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I wanted a GPS for my bike, mostly for navigation (I'm not really interested in optimised training or anything like that), and recently acquired a Garmin Edge Explore 2.
On the whole, I'm happy with it - I can plan a route on e.g. cycle.travel, export it to Garmin Connect and send it to the Explore. It's then pretty good at providing directions and a little map to see what's coming up; also, it copes pretty well with deviations from the route, taking you back to the route in a sensible manner rather than trying to get you back to the point you left the route (which a number of GPS units will try and do instead). I had to start a planned course after the start at the weekend, and it coped with this fine.
Garmin claim 16 hours of battery life when in use (i.e. navigating); I had it going for about 5 hours yesterday and it was claiming 75% charge left. It seems likely to be enough for all but the longest days out!
The display is colour, and I've found the map clear to follow. It's happy in the rain, and charges over USB-C. The Garmin Connect app is reasonable and you don't have to pay for it (but it's not free software). You can also load routes over USB (you put them into NewFiles).
On the less good front: you can't turn off particular noises (e.g. the beeps for "have you started riding?", "have you paused?"), only turn alerts on or off entirely. The default view is distance/speed/etc not the map, which means if you start a new course you have to select map view (which requires the touchscreen). Making a course out of a recorded route requires the web application. And software updates have to be done over Bluetooth and take forever; I've had to do two now (one when it was new, and another one this week, only a few weeks later), and they take about 90 minutes. This is really annoying, because when my phone turns its display off, that seems to interrupt the Bluetooth transfer, so I have to keep poking it to keep the screen awake while it does the update.
I think there is Garmin Express if you have Windows or Mac systems (I don't), although I gather it's not a lot quicker. I'd rather Garmin just provided the update as a file I could upload over USB...
Despite that, if you want a GPS unit for navigating you along a route when out on the bike, this is a very good unit.
[this is a public post, so I'm screening comments; I'll unscreen unless you ask me not to]
On the whole, I'm happy with it - I can plan a route on e.g. cycle.travel, export it to Garmin Connect and send it to the Explore. It's then pretty good at providing directions and a little map to see what's coming up; also, it copes pretty well with deviations from the route, taking you back to the route in a sensible manner rather than trying to get you back to the point you left the route (which a number of GPS units will try and do instead). I had to start a planned course after the start at the weekend, and it coped with this fine.
Garmin claim 16 hours of battery life when in use (i.e. navigating); I had it going for about 5 hours yesterday and it was claiming 75% charge left. It seems likely to be enough for all but the longest days out!
The display is colour, and I've found the map clear to follow. It's happy in the rain, and charges over USB-C. The Garmin Connect app is reasonable and you don't have to pay for it (but it's not free software). You can also load routes over USB (you put them into NewFiles).
On the less good front: you can't turn off particular noises (e.g. the beeps for "have you started riding?", "have you paused?"), only turn alerts on or off entirely. The default view is distance/speed/etc not the map, which means if you start a new course you have to select map view (which requires the touchscreen). Making a course out of a recorded route requires the web application. And software updates have to be done over Bluetooth and take forever; I've had to do two now (one when it was new, and another one this week, only a few weeks later), and they take about 90 minutes. This is really annoying, because when my phone turns its display off, that seems to interrupt the Bluetooth transfer, so I have to keep poking it to keep the screen awake while it does the update.
I think there is Garmin Express if you have Windows or Mac systems (I don't), although I gather it's not a lot quicker. I'd rather Garmin just provided the update as a file I could upload over USB...
Despite that, if you want a GPS unit for navigating you along a route when out on the bike, this is a very good unit.
[this is a public post, so I'm screening comments; I'll unscreen unless you ask me not to]
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They are -- the weighting of their quietest, balanced, shortest and fastest route types are not quite what I would prefer -- but if I know which route I want to take, I add waypoints along it.
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