tired of sending Garmin $300-400 every 4-5 years.
$43 - ant+, gps, no mapping - kind of like my old Garmin
I’d have a look at @dcrainmaker or @GPLama 's site to see if they are reviewed but my gut instinct says no. I am maybe biased though by folk sending off for super duper watches as a kid only to receive a bog standard one which didn’t do anything special!
I feel like I don’t use half of the features that come with my Garmin 530 (basic data screens and a few sensors and trainer control). I tried mapping twice with the 530 and mapping kind of sucks IMO on a bike computer because you don’t ride a bike like you drive a car. My 530 tried to route me on 55mph roads because it couldn’t figure out bike trails nor how a cyclist might take slower, less busy roads.
I just bought a Magene speed sensor or use with rollers and it was $10 for two on ebay. Works perfectly. I can’t imagine that the $40 Garmin speed sensor does anything different.
The only thing really tying me to Garmin is that I consider Garmin connect to be my master repository of cycling data. TP, and WKO5 are my secondaries and Strava is my 3rd. I’m guessing that even Magene files could be put in TP or Garmin Connect in some fashion.
They seem to have improved the navigation when I have had to use the auto route gen in GC or my 1030. It was terrible for routing you down a unrideable road or down a stupidly fast or busy one. I do use my 1030 a bit like a car sat nav but usually on a pre generated route in RWGPS, sometimes I go off route on purpose and it usually routes me back by suitable roads. My 130+ is just an ant +/ gps recording unit for training and racing.
It as the same issue as my 530 mapping - not knowing about bike trails. If I were in the market I’d be very tempted because $130 versus $450+ for a Garmin 840 is such a huge difference.
Do you know if you can adjust the alert for a car? I have a Fenix 6X that I tried using with my Varia, but couldn’t hear or feel the alert when cars were coming. I can totally feel the alert when I get a text message, but not an approaching car. For this reason I stick with my 530
Do you need glasses? I’ve worn prescription glasses since high school. I’ve got progressive lenses in my sunglasses. The prescription is out of date but I can see the 840 screen just fine. But I must be lucky because I can read my 840 on the bike without sunglasses, and read the menu at a restaurant without glasses.
Yeah, I wear two different lenses one for far and one for near (it’s called “monovision”), so it’s always a challenge. Especially on the “interval goal” field that’s so tiny. I definitely can’t read the workout menu “next step, pause, resume, etc.” tiny print.
