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Garmin Edge 1000 In-Depth Review

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Back in April Garmin unveiled their latest and most expensive cycling computer to date – the Edge 1000.  The unit would be bigger than any previous unit, as well as add a number of new features – like included maps.  But would it be worth the $600 price tag?

For the past month I’ve been poking at the new unit, getting plenty of rides in all sorts of locales and testing grounds.  As such, I’ve got a reasonably good idea on where the unit shines and where it stumbles.  And based on that, I’m here to give a pretty clear rundown of what I like and don’t like about the unit (and trust me, I have plenty of opinions this time).

To be clear, Garmin sent me over an Edge 1000 to start testing with until retail availability.  Like always, I’ll be shipping that back to them in Olathe, Kansas in the next few days and going out and getting my own via regular retail channels.  That’s just the way I roll.

Lastly, at the end of the day keep in mind I’m just like any other regular athlete out there. I write these reviews because I’m inherently a curious person with a technology background, and thus I try and be as complete as I can. But, if I’ve missed something or if you spot something that doesn’t quite jive – just let me know and I’ll be happy to get it all sorted out. Also, because the technology world constantly changes, I try and go back and update these reviews as new features and functionality are added – or if bugs are fixed. So – with that intro, let’s get into things

Unboxing:

The Edge 1000 comes packaged up in two varieties.  The first boxed version comes with mostly just the unit (+ some mounts).  Whereas the bundle comes with the base unit, then the speed sensor, cadence sensor, and heart rate strap.

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After cracking open the box you’ll find a slew of plastic bags with parts in them.  In this case, I had the bundle version – so I’ve got more plastic baggies than the non-bundle version.

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Post-baggie removal process you’ll have the following collection.

Along the top row is the Edge 1000, the out-front mount (+tool/adapters), and the heart rate strap/pod.

Along the bottom row is the manual, then the cadence sensor bands, the speed sensor & cadence sensor, a bunch of standard mounts, and the micro-USB cable for charging/downloading.

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Running through all the pieces briefly, the transmitter pod will pop-in the heart rate strap.  The unit is the HRM3 premium strap, with the post-July 2013 firmware, so it’ll pretty significantly reduce heart rate spikes and dropouts.

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Next you’ve got the out-front mount, along with two little bar adapters in case you have differing handlebar sizes.  Additionally there’s a small tool seen above, plus a lanyard that you can use to further secure your Edge 1000 to the handlebars.

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If the out-front mount isn’t your thing, then you’ve got two standard quarter-turn mounts that can be used on a stem/handlebars, as well as a plethora of rubber bands (only two needed per mount).

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Next is the ever-exciting micro-USB cable.  This is the same type of cable that’s used for virtually all non-Apple phones.

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Then we have the speed sensor and cadence sensor.  The speed sensor is in the upper left, and the cadence sensor in the lower left.  The rubber bands are for the cadence sensor.  I’ll dive into that more later.

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Finally, there’s the unit itself – but, let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

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Size & Weight Comparisons:

When it comes to size, the Edge 1000 takes the cake for the largest cycling computer I’ve seen to date – at least from a dimensional standpoint:

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(Left to right sizing: Edge 1000, Mio Cyclo 505, Polar V650, Edge 800/810/Touring, Edge 510, Edge 500/200)

Even comparing it to just other Garmin devices, it’s quite a bit bigger in height and width:

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However, it is a fair bit skinnier in depth:

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But, if you were to compare it to the latest iPhone (5s), then you’ll see it’s still some bit thicker, even excluding the mount:

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When it comes to weight, the Edge 1000 is the heaviest Garmin unit to date, but not quite the heaviest cycling computer on the market:

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The weights of others that I measured on the same scale at the same time from the comparison shots are as follows:

Edge 1000: 115g
Edge 810: 97g
Edge 510: 82g
Edge 500: 57g
Mio Cyclo 505: 130g
Polar V650: 120g

I’ll talk a bit later in the summary section on my thoughts about the size and whether I think it’s what folks actually want.

The New Touch Screen:

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The Edge 1000 includes the largest and highest resolution screen we’ve seen on a Garmin fitness device.  To compare, the Edge 1000 has a resolution of 240px by 400px, whereas the older Edge 800/810/Touring units have a resolution of 160px by 240px.  Further, the size of the screen has increased from 2.7” to 3.0”.

Astute Garmin watchers will actually note that this screen first appeared on a golf device, the Approach G8, back a few months earlier.  Garmin almost always re-uses the device hardware in other markets with different software (golf/marine/hiking/etc…).  And in almost every case a device will either originate or end up in the fitness segment.  Thus, one can often look to other Garmin segments to see what device profiles are coming along.

With the Edge 1000, Garmin has introduced a new touch screen that differs from past Edge units (such as the Edge 510, 800, 810 and Touring).  Those units used resistive technology, which meant that it was just fine in rain and with gloves.  Whereas the Edge 1000 uses capacitive technology, similar to what’s been used in smart phones.

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Historically, capacitive technology doesn’t work well with rain or gloves – but the Edge 1000 appears to have only few issues with either of those.  Below, a test showing utilizing it in the rain:

Further, having an abundance of rainy rides lately – I haven’t seen any rain-specific problems with the screen.

In addition to rain, I tested it out with gloves.  I found that it wasn’t quite as good here as past units that I’ve tested.

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While I was able to accomplish the majority of in-ride swiping, some of the configuration items it struggled a bit on (which I’ve never seen on past units).  Here’s a short video of me putting it through some of my basket of gloves:

I’ll again note that during my riding this past weekend with gloves in the mountains, I didn’t have any issues with during-ride taps, but as you can see during the video, those sort of tasks it seems to be fine with.  It’s the trickier ones that required me to remove gloves.

Now, while I’ve had no issues with tasks that are typically hard to accomplish (gloves/rain), I’ve had many troubles with the touch screen in more simple scenarios…like pre-ride and even during a ride on a clear day with just my fingers.  I’ve discussed these more in the ‘bugs’ section, so definitely check that out – as some of them are pretty significant.

Finally, note that the unit includes an ambient light sensor which allows it to automatically adjust the screen brightness depending on the environment.  For example, if you go through a tunnel it would automatically turn-on the backlight, and then turn it off once you’ve exited.  The goal with this being that you can reduce battery drain by having an appropriately lit screen while also ensuring enough visibility to see it.

Activity Profiles & Sensor Connectivity:

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While there are a number of new features on the Edge 1000, perhaps one of the biggest shifts is the evolution away from bike profiles.  In the Edge 510/810, Garmin introduced the concept of Activity Profiles, which allowed you to configure data screens for a given purpose – such as a set for racing and a set for training.  These were color-coded and also changed a number of settings including which maps to use and things like auto lap settings.  Overall, the concept made quite a bit of sense and made it really easy to allow your Edge device to be more versatile:

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At that time though, there were still bike profiles.  Bike profiles contained specific sensor pairings, so that “Bike #1” was paired to (for example), a specific power meter, or a specific speed/cadence sensor.  They also contained a few minor settings like bike weight and crank length (used in some power meters).  Finally, they contained an odometer feature.

When you went out for a ride you simply switched to whichever bike profile you wanted and you were good to go.

However, with the Edge 1000 that functionality has been removed.  Instead, there’s now a full ‘sensor pool’, where you can pair as many sensors as you’d like for as many bikes as you’d like.  This means that you no longer have to associate specific sensors to specific bikes.  Rather, it’ll simply connect to whichever sensors you have enabled at the start of the ride.

In theory, this works out great because you don’t have to change bikes (or forget to do so).  Further, if you swap sensors between bikes it makes it easy – all while still retaining the data/screen/ride customization of activity profiles (which are separate).

However, in reality there’s one specific item that was dropped: The per-bike odometer.  This means that at present you are unable to track how many miles a specific bike has been ridden.  Rather, only a generic overall odometer for the Edge unit.  In practice this wouldn’t be horrible if Garmin Connect actually tracked equipment – which it doesn’t.  Thus, if you had been able to simply tag a ride on Garmin Connect from a specific bike then I would think that’d appease most folks.  But alas, it’s a long-requested feature never implemented (also useful for runners and shoes).

As for sensor pairing, you’ll dive into a master menu to pair up any sensors you’ll need.  It’s here that you can select the sensor type:

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From this list you’ll start the pairing process with any of the allowed ANT+ sensor types.  At this point, the allowed types are:

– ANT+ Speed Sensor
– ANT+ Cadence Sensor
– ANT+ Speed/Cadence Combo Sensor
– ANT+ Edge Remote
– ANT+ Heart Rate Strap
– ANT+ Power Meter
– ANT+ Weight Scale
– Garmin VIRB Action Camera (via ANT+)
– Shimano Di2 (via private-ANT)

You can seemingly save as many of a specific sensor type as you’d like.  For example I have a number of heart rate straps, three power meters, a handful of speed/cadence sensors, and many other sensors paired.  Perhaps my favorite function is that I can actually name a specific sensor.

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It’ll by default be the ANT+ device ID, but then you can give it a friendly name:

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I also love that even if I have multiple sensors of the same type visible during pairing, it’ll just list them all, rather than throwing an error message like it has for all previous Garmin units (see photo below).  When it comes time to ride the unit will automatically connect to each of the sensors and show that in the top status bar.  If two or more of your already paired sensors are visible, it’ll even ask you which one to use.

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When it comes to the sensors piece – this all works quite well.  And, I like that I can easily disable certain sensors by just flipping an enabled/disabled checkbox.  It doesn’t remove the pairing (though, I can do that too), but rather simply tells the unit to not try and connect to it.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Edge 1000 does not at this time connect to any Bluetooth Smart sensors (i.e. a Bluetooth Smart heart rate strap or speed/cadence sensor).  It only connects to ANT+ sensors.  However, unlike the Edge 510 and Edge 810, the Edge 1000 actually contains a full Bluetooth 4.0 chipset, thus it could be programmed to connect to such sensors down the road if Garmin were to enable it to.

Mapping & Routing Functionality:

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Perhaps the biggest changes to the unit actually come from the mapping side.  The Edge 1000 is the second such cycling unit that Garmin has actually included the maps with (the first was the Edge Touring).  Like the Touring, the maps on the Edge 1000 come from OpenStreet, which is a free community sourced map set.  These are the same maps that you can get for free for your older generation Edge units following these instructions.

It’s the mapping functionality that ultimately differentiates itself from most other cycling computers.  Most other GPS cycling units don’t have any mapping functionality, nor the ability to give you street-level turn by turn directions.  Some might have the ability to help you follow a breadcrumb trail, but the unit wouldn’t know if you were on Maple Street or Main street.  Whereas the Edge 1000 (as well as the Edge Touring/705/800/810) all have the ability to understanding your position on a street.

It’s with that understanding that it will give you turn by turn directions based on street names.  As you approach turns it’ll then tell you of an upcoming turn:

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And, if you miss a turn it’ll tell you about that too, and how to get back on route.  Though, I found that in some mountain situations with switch-backs it was a bit overambitious in assuming I was off-course (trust me, off-course here would have really hurt being off the side of a cliff).  Thankfully, it always got back on track by itself.

Of course while you can simply operate in map-on mode without a specific destination in mind, you’ll be best served by putting a destination in.  To that end you have two basic options: Creating a course ahead of time (online from a computer), or simply selecting an address/point of interest on the unit itself.

First, looking at the course creation ahead of time you can do this on any computer connected to Garmin Connect (website).  It’s here that you’ll simply plot your route however you’d like:

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Then, once complete you can click ‘Send to Device’ to send it to your device via USB.  Alternatively, if you’ve saved the course then you can use Bluetooth on your mobile phone to grab it and push it to the Edge 1000.  Note the little checkbox for inclusion of ‘Cycling Segments’.

Once on the Edge 1000 you can then load the course and get an overview about it, including elevation:

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After which, you can start riding:

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As noted above, as you ride around it’ll automatically give you those turn by turn directions.  Further, it’ll have downloaded elevation information about the route, and you can see your little blue dot on that elevation profile:

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I found it somewhat interesting this past weekend where I had created a course that made a bit of a ‘Y’ and I skipped coming back on one portion that the unit eventually realized I wasn’t going to do that portion and in turn properly skipped my little blue dot ahead on the elevation graph.  Kinda nice.

In addition to pre-planned routes you can simply enter in an address, or lookup a point of interest (i.e. food, tourist locale, etc…):

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In this case, it’s just going to route you more or less non-stop to that location.

There’s also a ‘Route Planner’ feature that allows you to add more than one destination to a list.  This is handy if you’re doing a bit of a day trip from point to point, and don’t want to go directly to the end point:

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You can then build a list of places you want to go to, and easily edit that list as well.  This is ideal for touring where you want to be able to tweak your route mid-stream if you decide to skip a town or point of interest.

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Note that you can change map settings within the ‘Activity Profiles’.  For example, you can associate different maps (if you have other maps, i.e. off-road terrain maps) with different activity profiles.  Or, you can change the routing preferences for a given activity type too:

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In addition to being able to follow a predefined course or route, you’ll now find another Touring feature: Round Trip Routing suggestions.  This feature enables you to simply tell the unit how long you want to ride for and it’ll automatically come up with three route selections:

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You can tap on any of these three to get more information about them, such as the exact route.

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Once you’ve selected to navigate on one of these it’ll work just like any other course would, thus it’ll give you turn by turn directions and mapping information.  In my testing with Round Trip Routing it takes approximately forever for the unit to initially load the routes.  Perhaps that’s just because of the complexity of downtown Paris, but other competitive units (i.e. Mio Cyclo) took far less time.

Finally, I do find some oddities in Garmin’s overall approach to mapping here.  The Edge 1000 and its $600 price tag of included free maps does include your local region (i.e. if you bought in the US, it’ll include North America).  But, you cannot simply download from Garmin’s site other regions to load onto the unit.  For example, one might think that if you’re buying a $600 mapping bike computer that you might travel from the US to Europe to use it while touring or the like.  Alas, while the GPS piece will work, you won’t have any maps in Europe, and there’s no way to load them from Garmin Express or Garmin Connect.

Instead, you’ll need to use the instructions I’ve written in the past on downloading free maps to a small Micro-SD card in order to get them on the device.  The Edge 1000 contains 8GB of space internally, but almost all of that is used up by the included regional map set, thus needing to use the Micro-SD card to grab other maps.

General Use While Cycling:

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I’ve tried in this review to focus primarily on new features and functionality (new to the Edge lineup), rather than pouring over what many might believe to be more ‘fundamentals’.  However, I wanted to briefly cover a few of the basics of cycling with a GPS unit.

First, when you turn on the unit using the left side button you’ll notice it turns on a heck of a lot faster than previous units – and that’s even ignoring the standby mode which makes it turn on within just a second or so (kinda like a phone).  Like past units, you can customize a little message on the startup screen, if you’d like.

The unit finds satellites quite quickly.  In all of my testing it was usually the first of the Edge units (I typically had 3-4 concurrently being turned on), to find satellites.  It connects on both old school GPS as well as WAAS for higher accuracy.  You can look at the satellite signal strength at any time by simply swiping down from the top menu and then tapping the satellites:

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From there, you’ll be ready to get started riding.  If you have sensors (such as a heart rate sensor), those will automatically be found.  I touch on that more in the sensors section though.  To start recording the ride you’ll press the bottom right button on the unit itself (not on the touchscreen).  This will begin the session.

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While cycling speed and distance will automatically come from the GPS (you don’t need a separate speed sensor).  Elevation will come from the internal barometric altimeter.

You can use features like Auto Pause if you want it to automatically pause the recording when you slow below a specific speed (such as at a stoplight), but for me I tend not to bother with that.  If you’d like to segment your workout you can use laps to do so.  I do that when I’m breaking up pieces of my workout, such as this trainer workout below.  To do so you’ll tap the lap button (lower left physical button):

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In addition to manual laps you can also create automatic laps after a set distance (i.e. every 5 miles or 10 kilometers), as well as laps by position.  Laps by position are useful if you’re doing endless loops around a simple circuit.  I talk about this quite a bit in this past post.

When it comes time to end your ride you’ll just tap the stop/pause button.  At this point the unit will give you a red edged border around it – indicating it’s stopped.  Further, it’ll give you a giant VCR-style stop logo over the top briefly.  This isn’t a touch logo, it’s just a ‘Yo, fool, you stopped your ride’ image.

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After which, you’ll be given a touch-screen option to end the ride.  This will get you one step closer to ending things for real.

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Finally, you’ll be given this option to Save or Discard the ride:

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Once you’ve done the saving piece it’ll show you any PR’s that you may have hit during the ride.  PR’s are ‘Personal Records’, and track things like longest ride, most ascending, and max 20-minute power levels.  Note that it doesn’t appear to pull these from Garmin Connect today (or on my device anyway), but rather, only relative to the device itself.  So all your past awesomeness means nothing here.

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Finally, there are a slew of ways that you can customize the display of the unit while riding.  Specifically, the data pages/screens, which are customized per activity profile.  A ‘data screen’ contains multiple ‘data fields’.  With the Edge 1000 you can have five data screens, with each screen (page) containing up to 10 data fields (1-10).  Further, you have a map page, a compass page, an elevation chart page, the lap summary page, and the virtual partner page.  Each of those ‘special’ pages allows you to specify two additional data fields on them.

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Because I’m your bestest of friend, I’ve written down all the data field options for ya.  Here they are:

Edge 1000 Data Fields - Part 1

CadenceCaloriesCoursesGears (Di2)DistanceElevationGeneral
CadenceCaloriesCourse Pt. Dist.Di2 Battery LevelDistanceElevationBattery Level
Cadence - AvgDist. To Dest.Front GearDist. - LapGradeGPS Accuracy
Cadence - LapDist. To GoGear RatioDist. - Last LapTotal AscentGPS Signal Strength
Dist. To NextGearsOdometerTotal DescentSunrise
ETA at Dest.Rear GearVertical SpeedSunset
HeadingVS - 30s AvgTemperature
Time to Dest.Time of Day
Time to Go
Time to Next

Edge 1000 Data Fields - Part 2

Heart RateNavigationPowerPower (cont)SpeedTimerWorkouts
Heart RateDist to Dest.BalancePower - kJSpeedLapsCalories to Go
HR - %HRRDist . To NextBalance - 3s Avg.Power - LapSpeed - Avg.TimeDist. to Go
HR - %MaxETA at DestinationBalance - 10s Avg.Power - Lap MaxSpeed - LapTime - Avg. LapHR to Go
HR - Avg.ETA at NextBalance - 30s Avg.Power - Last LapSpeed - Last LapTime - ElapsedReps to Go
HR - Avg. %HRRHeadingBalance - Avg.Power - Max.Speed - MaxTime - LapTime to Go
HR - LapLocation at Des.Balanace - LapPower - NPTime - Last LapWorkout Step
HR - Lap %HRRLocation at NextPedal SmoothnessPower - NP Lap
HR - Lap %MaxTime to Dest.PowerPower - NP Last Lap
HR - Last LapTime to NextPower - %FTPPower - TSS
HR GraphPower - 3s Avg.Power - Watts/kg
HR ZonePower - 30s Avg.Power Zone
Power - Avg.Torque Effectiveness
Power - IF

Again, you can mix and match all of these up to 10 fields per page/screen, and up to five custom pages per activity profile (and you can create multiple activity profiles).

Garmin Segments & Competition:

Update: Garmin has since introduced Strava segments on the Edge 1000 (and the Edge 520), which is pretty much what everyone wanted.  As such, nobody really uses Garmin Segments anymore.  Read all about it in my post here.

Back earlier this year Garmin introduced the concept of Garmin Segments into the Garmin Connect platform.  Segments allow you to race or compete on short snippets of a given route, such as a popular sprint location or a tough few mile climb.  These segments include leaderboards and your ranking among them.  In short, it’s like Strava.  Except, it’s not Strava – it’s Garmin (a few years later).

The Edge 1000 extends this system by allowing you to race against leaders on specific downloaded segments, where your status is shown real-time on the device against those leaders.

To start, you’ll need to find a segment of interest that you want to race.  In my case, living in Paris there were approximately zero segments.  So, I created some.  Once I did that and waited a while the segment leaderboard populated.  Following that I was able to ‘Send to unit’ which then sends the segment via USB.  You can also favorite a segment for easy access and tracking later.

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Once that’s done, over on my device I can look under the Segments button to see all transferred segments:

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After I pick one I can pull up details on that segment:

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Within that, I can check out the leaderboard.  What’s cool here is that if I had friends on Garmin Connect (that are listed as ‘Friends’, just like in Facebook), then it’ll allow me to race against them instead of the leaderboard.  In my case though, I lack such friends in Paris that have said device and have raced across my magical segments – so, I can’t validate that actually works.

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With everything set I’ll head out for a ride.  As I approach the segment (within 1/10th of a mile), it’ll automatically show a segment alert that I’m coming up on a segment.

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And as I cross the invisible starting line it’ll give me a ‘Go’ message:

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Then, as I hit the beginning of the segment while riding it’ll give me notifications of where I am against the leader, effectively like racing a virtual partner:

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Finally, at the conclusion of the segment it’ll let you know your time against the leaderboard.

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Overall, I’ve found the segment feature to work fairly well once you get the segments onto the device.  Unfortunately, at this point you can’t simply search and select random segments from the phone app and shoot them to your phone (they have to be pre-favorite).  Further, it won’t just auto-enable popular segments along your route in real-time like Strava’s app does.

Which, brings me to the biggest point: It’s not Strava.

It doesn’t integrate with it, nor have anything to do with it.  It doesn’t share data with it, nor have any of the hundreds of thousands of cool and unique Strava segments. It is a separate walled Garmin by itself.  A garden which at this point seems pretty empty.  For example, I would have assumed that in a smallish city like Paris someone from Garmin would have gone through and populated the most popular local riding segments.  But that appeared not to be the case.  From this weekend, despite riding two of the most popular climbs in the Tour de France with literally hundreds of Strava segments created on them, there wasn’t a single segment that I triggered on Garmin Connect.  Not one!

This is where the lack of some sort of Garmin ambassador program seems to really become visible.  I would think it would have been easy to have ambassadors in hundreds of global cities go and mark/make the most popular segments.  Heck, even local Garmin employees, of which Garmin has many globally.  But that seems not to have been done.

Further, even if you do go and re-create new segments, they’ll only go back on populating the leaderboard from April 1st, 2014.  This seems like a huge mistake, not only for my personal records but the massive online data cache that Garmin Connect is.  Ultimately, I’d wager a fair sum of money that Garmin Connect has far more historical data (rides) than Strava does.  Ignoring that data and the records set there is bewildering.  It’d be one thing if they were slowly working their way back in time, but, it seems like that date was it.  In this day and age of flexible cloud computing resources – I would think Garmin would simply buy the computing power to perform the calculations needed to fill out the leaderboards.

Because of that I’ve mostly already lost interest.  ‘Records’ that I would have set even just this winter, let alone last year or two years ago will never show up.  Contrast that with Strava which goes back forever.

Mounting Options:

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I wanted to call out a specific section on the Edge 1000’s mounting options, since it’s a bit larger than past units.  As such, it may not fit into all past Edge mount locales.  While the actual quarter-turn mount is identical, it’s the increased length of the size of the device that can cause issues.  For example, it is NOT compatible with the 3T Integra mount system which works with previous Edge devices – it’s just a hair bit too long (or short, depending on your perspective).

The Edge 1000 does come with an out-front mount, which is a slightly longer and beefier version of the previous out-front plastic mount that Garmin has produced.  This mount continues to work with all past Garmin products.

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I’ve used the Garmin mount a little bit, and it seems just fine – I saw no obvious issues.

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It’s also compatible with the new K-Edge metal mount designed for the Edge 1000.  Basically it’s just a tiny bit longer than their previous mount, and still works with all past products.

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Of course, you can always just use the rubber band mounts, which I’ve done as well.  In this case I put it on my stem, because I felt like it might be a bit wobbly out on the handlebars itself.

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If you’re of the triathlon persuasion, your best bet is using some sort of mount in between the bars.  For this I used the Bar Fly TT mount, I did all my riding in the Pyrenees this past weekend with this mount, and saw zero problems.

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There are of course other mounts on the market – just be sure that you actually twist the unit into position length-wise.  In most cases it’s not so much the mount length that’s the issue, but rather bike components (bars/headset/etc…) that will block you from twisting the Edge 1000 into the mount.  It’s that it’s just a tiny bit (couple millimeters) longer while twisting in, than otherwise mounted.

Indoor Cycling:

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When it comes to indoor riding on a trainer, the Edge 1000 can easily track your trainer rides – assuming you have some sort of sensors to use indoors.  In this mode you’ll disable the GPS and be fully dependent on connected sensors.

For example, if you have an ANT+ speed sensor, then it’ll pair to that and display speed while on the trainer.  Same goes for a power meter with speed (such as a PowerTap).  And of course, it’ll still track cadence and heart rate, as well as any other sensors you have paired (such as Di2).

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If you’ve got an ANT+ capable trainer, it’ll generally receive data from that as well.  For example, the Wahoo KICKR and the CycleOps PowerBeam Pro can both send power and speed data to the Edge 1000.  To pair your Edge 1000 to your trainer for reading power and speed data, you’ll simply go to pair a power meter, since that’s officially what the KICKR and PowerBeam Pro are sending data as.

Note however that the Edge 1000 does not have any of the new ANT+ Trainer Control features (officially called FE-C, Fitness Equipment Control Profile), so it can’t control your trainer unfortunately.  It’ll just read from it using the existing power meter profile.  Hopefully down the road Garmin will actually adopt this profile from their own subsidiary Dynastream/ANT+.

Shimano Di2 Support:

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The Edge 1000 is Garmin’s first fitness unit to offer support for integration with Shimano Di2 systems.  This means that the Edge 1000 can now track your current gearing while you ride, as well as recording it for later access (though, that piece isn’t quite ready yet).  Garmin is however not the first company to do this, rather, that honor went to Mio and their Cyclo units about a month before Garmin.

In order to get the Edge 1000 to talk to your Di2 system though you’ll need one little $80 component – the SM-EWW01.  This little doohickey seen below is what sends the data from the Shimano side of the house out over private-ANT to the Garmin device:

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As noted, this isn’t actually ANT+, but rather Shimano’s private-ANT.  This means that not quite everyone in the industry can see the data, only those that have a relationship with Shimano.  You’ll pair the Di2 system in the same sensor menu as you would a heart rate strap or power meter.  And at the start of each ride you’ll simply need to shift once to wake-up the Di2 transmitter so the Garmin unit sees it.

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The data transmitted one-way from the Di2 platform to the Edge includes shift information (each time you shift) and battery power of the Di2 battery.  Your gearing though first needs to be configured through the Edge 1000 Di2 sensor menu, where you’ll select all of your gears (front and back).  This information is not stored/sent from the Di2 platform, but rather, only ‘matched up’ by Garmin on the Edge 1000:

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Next, you can add any Di2 related data fields that you’d like to the screen.  I’ve gone ahead and made a whole page just of Di2 stats simply to show you all the options.  But ultimately these can be placed on any custom page you’d like:

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When it comes to shifting, the Garmin cannot control Di2.  Rather, it only reads the information.  Again, at this point there is no control going on anywhere.  Longer term (I’m betting 12-18 months), I think we’ll see this.  But there are some challenges to work out in ensuring that the system is properly secured (authenticated and authorized) so that a competitor doesn’t randomly shift you right before the finish line.  Both ANT+ and competing technology Bluetooth Smart are capable of encryption for this data, so it’s more the case of letting the market grow up a bit.  Given that Shimano competitor SRAM recently sorta-announced their fully wireless system, it’s only a matter of time before Shimano follows.

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Ultimately, the real interest here for many, specifically time-trialists and triathletes, is the ability to have a set wattage (perhaps from a pre-defined race plan) and for the gearing to automatically maintain the correct/optimal gearing based on that plan.

Finally, upon completion of the ride the unit will show you how many shifts you made in the front and the rear:

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Note that while this data is saved to the .FIT file, there’s no software tools available today to actually render it after the ride.  So you can’t view your shifting information on Garmin Connect afterwards, nor any 3rd party platforms.

Edge Remote Control:

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Along with the Edge 1000 announcement was the inclusion of an announcement for a new Garmin Edge remote control.  This remote could be attached to your bike handlebars to allow control of the Edge 1000 without directly touching it.

The reason you might want this is for scenarios where moving your hands to change a display field or start a new lap might not be ideal.  For example – mountain biking, or in aero position on a time trial bike.  Or, as I learned this weekend – descending on wet and steep roads.

The remote includes two different mounts, which can be plopped into a number of locations.  The first mount is rubber-band based.  I found it works great on the inside of both my road bike handlebars, as well as my triathlon bike aerobars (for climbing/descending).

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On the flip side, a more ‘proper’ placement on a triathlon bike would be out on the aerobars themselves.  For this it’s best to use the included small-bar clip:

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It’s here that I place it out right next to my fingers.

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When it comes to the remote, there are two pre-defined buttons and one customizable button.  I’ve drawn a little picture below of which are which:

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The customizable button can at this point be customized to the following functions (above, I did it as Start/Stop):

– Start and Stop Timer
– Start Timer
– Stop Timer
– Turn Backlight On
– Show Map
– Show Compass
– Show Elevation Profile
– Show Lap Summary
– Show Virtual Partner

In addition to the customizable button you can also define a press and hold action, which mirrors the above actions.

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Though, I’d expect (hope) over time Garmin will enable other functions to be controlled by it, for example, starting/stopping the Garmin VIRB.  Speaking of which, while the Garmin VIRB remote looks identical to the Edge Remote, for reasons unclear to me Garmin has made it such that you can’t pair the VIRB remote to the Edge.  Ironically, you can actually pair the O-Synce remote control to the Edge, but I found that only the change of display buttons work when doing that.

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In any event, when it comes to use, it’s pretty straight forward.  You’ll pair the Edge Remote in the same sensors area as any other sensor.  Once that’s done, you’ll simply tap a button to wake it up.  The first time you tap a button it may take a couple seconds for it to register/wake-up.  Then after that, I found that the reaction time is generally about one-second for display page changes.

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Overall, it works just perfectly – I’ve got no complaints at all on the device and have definitely found it kinda handy.  Garmin has stated that they are considering adding support to other Edge units (specifically the Edge 510 & Edge 810), but haven’t decided yet.  A decision would potentially come later this year.

Now, the ‘cool’ thing here is that even if Garmin doesn’t add support for past units – other companies actually could.  It just uses the standard ANT+ Remote Control device profile and any other company could add support, as could software companies like TrainerRoad or Kinomap, allowing you to control functions in the computer apps with it.  I’d love to be able to increase/decrease my resistance on TrainerRoad with it.

Magnetless Speed and Cadence Sensors:

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I’ve talked at length about these new sensors in this post from a few weeks ago, however I’ll touch on it here a bit more, along with a bit more data.  In short though, Garmin introduced two new sensors as part of the Edge 1000 announcements.  They were a new speed-only sensor, and a new cadence-only sensor.  These are both separate sensors, each performing their own duties.

The speed-only sensor is magnetless in that it wraps around your front or rear wheel hub, just as shown below – using simply only the included rubber-band style mount:

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You’ll generally want to put it around your rear wheel, since that’ll work better on a trainer.  The unit uses an internal accelerometer to automatically measure revolutions, no magnets required.

In my initial testing in my earlier post I saw some oddities with speed and noisiness of the data using the new sensor, compared to traditional magnet-based sensors.  Garmin did some poking and believed it was due to the new sensor being installed on a PowerTap hub, which they believe may have introduced some electronic interference.  So instead, I moved it to both a different wheelset, as well as to the front wheel.  In doing so, here’s the data I saw on about a 90 minutes or so ride:

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(Note: Data is in wheel rotations, in order to ensure everything matches exactly, it’s not in precise speed which is simply a function of the wheel circumference)

Here’s a smaller section (1,000 to 1,800) zoomed in:

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And, zoomed in one step further (250-500 of the above chart):

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As you can see, it’s far cleaner now, and I’d have no problems recommending it.

Next, we’ve got the new cadence-only sensor.  This sensor uses one of the three included rubber bands (three sizes included), to attach to your left crank arm.  You can technically put it on your right crank arm, but in my experience that’ll last approximately one revolution before your front derailleur will impede future revolutions.

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Like the speed-only sensor, it also uses an internal accelerometer to measure cadence.  This is ultimately like the Wahoo RPM, and other accelerometer based cadence measuring devices – such as those found in the Stages Power Meter, Garmin Vector, and ROTOR Power Meter.

In my earlier testing I found it generally fairly good, with no specific issues of note.  I found this to be the case over the longer run as well, with no variance of note in any of my tests.  Here’s a graph from earlier that explains what I mean:

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Ultimately I have no issues in recommending either of these sensors at this point.  They do work just fine.  However, do note that with other companies coming onto the market developing dual ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors in the coming weeks, the new Garmin ANT+ only sensors would seem to likely limit your long term usage of them.  I talk about this more in-depth at the end of my other post on the topic.

When it comes to compatibility of these sensors with other units beyond the Edge 1000, here’s a handy chart:

ANT+ Speed and Cadence Sensor Compatibility Matrix

Product NameANT+ Cadence-only SensorANT+ Speed-only SensorANT+ Speed & Cadence Combo Sensor
Garmin Edge 200NoNoNo
Garmin Edge 500YesYesYes
Garmin Edge 510YesYesYes
Garmin Edge 705NoNoYes
Garmin Edge 800YesYesYes
Garmin Edge 810YesYesYes
Garmin Edge 1000YesYesYes
Garmin FenixNoNoYes
Garmin Fenix2/2SEYesYesYes
Garmin Fenix3YesYesYes
Garmin Forerunner 10NoNoNo
Garmin Forerunner 15NoNoNo
Garmin Forerunner 60NoNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 70NoNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 305NoNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 310XTYesYesYes
Garmin Forerunner 405NoNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 410NoNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 610NonNoYes
Garmin Forerunner 620YesYesYes
Garmin Forerunner 910XTYesYesYes
Garmin Forerunner 920XTYesYesYes
Garmin TactixYesYesYes
Garmin TouringNoNoNo
Garmin Touring ProNoNoNo
Garmin VIRBNoNoNo
Garmin VIRB EliteYesNoYes
Garmin VivoactiveYesYesYes
Garmin VivofitYesYesYes
Garmin Vivofit2YesYesYes
Magellan SwitchYesYesYes
Magellan Switch UpYesYesYes
Mio Cyclo 505NoNoYes
Motorola MotoactvYesYesYes
O-Synce Navi2CoachYesYesYes
Polar products (any/all)NoNoNo
PowerTap JouleYesYesYes
PowerTap Joule 2.0YesYesYes
PowerTap Joule 3.0YesYesYes
PowerTap Joule GPSYesYesYes
Suunto AmbitYesYesYes
Suunto Ambit2YesYesYes
Suunto Ambit2 SYesYesYes
Suunto Ambit2 RNoNoNo
Suunto Ambit3 (all models)NoNoNo
Timex Cycle Trainer 2.0MixedYesYes
Timex Global TrainerMixedYesYes
TomTom Products (any/all)NoNoNo
Wahoo RFLKTNoNoNo
Wahoo RFLKT+YesYesYes

Finally, do note that if you buy the sensor bundle, that it’s simply just the speed-only sensor and the cadence-only sensor in the same box.  It’s not a specific new combo sensor, just two sensors.

Power Meter Support:

Many of you who are looking at the Edge 1000 from a power meter perspective will likely have past experience with Garmin Edge devices, thus, I’ll skip over some of the basics here save a short overview of what the Edge 1000 does.

When it comes to power meters, very little has changed between the Edge 1000 and past Garmin Edge units.  The unit supports all ANT+ power meters on the market today, and records all of the newer left/right and related power meter metrics that newer ANT+ power meters transmit.  All of these data fields are listed within the ‘Data Fields’ section in the review.

From a pairing perspective, you’ll go ahead and pair the power meter just like any other ANT+ sensor, from the sensors menu:

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Like the other sensors, you can save multiple power meters just as you would multiple speed/cadence sensors.

After pairing you’ll want to go ahead and calibrate (zero) your power meter.  The Edge 1000 makes this easily accessible via a swipe-down menu at any time from the top menu bar:

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At which point it’ll trigger normal calibration options:

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From a recording standpoint the unit retains the same options for including or not including both zero-value power and cadence options (I prefer ‘Yes’ to both), as well as the ability to set 1-second recording.  By default it should flip into one-second recording when a power meter is attached.

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Afterwards, all of this data is shown on Garmin Connect and recorded to the saved .FIT file for analysis in other applications.  Note however that while Torque Effectiveness & Pedal Smoothness are shown on the display, and saved in the .FIT file, they are not enumerated onto full graphs on Garmin Connect at this time (only a summary statistic on the left side).

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If you’re looking at power meters in general, start with my buyers guide from last fall, which covers all the basics and my recommendations.

Altimeter Accuracy:

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This past weekend I spent a number of days in the mountains purely for the purposes of testing out altimeters across a wide range of units, including the Edge 1000.  I was looking at accuracy in tracking total ascent, as well as accuracy to a given point on the route (i.e. the start/end, and peaks).

While I have a much more detailed post coming up next week with all of the devices I was testing and all the tests, I will briefly cover some of the Edge 1000 stats as part of that.  Overall, I saw zero problems with altitude tracking.

For example, in this case below looking at just three Edge units, all three were within +/- 43ft on total ascent, out of nearly 5,000ft of climbing.  That puts them within .8% of each other (less than 1% difference).  That’s definitely in the ‘normalcy’ range.

Further, I didn’t see any wild swings in the total ascent/descent variances.  You want them to be very similar, and in this case it was within about 16ft (I started and ended in the same spot).

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If we look at a point the next day on a different pass, here’s the Edge 1000 next to the altitude sign.  It reads 4,864ft (Edge), and the peak sign converted is 4,888ft (1,490m), so it was within about 20ft – not too shabby.

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I did notice a tiny drift of a few meters between the first climb up this pass, and the second climb up this pass.  But, I also saw similar differences on other units (Garmin and non-Garmin).

For all of my tests I simply let the unit utilize GPS to calibrate the barometric altimeter.  While I definitely understand I could have likely made the unit slightly more accurate by using a known elevation value – I don’t believe that’s realistic of 99.9% of riders on 99.9% of rides.  Most people have no idea what the exact elevation is at their starting point, and it certainly wasn’t marked on any sign-posts for me in the small village I started in.

Mobile Phone & WiFi Connectivity:

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The Edge 1000 follows along in the footsteps of the Edge 510/810 (and FR620) in having Bluetooth connectivity to mobile phones.  However, unlike the Edge 510/810, it extends that functionality to Bluetooth Smart – enabling you to get missed phone call and text notifications on your Edge 1000.  As of this writing, the notifications component is only available on iOS devices, but Garmin has noted it will be on Android devices by the end of the summer.  The non-notification pieces already work on Android devices today.

To start, you’ll begin by initiating the pairing process from the Edge 1000:

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This will initiate pairing the legacy Bluetooth (non-smart) side of the equation to your smart phone:

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Once that’s completed, it’ll prompt you on the phone to allow it to talk to the Edge, as seen above.

Following opening up of the Garmin Connect app (be sure that’s pre-installed and signed in first), then you’ll start the Bluetooth Smart pairing process:

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Along the way you may get random disconnect, unsuccessful, and failure messages, don’t worry, you’ll grow used to those:

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Or, it may ask you to do something that you can’t, because Bluetooth Smart isn’t even showing up yet.  Again, ‘retry’ is the name of the game here.  Once you eventually succeed, you’ll click ‘Allow’ again and it’ll open up the Garmin Connect once again.   At this point your configuration is all set and ready to roll.

With everything setup I’ll cover what you can do with the unit.  First is the ability to save data straight to Garmin Connect after completing a ride.  This will automatically happen assuming you’ve got the option selected in Garmin Connect Mobile (that’s the phone app):

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Next there’s weather information and alerts that come via your phone for your local area.  I’ve never had much luck with these alerts showing up – even on the Edge 810.  In the mountains this weekend when rain storms were rolling in, it never notified me of anything.  Still, I do know it seems to work for some.

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There’s the ability to ‘push’ courses and workouts you’ve created online on Garmin Connect to the Edge 1000 via Bluetooth.  This is handy if you’ve created courses online and want to quickly grab them to ride.  Note that you can’t create a course from the phone however, nor can you create a workout.  Everything has to be pre-done:

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Last but not least there’s the ability to get text message notifications and missed call notifications.  It’s this component that depends on Bluetooth Smart to work (which is why Garmin pairs the device twice).  You don’t have to enable these, you can simply leave them disabled if you’d like.

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When a text message comes in during a ride, you’ll get notified as such along the bottom of the unit.  Note that you can’t respond back to the person using the Edge 1000, rather, it’s read-only.  You can access the text of the message via the swipe-down menu:

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And, when a phone call comes in, you’ll get notified as well.  Like with text messages, you can’t press anything on the Edge 1000 to automatically answer the call with a headset, so it’s more of an ‘FYI’ thing than anything else.

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While I’d like to say I’ve got a ton of great experience here, in reality, this has almost never worked except when I’ve sat down and spent quite a bit of time to try and get it to work – but not during a ride.  As you’ll see in my bugs section – virtually everything and anything to do with the Edge 1000 and mobile phone connectivity seems broken (at best).

Finally, note that while I’ve mostly covered mobile phone connectivity in this section – note that the Edge 1000 is the first cycling unit from Garmin to offer WiFi connectivity.  This means that if you aren’t using a phone to upload activities, as soon as you step into your home the unit will automatically save the data to Garmin Connect.  I talk about configuring this a bit more in the next section.  The only other Garmin unit to offer WiFi connectivity at this time is the FR620 running watch.

Garmin Express (Desktop):

You’ll use Garmin’s free software, Garmin Express, to do tasks such as configuring WiFi, synchronizing activities (if without WiFi/Bluetooth), as well as updating the firmware and maps.  You can also configure WiFi via the Edge directly – a nice change from the FR620 where you must set it up on a computer first.

To get going you’ll plug your Edge 1000 in and it’ll go ahead and then it’ll ask you to associate it with your account:

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From here you’ll configure your WiFi networks, saving in as many as you’d like.  You can also save preferred access points as well.

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Once WiFi settings are saved, the unit will automatically utilize that connection when available.  Note however that you cannot use typical WiFi networks found at hotels or a Starbucks, as those all require being able to click some form of ‘I agree’ page, which the Edge isn’t capable of doing.  So it’s really for home networks (or some work networks).

Beyond setting the WiFi networks, you’ll also use Garmin Express to update firmware (and maps).  To date there’s only been a single firmware update, but down the road there will inevitably be more.

Finally, you’ll use Garmin Express to upload workouts to Garmin Connect.  This can also be accomplished via both WiFi and Bluetooth, but this simply offers another option (for example, if you’re out of the country and only have a laptop with mobile connectivity).  As always, the raw .FIT files (saved activity/training files) are still accessible on the Edge 1000 in the ‘GarminActivities’ folder, so you can also copy those files up to various services such as Strava, Training Peaks, and many more.

Garmin Connect Online:

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Garmin Connect is Garmin’s online free training log platform.  It’s this site that the Edge 1000 automatically uploads to (via phone/WiFi/USB).  After completion of an activity the activity will show up on Garmin Connect within the ‘Activities’ page (or via the Dashboard as shown above).  You can then click on an activity on the dashboard and get the full details on it:

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As I scroll down past the maps and summary information I’ll get charts for each of the different sensors I had on, as well as things like elevation and distance.

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Data from sources such as the temperature sensor are also displayed – both in summary and in chart.  Note at the very bottom left side there’s an option to enable or disable elevation correction.  In general, with the Edge 1000 you’ll want to leave that as ‘Disabled’, as the unit has a barometric altimeter.  By using elevation correction you tell it to use the GPS track as the basis for it recalculating the elevation from known elevation sources.  While that generally works, there are cases, especially in the mountains where that can be problematic.

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It’s here in Garmin Connect that you can also setup and transmit everything from workouts to courses.  For example, below is one of my custom workouts with specific targets that I’ve setup:

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And, within the courses section you can create your own courses to follow later on the unit:

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Garmin Connect also contains a bunch of fairly straight-forward reports that you can generate, from total activities to average heart rate.  Note however that there are no ‘Time in HR Zone’ reports, despite being one of the most frequently asked for features that I hear in the comments section (especially from ex-Polar users).

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Finally, the site has social capabilities such as ‘Friends’ (well, ‘Connections’), groups and the ability to follow other people’s activity through the dashboard and connections page.  You’ll see screenshots of that sprinkled about the review.  Ultimately, Garmin Connect is a good starter site for many cyclists.  It’s not as advanced as Training Peaks or Sport Tracks, nor as socially awesome as Strava.  But, it does do the trick.

And in some areas, it actually can do a better job.  For example, there’s no better workout builder that I’ve found yet than Garmin Connect’s builder.  And when it comes to creating courses, it’s super-easy with the course creator (though, I wish it actually had heatmaps outside the US).  Still, I’d start with GC and then move up from there once you get the hang of things.

Random Things That Didn’t Fit

There are a few items that didn’t quite fit into a larger specific section all about them, but figured I’d call them out here:

Weight Scale Support: The Edge 1000 does support the ANT+ weight scale, which is somewhat interesting because some of the newer Garmin running watches haven’t.  I sorta would have thought that it’d be more likely that a runner with a Forerunner or Fenix watch would also have an ANT+ weight scale, rather than a cyclist.  But…tis not my decision.

Quick turn-on: The unit turns back on nearly instantly from a sort of standby state.  Definitely cool.

Calendar View: You can now pull up a bit of a calendar view of activities you’ve completed on the unit itself, which is pretty neat.  Each day will show a little blue marker on the corner of it.

Garmin VIRB Action Camera Support: Like a number of other Garmin Edge units, the Garmin Edge 1000 does support controlling the Garmin VIRB action camera.  You can dive into how all that works within my VIRB review.

I may think of more interesting tidbits over time, but this seems like a good place for me to stash them.

Bugs:

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As I’ve been doing for a few years now, I’ve been adding a ‘Bugs and things of note’ section to the end of my reviews.  I do this for a few reasons.  Do remember that  a ‘bug’ is different than ‘by design’.  For example, the lack of a feature is something I highlight within a given section is considered ‘by design’, whereas something not really working right is considered a bug.  First is to make it clear the issues I’ve seen.

Now, in order to reduce my work later on, I’ve largely omitted bugs in the upper sections.  I do this simply so I can change things down the road as bugs get fixed (well, I hope they get fixed).  It’s far easier for me to cross it off a list here than it is to re-word entire paragraphs.

With that noted, I’m going to be blunt: This unit shouldn’t have been released in its current state.  It’s simply too buggy at this time.  The core functions and features that theoretically separate it from lesser Garmin units simply don’t work.  Here’s the major bugs that I’ve been running into as of June 4th, 2014:

Bluetooth Functionality: In my experience, this is basically useless.  The connectivity constantly drops between my phone (iPhone 5S) and the unit.  As a result, core Edge 1000 functionality such as text message alerts don’t work reliably.  Neither does Live Tracking.  Ultimately, one of the biggest reasons to buy the unit (call notifications & text message alerts) has been nullified.

Touch Screen Display: This, is also rather ugly.  Garmin is using a new capacitive technology here over their previous resistive screens.  This makes it more like cell phones than past Garmin devices.  The problem is that it’s just horribly sensitive.  I can hover over the screen a few millimeters and it’ll randomly touch things.  Trying to enter anything into the keyboard is equally as useless because the ‘hovercraft’ action pushes other things I didn’t want in the middle of things I did want.  Further, the screen is constantly locking itself without me telling it to – a problem reported by virtually everyone using the unit and Garmin has confirmed as an issue. Update: This has since been fixed.

Di2 Integration: While the Di2 shifting display functionality has been flawless, the actual configuration of said parameters simply doesn’t work.  Seriously.  You can’t actually set your gearing.  It just says ‘Ok’, and then immediately discards the changes.  Garmin has confirmed this to be an issue.  While this isn’t a huge deal right now since it still shows the correct relative placement, it’s more the principal here.  The principal being that there’s clearly no test plans actually being used for device QA.  Because any plan would have likely caught “Validate can change Di2 settings”. Update: This has seen been fixed.

Segments: When it comes to Segments, I actually don’t have issues with the device itself and Segments during them.  Once I get them on there, they’re perfectly functional and fine.  It’s getting them on there that Garmin Express seems to trip over itself half the time.  It’s not a show-stopper, but it’s annoying because it seems to take a few attempts and then turning off/on the device to validate that they show up.  I have however seen some issues upon exiting Segments and the map view where it zooms me to a full view of the entire continent versus my street.  Finally, I’m also seeing an issue where it’s not updating the Segment leaderboards I have on my device (it hasn’t done so on some segments in three weeks).  I would have thought it would have updated those every time I connected the Edge, via WiFi, BT or USB. Update: Garmin solved this within their own platform, but has since released Strava segment support, which is what everyone wanted anyway.

From a bug standpoint, the above items are the core of what I’m seeing.  Obviously, I recognize other people are seeing other bugs – some widespread, and some seen by only one or two people.  Typically speaking if something is only seen by a handful of people it’s either environmentally driven (i.e. a slew of settings causing a condition), or could be a defect with a specific unit.

Now beyond clear bugs, there are also things that technically are what the software industry calls “By Design”, which means that the company (Garmin in this case), made a clear decision to do a certain way.  In some cases, users don’t like said design decision.  To that end, I want to point out one specific change that’s come under a bit of scrutiny:

Removal of Bike Profiles: Garmin has done away with bike profiles, which means that you no longer have separate saved bikes and associated sensors.  Instead, sensors are simply located in a vast pool of sensors and automatically connect when within range.  So in theory if you jump on your bike and head out it automatically knows which is which and it ‘just works’.  And, from my experience that’s been the case.  However, this has a downside, which I’ll discuss in the next bullet point…

Lack of per-bike odometer: With the lack of bike profiles there’s a lack of odometer feature for specific bikes.  There’s a general odometer, but not one for a given bike.  Some folks use this to track how many miles any given bike has.  At present there’s no way to track individual bikes – and obviously, many people are upset about it.  While it may seem simply enough to just tie an odometer setting to a given speed sensor, that doesn’t really solve the problem since many folks don’t use speed sensors (just GPS).  Thus, I don’t see an easy solution here without going back towards bike profiles. Update: Garmin has solved this by adding the ability to setup a per-sensor odometer.

Now what’s ‘funny’ here is that I’ve long asked for the ability to simply have a sensor pool.  So what they did with respect to that piece is great, since it makes it easy to just use whatever sensors you want.  But, what I didn’t really ask for was removal of the bike profiles.  Instead, what I would have preferred was that Garmin follow what Mio has done with their Cyclo units, or what Polar has done with the V800 – which is simply have the sensor pool, but still have bike profiles that can pair to any sensor in the pool.  Perhaps that’ll change.

In summary, the bugs I’m seeing are in some ways unforgivable – they go to the core of what Garmin has touted as the foundational reasons to buy the Edge 1000: Bluetooth Notifications, Better Screen, Di2, and Segments.  With flaws in all core areas of the experience, it leaves doubt as to why exactly to purchase it.  As of this writing, I’ve confirmed with Garmin that by the end of June they’ll be releasing a firmware update aimed at the issues in the ‘bugs’ section.  Of course, time will tell whether that addresses those issues.

Product Comparisons:

I’ve gone ahead and added in the Edge 1000 into the product comparison tool database, enabling you to compare it against any other unit in the database.  For the purposes of keeping things tidy in this post, I’ve just compared it to the Garmin Edge 810, 510, and 500 – which I view as the major ‘steps’ with the Garmin cycling lineup for folks who might be evaluating the Edge 1000.  Obviously, there’s the Edge 200 below that – but realistically nobody considering the Edge 1000 is also eyeing the Edge 200.

Of course, you can always mix and match any of the units by clicking this link.  And this also includes units from other companies.

Function/FeatureGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Copyright DC Rainmaker - Updated April 9th, 2021 @ 10:29 am New Window
Price$599$399$329$199
Product Announcement DateApr 9, 2014Jan 7, 2013Jan 7, 2013SEP 1, 2009
Actual Availability/Shipping DateMay 2014Jan 2013Jan 2013Dec 2009
GPS Recording FunctionalityYesYesYesYes
Data TransferUSB, Bluetooth, WiFiUSB & BluetoothUSB & BluetoothUSB
WaterproofingIPX7IPX7IPX7IPX7
Battery Life (GPS)15 hours17 hours20 hours18 hours
Recording Interval1-Second or Smart1-Second or Smart1-Second or Smart1-Second or Smart
AlertsSound/VisualSound/VisualAudio/VisualSound/Visual
Backlight GreatnessGreatGreatGreatGood
Ability to download custom apps to unit/deviceYesNoNoNo
Acts as daily activity monitor (steps, etc...)NoNoNoNo
MusicGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Can control phone musicNo
Has music storage and playbackNo
ConnectivityGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Bluetooth Smart to Phone UploadingYesNoNoNo
Phone Notifications to unit (i.e. texts/calls/etc...)YesNoNoNo
Live Tracking (streaming location to website)YesYesYesNo
Group trackingYes
Emergency/SOS Message Notification (from watch to contacts)NoNoNoNo
Built-in cellular chip (no phone required)NoNoNoNo
CyclingGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Designed for cyclingYesYesYesYes
Power Meter CapableYesYesYesYes
Power Meter Configuration/Calibration OptionsYesYesYesYes
Power Meter TSS/NP/IFYesYesYesYes
Speed/Cadence Sensor CapableYesYesYesYes
Strava segments live on deviceYesQ3 2015Q3 2015No
Crash detectionNo
RunningGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Designed for runningNoNoNoNo
VO2Max Estimation(CYCLING YES THOUGH)N/AN/AN/A
Recovery Advisor(CYCLING YES THOUGH)N/AN/AN/A
SwimmingGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Designed for swimmingN/ANoNoNo
TriathlonGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Designed for triathlonNoNoNoNo
WorkoutsGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Create/Follow custom workoutsYesYesYesYes
On-unit interval FeatureYesYesYesYes
Training Calendar FunctionalityYesYesYesNo
FunctionsGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Auto Start/StopYesYesYesYes
Virtual Partner FeatureYesYesYesYes
Virtual Racer FeatureYesYesYesNo
Records PR's - Personal Records (diff than history)YesYesYesNo
Tidal Tables (Tide Information)NoNoNoNo
Weather Display (live data)YesYesYesNo
NavigateGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Follow GPS Track (Courses/Waypoints)YesYesYesYes
Markers/Waypoint DirectionYesYesYesYes
Routable/Visual Maps (like car GPS)YesYesNoNo
Back to startYesYesYesYes
Impromptu Round Trip Route CreationYesNoNoNo
Download courses/routes from phone to unitYesYesYesNo
SensorsGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Altimeter TypeBarometricBarometricBarometricBarometric
Compass TypeGPSGPSGPSGPS
Optical Heart Rate Sensor internallyNoN/ANoNo
Heart Rate Strap CompatibleYesYesYesYes
ANT+ Heart Rate Strap CapableYesYesYesYes
ANT+ Speed/Cadence CapableYesYesYesYes
ANT+ Footpod CapableNoNoNoNo
ANT+ Power Meter CapableYesYesYesYes
ANT+ Lighting ControlYesQ3 2015Q3 2015No
ANT+ Bike Radar IntegrationYesQ3 2015Q3 2015No
ANT+ Trainer Control (FE-C)YesNoNoNo
ANT+ Remote ControlYesYesYesNo
ANT+ eBike CompatibilityNoNoNoNo
ANT+ Gear Shifting (i.e. SRAM ETAP)Yes
Shimano Di2 ShiftingYesYesYesNo
Bluetooth Smart HR Strap CapableNoNoNoNo
Bluetooth Smart Speed/Cadence CapableNoNoNoNo
Bluetooth Smart Footpod CapableNoNoNoNo
Bluetooth Smart Power Meter CapableNoNoNoNo
Temp Recording (internal sensor)YesYesYesYes
Temp Recording (external sensor)NoNoNoNo
SoftwareGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
PC ApplicationGarmin ExpressGarmin ExpressGarmin ExpressGarmin Express
Web ApplicationGarmin ConnectGarmin ConnectGarmin ConnectGarmin Connect
Phone AppiOS/Android/Windows PhoneGarmin Connect (iOS/Android)Garmin Connect (iOS/Android)Garmin Connect Mobile (not direct to device though)
Ability to Export SettingsNoNoNoNo
PurchaseGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
AmazonLinkLinkLinkLink
DCRainmakerGarmin Edge 1000Garmin Edge 810Garmin Edge 510Garmin Edge 500
Review LinkLinkLinkLinkLink

And again, remember you can always mix and match any units from the database and compare them using this link.

Summary:

IMG_3985

Outside of the bugs noted above, the Edge 1000 as a functional cycling computer is generally acceptable.  Assuming they fix those issues, I’m sure it’ll be fine long-term.  It’s got some neat new features that I definitely find appealing.  Some of those features are bigger ticket items like notifications and segments, and others are smaller but handy features like being able to build up an impromptu route with not just one end-point, but a series of points along the way (all without planning ahead of time).  Plus the inclusion of the Touring round-trip routing features are handy.

But, that doesn’t mean I’d rush out and buy it.  In some ways I feel that it ‘needs more’.  Which, is oddly the same way I felt about the Edge 510 and 810 when those came out.  Though, those weren’t any more expensive than their predecessor units (unlike the Edge 1000).

I guess at the end of the day I’m just not sure why Garmin made such a device to begin with.  To put it in perspective, there have been 137,122 comments posted to the blog thus far.  Those comments have covered every conceivable (and non-conceivable) thing that someone could ever want a sports technology company to do.  Many of those ‘suggestions’ directed specifically at Garmin.  But at no point in those 137,122 comments did someone say:

“I really want an even bigger Garmin Edge that’s far more expensive than any previous unit!” -Said…nobody…ever.

Thus, while I understand that Garmin is trying to chase after the phone market encroaching on their turf, this seemed entirely the wrong way to do it.  This fall it’ll have been five years since the Edge 500 was released, and quite frankly – that’s by far the most popular GPS cycling computer ever made.  And it’s the only one that I repeatedly hear people asking when a “new little Edge” will come out.  Both the Edge 510 and the Edge 1000 – being larger than their siblings, seem to once again be a distraction from what people really want: A new little Edge 500.

Which isn’t to say folks won’t buy the Edge 1000.  I get it, it’s a new shiny gadget that has some cool features.  But at the moment with many features broken (touchscreen/Bluetooth), and others not fully thought through (how do I view Di2 data afterwards anyway?) – I’m not sure I’d personally recommend it at the price that it’s at.  Perhaps a lower price, but not $600.

Now some might say I’m being hard on Garmin.  And when it comes to releasing an unfinished product and charging $600 for it – absolutely I am.  It’s been out now nearly a month, and it sounds like almost another month till things are fixed (or, the first attempt at it).  And quite frankly, I’m a bit irked by how annoying the unit can be to use with these issues.

And less you think I didn’t give them a chance to try and fix it (Bluetooth notifications), minutes before publishing this review I called the regular US Garmin tech support line to try and troubleshoot, just like any other consumer.  Ultimately, they couldn’t fix my issue (and didn’t really try) but did leave me with this nugget of the day (an exact quote):

“With this being a new device, we have many issues with it that will need to be fixed in a future update….We’ve had a lot of people with similar issues.”

Ironically after getting off the phone I gave the entire Edge 1000 system yet another full reset…and this time it finally started working.

And finally, it’s probably also true that I’m being hard on Garmin for ‘innovating’ with a new screen technology and a larger unit.  But at the end of the day, nobody really asked for either of those.  Thus, I’m not going to sit around and sing campfire songs just because there’s a new piece of technology that doesn’t move the user experience forward or fill a gap that people wanted.

Found this review useful? Or just want a good deal? Here’s how:

Hopefully you found this review useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well. 

I’ve partnered with Clever Training to offer all DC Rainmaker readers exclusive benefits on all products purchased.  By joining the Clever Training VIP Program, you will earn 10% points on this item and 10% off (instantly) on thousands of other fitness products and accessories.  Points can be used on your very next purchase at Clever Training for anything site-wide.  You can read more about the details here.  By joining, you not only support the site (and all the work I do here) – but you also get to enjoy the significant partnership benefits that are just for DC Rainmaker readers.  And, since this item is more than $75, you get free 3-day (or less) US shipping as well.

Garmin Edge 1000
Garmin Edge 1000 Bundle (simply select from dropdown)

Additionally, you can also use Amazon to purchase the Edge 1000 or accessories (though, no discount). Or, anything else you pickup on Amazon helps support the site as well (socks, laundry detergent, cowbells). If you’re outside the US, I’ve got links to all of the major individual country Amazon stores on the sidebar towards the top.

As you’ve seen throughout the review there are numerous compatible accessories for the unit. I’ve consolidated them all into the below chart, with additional information (full posts) available on some of the accessories to the far right. Also, everything here is verified by me – so if it’s on the list, you’ll know it’ll work. And as you can see, I mix and match accessories based on compatibility – so if a compatible accessory is available at a lower price below, you can grab that instead.

ProductStreet PriceAmazon
2014 Giveaway Extravaganza
2015 - DCR - Gear I Use: Bike
Edge 1000 First Look
Garmin Edge Units
Left/Right Capable Bike Computers
Garmin ANT+ Replacement HR Strap (for HRM3/HRM-RUN - just the strap portion)
$28.00
$28.00
Garmin ANT+ Speed/Cadence Cycling Sensor (GSC-10)
$35.00
$35.00
Garmin Cadence-Only ANT+ Sensor (magnet-less)
$39
$39
Garmin Edge 1000 Charging/Sync Cable
$15
$15
Garmin Edge 1000 Silicone Cases (Variety of colors)
$14
$14
Garmin Edge Remote
Garmin Edge Series Extra Bike Mounts (2 sets in box)
$10.00
$10.00
Garmin Edge Series Mini-USB Car Charger
$10.00
$10.00
Garmin Speed-Only ANT+ Sensor (magnet-less)
$39
$39
K-Edge Garmin Handlebar Mount X-Large for Edge units (including Edge 1000)
$45.00
$45.00
Shimano SM-EWW01 Wireless Unit for Di2
$79
$79

Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible.

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1,226 Comments

  1. Pedro Costa

    As usual a great review! Some of the bugs are not acceptable on such pricey device! Hope garmin can solve them quickly.

    Am I the first one to read this? 🙂

  2. there have been 137,122 comments posted to the blog thus far. Those comments have covered every conceivable (and non-conceivable) thing that someone could ever want a sports technology company to do

    I’d be curious to hear your top-5 list of what commenters are looking for in sports gadget tech? Or are the demands at the point just completely fragmented because the market is so mature?

    • Daniel

      Soooo, anyone else think Ray should design the GPS cycling computer we all want? Seeing as he actually reads all those comments and Garmin doesn’t.

  3. Tim

    Thanks for the review!

    I too would like a new little edge 500 🙂 The 1000 at the original Edge 800 (no maps, use OSM) price point would be more tempting.

    I’ve been toying going to the 510, but still just waiting… I probably wouldn’t be thinking this way even if the courses on the 500 worked better! It seems like the redraw time on the 500 is poor and the “off course” notice comes up randomly while on course.

  4. Stephan

    Again a great review! I think I will hold off on buying the unit for a while untill the first bugs are being resolved.

  5. Zachary May

    Zing! I’ve been using my own 1000 for a couple weeks now. I too was having problems with the Live Tracking and text/call notifications. However, for the past 5 rides, those have been working perfectly for me without bluetooth connectivity drops. I believe one issue is that I also use Bluetooth headphones. The other issue is that I think I was having the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone 5S run in the background (with the music app the active app when I turned off the screen). My 1000 has been running well if I leave the Connect app as the active app and connect my bluetooth headphones only after my Live Tracking session has commenced.

    • Luke

      The bluetooth / live tracking hasn’t been working at all on my ForeRunner 620 for ~2 months. I’ve actually given up and stopped using it.
      A problem with phone GC maybe?

    • On my FR620, no issues at all with Bluetooth Smart. Seems happy as a clam.

    • Vincent Huard

      I think you have just identified why I haven’t experienced any issue with my bluetooth and livetracking with my Edge 1000.

      I always left the connect app in the foreground.

    • Arne R Kristiansen

      Do know about it in the near future will be a new version of this?

    • The Edge 1000 just came out 5 months ago. There won’t be a new hardware version anytime soon.

      As for new software versions, it’s been about 6 weeks. I’d expect a new update at some point in the next 45 days or so, for Cycling Dynamics and probably misc bug fixes. link to www8.garmin.com

  6. Andre

    Thanks for the review.

    I have a few questions and hopes for future functionallity, as the DI2 support is something that interests me

    Do you know if the DI2 support could be both ways, would be interesting if there is added support for the unit to calculate when you really should make a gearshift based on watt, speed, elevation and so on. so instead of gearing you would only use your legs, and the unit does the rest.

    is this something you have heard any talks about when you wander your way thru all Companies hq’s

  7. Ron Green

    Ray,

    You made no comment on the battery life except from the official site which says 15 hours. I can’t get close to 15 hours. After 9 hours I had 4% left and I had turned off WIFI and bluetooth and put the screen on on very low backlight. Not sure what else to do to get better battery life. Have you been able to get 15 hours use and if so how

    Thanks,
    Ron

    • I’m getting sorta mixed (but skewed) results. On my longer rides (~4hrs), I burned it from 100% down to 20% – BUT, that was with full backlight on.

      I actually haven’t been in a single place during daylight hours for 10-15hrs in the last two weeks where I wasn’t using it to do a battery test. But, that’s what I’ve got on the plate for Friday when I get back. Will update accordingly.

    • Pietro

      Fully agree, I’m having a lot of issues too with battery life, 15 hours are impossible to reach in my opinion!

    • Rich M

      I ran my unit with EVERYTHING turned off except Live Tracking (no screens, no sensors, no sounds – just a “dumb” unit transmitting data to my iPhone 5S – I didn’t even get it out of the bag) I got 8 hours (I was doing a 12-hour event). That said, my iPhone battery also died at the same time on this duty.

      I’m sending my Edge 1000 back – it just isn’t ready: not even close!

    • Phil

      The battery life is ok if you have everything ( except ANT+) powered down. So thats glonass, wifi, Bluetooth, the screen….

      note that when tracking a map via a self loaded route it really uses a fair bit of juice as well…

      my longest ride i did was around 95 miles. without external power i would not be able to audax 200KM or do my favourite sportive (Liege Bastogne Liege…) at 274km.

      its far more responsive than the 800 or 810 though. if i had a choice of garmins i’d get an 800 next time out.

  8. Frank

    Great review. Can you tell us something about battery life? I’ve been hearing some pretty bad stories on that part…

  9. Hi Ray,

    Felt exactly the same with the Edge 810 : new functionality either useless as they are designed (weather, routing) or bugged (Bluetooth connexion and associated iPhone app).
    Bugs finally were fixed (sometimes with regression in between) but useless ones remain is they are.

    Next device I’ll “need” might not be a Garmin one…

    Cheers

  10. pauper66

    Great review. You saved me $600…for now. I’ll just have a little faith and patience, and keep following your updates.

  11. Steve

    Any idea if garmin plans to release the di2 functionality to the 510/810? If so, any idea on an approximate timeframe for this?

    • They’ve noted to me lately that they’ll decide whether to release such functionality later in the year (that’s the decision, not necessarily the actual ‘doing’ part).

    • wkochi

      i’m sure they don’t want to cannabilize the Edge 1000 sales early on. Garmin will probably wait until next year to do a firmware update then and get more sales from the 810. if Garmin releases the Di2 functionality in the 810, i’d be all over it.

  12. RBQ

    Thanks, Ray! Great great review. And it looks like you just saved me $600.

    I had been eye’ing a 1000 since it was announced and I’d been waiting for your review. I’ll guess I’ll keep my 510 a bit longer.

    Question: How would such an expensive device (Garmin’s flagship edge model, right?) even ship in the first place with so many issues?

  13. Peter

    Hey Ray and thank you for an insightful review, top notch!

    “I really want an even bigger Garmin Edge.”
    This is something I have actually many times thought of being the next step for Garmin, increasing the screen size. So for me this is a good thing.

    I work as a guide for a training camp at Mallorca every Easter and do use the map view a lot while guiding.
    How much of an improvement is the higher resolution on the 1000?
    What real life advantages do you see comparing say 800/810 to 1000 regarding the higher resolution while using the map for guidance.

    On sunny days I have had some difficulty identifying the pinkish track on yellowish roads on my Edge 800.
    Is the Edge 1000 better in contrasting tracks from roads on the map view?

    I have many times while guiding seen a village further ahead and trying to zoom in on my Edge 800 to try and find out the name of that village with no success.
    Is the Edge 1000 and open street map better in that regard?

    Please elaborate some more about the differences between the open street map and Garmins City navigator NT maps, what are the pro and cons of said maps regarding for example the quality of information and resolution of the maps?

    Best regards and keep up the good work,

    //Peter

  14. Antonio

    Hi Ray!
    Why my Garmin Connect platform continues to be in old graphics?

    • Mr Nofish

      You should find a link somewhere to switch between Classic and Modern.

      I don’t really like Modern, to be honest.

    • The link was there for a time being, but then it disappeared. Being already on Modern, I can’t confirm if it came back yet or not.

    • Mr Nofish

      You should be able to go back to the classic version by typing connect.garmin.com/dashboard in your URL box.

      I know because Modern stopped working the other day and I went back to Classic that way. It’s probably some issue with HTTPSB but I couldn’t figure it out, and since I don’t like Modern anyway…

    • merlinbk

      I’m still using the classic version because I read somewhere that the new version doesn’t let you upload workouts? Instead its sync only? This is a concern to me because while I try and use the Forerunner 620 for all my workouts. Its reliability has always been hit or miss. It has consistently faltered when it comes to wifi syncing. And now with the new update (cycling mode update) on some days it auto-pauses (auto-pause on) itself on start and doesn’t start back up even though I’m moving. So I always carry trusty reliable brick Oregon 450 as backup. I’m really worried with the quality of Garmin’s products. I was looking to get a dedicated cycling computer. But all the reviews I’ve read on the 1000 have made me weary. The 810 has the old bluetooth technology and is now their #2 model. So its possible they may not add too many new features and just fix bugs. Maybe wait for the 1000 replacement, but will Garmin get get their ducks in a line by then? They have a good brand to them but they are tainting their image. I wonder how their older model Oregon can be more reliable then their higher end newer fitness equipment. I feel Garmin needs to reorganize their software developers to establish a base “OS” for all their devices and then have speciality teams create “apps” to meet the custom device functions. So a solid interface for their hardware: radios, gps, ant+, bluetooth, then have the other developers collaborate to improve the individual feature set. By now they should already have a code repository for a lot of the standard features (heart rate logging, speed, averages, etc). Is Garmin Microsoft and its blue screens? I really want to continue using and having faith in their products but I’m worried. I hope they can make things better. I’m sure all of us do.

      What device should I get? Perhaps a used 810?

    • There’s a button on the right side to upload workouts – I believe it was just recently added to Modern.

    • merlinbk

      Great! Thanks for the info.

    • Mr Nofish

      FTR I tried modern only because someone one this blog (can’t remember if it was you or someone else in the comments) mentioned that it didn’t have manual uploads, must have been when you published that post about Garmin Express, and it was there already.

      A relief for me because I only upload manually. Which brings me to: any idea whether they’re gonna kill classic off at some point?

      I can’t seem to get it to display Temperature and Cadence graphs anymore, but it does what I need and isn’t overly complicated and heavy like Modern, so I’m living with my fingers crossed.

    • Mr Nofish

      Doh, I just found out why Modern didn’t work anymore:

      It only does if I allow addthis.com – if this isn’t shoddy coding I don’t know what is…

      Hopefully this will save some time to other NoScript, ScriptNo, HTTPSB etc users.

  15. John

    You state that Garmin segments only go back to 01 April 2014 yet in your first screen shot in that section of your review the 5th place performance has a date of 24 September 2012. That seem seems contradictory. Perhaps they *are* slowly back-filling the segments?

  16. Hi Ray,
    Any chance of a couple of sample .fit files with the Di2 data in them?

    Thanks

    Stuart

  17. A

    I am using garmin 810 and i hated the interface but i don’t have to change the setting very often so it is fine with me. The only thing that I can’t stand is the Garmin Connect website, it is so slow and so hard to use compared to Suunto Ambit – Movescount and Strava. Garmin also insisted that it doesn’t allow to link to Strava is ridiculous. Suunto allows Strava link now.

    One day, someone will come out with a better GUI head unit, may be Suunto / Strava ??? then Garmin will be gone.

  18. Daniel

    I think a lot of the trouble with the EDGE 1000 that I’m having derives from the half-bakedness of Garmin Connect. Whenever I create a segment it just never goes beyond the Message that the Leaderboards are still being created. It also doesn’t stop to prompt me to opt in to leaderboards no matter how often I change my settings to do so. … hmm doesn’t leave much confidence in the plattform with me. at least less than strava.
    at the moment the two biggest features that I brought me to the 1000 for are not useable:
    call notification (BT just constantly drops from my 5s) and real time segments (never been able to get a segment onto the device)

  19. Ivan

    Looks like I was right investing just a bit over 300 Euro for a my Mio 505 from Amazon.de. Very happy with upgrading to that one from Edge 800. The only nagging thing is the capacitive touch screen that is by far not as good as the one on Edge 800. But I see that Edge 1000 has the same problem.

    What I would suggest for this review is to add much more comparison with Mio 505 which just does 90% of the functionality of Edge 1000 for 50% of the price! So I just don’t see a single reason for buying the 1000.

    • I’ll be doing that a bit within my Cyclo review. The final firmware just came out for that last week, so I’ll be focusing on that over the next few weeks.

      That said, I’d taper some experiences a bit depending on what class of athlete you fall into. From a high-end athlete standpoint there are so many things the Edge 1000 does that the Mio doesn’t. From more of a cycle touring perspective however, one will find the two units very competitive.

      I’m working on getting the 505 into the comparison tables. It’s been on my list, but, like everything else on my list it just keeps growing. Sigh.

    • Well, I’m the one who trains for an Ironman Zurich this year 🙂
      So I’ve got the Power2Max, testing the new Mio Link now (rather waiting for their new firmware, because otherwise I’d just send it back, as it’s too unreliable at the present moment), and waiting for my the new Garmin speed sensor to arrive (I was really glad to see that the fuzziness you had in the previous test was due to some PowerTap interference; actually that was my first thought when I was reading the text, as both units use ANT+ and were put together). Thus it would be interesting for me to know of any advantages that Edge 1000 has over Mio 505. After briefly looking at the review, I haven’t found anything I was missing in Mio 505.

  20. Sergey from Moscow

    Garmin goes in a completely wrong direction, …what, trying to compete with mobile phones? Comparing to sony xperia with ant+ and decent software this device will look ridiculous!

  21. Xavier

    I struggle with Garmin, they make second-to-none hardware but then their software really sucks… (and I mean the software inside that hardware), they seem to push out semi-completed products, then, to add insult to injury, they make the rest of the software work even worst, like bluetooth communications failing on their top-shelf units, no support for Android devices when they release new units.

    They have, in my opinion, the cocky attitude that Sony had until Apple came in and started doing better products and suddenly apple was the one bringing in the customers, then Sony had to step their game up after licking their wounds.

    They need, IMHO, a new person in charge of their “User Experience”.

  22. David

    Hi Ray,

    Thanks a lot for those awesome reviews, you sould write “Detph” in bold :).
    I just have one specific question regarding the magnet-less sensors and the fenix 2 watch.
    I owe two bikes and I know that the fenix can’t support severals “Speed & Cadence sensors” and we must pair it each time we change of bike.

    But since in the fenix 2 ‘s menu we can pair different kind of sensors, is it possible to have the classic GSC-10 sensor paired as “Speed & Cadence sensor” , speed magnet-less as “Speed sensor” and the cadence magnet-less as “Cadence sensor” so I don’t have to pair them each time ?

    Thanks,

    David

  23. Chris Thompson

    So, If I bought an Iphone off contract, and put it in a weatherproof case, what features could I NOT get by loading apps as opposed to this Garmin unit? I know ANT+ is incompatible (Unless I’m using a 4iiii HRM). Seriously, why not buy a a smartphone with BTLE off contract for the same, or less price?

    • Patrick Brochu

      From past experience, battery life is the issue with any smartphone while using GPS…

    • Where many of the smart phone apps tend to fall apart is actually the navigation piece. That’s surprisingly lacking – specifically for bike navigation. It’s one thing to throw Google Maps on something and call it done, but it doesn’t then show all your bike stats too (which, is ultimately why most people get an Edge 800/810/1000).

      Then, as you progress into more advanced features – like a lot of the workout functions and capabilities, as well as some of the Live Tracking type features, those too tend to not present on a single cohesive phone app.

      Which is ultimately I think the biggest blocker in phone apps today. There a lot of apps that the sum of them do 90% of what an Edge 1000 (or even 810) might do. But that takes a bunch of apps and nobody is going to use 5 apps at once. My guess is there are some single apps that get perhaps 60% there (if you were to do a complete feature matrix).

    • chris thompson

      This sounds like a good opportunity for someone write a better app. If they could hit that 90% benchmark of identical functions I’m sure they could get a good return. I’m surprised that companies like Endomondo haven’t delved deeper into what they can offer.

      Personally, I think I would look at second phone (probably Android due to price) and load an app prior to spending $600 for a bike computer.

    • The Ocelot

      The big thing for me is reliability, toughness and battery life – a proper computer i am confident riding in heavy storms, accidental stream dunkings, possibility of crashing on etc, knowing it’ll still work afterwards and not risking my valuable phone plus all of the hassle that comes with losing a phone. I can do 12 hour+ rides and know it’ll go the distance, and also know that my backpocket stashed phone if applicable will definitely have charge if i get into trouble.
      Sure, a case adds some extra durability, but they’re also mega bulky, have limited mounting options, and as good as the good ones are, i wouldn’t want to risk it in proper storm conditions. For running as well, why carry a huge bulky phone when you can use a small watch, and access it at any time? Proper GPS units are expensive but super worth it in my opinion. It’s not just about software features.

    • Havelaar

      Up to day 3 of my 10-days trip to the Dolomites last week, using my smartphone as cycling computer was a matter of course. That was when the previously so secure looking handlebar mount snapped in a descend.
      Because of the pouring rain, the steep road and its bad surface, I had to concentrate on the descend and discovered only 15 hairpin turns later that the phone was missing. So I went back up there only to discover the phone lying there cracked open and with a broken touch screen.
      From one moment to another I lost my maps, the routes I wanted to follow for the rest of the trip, weather predictions, the list of closed passes, my clock, my cycling computer (making heart rate, power, cadence and speed sensors useless), my GPS tracker, my access to internet, the possiblity to call for help if needed or just communicate with friends and familly, my plane ticket back home, the predictions for passing times of the Giro, my photo and video camera (together with photos & videos already shot), my Italian translator, suggestions for open grocery stores, drugstores, bike shops and hotels nearby, books, films, music for the evening etc.
      Even if some kind of plan B would have come really handy at that time, it also made me realise again, everything a modern smartphone can do for you on such a road trip. So yes, next time, I will have a back up device, but it will be another smartphone and certainly not one of the Garmin units which still remain far to limited in functionality for the time being.

      By the way, 600$ is almost the price of a Samsung Galaxy s5, which in power saving mode (amoled screen in grey & no mobile data access for background apps) lasts easily for 12 hours rides and has a far bigger and easily readible screen.

      However, the main issue with mobile phones as cycling computers remains to find a small but reliable handlebar mount for them.

    • Daniel

      Mapmyride comes damn close…navigation is pretty great. They updated the app ~4 months ago, and for some reason sacrificed multiple, more useful data fields, and less customization on the map screen, but still this is the app I use for navigating a new route. Now if the Wahoo Fitness app had navigation I personally think it alone would do what you guys are suggesting.

    • Gunnar

      I used to mount the old Sony Xperia Active on my stem (glued on a mount from a 910xt tri strap).

      I’ve since moved to apple, but I’ve been eyeing the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact that has ANT+, waterproof and a nice (small) size.

    • Mr Nofish

      You were doing pretty good with this post until you hit the final sentence.

      Now, Ray might prove me wrong or right, but I suppose if for whatever reason the Edge 1000 flew off its mount, it would still survive the fall. And that would be because this Edge, any Edge really is designed to be bike computers. Most smartphones are built with a totally different set of compromises in mind.

      Interestingly your post is yet another proof of how some people tend to become overly reliant on their smartphone, like they’re lways assuming these devices are unstealable, unbreakable, infallible and will never run of battery, which is obviously not the case.

      I seriously don’t understand why someone serious about riding would want their smartphones to do the job of a cycling computer. I mean, you could probably compose a blog post this level of complexity on a tablet, but who in their right mind would not use a computer instead?

      Besides that, having seperate devices adds redundancy both in purpose (so if something goes wrong you still have a fallback), and for battery life, so when you need to make that one emergency call you don’t find your phone is out of juice – although with smartphones being used for pretty much anything except making and receiving calls, they still tend to eat through batteries way too quickly.

    • Ian Blackburn

      Where many of the smart phone apps tend to fall apart is actually the navigation piece

      It surprising but there isn’t one app that does turn by turn navigation from planned gpx routes. The only thing close I have found is the one from http://www.bikehub.co.uk, but that looks like funding has dried up and lacks many features.

      I know from experience of licensing Bing and Google maps for my business that they are quite protective about commercial use of routing within apps – so this may be the issue.

    • Havelaar

      @ Mr Nofish:

      The battery life in new smartphones with amolet screens turned to black and white mode is in fact way better than the one of the Edge 1000 seems to be. The first two days of my trip I did respectively 11.5 and 12.5 hours of cycling plus taking photos and videos and occassional use of other apps or internet (ok not only cycling on day two, as I stupidely insisted on crossing the closed Passo San Marco, which turned into a 6 km hike through debris floats and snow). Anyway, battery life is no longer an issue for modern smartphones (galaxy s5 in my case) and the software possiblities with apps are way beyond of what you find in dedicated cycling computers.

      Of course, you’re right that smartphones often are to fragile to survive falling from the handlebar. My latest experience proofs your point. But I’m not convinced that devices like the Edge 1000 would do so much better in this area than let’s say the (outdated) xperia active (mine hit the ground more than once during the last three years without ever breaking). The thing is, I never heard from someone, who dropped a Garmin. I understand that their mounting solutions are so good that you don’t even have to ask yourself what might happen if it drops. It just won’t.

      Unfortunately, that’s clearly not the case with smartphones. I tested a lot of handlebar mounts and the only ones that seem to be secure are extremly bulky, heavy and not aerodynamic at all and often enclose the smartphone in a completly closed case causing it to overheat on hot summerdays in plain sunlight.

      With apps like IpBike, it’s really only the missing of a handlebar mount solution viable on the long run that speaks against the use of a smartphone as bike computer.

      I would love to see a carbon handlebar-stem combo with an indentation for the smartphone. Additional rubber bands could prevent it from popping out of the indentation.

    • Havelaar

      @ Ian:
      Turn by turn navigation is indeed only possible with apps like google map. However, on a long cycling trip I prefer the “follow the line” navigation. It not only shows you immediatly once you left your planned route. It can also be very helpful during unknown descents. It’s always nice to know in advance that a hair pin turn is waiting for you behind the next corner.

      I even prefer having the map turned of, so that I only see myself as a flesh on the line I follow. That way, flesh and line take less than a third of my screen and I can have all data I want on the 5” screen at the same time.

      I use the turn by turn navigation only when I need to go to a certain point which is off track (such as the next open hotel, grocery store or drugstore suggested by an app or the local monument or tourist attraction).

    • Ian Blackburn

      @Havelaar – Interesting approach! I tend to plan new routes on RideWithGps – send them to my 810 and jolly ho! I leave it off the map screen so I can stare intensely at the power levels I am not generating, and other stats which basically tell me I need to lose weight, and then the 810 generally pops up and tells me when to turn or let’s me know I am off route.

      Occasionally I do look around at the scenery too – though that seems like wasted energy sometimes 🙂

      Cheers

      Ian

    • Havelaar

      I’m planning new routes on openrunner and load them to the phone. So not much difference there.
      However, I find power meter data not so interesting during a ride on an unknown route as I’m missing the necessary information to adjust the intensity of my ride. Adjusting my current power output would only make sense if I knew what remains ahead of me. So as long as no device provides me with data like estimed time until summit coupled with gradient over the next km, I end up riding by feeling and power data is more for after ride analysis.
      That said, I rarely look at the screen during my rides. Most of the time, there’s only one pass road to follow anyway and the scenery is much more interesting than some figures and a line on a screen.

    • Ian Blackburn

      @Havelaar – I think we obviously use the tech quite differently but my main point to be honest is that I started out using my phone with Bluetooth sensors a year or so back and because of lack of the sort of Nav I wanted on an app, found I had to go to a bike specific device – in this case the 810 when it came out. Garmin software is frustrating to be sure, and I reckon 5-10 years behind the curve in terms of user experience, but Garmin are good at pushing the right buttons for many cyclists who continue to buy their devices. Having said that I agree with other posters, it feels like the market is ripe for a step change. I can certainly see that with running watches when the iWatch comes out…

    • There is functionality in some of the Apps you don’t get even in the 1000 e.g. direct upload to Strava, TrainingPeaks. etc. Text to speech type functionality for feedback even useful with the screen on when doing workouts being told what the next section is and what you did on the previous section. Simulated power so you can at least get an indication of TSS from your commuter bike as well as your training and racing bikes with real power meters.

    • Mr Nofish

      You’re missing my point, we’re going through a phase where people are still excited about smartphones and want to use them for everything. But there are many reasons for using dedicated devices.

      It’s kind of funny because on every single Edge review you’ve got this bunch of people who go like “my smartphone is great as a cycling computer but…”

      Why they come here to complain instead of going to smartphone makers and app developers is beyond me.

    • Tony

      Try cyclemeter app, I use garmin 510, but used to chuck the phone on my backpack in my early days

    • teeber

      For iOS, check out <a href="link to itunes.apple.com for audio turn-by-turn directions from a GPX route. In a recent version, the author added the ability to pull routes from RideWithGPS directly from the app. I’ve been using Co-Rider alongside Cyclemeter with the phone thrown in a jersey pocket and the display off to good effect.

    • Well, smartphones are featuring IPX ratings and ANT+ now. E.g. Sony’s Xperia phones, many of their models from the last year or so can be taken into the *pool* and have ANT+. As for “risking my valuable phone”, well an Xperia Z1 (e.g., cause my wife recently bought one so I know the price) is £150 *cheaper* than this Edge 1000. Last year’s somewhat high-end smartphone, with ANT+, IP55/IP58 submersion rating, is only *70%* of the price of the Garmin Edge 1000!

      As for battery life, there are some simple ways to extend smartphone lifetime: Disable 3G/4G and just run standard GSM – no data, but calls and SMS will still work. Even better: Turn off GSM altogether (the Edge doesn’t have this either). Of course, disable other radios you don’t need too (e.g. wifi). The GPS still burns a bit though.

      However, the Edge 1000 doesn’t seem to have great battery life either. Not that surprising that the Edge battery life would converge toward smartphone battery life, as Garmin added smartphone features to the Edge!

    • glynn hough

      I saw a program on the tv recently saying that the gps receivers in phones was minuscule compared to a stand alone gps and that mountain rescue had gone to the aid of an awful lot of people using a phone as a gps. Signal and battery life are problems. Not sure how relevant that is to using a phone on a bike, but there you go.

      Incidentally i have just bought a 1000 and it is my first bike gps that can navigate ( i have a Bryton rider 20 on my mountain bike). Personally i am quite happy with the size and i wouldn’t want it any smaller for following directions whilst riding. Mine has frozen and screen locked also. When following a ‘surprise me’ route on my road bike it took me off road and have since switched that setting to motorcycle navigation.

      Anyhow the 1000 looks a quality item (too nice to put on a bike in some ways) and i am confident they will sort the bugs out

    • Mikael Arnesson

      Thanks for the reviews Ray 😀
      I have a MIO 505, sadly trashed it while dropping it down the staircase and are looking for a replacement navigation GPS, eyeing both a MIO 505 and Garmin Edge 1000, the Edge 1000 looks most interesting as it supports Glonass but having 2:nd thoughts of it lackings.
      Battery life is important, that’s why I keep my Egde 500 on longer rides/races also use my old Sony Ericsson Active on my mtb with Garmin Connect app, also use Sportstracker on my Lumia phone.
      /Mikael

    • Shawn

      I think your wrong in your assumption that people are fascinated with “shiney”. I think it all boils down to consolidating everything into one device. Your watch, camera, Internet access, cell phone, calculator, GPS device, fitness tracker, digital wallet,.. etc all be combined into a single package. And cellular service coverage, hardware capabilities and ease of use is making all these accessories go away.

      So I can’t fault anyone for taking their phone on the road instead of a dedicated computer. I think we all acknowledge the risks and limitations and settle – the trade-off being price and portability.

    • Shawn

      My response was related to comment from Mr Nofis #67

  24. Thanks for the review, Ray.

    As I have noted on my own blog, it seems Garmin is going the way of most consumer electronics; An “Update” for updates sake, with the tangible benefits not justified by the price increase.

    Looks like I will be hanging onto my Edge 500 quite a bit longer.

  25. Ben

    I bought the 500 when it came out. It barely worked until the first software update.

    I bought the 800 when it came out, same thing again. I promised to never buy a Garmin again when it is first released.

    Also, the hardware isn’t always an improvement, I’m surprised at little I’ve anyone complain about the poor screen quality on the 800/810 versus the 500/510. WTF does a cyclist need a color screen? Why not use a nice crisp, high contrast black and white screen? I had no problems using the first GPS devices back in the day with a grayscale screen.

    I just don’t see Garmin as having good bicyclist advocacy – somewhere in that company they have a list of what is best for a bicyclist and then what is currently best for Garmin. It’s obvious that what’s best for the company is what is best for the customer, but so many companies forget that. Look at what happened to Sony with their refusal to work with mp3s and those sony memory sticks. Look at Cisco and Microsoft’s recent struggles. Compare to Apple…

    Just waiting for any competitor at all to come up.

    If anyone reading this has investment money, let’s join forces; let’s make a head unit, ANT friendly, that works closely with Strava; a functional screen, bluetooth 4 – do all of the stuff that Garmin will not do or do well. Hell, work with/like iBike and pull in sensors for air drag measurements, etc.

    Garmin deserves to be pushed from the throne, they’re only on it because they are all there is.

    Their mounting system is awesome though, we should poach that engineer.

    • Jose I

      I think rather than build a hardware platform, I would focus on a training app for iOS and Android. I think the future is in the software and the hardware is evolving so fast from so many directions that nearly any head unit will be outdated a month before it hits the market.

      I agree with Ray that to you can get 60 of the features of the Garmin device in one app, but to get 100% requires 5 or more separate apps. So I think there is value in a comprehensive training app that has all of the advance features. Perhaps one where you buy the basic 50% for $1-3 and you then add on the modules you want with extra features. TP and some others do this now, but not very well.

      I could also see creating a cycling app that allows the manufacturers to market specific advance feature bundles. The basic app might be free but would only have 4 or 5 simple features. A Garmin 510 feature set add-on for $50 or a Garmin 1000 set for $100 would bring you all the menus and capabilities of that device to your phone.

      You get the manufacturer’s branded experience on any device you want.

      That being said, a small rugged waterproof Android phone with color e-ink display, altimeter, thermometer, magnetometer and standalone GPS, ANT+ BLE, would be an ideal platform….

    • Mike Richie

      This would work: Meet Earl.

      Except that I found out about it from Ray’s post as on how he handles kickstarter projects as an example of one Not to emulate. Sure would be cool if they would release it though.

    • Mr Nofish

      If you do mapping, color is actually pretty useful.

    • Jose I

      Very cool. Huge, but packed with functions. A 3-4 in screen would be ideal for me.

    • Simon

      Hi Ben,

      For performance metrics I agree, colour is a nice to have but a colour screen is very useful for navigating. If I’m on road I can clearly see by the colour if I’m going to end up on a busy A road next to 70mph traffic or a nice country lane. Also when mountain biking I can easily differentiate between a trail, a bridleway, a footpath, a permissive route and a hedge – quite important in Yorkshire where the farmers shotguns seem to have hair sensitive triggers 🙂

  26. Remco Verdoold

    “Ultimately, the real interest here for many, specifically time-trialists and triathletes, is the ability to have a set wattage (perhaps from a pre-defined race plan) and for the gearing to automatically maintain the correct/optimal gearing based on that plan.”

    You mean like an automatic gearbox? Shifting gears to keep you in the optimal area.

    • Yup, precisely. Definitely coming. Everyone in the industry is talking about the idea – just a matter of ‘when’. If I had to wager, I’d go with SRAM first.

    • John S.

      Actually Shimano already did, though it wasn’t targeted at the road/tri crowd. They made a 3-speed automatic coaster hub, but they stopped selling them around five years ago. Of course a derailleur-based system linked to a head unit is a whole different thing.

    • if the di2 ant wouldn’t be private (or even better bluetooth) someone could already have hacked an app. I guess the power data is reasonably open.

    • I’d expect that in next generations you’ll that information encrypted for both ANT & BLE, since I’d expect down the road shifting will also take place wirelessly – and thus the need to ensure the authenticity of it.

    • Niall

      The recently announced Mountain bike XTR Di2 is getting very close to this – it has a single shifter setting which seems to work like a sequential motorbike gearbox – just up and down – it chooses the best combination of front and rear gear ratios and shifts accordingly – seems like an obvious next step would be full auto based on power or cadence or whatever you want really!

    • Panz05

      Toyota & Parlee teamed up and created a Aero bike. The interesting part was that they “hacked” the Di2 component to shift wirelessly and from the video they enabled it to shift gears automatically by mounting sensors in the helmet.

      Absolutely awesome display of what can be done with Di2. I think it is just the tip of the iceberg

      if you have not seen it, check out the video
      link to toyota.com

    • slowpoke

      The Shimano XTR Di2 m9050 is a significant step in that direction, since it automatically shifts both the front and rear derailleurs based on user-adjustable software settings. Adding wattage as a variable is either already embedded or seemingly straightforward to add. I’d expect a road version of this perhaps in a year. The current m9050 also isn’t wireless, but I’d expect that’s something that will change in a year or so as well.

    • slowpoke

      oops – I just saw Niall already mentioned this. I blame others for my lack of attention and slowness.

    • If the SRAM wireless protocol is as described in their patents it could be a little difficult to do auto-shifting reliably. They don’t have any centralised place to decide these things, as Shimano does. So it all has to be worked out in a distributed manner. To get their “1 shifter does up, for both dérailleurs, the other down for both” system to work they’ve had to introduce complexities that introduce “both dérailleurs decide to shift, unexpectedly” hazards if there’s lots of interference.

      Trying to make auto-shifting to work on top of that would require the dérailleurs to further exchange information about their state and make co-operative decisions about gear changes. Could end up with a relatively complex protocol, with lots of scope for weird shifts if there’s prolonged radio noise.

    • Knowing the specific SRAM guys likely working on it, I’d be pretty darn surprised if it didn’t allow for auto-shifting down the road…

    • Well, I’m going by the description of how it works from their patent application, and my judgement (I work on proving the correctness of network protocols).

    • Paul S

      I don’t get the desire for it. Are there any competitive motorsports where an automatic transmission is used? As far as I know, they all want complete control and use a clutch. I get that electronic shifters have real advantages over the mundane cable controlled shifters on my bikes, and eliminate certain failure modes (while introducing new ones). But I think that while automatic shifting will show up on Wal-Mart bikes sooner or later (and while they’re at it, since there are batteries on board, you might as well put in an electric assist), when you get serious about cycling, you’ll stop using it.

    • Mr Nofish

      Well I know of at least one form of mechanical, automatic shifting for non-competitive applications, I don’t think it’s not very popular though.

      I was thinking about automatic shifting today while climbing, and even a relatively simple implementation could be useful for any situation when you want to keep effort more or less constant, a cruise control of sorts, except you set power instead of speed.

      If the device in charge is intelligent enough, it could mimic humans and shift around to figure out what’s the most efficient gear given the current conditions, and even learn patterns about a specific rider.

      BTW if you want to go there, I believe the closest equivalent in motorsports to be sequentials, but it’s not very useful IMO because in racing controlling F/R weight shifts is critical and done through the application of throttle and brakes.

      In cycling this is pointless because weight shifts can be controlled by the cyclist directly.

      Plus the cadence range the average person can comfortably keep is rather narrow compared to the effective range of an engine, even a racing engine that is typically used in a pretty narrow range VS an everyday car/motorbike.

    • The core difference between a car engine and a cyclist is that the cyclist gets tired. The car engine, not so much.

      For automated shifting, the major interest lies with time trialists and triathletes, who generally aren’t racing in unexpected sprint efforts, but rather against a known race plan with specific wattages to maintain.

  27. Jon

    Superb review. Well done Ray. I’m having exactly the same issues you describe, and no, I don’t think you have been unduly harsh on Garmin. They’ve released an unfinished product and charged us $600 for the pleasure of being beta testers.

    As other have said, Garmin do good hardware but seem to be terrible at software, both on the device and the hideousness that is Garmin Connect.

    Thanks for all the hard work.

    Jon

  28. Jose I

    So it is back to the phone vs bike computer. I don’t see a need for product of this size and cost either.

    Several months ago, I switched to a Xperia Active, $180 new, and it works brilliantly with Endomondo and a host other sport apps. It is smaller, higher res and has a better touch screen. All the app I use have bike profile, I get a steady stream of app updates with new features and bug fixes, and I can put my data on any site I want.

    With so many inexpensive bluetooth (and a few ANT+) phones put there, I can’t see spending this kind of money on a Garmin device.

    Why don’t they partner with a phone manufacturer and “Garminize” a small Android phone. Improve the water proofing, make sure it has ANT+, a standalone GPS and thermometer, altimeter and magnetometer. (Yes I realize this is essentially an Xperia Active) They could even market it as “Garmin Inside”

    • “With so many inexpensive bluetooth (and a few ANT+) phones put there, I can’t see spending this kind of money on a Garmin device.”

      They did. It was called the Nuviphone. It was canned.

      And, they did the same thing with the Monterra (recently), minus the SIM card. That’s actually a really interesting device. And, someday I’ll write a post on why I think it’s the future Garmin should be going in (just, not quite in that size).

    • Mr Nofish

      The answer is Garmin, just like Apple was (still kind of is) is a hardware company which means they make their money off the devices. The main difference between Garmin and Apple and many other firms like them, is Garmin still hasn’t figured out that it’s that the software drives the hardware sales to a considerable extent.

      To turn into a software company would mean massive reorganization, so it’s not going to happen unless they run out of money or for similar reasons, those making the decisions start thinking different.

      It’s also:

      a) a challenge for them to stop doing what they are familiar with, and learn to do something else
      b) a threat if their software runs on Android

      Those might not be unsolvable problems, but it’s not nowhere near as effortless as the whiner ensemble here makes it sound.

  29. andy from embsay

    Great to read the review, even if all it confirms is that “I’m not alone”! I’ve had my 1000 for about three weeks, and basically it’s an Edge 810 with some extra features, none of which work. I never got BT uploads to work reliably on my 810 in nearly a year. I’ve not been able to get any of the BT features to work at all, apart from in my office. I did see something on a Gramin forum that suggested connecting to sensors before the phone (which basically means turning off BT on your phone, connecting sensors then turning BT on) fixes it, but the omen it loses an ANT+ sensor you have to start again. This doesn’t even seem to work anyway!

    My 1000 also seems to “forget” my home network (and turn off wifi) all by itself, so I have to reconnect and enter the password again each time.

    Finally, on segments, it seems very sensitive to where the GPS picked up the track – so I’ve ridden several segments that haven’t triggered the display, presumably because the ride I mapped the segment on didn’t match precisely the bit of road I rode on (if that makes sense). Strava never seems to have this issue, or very rarely – I only have one segment that reliably informs me that I’m approaching it and then gives me the virtual partner thing. It’s also quite irritating when it tells me about a segment even I’m approaching it from the wrong direction, although I guess that’s always going to happen.

    And finally, it took me yonks to find out where the VIRB remote is – you have to pull down the screen from the top and it’s there – it’s tiny, but it’s there…

    • Finally, on segments, it seems very sensitive to where the GPS picked up the track – so I’ve ridden several segments that haven’t triggered the display, presumably because the ride I mapped the segment on didn’t match precisely the bit of road I rode on (if that makes sense).

      Thank you! I couldn’t work out why my regular parkrun wasn’t picking up the Garmin segment that I’d created – probably because I wasn’t exactly on that particular inch wide strip of track that I used when I created the segment. You think it would correct for this sort of thing.

  30. Tom Moore

    Ray, thanks for the great review. I have a 1000, purchased from CT (thanks for the discount). I for one, like the larger size. I do a lot of Ride With GPS downloaded courses, and the slightly larger screen and better resolution is great. In addition, when traveling in Europe or other places, I will use it for navigating on foot as my car GPS no longer has a pedestrian mode, which the 1000 does have. Will also use in hikes with topo/trail map loaded.
    That said, the bugs are annoying. I find it often stops advising me of my turns when I approach them (still shows arrow on map, just no alert). This occurs somewhere along the ride and the TBT alerts never come back. Thanks again.

  31. raqball

    Spot on review as always and thanks! I’ve been using the Edge 1000 for about a month now and am getting more and more fed up with it. Today I did a 48 mile ride and I had no less than 7 BT disconnects. It’s getting real old, real fast! I made 2 segments on May 24th and Garmin Connect still has not created leaderboards for them..

    Did I read you correctly Ray? No update for another month?

  32. Dale Blanchard

    You say that Garmin is using Open Street Maps, but when I copied the maps to an SD card to see how my 810 would like them, I got a message that the map could not be unlocked! Garmin is locking Open Street Maps? What’s up with that?

    • Pat

      Dale:

      I tried the same and found there is ONE part of the map that is indeed locked. If you look at the activated maps, (Activity Profile, Navigation, Maps (or something like that) there are a total of 4 items. One of them is from garmin, and it is (what I assume) some map enhancement or additional info over the basic open street map. Sorry, I don’t have my device in front of me so don’t remember the name. There are ways to unlock this file that will make it work on the 810 too. I suspect this to be illegal if you were to distribute it, but if it’s for your own use, you’ve actually bought the device…

    • Dale Blanchard

      Thanks. I’ll take a look at it.
      I’m not sure these maps are
      any better for navigation than
      the regularOpen Street Maps,
      but they may have enough elevation
      data to allow the route creation
      software to work. Not sure how
      to figure that out.

    • Patrick Brochu

      Had a chance to look at my Edge. There are 4 files on the device. Gmapbmap.img is the (useless) basemap. Gmapprom.img appears to be the basic OSM map (this one is not locked). Gmapdem.img is the file that adds 3D shading (not locked either). Gmapgc.img contains the Garmin Cycle specific data (additional data). This one IS locked.

      The basic OSM map, when merged with GmapGC (locked), look more like what you’d see using City Navigator (but with trails).

  33. Eric Peters

    thanks for the review Ray, on question.
    In the comparison table you mention both Virtual Partner and Virtual racer as functionality. However in the data fields overview i do not see the data fields distance behind and time behind, which topically are used for this functionality. Initially i thoughtt these fields were re-used for the segments feature. Are these fields available?

  34. Brent

    You would have better feedback from the Garmin team but i wonder if the reason that segments are not retrospective is that this would be hard to justify for people to have there data put on to these segments when they did not intend it in the first place. Especially people who no longer have a garmin device and would not have any realistic chance to opt out. I don’t really use the garmin connect site and i hope they have a segment opt out. Of course they could have an opt in segment option for past data but perhaps it starts getting hard to manage (some people like to keep some hidden and others visible).
    The most correct option for garmin may be the course they chose. Eventually if people start using it over time the segments get enough population. The best thing they can do with segments is keep the number of segments down. Strava has to many especially some which are may be automatically generated and seem incorrect (10% climbs on flat roads).

  35. Dan Lipsher

    Thanks for another terrific review, Ray. It’s beta like this that makes DCR the one-and-only blog I read, every day. (Your awesome giveaways are like the icing on one of The Girl’s cupcakes!)

    Like so many readers, I have a love/hate relationship with Garmin. I love my Edge 800 and hated all four of my FR 600 (because the damn things kept losing their ability to take and hold a charge). I’ll probably spring for the nifty new magnetless cadence sensor, but no way will I cough up $1,600 for a Vector — especially after three years of delays and a $200 price bump. Garmin needs to get over itself and realize that just because they put an overpriced product on the market doesn’t mean everyone will rush over to clevertraining,com to buy it. Nice try, Garmin, but all the same I’ll pass.

  36. Michael Sare

    Great comprehensive review! TY!
    Two Q’s:
    1) how does the unit notify you of map events? voice? screen display? voice relayed via iPhone? just how?
    2) sim card; am I reading it correctly that i would only get USA maps (for example) and if i want EUR maps I have to D/L them to sim?
    hope to hear from you!
    Michael

  37. Trial_Master

    Hi Ray. I think it’s great you made the point that the Edge 1000 shouldn’t have been released in its current state. I read your review on the Edge 810 prior to purchasing and I wish you’d decided to be blunt back then.

    Great detail as usual in your review, please keep up the bluntness it certainly will assist people new to the market in their decision.

    • I generally based my recommendations on my own personal use. So in the case of the Edge 810 – I actually didn’t have any specific technical blockers. I know some people do (like any device), but I continue to use my 800’s and 810’s without any real issue.

      I did however note in the review at the time that I still didn’t think it was worthwhile buying though, compared to the Edge 800.

  38. Dan

    Now that that’s out if the way, how about the action-can shootout?!?

  39. Hans

    Hi Ray, despite the issues on the device, I was trying to buy the device thru Clever, but it seems that they don’t have the 10% off on the 1000 package. Is that true? Cheers

  40. Johnny G

    I want one.. but there is a ton of BT connectivity missing in this new unit… Garmin should have done better.

  41. Kevin

    Thanks a lot for this extensive review! Finally an in-depth review by someone who extensively used the device.
    I’m new to cycling, my roadbike is set to arrive in 2 weeks, and I’m expecting the 1000 in a couple of days.
    For a while now I’ve been practicing on a hometrainer, I got used to seeing my wattage (next to cadence, calories, speed, distance, etc).
    Seems like the 1000 can offer the same + a lot more. However I have one question, in order for the 1000 to display the basic wattage stat, do I need to buy a power meter, or will it give basic wattage information based on other measurements?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated! keep up the good work on your site, I really enjoy reading it and find a lot of useful information/links/… 🙂

    • Chris C

      Hi Kevin,
      power data will only come from an ANT+ capable power meter.
      Speed, cadence and HRM will not allow you to get power, so you will have to invest in a power meter.

  42. Thank you for a review that that shows the capabilities, faulta and merits of the edge 1000. My edge 810 is still with software issues because of which I lost a good chunk of race data. Garmin – step it up.

    The feature I’d like to see from bike computers is geographically triggered user defined notifications. Sort of like the notes one might stick on the top tube but pop up as soon a place is approached. The info might in include:

    1. Upcoming climbs and time to reach the end of that segment based on current speed.
    2. Hard turns on fast descents.
    3. Target watts/ HR for a segment…etc.

    Bike computers should help cyclists make better decisions on unfamiliar courses

  43. Hey Ray,

    Great to read the review… there are few questions I have that you didn’t cover:
    -can it have a course visible withoug being active (like the 800 and 810)?
    -if a configured wi-fi network is in range, does it upload even if you haven’t saved/reset the ride (like the FR910 does with ANT)?
    -have you noticed if the 1000s recorded tracks (with GLONASS turned on) are cleaner than the 810/800 in difficult-for-GPS situations, like the mountains or urban canyons?
    -does the “you are moving, do you want to start the timer?” actually work? It doesn’t seem to work very well with the 810. It really should also be able to be a “you starting moving 37 (and counting) seconds ago, would you like to retro-actively start the timer?”.
    -can the 1000 track events longer than 24 hours (of riding)? For example, a 600km or longer brevet? Does it have a time or track distance limit? What does it do when that limit is reached? (as in, does it freeze up and lose the track, like the 800?)
    -If you have the 1000 mounted on your stem, is it possible to have a standard USB-mini cable powering it while it is mounted and the timer is running? in the rain?
    -if the timer is running, and power on an attached cable is removed (or the cable is removed), what happens? Does the screen change its backlight setting? Does it start a 15-second shut-down timer like the 810?
    -how stable is the 1000 with Open Cycle Maps?
    -are there distance alerts, and are they from power-on, or start of track? (on the 810, they are from power-on instead of start-of-track, which seems quite silly).
    -the 800 and 810 have this irritating behavior: on a ride, you power-off in order to eat a meal (or whatever), and when you power on again (in the same location), the elevation is way off. It should be fairly easy for the device to “see” that you are in the same place as you were when you powered-off, so the elevation should be the same. Perhaps the device should ask: “do you want to set elevation to previous” if you are powering up and there is an active track. Or does the new “sleep” mode deal with this, in that if you “sleep” the 1000, it remembers everything, but still saves battery?

    when the 1000 crashes (which I assume it will), does it:
    –lose the track from the previous power-on?
    –get a satellite fix right away/quickly on power up? (or take a couple minutes like the 810?)

    • Just a few? 😉 Here are ones I have the answers to easily:

      RE: WiFi in range
      No, it does not upload until you save (also, I thought they fixed that on the 910XT a long while ago?)

      RE: Tracks
      Looking at my mountain switchback tracks, the Edge 1000 certainly looks much cleaner. Here’s a track to look at:

      Edge 810: link to connect.garmin.com
      Edge 1000: link to connect.garmin.com

      RE: Timer notification
      It seems to work for me, always notified.

      RE: 24hr+ rides
      I haven’t tried beyond 24 hours.

      RE: USB-micro cable
      As you can see from the photos, the connector goes straight down now, so it would depend on how wide your stem is.

      RE: Stability with Open Cycle Maps
      I haven’t had any issues with the maps and stability.

      RE: Crashes
      I haven’t had any crashes with it.

    • Ray,

      Thank you much!

      OK, so there is definitely one upgrade relative to the 800 series: with GLONASS the track is much much cleaner, the difference is huge.

      Obviously, if the 1000 never crashes (fingers crossed) the last questions don’t need to be answered. 🙂

      thanks again.

    • Paul Tourkin

      Just an FYI on 24 hours plus – I have no problems doing that with the 810. I got the whole Trona 308 on one track last weekend (and yes, it was quite windy, so I was over 24) the only annoying thing is it constantly trying to shut itself off when external power flickers(I was using a dyno hub some of the time,) making you tap the screen to ignore.

    • I can now answer a couple more of these questions myself…

      -can it have a course visible without being active (like the 800 and 810)?
      yes.
      -If you have the 1000 mounted on your stem, is it possible to have a standard USB-mini cable powering it while it is mounted and the timer is running? in the rain?
      yes. I have tried with a Velo Orange stem and a Ritchey alu stem and it is close… it probably wouldn’t work with most carbon stems.
      -if the timer is running, and power on an attached cable is removed (or the cable is removed), what happens? Does the screen change its backlight setting? Does it start a 15-second shut-down timer like the 810?
      it does not start to shut down, I didn’t notice whether the backlight setting changed, but I don’t think so. A big improvement over the 800 and 810.
      -how stable is the 1000 with Open Cycle Maps?
      also stable for me, so far, also with the maps from Velomaps.

  44. Marco

    Keeping my 810 Garmin is getting used to charge your eyes for unfinished products. For such a big and ugly device you better off buying a nice tough phone and sticking it on the handlebar. One more disappointing release from Garmin.

  45. Daniel

    Why is it so hard for Garmin to produce something people really want??

    – bug-free
    – Iphone-size
    – good screen resolution
    – bug-free
    – stay with ANT+
    – no phone connectivity or social media; only makes things difficult and big change for problems
    – no weather forecast nonsense: I’ll take a look at the sky when riding my bike
    – besides all the navigation options, also the possibility just to follow a line on the map (was very easy on the 800) with no navigation popups etc.
    – did I mention bug-free?
    – no segment BS; people who likes to do that can use Strava

    All I want is a good device for navigation that is easy to handle and runs problem-free. All of the extra stuff is causing a lot op software problems. I will stay with my 800; 810 and 1000 are downgrades to me (810 is still not bug free!!!!)

    • Ben

      I agree that Garmin has a lot of room for improvement, in particular the software issues before a unit is released.

      However, with all the things you noted, its a personal wish list and to fullfill these for every single would be customer the tie hasnt come yet. What i would suggest is that you get some people to fund you and you go and start a company that does exactly what you are wishing for and perhaps someone else will buy those then.

  46. Bryce

    Great review Ray! I am glad you didn’t pull punches, and I agree with you completely on the “Newer Little 500”. Besides a few issues I have had with its course feature, it remains my go to computer when on the bike. I imagine the 1000’s development team was really fearing your review if they were being honest with themselves. I also wonder when the Garmin Connect team is gonna start listening to you as well. Some of those issues are really frustrating.

  47. Ernesto Tye

    The 510 has the ‘ability’ to reduce the number of fields per screen without actually increasing the font size- the only reason one would desire less information. And 510 has annoyingl desire to get touched the screen to acknowledge the 510 has noticed each sensor. 1000 fixed?

    • Paul Tourkin

      I would love the ability to increase font size by only selecting one or two fields. It would be so useful when training (not racing) at the velodrome. I was disappointed that going down from 4 to 2 did not do this on the 810 either.

  48. Michel

    Hi Ray

    Thanks for again a valuable review!

    In my opinion GPS device needs to deliver following characteristics
    1: register data without flaws
    Coming from en Edge 705, the new Edge 1000 at least informs me visually when a course is stopped and by prompting when it detects movement.
    I still need to figure out how to lock the screen when I want to (the device however triggers this all the time when not appropriate).
    2: designed for the activity
    Compared to a smartphone the unit is ruggedized, has a longer battery life than and made a big improvement in readability of the screen. (Being over 50, reading the data screen info as well as map view, makes a significant difference)
    3: guide in unknown territories
    This feature, more precisely turn by turn (tbt) prompting, is not at the level I expected. TBT prompts hide the map, making it difficult to navigate fast follow-up turns as the overview of the route is lost. The larger screen could have been used in a better way. The remote control at least would help in clicking away the prompts.
    Also the elevation profile page is useless, as the zoom feature is not working (it is reset whenever you switch to another data page). I think this is to be categorized as a bug?

  49. Jeremy

    I had been considering the 1000 as an upgrade for my 800 as I find the interface slow and the screen too small for really getting the most from the mapping functionality however I shall be sticking with the 800. My phone will be remaining securely in my pocket however as I would rather keep a separate rugged bike computer and keep the phone out of harms way.

    The removal of bike profiles has another downside I believe. If you posess Vector pedals and bikes with different crank lengths it is merely a case of switching profile on the 800 however with the 1000 you would need to reenter the correct crank length on every switch. Is this Garmin removing functionality that supported one of its own premium products?

  50. simon

    thanks ray – sticking with my 800

  51. DM

    Bit off topic but I’m having issues with Garmin Express. When I try to link my Garmin (500) to my existing account I get a blank window. I’m yet to get any response from Garmin support or in the forum. I live in fear of them finally turning off the old Connect. When that happens I won’t be able to upload my files to Connect at all.

    Does anyone have any ideas?

  52. Rob

    The recreational handheld Oregon 600 has 3 screen sensitivity settings,the lowest of which helps a little to avoid accidental touches. Does the 100 have a similar setting? I think it is the same screen.

  53. Ron Green

    Ray,

    Thanks for the great in depth review.
    Is there any way to raise the volume on the Garmin 1000. I can barely hear the beeps for turn by turn. The beeps seem lower than on the 800.

  54. Nick

    Hi Ray
    Great review, I was wondering how well the 1000 is working with power meters? When the 810 was released there were many people experiencing problems with power drops and incorrect reporting. Although there were updates I still see differences in power between my 705 and 810 when they are paired to the same pm. Do you have any thoughts?

    • In my case, I saw no power meter specific issues. I did see an issue though where I saw correlation between power meter drops and Bluetooth being enabled (and dropping). As soon as I disabled BLE on the 1000, the drops stopped. I noted that (though, I just realized I noticed that in a separate post and not above, so I’ll add it in above too…).

    • Pat

      Has anyone who is experiencing the drops tried to disable Wifi? I have this problem in my car, where it won’t play a single complete song from my phone over Bluetooth unless I disable Wifi on the Phone. With wifi disabled, I never see drops.

  55. Steve

    I really like the new remote and how you can fit it nicely to the brake hood. Seems a better design ergonomically than the O-Synce remote. I really don’t understand why companies that design trainer software don’t support this device.

  56. William Rush

    I wonder if I am having fewer problems because I am using an android phone (Note 3) and perhaps the Garmin connect app stays like on that device better than an Iphone. I’m not starting an Iphone debate. I also have a 5S and its a good phone too. Seems like many of you are Iphone users.

  57. David Beever

    Great in depth analysis as per usual.

    Having sold my 800 to fund the 1000 there is now no going back for me. I too am struggling to “live” with;
    – the BT/BLE bugs (having updated to v2.2 software, i also found that there was no other way to get BLE to work without a factory reset. what a pain. i hope this isn’t the case going forward for future updates, as indeed i hope the connection is more stable than you have experienced.
    – the loss of (bike) profiles by design! i have tried to think of these activity profiles as bike ones and set up accordingly, but in reality there is no value in doing this as once activities are in garmin connect there is no filter for these profiles (surely an easy firm/software update??) that would at least give some useful functionality, e.g. totals by profile.

    the unit itself appears much more fragile – i always felt the older edges would “bounce” if dropped. i would invest in a silicone cover, but all colours bar green & pink are on (1 month) back order in the UK.

    other than that all is well, although an yet to try the screen in rain or with gloves. GPS is definitely improved, as is the sensor functionality (i’m still using with the old style GSC10 cadence/speed sensor + various HRM’s / ANT+ power meters). I’ve also now lost the annoying averaging issues my old 800 exhibited on starting any ride – whereby it seemed to have my speed for the first 30 seconds.

    The only thing that seems massively different to my old 800 is the “calorie” algorythm (about 60-70% of previous calculation) – all else is as you would expect re accuracy.

  58. Pete

    Great review as always, and thanks for saving me $600 moving from an 810 to 1000. I easily get entranced by shinny things and Garmin is one of the company that’s burnt me before. The 810 was a lame device compared to the 800.

    What’s really sad, Garmin won’t fix anything with connectivity… I’d bet my house on it. the 810 has been out for years and it’s NEVER worked reliably with the phone. the same silly disconnects, failed, drops are there… to see it in the 1000 at launch clearly means Garmin simply doesn’t have in-house skills to develop good software. Given their track record or squishing bugs, you can be assured the Edge 1000 will never work reliably outside the device. I suspect the WiFi will be another disaster feature and unfortunately no firmware can fix a screens physical limitations.

    I think the 810 is my last Garmin product, I’ll be looking at the Mio and other options in the future.

    My wishlist was smaller footprint, with slightly improved screen size/quality/response, and seamless trouble-free connectivity options…. ideally with Strava, but at minimum – “just work”.. looks like they epic-failed on my wishlist.

    • Pete

      My other feature request I’ve had since the 800 was the ability to use different maps with different activity/bike profiles. Garmin claims they support this but it’s a lie, as it’s been broken since it was introduced and they have never bothered to fix it.

      To Clarify – for MTB profile, use the topo map, for Road use the Streets map. they have the settings in the activity profile but when you disable one, it disables it in all profiles.

  59. slowpoke

    For $600 or so, I’d rather waterproof my phone, find some apps and mount my phone on the handlebars. Perhaps Garmin is considering an IOS/Android app package with the functions offered by the 1000. If so, that would seem smart. And if Garmin doesn’t do that, others will (if they haven’t already)..

  60. Paul

    Hi Ray,
    Great review, and if anyone ever doubted your honesty and neutrality before, this will show them the way.
    Ironically it isn’t the crap screen, the broken bluetooth or other bugs that put me off this, its the loss of the bike profiles and odometer. I have been saving up for one of these, and even promised my wife my current Garmin 800, but now I may need to think again…

    Sadly, all I really wanted was a Garmin 810 with a bigger screen, I might just buy glasses instead.

    Thanks for the great review, and any insight on how to break the news to the wifey would be appreciated.

  61. Brian J

    Excellent review as always.

    I have an 810 so I still have the bike profiles however, I wish they would move the auto pause setting to the bike profile settings. I like having auto pause on the road but on a mountain bike I don’t want it since it’s always pausing. It’s annoying to have to remember to change the auto pause function when I switch bikes.

    Questions:
    Why do you include zeros for cadence? I would think you’d want to exclude them to get a more accurate average cadence.

    If I start the turn by turn navigation, is there a way to stop navigation without having to start a new workout?

    • Jeremy A

      Brian, the turn-by-turn nav can be turned off and still be in the same workout. If you are on the map screen there should be an X in the lower left corner. Press that and it will ask you to confirm to stop nav but it will still continue to record your workout. I did this the other day because I decided I had a little bit more time/energy than expected so I went for a few extra miles.

  62. Peter

    Hi Ray,

    great article – as always.
    I was really waiting for that review!

    Only one comment for the Screen Size & Resolution: my 2009 Oregon 400t already has a 3″ Screen with 240×400 Resolution. The Approaches seem to be Oregons with adapted Software. So finally the larger Screen with higher Resolution has reached the fitness devices but actually it is not really new …

    Thanks for the Review
    Peter

  63. Eli

    For hotel wifi can’t you use the same trick that chromecast users use to connect?
    link to forums.plex.tv

    • Mike Richie

      That would probably work, as long as you can get the MAC address for the 1000, which you could probably get from your home network’s router’s “connected devices” or some such. However, if you have your laptop, going through all of that just to sync your 1000 at a temporary hotspot seems unnecessary – just use your laptop.

  64. Rob C

    Ray, I couldn’t agree more about loosing bike profiles. One additional problem with having a pool of sensors and no bike profile is the use case of two (or more) of your bikes being ridden at the same time. A spouse/child/friend rides one and you ride the other…which sensors is the device going to use? Having to disable pairings all the time is a PITA and not a great solution. Giving up bike profiles makes no sense at all. How many people live in a 1 bike household after all???

    PS, I’m with everyone else, waiting for a “new little edge” to replace the 500. All they need to do is add wifi sync, fix courses (it says I’m off course but I’m clearly on course) and extend the battery life to 25 hours (for 24 hour races).

    Thanks again for the years of hard work bringing us this info- we really appreciate it!!!

  65. Garmin support really is absolutely terrible. I submitted a support request on the 16th of May. On the 24th I got a reply apologising for the late reply (due to an unforseen high volumes of emails) and the following:

    “In this case I can see a colleague has already acted upon your request. I trust the issue is now resolved. If this is not the case then please don’t hesitate to contact me so I can help you further.”

    I replied that I had not been contacted by anyone and that I was still waiting for my support.

    I received another response today (5th of June) again apologising for the slow response (due to an unforseen high volumes of emails) with the following:

    “As it’s been sometime since you originally emailed us we would like to check if your query has been resolved; if it is still relevant, we kindly ask you to resubmit your query.”

    So I have waited 3 weeks for 2 completely useless replies. If I submit another support request I assume it’ll take 3 weeks for a reply this time.

    What a joke when I have spent £500 on a Beta product that I am basically testing for them.

    • … and by the way many thanks for another fantastic in depth review. Your blog really is the go-to place for any tech to do with cycling.
      Is there any way we can support you other than the US amazon link? I live in the UK. Do you have a donate Paypal link for example?

    • Within the UK, there’s the UK Amazon link on the sidebar. I don’t at this time have a PayPal link, though, it’s something I could consider (I used to have a little Tipjar of sorts, but then Google discontinued the service).

      As for Garmin support, it varies wildly by country. I found the US folks really quite good (generally both technically and friendliness levels). From reports from people, it sounds like the Europe ones are a mixed bag, but the Australian/NZ Garmin Support folks are downright horrible. They rarely get stuff right technically, generally tell outright lies, and aren’t friendly to boot. Sigh.

  66. Mike Richie

    One thing I’m not clear on, without bike profiles, how do you use different size wheels with speed sensor. Do you need to set it manually or is it connected to the sensor (which would not help if you moved it) or does it just recompute off of GPS (no good indoors).

  67. Eli

    On the map screen at the same zoomed in level does the Edge 1000 look different from the 810/touring? May be nice to have a side by side pic of the 1000 and the touring (touring so the maps on the device are the same)

    The reason for asking is my 810 doesn’t always show road names, mostly because it can’t as the screen would become too cluttered. But the increase in screen resolution makes it possible to have road names in smaller type on the map screen which would make it easier to read the map

  68. Simon

    Looks like garmin’s CFO thinks the Bluetooth connection is working fine 🙂

    link to expi.co

  69. Doug

    It is really crazy how totally tone deaf Garmin is to social media, which I lump something like Strava into. If they were paying attention at all, they could have been strava or even after seeing what they were up to, beat them, quickly at their own game. And like nike + it could have provided a halo under which many more products would have been sold. But it’s not just that – twitter, instagram, facebook, etc, etc. they just don’t seem to care enough to engage in conversation with the very customers that are the backbone of their fan base.

    As crazy at is seems, they don’t even brand the LiveTracking function with something like follow along with me on Garmin. For a company that is intertwined with other lifestyle brands they would do well to at least listen and become more open with the community as a whole. They missed the boat on Garmin connect by being way too late to the game. Even Strava has problems with adoption and is often just an ecochamber. Garmin connect is like shouting into a sound proof room!

  70. PK

    Do see Redshift Switch Aero system testing going on as well? 😉

    I’ve been training on them for a month.

    Tangent aside, thanks for the great review.

  71. LJohnny

    I am interested in the Di2 integration, but honestly, the bugs on the Edge 1000 are a major drawback. I have the Edge 800 and honestly, I believe Garmin could have done better with managing the bugs in this unit. Perhaps some resolution from trouble shooting those bugs in the 800/810 would have carried down the road to the 1000. Anyways…..

    Question: Functionally the Mio 505 seems like a real possibility. However, It seems that the Mio has been customized for use in the European geo zones?
    I’ve read that it comes with European maps. Would the SD-card with USA maps from my 800 (this was the card bundled with the 800 as the “performance” package) work on the Mio?

  72. Paul Tourkin

    This question may be of interest to only a small segment of endurance nerds, but I see that the USB port has been moved to the bottom of the unit. Is it accessible for connecting external power when mounted on the Garmin ahead style mount?

  73. Don

    Ray,

    Can the Edge 1000 do a workout (advanced intervals that you set up on the device) at the same time as a navigated ride?

  74. Mr Nofish

    Very interesting. I was fascinated that the screen would work with gloves and under rain, until I got to the bottom and saw your complaints (in hindsight it’s a little strange that you didn’t contrast the pros with the cons right away – but I can see putting together a post this level of complexity is a lot of work, so I’m not criticizing here)

    “Both the Edge 510 and the Edge 1000 – being larger than their siblings, seem to once again be a distraction from what people really want: A new little Edge 500.”

    I’m sure that’s what many are saying, and I’m pretty sure they don’t know what they want. The display on the 500 is SMALL and not very readable. I guess readability could be improved, but there’s no arguing that a larger screen is the way to go.

    Maybe the 510 is too big, I don’t know, but my guess is that making it smaller would require a move back to a traditional, non-touch UI, which I’m not sure the market would take well.

    All in all, I think the main problem with the new Edge models is they’re not built to play nicely with all the new stuff that’s become commonplace after 2009. They’re conservative rather than innovative/evolutionary.

    • “Maybe the 510 is too big, I don’t know, but my guess is that making it smaller would require a move back to a traditional, non-touch UI, which I’m not sure the market would take well.”

      There’s a number of smaller sized screens on the market today that are sharp, color and touch. For example, their own FR620, or more brilliantly, the Motoactv.

    • frannypack

      Agreed that they don’t play well with others from a data or tech perspective as much as many would like. But that strikes me as very risky instead of conservative. Not leading or fast following, not integrating well, not fixing firmware/software issues promptly: all very risky behaviors, Let’s call that the “blackberry strategy”.

    • To some degree, I think folks are sometimes a bit harsh on Garmin as a whole on leading. Ultimately, when it comes to fitness devices on the whole there’s no company making a fitness devices with as much technology as Garmin. Period.

      Where Garmin tends to always get in trouble though is bugs, and in some cases lack of follow-up. If you look at my review, I’d have been far less ticked off if they delivered a functional product. Even if I believe said product is overpriced for the features it provides today.

    • Mr Nofish

      There is a big difference though: a watch, you can stick how close you like to your face, a cycling computer’s position is fixed and it’s farther away – that is why simply increasing the size of UI elements will not solve the problem completely IMO.

      From my limited perspective, the 510 seems to sell fairly well among those getting a new unit. I think it’s because it’s significantly bigger than the 500 but not as big as the 800/810 which racers probably see as an advantage (and they don’t care much for mapping anyway)

    • Paul S

      You must be ticked off a lot then, what with all of the new/pre release Garmin devices you test 🙂

      My own personal rule of thumb is to stay away from new Garmin devices (at least the ones that have software) unless there’s a compelling reason for me to get it. I’ve had the Edge 705 and the VIRB Elite from the day they were released, and both didn’t function the way they should. From my experience, it takes Garmin about 6 months before the software is fixed enough so that the devices work as advertised. The VIRB Elite is just now getting there. The 705 gave me 3 1/2 years trouble free.

  75. Chris

    Put me down for a new “little edge 500” I don’t need more than 8 fields per screen. I don’t need a touch screen. I don’t need a COLOR screen. Literally the only feature I want is the ability to upload to garmin connect via bluetooth onmy phone so I don’t have to keep plugging the bugger in. And I don’t actually care about garmin connect, just getting the data to strava with as little effort as possible.

  76. Jack

    Tanks fo the great review 🙂 I’m having issues with my edge 1000, the touchscreen often lock’s for no reason and I’m having trouble with with routes created in Garmin Connect and then later uploaded to the unit. For some reason the uploaded routes do not follow the pre-installed maps 100%, meaning that the navigation part gives me a lot of grief… have any of you guy’s encountered the same problem ?

    • Paul S

      That’s a common problem with all Edges, and one way to minimize (not completely solve) it is to use BaseCamp to construct your routes. If your 1000 is plugged into your computer, you can tell BaseCamp to use the maps on your 1000. The idea is that if you use the same algorithms (not quite sure about that one), the same maps, the same avoidances, you’ll get the same route. On Garmin Connect, you have no idea what maps they’re using. Navigation problems of this type are almost always about the maps and the avoidances rather than the device itself.

    • Jack

      Paul S, Thanks for the advice, I’ll try it out 🙂 – contacted Garmin support, but didnt get uch help there…

  77. Paul

    Great review Ray! thanks a lot.

    Just like for the edge 810 this review strongly recommend me not to buy this device. But i’d like to know, since i currently do not own such a device and would like to have one, wich one would you recommend?

    regards,
    Paul

    • Paul S

      I can vouch for the Edge 800. No Bluetooth, so none of those headaches. Takes and displays maps and can navigate (although not always as well as you’d like). Connects with all of the ANT+ sensors you’re likely to have except for the Garmin Tempe. Has bike profiles (I think the limit is 5). I’ve had mine for over two years and only once has it caused me any trouble. Last Sunday I turned on navigation for the first time this year and it crashed, for the first time in around 600 total activities. Not perfect, but it does the job.

      If you don’t care about the maps, everyone seems to love the 500.

    • Paul

      Thanks,

      Yes i do care about maps as it can become handy when riding in new areas.

    • Yeah, I’d really be looking at the 800 and 810. The 810 is pretty solid for me these days. I use both it and the 800 as my primary bike computers.

    • simon

      800 working fine for me

  78. Asger

    All in all (presuming bugs gets fixed) I find it to be a worthwhile upgrade from the 800 – for MY needs…

    The main reasons I switched from the E800:
    -Receiving calls and texts: I am a freelance consultant and sometimes do rides in office hours. (get it fixed Garmin!)
    -Remote control: Safer riding.
    -Sensor pool
    -Bigger and crisper screen – I am far sighted and rides without glasses as contact lenses don’t work for me and bike glasses with correction are too heavy and expensive. So, for me big is a plus…
    It really bothers me that the 800 wastes so much screen space on the navigation (house and arrows) in the bottom of the screen. It must be the easiest fix to do.
    – Plus all the nifty little things.

    Also taking into account that I can sell the 800 to lower the price a bit.

    But yes, Garmin shouldn’t have released E1000 in its current software state!

    PS. Thx for yet another great review.

    • For receiving calls, wouldn’t a sports bluetooth headphone be better? Plus, you can stream music from your phone. E.g., I have a Philips SHB6017, and it works well for 3 to 4 hours anyway.

    • That’s 3 to 4 hours while playing music. If not playing music, it’d be good for a lot longer. 🙂 Calls stop the music obviously. The little mic works surprisingly well too – least I’ve been able to have brief conversations while riding.

  79. guy

    Is there a way to upload the files straight to TP?

    • Ian Blackburn

      No straight to, but I use upload directly to Garmin Connect then use https://tapiriik.com to sync automatically to Strava and TP (and dropbox too) – works well, though can take up to 60 mins if you are unlucky with timings

  80. Tom

    Hi,

    I’m torn between the 1000 and the 810, main function for buying is being able to pop in a postcode and get guided there. Please can someone summarize the main differences in this area between the two units as I have read both reviews and still not sure of the main differences bar have 3 different options of route with the 1000?

    • Asger

      I would go for a cheap/used 800 or 810 in your case. My 800 has been guiding me fine. Even on OSM maps. But personally I would not pay the list price for an 810.

  81. Hrvoje

    Thanks for great review, but can you please comment on improvements regarding screen size and speed compared to 810? Is the bigger screen actually more usable in use? Do you notice performance improvements in use? Thanks again!

    • Asger

      Screen size means that you can comfortably have 1 more reading on the screen as opposed to the 810. Or make the numbers bigger for faster reading – which was actually no. 1 selling point for me. (Everybody on this forum seems to be screaming for smaller units, but I value readability)
      Better resolution (and to a certain extent, size) means that the map is much more readable.
      Much more responsive than 800 (sorry, I don’t have an 810)

    • The screen reaction is far faster on the Edge 1000 than on the Edge 810/800. No doubt about it. At times, cell-phone like (at times, not all the time).

      That said, I personally don’t mind the Edge 810 screen size or speed. So I’m probably the wrong one to make an opinion there. I guess if I were constantly using it to zoom around the map (such as with hiking), it might be an issue. But for me riding I’m mostly just on the data pages and then if the map pops up it’s because of a change in direction.

  82. mark

    this nothing to do with the garmin 1000.

    I would like to know what clip on bars you use on your road bike assuming the the clamps on the bars are for clip on bars

  83. Pierre

    Is there a place to list the basic bugs with this unit so that Garmin can fix them ? I don’t think they have a real QA department… I just got my 1000, and I have the following basic issues. (I’ve done a Master Reset a few times…)

    • When you upload a Course to the 1000 (Either from Garmin Connect or RideWithGPS), when you select the course and go to Summary, the top two labels say “Invalid”. On that same page, the Total Ascent and Total Descent values are 0. If you go to the Elevation screen, the default X-axis value is 21.90 km. Don’t know where that value comes from.
    • When you start riding a Course, the Elevation screen has a bad X-Axis value. In my test case, it shows 21.90 km. Hit the “+” key and it jumps to 250m. You can’t keep a useful X-axis value and therefore, the Elevation panel is close to useless
    • When on the Elevation panel, keep your finger on one of the data fields, bottom right for example, and change the field to “Elevation – Grade”. When you select it, you get thrown into the Map panel. Looks like some kind of exception being thrown. If you do this during your first setup, it blows you out of the setup.
    • I have not had the unit provide me detailed course instructions until the end. It all started off well and then the turn-by-turn directions stop showing up. You’ll get the On Course and Off Course warnings but no directions. The 810 was quite reliable in this aspect…
    • The 1000 will not recognize Garmin’s own City Navigator NT North America or Europe maps on their SD cards. You get a “Cannot unlock maps” when you startup. This comment is also posted on the Garmin forums. Pretty bad when you can’t even use the company’s own maps…
    • Yes, the screen locking at all times is very annoying… Btw, how do you unlock the screen ??? I searched the owner’s manual and cannot find the information

    Could others list operating bugs that they have detected ? If we have a complete list, at least we know what problems are present.

  84. Hans Vandeweghe

    Should have read this before buying the Edge 1000 🙂
    Let’s hope a firmware update solves my problem before I go to ride some Tour de Fr climbs and stages.

  85. Whilst I agree that the on-device aspect of the segments is about the only thing about segments that work correctly I think it’s worth pointing out that they don’t work whilst you are following a course.

    Segments on the Garmin connect website are a joke and rarely work and are hard to get onto your device – as covered in this review. Once on the device they work really well though (although they can get a bit annoying on my commute).

    However, if you’re following a course, which I do on pretty much all my non-commute rides, then they don’t show up. I suppose that makes sense as the segment could well need to give you different directions to the course but it is quite annoying. When I am following a course is when I most interested in how my effort on segments compares to previous efforts.

    One thing about segments on device that isn’t perfect is that it picks up segments going in the opposite direction. For example when I cycling into work it picks up a segment on my return route and asks me to do a U-turn. I suppose in some cases this would be the desired functionality but there should at least be an option to only show segments going the way you are going.

    • When you sent the course to the Edge from Garmin Connect did you check the box to send Segments?

    • No I don’t think I did. I thought that just changed what was displayed on the map, not what was sent to the device. Looking at one of my courses that I have created and use a lot (that includes a well known segment Box Hill) if I click the bike segments tick box it doesn’t show any of the segments.

      It must somehow link the course to those segments. Presumably if a segment gets sent using this process it will appear in the segments list the same as other segments and be shown if you’re not riding that course?

      Tonight I have Nightrider and have a GPX file that I have loaded onto my Garmin. I don’t suppose there’s any way of getting segments to work with that? I would have to import it into Garmin connect somehow, select the segments tickbox, then send it to my device.

      It would be very useful if you could import courses from GPX. For example I usually create routes on Strava using their route builder and then have to copy using USB, not using phone blutooth.

      Many Thanks

    • My understanding is that GPX files won’t auto enumerate Segments, but I haven’t tested it (just read if on forums).

    • I tried this today and I did seem to get segments transferred across. I think that maybe it transfers all that are close. I have a list of segments on a new page that appeared last in the list. I didn’t seem to be able to do anything with the segments though, it seemed to list how far away they were but I couldn’t select them or navigate to them or anything. One segment did “activate” on my route.

  86. Jan

    I bought one and am happy with it. Yes, some things just don’t work but these seem to be software issues and will probably get fixed soon.

    One thing that I noticed today was the route planner. I wanted to make a quick 45km trip and the first 3 options included ferry rides. NOT very useful. The ferry rides went to a tiny island with not a single meter of paved roads, made a 2km lap around the island and then I should have taken the ferry back (that goes there once a day).

  87. Gunnar

    I always get excited with new Garmin gadgets, but as many of the posts reflect, the software is a killer for me.

    I’ve owned the Edge 605, 800, 810 and I’m now back to a Edge 705. The 800 worked pretty well for me, but the live tracking and BTLE connectivity of the 810 tempted me and I upgraded so my wife could see where I was during my night solo MTB expeditions. Never worked well for me. Then the fenix2 came out with the ability for live tracking and also iPhone BTLE activity upload, that never worked well either for me.

    These glitches caused me to sell off my 810 and fenix and to get a good old reliable 705 for navigation and a TomTom Multisport for everything else. The TomTom connects flawlessly (for me) every time I do a activity upload to my iPhone the activity then instantly appears in Strava.

    This TomTom/Edge 705 combo costs me about half the price of the Garmin 1000.

  88. Oisin

    Has anyone tried the Wahoo Tickr with the Edge 1000?
    My Edge 1000 cannot find my Tickr…even though other ANT+ devices see it without issue.

    I hoped to be able to see my pulse on my Edge 1000 and Polar V800 at the same time – no luck though.

    Thanks

    • Yes, no problems. In fact, 2 out of 3 mountain rides were on the TICKR.

    • Oisin

      okay – thanks for the quick reply. Gonna see if a new battery works

      (I am spending more time fiddling than riding lately – serves me right for buying a V800 and an Edge 1000 🙂 )

      p.s.
      love them both

    • Yeah, I got so sick of my Edge 1000 today dropping ANT+ connects during the middle of my ride that I swapped it out with the Edge 810 (I had a few on the bike doing other data recording, but was mostly following the Edge 1000 until that point).

      Fwiw, Wahoo had reached out to me on the 1000/TICKR thing as well, as they had a few people contact them with similar issues. I ran through the three different TICKR straps I had here (both RUN and regular), with no problems. :-/

    • Oisin

      okay, thanks Ray….
      some more fiddling later and I realize that the Edge 1000 does intermittently see the Tickr – it’s shows up in the search list after a LOOONG wait. When you ride it shows a pulse value for about 1sec ever minute. (despite other devices having no issue)

      I have a Viiiiva HRM too – but that weirldy gets detected by the V800 as a cadence/speed device that somehow also also gives pulse?? It works fine for pulse but I no longer see speed/distance data on the V800.
      I guess you just can’t have it all! 🙂

    • I’m just about to run through a bunch of V800/Viiiiva tests I’ve got written down. That said, did you pre-configure the Viiiiva with some ANT+ sensors?

    • Oisin

      yep, I did – long ago – good point. I should check to see if that is the problem.
      good point.

      The Viiiva worked great otherwise, though I have no tried a multichannel BTLE signal, yet….

    • Oisin

      so no luck with the multichannel function, once u connect the Viiiva to some ANT+ sources, the V800 no longer sees it.
      The problem is that the Viiiva still thinks that it is a speed/cadence sensor (even though it is no longer connected to the speed/cadence sensor) and not a HRM…..I am not sure if you can do a factory reset or such like of the viiiva.
      this is all a little off topic for this page – sorry!

  89. Nick

    Is the remote compatible with the rest garmins?
    i will like it to use it if possible with my edge 510…

    • No, not at this time. Garmin says that they are considering adding it to the 510/810, but haven’t decided yet. The timelines for that decisions are set for ‘later this year’.

  90. Dan R

    Ray: Thanks again for a superb and objective look at the Edge 1000, although I did have to return to your 810 review for the section on Live Tracking which –uncharacteristically for you– is not covered in detail in this review. Unlike your previous 137,122 comments, I bought the 1000 to replace my 800 and 500 primarily because of the larger screen and I am a happy camper on that score. The display with five fields is much easier to read on the road and I prefer the new 5-field all-vertical layout. Start up and shut down are much improved as you noted. And the new cadence sensor is an improvement as well. The touch screen works well for me so far, but I haven’t yet ridden in the rain.

    My experience with the Bluetooth features sadly mirrors your review. Incoming text messages and missed calls haven’t shown up on my display; Live tracking has failed every time that I have tried it. A real disappointment, especially given Garmin’s hype and promotional videos. Garmin customer service and technical support lived up to its sub-standard reputation when I contacted the company. Here’s hoping that a software update will improve Bluetooth functionality.

    • Sorry about the Live Tracking piece. I quite simply couldn’t get things (Bluetooth) to stay on to provide any value there unfortunately. :-/ If the next firmware version fixes that, I’ll definitely be adding it in.

  91. Phillip

    Just got the Garmin Edge 1000 and can’t find anywhere how to change the screen orientation. I ride with the XLab Torpedo and need to mount it sideways. Any suggestions? Can’t find any info on Garmin’s website. Thanks for your help!

    • The landscape mode isn’t available yet. It was slated for sometime this summer.

    • stephen helgemo

      i also have slab torpedo. try fiddling with adjustment screws on computer mount- i ha d no problem fitting it in normal portrait configuration.

    • stephen helgemo

      i also have xlab torpedo. try fiddling with adjustment screws on computer mount- i had no problem fitting it in normal portrait configuration.

  92. Daniel

    Is it possible to do a course without the annoying turn-by-turn information?
    So just follow a line on the map?

  93. andy from embsay

    Despite the general crapness of the BT, I was quite impressed with the wifi auto-upload, as by the time I’ve put my bie away the ride had appeared on Connect – but now wifi seems to have developed the ability to turn itself off and forget my network all by itself – meaning I have to re-connect each time.

    Any news from Garmin on when they’re going to sort all these iritating bugs out? I’ve not got a lot of faith, given that the 810’s BT uploads never worked…

  94. Peter

    Hi,
    I have trouble connecting the Di2 (Ultegra 6770 – 10 speed) with the edge1000. I connected the SM-EWW01, but am not able to make the connection. Appreciate if you have any advice for me.

    • Check out the Garmin Forums for the Edge 1000, as there’s a thread on people with connection issues and how to fix them. I believe some had to get some portion of their Di2 unit’s firmware updated by their local bike shop to address the issue. Sounded quick and easy, assuming said bike shop is nearby/open.

    • Bill Rush

      It does require a di2 firmware update to work. Many bike shops will do it for free or nominal cost. I’m still waiting for the 150mm cable to try mine. It should arrive from Japan any day now. Took my bike in and already got the firmware update.

  95. Over the weekend (and actually last weekend as well probably) I’ve had some problem following courses using my Edge 1000. Last weekend I couldn’t get a course to work at all – it kept on telling me to navigate back to the start and this weekend it wasn’t much better.
    Initially it worked fine and I followed the route smugly whilst lots of other people missed signs and went down the wrong road (it was a charity night ride and the signs were hard to stop, yes, I did let those people know they were getting it wrong). About a third of the way into the ride we went off road to a drinks stop and the Edge got confused as it didn’t know about the roads in that region. After that it seemed to be trying to navigate me straight to the end of the course rather than following the set route (this is unconfirmed but I had about 20 miles left according to it when actually I had more like 40 miles left). I cancelled the course and re-started it but then it seemed to want me to ride all the way back to the start before it would navigate me (again unconfirmed but it was saying I had about 70 miles left of a 60 mile ride and it kept telling me to turn off the route).
    If you start a course that you are already half way along it should pick up from there shouldn’t it? I’ve done that before.
    Anyone else had issues like this?

    • Ian Blackburn

      Not sure if you have upgraded from another device but on the 810 that first issue of trying to navigate straight to the end happens if you have the auto-reroute on. It’s best to leave that off and manually get yourself back to the route. The 810 will then pick the route up and take you on your way.

      The second issue of restarting the route works fine for your scenario on the 810 so that looks like a (frustrating) change of behaviour.

      P.S. – was that the London night ride?

      Cheers

      Ian

    • Thanks for the reply. I am not sure if that setting was on or not but earlier in the ride I had missed one turn and it successfully directed me back onto the route. I will check later.

      I have had the 810 and 800 before. I think I have had this issue once or twice before and couldn’t figure out how to fix it then either.

      Yes, this was Nightrider London. 🙂

    • I did another long ride today and had this problem again. It was really starting to annoy me. If I deviated from the course it always seemed to route me straight to the end of the course and not follow the route I picked.
      I cancelled the course and reselected it many times and randomly got the following three results:
      1) It correctly found the course and worked (rare)
      2) It navigated me straight back to the end of the course
      3) It navigated me to the start of the course to do the whole thing again.
      Number 2 was by far the most common outcome. Usually it would say course found very soon after I selected it and the miles remaining would be correct (around 20 miles). When it finished calculating though the mileage would drop to around 6 miles.

      VERY frustrating. I really hope they fix this.

    • Peter

      HI Giles,

      If you see my comment to Ray on the 18th of June, I’m too having this issue. One thing I have discovered is no matter what you set the routing mode to (Road, Touring or MTB) that while ‘navigating’ a course the unit sets itself to road cycling. This I suspect is the reason why my unit navigates away from my course (which uses some bike paths), causing me to deviate (as I’m following my course) and then get the same set of outcomes you have observed.

      My support call with Garmin has been open now for over a month, when I called them last Friday, the report back was basically nothing had been done with the case. After I carefully crafted my response the call centre person committed to call me by today with an update. To my surprise he rang today, the result: They are unable to reproduce the issue, when they deviate from a course there test unit behaves as expected. I assume that this means it routes the rider to the course again and continue to navigate. Also it was diagnosed that my E1000 MUST be faulty (hardware) as they do not have the routing mode change to road cycling, while they navigate a course.

      There recommended action is for me send my E1000 to them so they can repair the unit, they expect that they will need it for 15 working days plus shipping time. I have currently refused this offer as I had only possessed the unit for 3 days when I logged the call with them and will not tolerate being without it for nearly a month to ‘repair’ a brand new unit. I have insisted that they replace it, then I’ll test it and when it does the same thing??

      The Garmin consultant asked me if they replace it and the same issue exists what do I then expect? My answer was for Garmin to fix the problem, his comment was “Oh.”

      Alternatively a full refund sound good and a Magellan Cylco 505 sounds like it couldn’t be any worse. Also given their Australian management have been commenting on Ray’s review and thread on this unit, at least they are willing to be contacted…

      Have you logged a support call with Garmin? My case number is CAS-44376-Z1G6S9. I would really appreciate it if you have contacted Garmin to supply the case number and I will tie the cases together. Right now they think my problem is isolated to me not experienced by others.

      Cheers,

      Peter
      saltydog@bigpond.net.au

      PS – Ray, I realise that the Cyclo 505 is not really the athlete’s choice, however its feature set suits people like me (want to record/view statistics, plus reliable navigation of courses and routing that you can trust). Can you possibly do a follow-up/more in-depth look at the “fit for purpose” status of the Cyclo 505. Where I am on the E1000 is that it is far from fit for purpose or near its advertised features at this stage (Battery life, live tracking dropping out, Navigation issues, etc. etc).

    • Hi Peter

      I did contact Garmin soon after I got the unit for support as detailed elsewhere in this (long) comment thread. I never got any useful information from them. I don’t think that I included this issue in the list of issues on that case but I hesitate to waste my time contacted them again.

      The issue is not every time for me. The unit worked fine for me for the first 40 – 50 miles and did route me back to my course when I deviated a few times. It then randomly switches to incorrect routing.

      I highly doubt that there is a hardware issue with my or your unit that requires “repair”. I would not accept a 2 week (plus postage) repair window. I use my garmin at least 10 times a week for commuting.

    • Peter

      Hi Giles,

      Thanks for the update.

      For me the problem occurs just under 5km from home where I turn onto a bike path. This is my normal route from my area of town, and a course routing me from home to where ever then returning to home is broken at the same point. Unless I ride up and down a bunch of streets, doing u-turns and back tracking to work with the technology that is supposed to help me.

      I have read a few forum discussions tonight that basically state that the Magellan product follows the GPX course to a tee, on road, to bike path etc. There are a few sensor problems which are supposed to be addressed in the next firmware, the work around is to re-boot the 505. This is no big deal for me as I have a spot a few hundred metres from home where I frequently do exactly that for the E1000’s cadence sensor.

      Considering the support being offered by Garmin and the reasonably positive comments regarding the Cyclo 505 I’m going to speak with the bike shop tomorrow and see if they will refund the E1000, unfortunately they don’t stock the Magellan product. Locally (Australia) I can buy the Cyclo 505HC (with speed/cadence and HR) for $383. I paid $660 for the E1000, the only feature i’ll loose is the Livetrack which to date has been hit and miss. I’ll pick up auto upload to Strava, yay!

      I used to suffer Garmin envy, not any more. All I want is power on and work.

      If only Garmin was more responsive, and less denial…

      Cheers,

      Peter

    • Paul S

      Have you tried installing a different map on the 1000? Sounds to me like the maps you’re using don’t have the bike paths marked as “routable”, so even if they display as lines on the map, they don’t have the meta-information that allows the Edge to “see” them and route along them. So you’re basically telling it to turn into a void, and it doesn’t want to do that.

      You should also get a copy of Garmin BaseCamp and try your route there, with the same map that’s on your 1000. If you run BaseCamp when the 1000 is plugged in and mounted, you should be able to use exactly the maps on the 1000. You can try out different maps that way as well by installing them first on your computer. If BaseCamp does the same thing as the 1000, then the problem is not the Edge but the map.

    • Peter

      Hi Paul,

      Short answer is no I haven’t. Long answer is I’m using the maps installed from Garmin, and created a course using Garmin Connect which did route along the bike path mentioned in my previous post. (Also made courses with tools from several other sources including the ride history on the edge)

      I feel that your comment is basically correct, (routable bike path). I have noted that when I start navigating a course, if I check the routing setting it has selected ‘road cycling’ even though prior to commencing the course on all profiles “tour cycling’ was selected. After ending the course and checking again the routing setting has returned to “Tour.” From what I’ve been able to establish is that if the unit is set to “road cycling” a bike path it will not route. I did read somewhere a reviewer stating that he was annoyed as the edge would not route from road to bike path. When he changed routing mode to Tour it did so.

      The question is why does this routing setting change to road cycling when I navigate a course? Why doesn’t it operate under the profile setting selected?

      When the Garmin Connect tool for creating a course routes along this path, why doesn’t the E1000 with the stock maps?

      This poses another question, if the E1000 does not want to ‘turn into a void,’ then it would have difficulties navigating a course off road (MTB)? But yet it has a MTB routing mode?

      I would hope that the device would be able to route along the breadcrumb trail, even if it could not ‘see’ a path… Turn NW in 50m, etc..

      I will experiment with attempting to navigate to an address near the bike path referenced to see if A> the E1000 will navigate to an address in the selected routing mode and B> if it routes along that bike path.

      Cheers,

      Peter

    • Paul S

      Having had an Edge (705, then 800) for six years now, I find that the best I can do is to use BaseCamp for routing. Same maps, same algorithm (?), so you’re not surprised along the way. Even then, there are occasional problems (more with the 705 than the 800). Loops cause problems, out and back along the same road causes problems. If the thing ever gets the idea that you’re at the end of the route (like if the start and end are at the same point and you start navigating at the start), then it’ll do all sorts of weird things until you restart navigation away from the end. Personally I navigate about 10 times a year, while I do hundreds of rides, so navigation problems have never bothered me that much. (That’s one reason why I’m satisfied with my 800 and don’t want an 810 or a 1000, which as I understand it, force you to follow a course or a route in normal use.)

      Garmin may have provide the maps, but this post of Ray’s and lots of the comments (and lots of posts on the forums) are about Garmin’s incompetence, so I don’t see why you’d expect them to do any better on the maps than on the Edge’s software. They start with OSM, apparently, but what they then do isn’t known. Garmin Connect has no idea what’s on your device, but uses its own maps. OSM maps are also occasionally incorrect, and then the thing to do is to go to the OSM web site and make a note of that along with a track if you have one.

      The various modes have to do with various avoidance settings. I don’t know why it should change unless the site you’re using to create the route forces a change somehow in the file it sends to your Edge. The meta-information on the maps are supposed to contain information on road surface, speed limit, traffic volume, etc., so that the routing software can choose an appropriate route.

      BaseCamp has a “Direct” setting for its routes, which tells it to follow the waypoint trail using straight lines as you describe above, but I don’t know whether your 1000 will honor that setting. As for MTB, you can find maps (OSM for my area, for example) which have routable trails, so the normal routing algorithm works as expected.

    • Peter

      Hi Giles and Paul S,

      I discussed my course issues with my bike shop, there support for Garmin comes from a 3rd party which insisted that the E1000 has issues if there is more than 2MB of data in the ride history directory… Deleted tested same issues. The next step??

      Spoke with a local GPS specialist shop (Garmin, Trimble, TomTom and Magellan dealer), after a long discussion they supplied me with a Cyclo 505hc to test, compare and report back with feedback.

      Long story short, using the same GPX tracks and reviewing the course on the navigation screen on both units. The Cyclo routes the courses quite happily from the road segments to the bike paths (including the one discussed previously).

      In a ride today, with both GPS units mounted including parallel set of sensors (BTW, two HR sensors are not very comfortable worn together). I deviated from the course to see what would happen, the Edge got upset and sent me directly to the end point, the Cyclo said hey oops, you’d better take the next turn left, then left again at the end of the block, then right back onto the bread crumb trail. It did not try to make me return to the point of deviation instead routed me along parallel then brought me back and the nearest possible way to continue my course. The Garmin did not recover, just kept saying ‘off course’ when on it’s map screen I was following the breadcrumb trail.

      Battery life was 10% per hour (same), the only annoying thing was my phone was busy today and the Cyclo beeps lots of loud beeps when the phone rings. You can hit a button on the cyclo’s screen to answer the call if you want, which is a bit pointless unless you had the ear phones in (which I won’t for obvious reasons). BT did not drop out at all, and when I arrived home I hit the upload ride button and the ride was beamed to Magellan and STRAVA via WiFi, without removing it from the handlebars.

      Yes the maps supplied with the Garmin may not be completely routeable (even when they display the bike paths), but given it’s poor routing methodology and worse the lack of bike path support makes it a poor device for navigation. Great for stats and data collection, but I purchased the device for navigation as well as data recording…

      My Edge 1000 and sensors have been packed up and will be going back to the shop for a refund in the morning. Good luck to all of you who have more patience and perseverance than I.

      One last point as I’m off topic, the Cyclo 505 has almost an identical feature set, minus laps, on board segments, and livetrack. Here in Brisbane Australia, I paid $799 for the Garmin bundle (in store), and $399 for the Magellan Cyclo 505hc bundle. I could have bought a complete spare and still have a dollar in my pocket! Oh, and it works!

      Cheers,

      Peter

  96. Paul K

    Hi All,

    I bought the Edge 1000 last week (upgraded from 810) and took it for a test ride this weekend. I fully updated all the firmware on it before going out too. Overall pretty impressed – nice screen (albeit sensitive), no bluetooth connectivity issues (iPhone 5), it generally just worked fine but for a couple of things:

    1. I’m not sure whether the map directions sometimes get confused
    2. End of ride sync with phone still seems hit and miss
    3. Segments are a bit of a mystery!

    Does anyone know if there is a specific way to race against segments? Do you have to load a course first or can you just go out and ride and it will pick up segments as you near them? I have sent the segments to my 1000 just fine but when I had my main data screen on showing speed / HR / distance / grade etc etc it didn’t seem automatically inform me of the segment I knew I was nearing.

    However, once I switched over the to the map page, it automatically seemed to “switch” to the segments race screen when segments came along. Not sure why!? I was hoping it would let me have my main data screen on and then automatically switch to another screen about the segment as I neared and started it. As it stands too, whilst I race the segment I then don’t have insight into my speed / HR / cadence / grade etc. either which is odd.

    Anyone else having this? Or understand segments on the 1000 better?

    And what about concurrent segments – can the 1000 give you details of 2 segments at the same time – say some that overlap? For example, I ride a lap of the park and want that to be a segment I race. At the same time though, I have the lap of the park broken down into smaller segments to help pace me along. But I don’t think the device wanted to start 2 segments at the same place, and I don’t even know if it can manage 2 segments at a time (ie. the bigger lap, and the smaller part of it). Strava seems to manage this fine from what I remember.

    Final question – I presume that the Virtual Partner (Segment Race screen) is based on average speed? As opposed to actual speed at various points on the route? In other words – if I load a route I did and decide to race it in Virtual Partner, the virtual partner will climb and decend hills at the average speed, as opposed to the actual speeds the device recorded. Is this correct? (I imagine the same is true for the segments). Can anyone confirm this? If I’m right I find it bizarre! Why can’t the device compare my current pace to a recorded pace exactly as it was done? (Unless of course I’m wrong..!)

    Thanks
    Paul

  97. anon anon

    Was eagerly awaiting your full review since I read your preview. You have saved me from wasting 400gbp from upgrading from my 810. So disappointing, I wanted it to be great…

  98. Valery

    Hi there. Thanks for this amazing review.

    Definitely decided to take the plunge and get this unit. I’m going to be touring all over Europe this summer and wanted something that will basically take care of me 100%.

    Quick question about courses. Say I wanted to go for a ride and part of that ride was in a course in a difficult to navigate place. Is there a way to start recording at the beginning of the ride, ride to the course start where I can have the Edge 1000 auto-start a course or even manually select a course to integrate in the ride. If I’m not making it clear, let me use an example. By Course is from point B to point C. My ride is from A to B to C to D. I want to record the ride as one ride, but have the B-D section show up on my map as I ride so that I can follow the directions for that particular course. Is this possible?

    • Mr Nofish

      If I understood you correctly, it should be possible with any recent Garmin unit. Basically it will stay silent until you reach B then go “Course found” and start giving you directions. Or that’s what happens on my Edge 500.

  99. Jeroen

    Ray do you have any idea why Garmin never seems to follow up on what cyclists indicate they actually NEED? For instance: everybody knows your reviewsite is what everyone looks at for a new cycling GPS device. Why is it so hard for Garmin to simply go to your site, read your review, read the comments and come out with a new device accordingly?

    Isn’t it THAT the ultimate way to improve on your device, and ultimately boost sales as well? I really don’t understand how a company with such technology and such resources is brilliant enough to release a GPS system for cyclists that pretty much became the standard amongst cyclists, but is too stupid to simply read up on what those cyclists actually wants the most from their device.

    • Mr Nofish

      Honest? I don’t think so. It’s a pretty well known fact that most people don’t know what they need until you show them. If you asked what they wanted from a phone 6 months prior to the iPhone release, do you think they would have described it?

      What I wonder is how come in all these years Garmin still hasn’t refined both their software and software development process. Bugs aside, there are non-GPS cycling computers out there with better software than the Edges.

      Garmin changed the game by adding GPS, ANT+ and power in a relatively cheap package, that’s why they’re ahead – I’m afraid until someone comes along and changes the game again, the situation won’t improve significantly. Now I’m not sold on the concept of smartphones making for good cycling computers, but smartphone makers have plenty of resources to throw at the problem.

      If they want to. The market is so very small compared to smartphones’, until that gets ubersaturated and interest begins to dwindle, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to go hunting for niches like this one.

  100. Steve G

    Are the pictures in the review the only way Garmin displays the Di2 gearing!?
    It doesn’t have a field that can be, for instance, simply “53-16”?

  101. Mike Logan

    Initially had all the issues described by DC After a visit to LBS had Di2 upgraded and hey presto everything works Ok except blutooth still drops out Result I am very happy just getting used to new procedures and waiting for Android app

  102. Luc

    I received my Edge 1000 last week as a replacement for my 3+ year old Edge 800 that was getting sick. I ride brevets and tried the new GPS yesterday during a 400km brevet. I loaded the TCX file and started riding. The file contains information, warnings, etc. Everything was fine until about 85km from the start when the GPS gave me directions to turn on a side road that was not on the course I was to follow. I decided to ignore but the darn thing kept wanted me to turn around and turn at every dirt road for the next 325km. At one point I was getting a black screen with a warning that I may not be using the shortest route and that I may want to add waypoint. I wanted to turn off this stupid auto routing feature but could not find out how.

    I cannot understand why a Garmin Engineer would think that the GPS routing should supersede a course uploaded by the user. I can understand if I told it to get me home that it would calculate a route and give me direction accordingly but not when a user uploads a course. If for some reason I should deviate from the course, it should provide a warning and give me the option to skip a certain part of the course (road works, error in the course ) and realize that I’m back on the loaded course and continue with the original route. Can’t find how to fix this, will turning off recalculation address this?

    I have also encountered some issues with automatic screen lock and was able to get it going but I think the screen lock activates when I try to go too fast and the GPS may think the touch are errors (something touching as if you put your GPS in your pocket).

    On the positive side, I like the larger and more visible screen (not sure what is the resolution and number of colors), the data is stable, I did not see any spikes so far, I was impressed with the responsive gradient when climbing.

    Has anyone at Garmin ever ridden a bike using their products? It looks like marketing came up with a set of requirements for a better GPS probably based on discussion with their retail channel, not actual users then passed it over the wall to people who came up with functional specifications who passed it over the wall to Engineering who passed it over the wall to production. QC was bypassed (who does that, early adopters will pick-up the issues) to send directly to distributors in time for the release date!

    • Paul K

      I loaded up mine with a route and it also wanted to divert me a different way whilst riding it! What on earth is that all about?

    • Rich M

      Yup – I had this too. A 40-minute uphill 500m off-road ascent Strava segment and the bloody Garmin diverted me to the route down – helpfully avoiding me summiting the hill – until I realised and had to turn around and climb again (and screw up the segment!) GRRR!

    • Peter

      Hi Luc,

      Yes I have the exact same issue what I have noticed is as soon as I deviate from the route the 1000 has decided I should ride (based on the loaded course) it routes me to the end point of the course using the calculation method set I.e. Shortest distance.

      Turning recalculation has no effect and I noticed that whilst riding a course that the routing method always changes to road riding. I have mine set to tour riding as I read somewhere that this will route you both on road and bike paths. When I stop navigating the course my routing method returns to touring. This issue remains post 2.3 update and I currently have a support call open with Garmin regarding this issue.

    • Peter

      Yes I have the exact same issue what I have noticed is as soon as I deviate from the route the 1000 has decided I should ride (based on the loaded course) it routes me to the end point of the course using the calculation method set I.e. Shortest distance.

      Turning recalculation has no effect and I noticed that whilst riding a course that the routing method always changes to road riding. I have mine set to tour riding as I read somewhere that this will route you both on road and bike paths. When I stop navigating the course my routing method returns to touring. This issue remains post 2.3 update and I currently have a support call open with Garmin regarding this issue.

  103. Fred

    BUG that I got today, that is also mentioned in the Garmin forums is that the unit freezes up when trying to shutdown the unit.

    It was the first time for me – and others also say it does not happen consistently. In my case, I have a memory-card installed – but others don´t. So that is probably not the issue.

    Thus, it IS very frustrating to need to wait for the battery to run out. The screen is semi-active, showing the turning-off logo halfway through. So, now I just wait…

  104. raqball

    My BT constantly drops, sensors constantly drop and auto upload works sometimes. Mine is headed back to Garmin as soon as my Magellan Cyclo 505 arrives from Clever Training.. No thanks Garmin, I am DONE with you…

  105. vladimir

    Hi Ray.Garmin Edge 1000 does not record RR data .Will be Edge record RR data in future ?

  106. Paul K

    Rainmaker,

    Perhaps you could help us all with a simple request to Garmin.

    I work as a Product Manager (albeit in Financial Services) so I understand the pressures that various people at Garmin may well be under when it comes to launching new products. Whatever the reasons behind the various bugs / items not fully understood with the Edge 1000 are, we can’t realistically expect that Garmin will respond to us all.

    However, what a well managed company will do is publicly acknowledge that it at least recognises things need to be corrected, has listened to what we’re all saying (we are effectively providing them with valuable feedback to help make them more profitable in the long term), and gives us some form of indication of what they are doing about it / what they are prioritising.

    Rainmaker – if you have the contacts there and can get this message across and get a response of some kind – I for one will at least feel like my contribution towards their 2014 company profits was not a mistake. If no response is forthcoming, then I think I will return my unit in its “not correctly functioning” state and make a long term decision to move towards a different manufacturer.

    Many thanks and I hope they want to listen to you!

    Paul

  107. Asger

    Do you have any idea of what kind of cpu the edge 1000 is using?

  108. Dan R

    Ray: I just reviewed with Garmin Customer Service my problems with Bluetooth Connected Features (constant Bluetooth drops/dis-functionality; Live Tracking drops; failure to display phone notifications and messages; failure to display weather conditions and alerts; and interference with other paired devices connectivity on my iPhone5). None of this was news to Garmin and Customer Service re-confirmed that a software fix is in the works, but gave no estimated timeframe for availability. Customer Service confirmed that they are collecting user feedback (apparently unexpectedly locked screens are another issue) and I think there is value in taking the time to report issues to Garmin while a fix is in the works.

  109. Emil Skobeloff

    The Edge 1000 has many fine features. However, I find it inconceivable that the individual odometer for each bike has been eliminated from the older models. I keep track of my relative miles among my bikes. In reality, this is a very easy software update, one which I wish Garmin would correct quickly with a software update.

  110. vladimir

    Hi Ray. I have forunner 910 XT .and i have bought Egde 1000. Set up garmin express . After this action t Fit file hasnt saved from 910 but garmin connect has this activiti . When I load activiti from 910 Garmin Express have done mistake all time. Then I delete Express and set up garmin ANT agent Fit file downlouded but now i cant connect my Egde. Do you know what i may do?

  111. Ray,

    So I’ve just orderd my new wheels (Enve 3.4’s) with PowerTap GS.
    But I’m really up in the air as to what head unit to match them too.
    Money is not really an issue (if the Garmin 1000 is what it should be I’d be happy to pay that).
    I’m not much into Strava (but in saying that I’ve never had GPS before either – so maybe I’ll get hooked) as I’m currently just using old Yellow CPU for wired power tap. So I’m realy just looking for a solid / easy to use ANT+ head unit that will then work well with my Training Peaks software (which I wish they would bring out an Apple Version).
    Interested in your thoughts (Joule GPS ??) or go the Garmin 1000 and hope they sort out software issues soon (assume my wheels will take a month or two to get here anyway). If there is something else out there that is great let me know. Not interetsed in trying to use a phone – I want something that is cycling specific and solid in the power area.
    And one last non-related question. Speed and Cadence (similar to the question I asked about the Garmin Vectors – how does the power tap hub record speed (assume from revolution of the hub ?? and by setting in your rollout or standard wheel/tyre diameter) but cadence ??? from a hub ?? – Or are you better off fitting a speed/cadence sensor – for more accuracy. Thanks in advance for thoughts an all the hard work you put into these reviews
    Tim ……

  112. Eric Sheley

    Couple weeks in on my 1000 and wishing for my 810 back

    Battery life just barely got me through a 200km ride today. Going to try switching it down to just GPS tomorrow.

    Also have had a really odd issue – I have all my profiles set to road cycling (which I have been told will eliminate bike paths) but left recalculation on. On my 143km route today ended up doing 200km as it seemed to go out of its way to find random back roads and bike paths. Rest of the group with 810’s all stayed to the road. Turned off all recalculation for tomorrow but really frustrated that the road profile doesn’t seem to work

    And of course have the hover / screen lock issue.

    • Ian Blackburn

      So the device pushed you on an extra 57k ! That seems like a pretty motivational approach – Garmin should advertise this as a feature!

    • Eric Sheley

      Yeah – although when I hit 143km and realised I was nowhere close to the finish I wasn’t feeling all that motivate – especially knowing I’ve got 9 more days in the saddle before I reach John O’Groats…

    • Ian Blackburn

      Ouch! That sounds like an epic ride you are on. Good luck ! Hope turning recalculation off works ok tomorrow – it certainly has for me on an 810 – if I go off route I just manually get back on it and it picks it up from there. You can turn on an option to warn you when you are off route.

      Cheers

      Ian

  113. Darwin

    Brilliant review which like everything on this site really goes without saying.
    I returned my Edge 1000. I should have known Garmin would release it unfinished but oh well….check Amazon reviews of this device if you want to see a lot of really pissed off people. I have high hopes for the Polar V650 at which point my Edge 510 and associated accessories will be on Craigslist at rock bottom prices and never will I use Garmin again. I swear I spend mre time keeping my Edge 510 and iPhone software running that I do riding my bike and I have been tempted many times to throw it against a wall as hard as I can. Clue to Garmin, when people hate your company and products but use them until something better comes along eventually something better will come along and then you will be screwed.
    Then again they have know this for years and have made no attempt to up their software and hardware quality control so I doubt they will ever get it.

  114. Peter

    Thanks Ray, Great review! Unfortunately for me I read is after purchasing the Edge 1000 and found every bug you have mentioned :o(

    The unit is on 2.20 and I have seen a lot of the ‘Lock Screen’ issue, it seems to be a very sensitive interface, I assume so that it works through gloves. I noted that when I was on the bike the issue did not present (and I was wearing gloves). Last night I cleaned then added a screen protector made from cutting down an Ipad one I had lying around. Since installing this I have not had a single lock screen issue. This morning I did a 1h45m ride on a very cold day, the screen was moist with condensation and still no issues, with or without gloves.

    I have been playing with the BT & BTE issues with the Garmin Connect mobile app and as someone else posted if the app is the active one then it does seem to hold the connection. However this is not a suitable workaround for me as I use my iphone and Cyclemeter (with Wahoo bits) as my primary data collector (at least till I’m satisfied with the 1000), and not sure if Cyclemeter will work with the associated Wahoo hardware when not the active.

    Wahoo speed/cadence sensor has a odometer built in with it’s own little app just for the purpose, looks like this will stay on the bike…come on Garmin.

    Do you know if the 2.20 firmware is the one due late June or is there another on the way?

    • It’s due later in the month. I’ll give them credit in that there’s an impressive number of fixes in it…

    • TD

      The 2.3 update has fixed the following issues for me:

      – Lock screen
      – Freeze on startup. This happened frequently before, and I once had to wait for the battery to fully drain. Always thought this would happen to an iPhone with its sealed battery design but it hasn’t in seven years of owning them.

      My battery usage so far is 10% per hour with the following settings: WiFi and Bluetooth off, screen to auto dim, backlight to 15 seconds, no external sensors.

    • Mr Nofish

      You should never need to wait for the battery to die, there’s probably a key combination that hard resets the unit. Usually this kind of information can be dug up on the Garmin forums.

  115. I’ve now ridden several times with the edge 1000, and so far I am reasonably happy with it.

    minus:
    -Battery life: about 8 hours/200km with about half of that on the map screen. BT off, backlight off, GLONASS on. Not great, but not that much worse than my 800/810.
    -It seems that the map screen interface becomes very slow to respond when the track is long. I noticed this first at about 220km. It seemed to help to shut it down and start it again. I remember having a similar problem with the 810 on an early firmware.
    -I run out of patience waiting for it to upload via wi-fi, and just connect it via USB. Not a huge deal, as I have to physically connect anyway for Endomondo or Strava.

    plus:
    -the screen is much nicer
    -it is (excepting the above) faster to respond than the 800 or 810
    -sleep mode!! very happy about this, because it is perfect for trips where you stop, lock your bike, go into a shop, and start again.
    -better stop/end-of-ride handling than the terrible 810.
    -visible at a glance that the timer is stopped (or paused).
    -so far seems to be more accurate wrt. height meters. my 800 and 810 overestimate significantly (in Denmark).

    Since I don’t care about bluetooth, I don’t have an opinion on that.

  116. BikeNerd

    Awesome review as always.

    While there are plenty of good reasons (many in comments above) for keeping bike profiles, I would never recommend using a Garmin device to keep a total per-bike odometer. From my experience (405, 500, 810 and many car units) Every ‘record’ on the device is just one ‘big’ firmware update from total factory reset. Smaller updates don’t reset, and perhaps Garmin won’t do this going forward, but I’d advise tracking in a desktop or reliable online app.

    Cheers

  117. Simon

    Thanks Ray, another amazing review.

    I’m so glad I read this before pulling the trigger and ordering one.

    I would disagree slightly with you on not wanting a bigger GPS for my bike. I use my Edge 800 for navigating and exploring new area all the time. I’ll switch between maps frequently but the size and resolution of the 800 screen mean I often stop, take my phone out and use that to establish the best route. This is especially so off road where the subtleties of UK rights of access on different types of trail can cause problems. Sticking with this scenario, I use the phone as it is so much faster to zoom in and out and pan across the map compared with the 800. The 800 all but freezes when doing this, especially with a course loaded. Of course this whole situation means I have to stop, take the backpack off etc…

    Perhaps I’m in the minority but a larger screen would be fantastic for me.

    Why don’t I just use the phone mounted on the bars? I mostly ride solo & If I take a fall way out in the back country bad enough for me to need assistance, it is highly likely my phone would have been smashed up were it bar mounted. I keep the phone tucked in my backpack sending live GPS updates so if the worst happens, I just need to send a quick SMS and assuming my wife isn’t tucking into a bottle of wine, help will be on it’s way. The phone is part of my survival gear, my Edge 800 is a toy – 2 separate tools for me.

  118. Peter

    Hi Ray,

    I have discovered that when navigating a course that the 1000 sets the routing mode to “Road Cycling” regardless on the setting previously set (which it does return to when you exit navigation mode). For my regular route this poses a problem as I use a bike path for one section.

    The key problem is that when the 1000 decides that I have not followed it’s instruction it decides that I should return to the start of the course rather than just routing me back on what it feels is the correct route.

    Same goes if once in navigation mode by ‘riding’ the course, if I go in and change the routing mode and back out the menus and return to the ride, it routes you straight back to the start rather than continuing to follow the course.

    I suspected that this was a setting issue as I have not found this description on any forum, and so I logged a call with Garmin, they were not able to really assist (at this stage) the first support person suggested “Lock on road” to on as I wanted to leave the road and traverse a bike track. I re-butted this as being non-logical they have elevated the support call. Result to be advised.

    I have spent many hours looking at the forums and have decided that several suffering 1000 owners have seen this issue of sort (at least the being routed back to the start after deviation), but I’m not sure on how many have noted the change of routing methodology and if there is any work around?

    My thought process is that there must be a method of taging a routing method to a course (as it changes only while riding the course, and returns to the preset value once navigation is complete). How can I edit this value? If I can set the value to tour or MTB (assuming either of these will route down a bike track) then I won’t upset the 1000 by riding the correct course as it will navigate where I intend on riding.

    Secondly there should be a setting somewhere which allows me to select ‘navigate back to course’ rather than being punished by being sent home for not following instructions?

    Thoughts?

    PS – can you release the long list of fixes coming in this much wanted upcoming f/w release?

    • Peter

      Hi Ray,

      As an update, I have established that the E1000 is not routing me back to the start of the course if I deviate from what it believes is the correct path, it is actually re-routing (I assume from the calculation method) to the end of the course. Most of my courses start and finish from my home, I made a short one way course for testing and discovered my error.

      I suspect that there should be another “calculation mode” which should read continue or course”

      I have logged this with Garmin Support, at this stage from the feedback I suspect they don’t quite understand the issue. But I’m working with them and will update this post.

    • Hi Peter-

      If you haven’t had a chance yet, grab the firmware update that was just published today and see if that helps at all.

    • Peter

      Hi Ray,

      Updating the firmware to 2.30 has not altered my course navigation issue.

      I will update the post after I hear back from Garmin Support.

    • Peter

      Found the problem causing bad elevation readings. The barometer sensor was covered up. Removed obstruction and units working fine

      Love the 1000. I wouldn’t delay purchasing.

      Sorry for blaming elevation problem on the unit though even garmin tech service never suggested that as a possible cause

    • That’s awesome to hear!

      (And funny, I almost asked about anything covering/blocking it…but had planned a post the next day on a barometric altimeter that covered it so I figured I’d wait, but then that post isn’t quite done yet…almost, I keep on adding more into it!)

    • Peter

      Hi Ray,

      I promised an update after hearing back from Garmin on the course routing issues. 10 days after they committed to getting back to me, I rang them. Received the response that the Level 2 techs are looking into it and as it is a new product we are still trying to learn about it…

      I requested to speak with management as Garmin is guilty of Misleading and deceptive conduct by releasing this product with so many of the advertised features not functioning properly.

      After getting to a manager and informing him that I run a fleet of heavy vehicles and am currently life cycling our Tom Tom navigators and that Garmin is one of the contenders up for consideration, but probably not after this… All of a sudden, they need log files and config files so that they can replicate the issue.

      Hopefully this new level of focus will get a response within the 48 hours that they have again promised.

      On 2.30 it is slightly better with recalculation off the unit may re-commence navigation when the course is re-joined, but not always??

      Live tracking is now working for me, as is call and message notification. (iphone ios 7.1, not tested on Ios 7.1.2 yet)

      My battery usage on 2.30: 135km ride over 5 and a half hours 42% remaining, no navigation, no live track, manual back light on 3 bars and 15 sec timeout, bluetooth connected. When riding a course it is similar, with live track it seems to be around 15-20% per hour.

      There is no way I’m going to see the “normal usage” of 15 hours.

      Has anyone received an explanation of what the different routing modes actually mean? (this will be important to me once a course will navigate on all methods rather than just road cycling).

    • Christopher Pallotta

      Where exactly is the barometer sensor on the edge 1000? Thanks.

  119. cL

    Excellent review.

    I agree, until Strava can connect to this device, I’m not entirely interested.

    I do wonder when using the Di2 integration if one can simply stuff the remote box into their frame and still allow for functionality as having all these dongles hanging off the bike are starting to look ridiculous.

    My 800 does everything I need so I’ll continue to wait and see what is next.

    • Bob Goodman

      The answer is yes. I put my di2 transmitter inside the seat tube and it works just fine.

    • Bill Rush

      What battery impact have those of you using the DI2 transmitter seen on either the Edge 1000 or the Di2 battery. When I installed mine a week ago, the battery was at 80%. Yesterday it was at 60%. That roughly implies a six week battery life and I generally get six months! That is not a typo. THe di2 battery lasts a very long time. I sure hope the little transmitter isn’t dramatically reducing battery life.

    • Bob Goodman

      One more thing. You only get a flashing green when you are at 50% or less. So, its quite possible it always behaved like this, but now you are seeing a number. The assumption on this readout is that its linear.

    • wkochi

      how did you do the connection? as long as its -> in and -> out of the Di2 transmitter, it still works okay?

  120. Bob Goodman

    Interesting, I’ve noticed a similar thing. The battery readout does drop more than I expected, however when you do the battery test via the JB, the lights behaviour is the same as before. In other words, even though my readout shows 65%, I still get a solid green on the lights. So, perhaps the voltage drops while its transmitting and then recovers when it isn’t. in any case, I will go by the lights, and recharge when I see blinking green. Its such a quick process, its a no nevermind.

    • Bill Rush

      Wouldn’t it be ironic if we buy the Di2 transmitter to monitor the battery and it consumes so much battery that we really need it as a result.

  121. Declan Mc Glone

    Firmware Version 2.3 just announced, although not yet being prompted to update via Garmin Express

    link to forums.garmin.com!

    • Michel

      I have it available (and installing it). At the same time also a map update is pushed (Routable Cycle Map of Europe 2014.20)

    • Paul

      what are the “•Made several general UI improvements” they are refering to?

    • There were a few minor/tiny tweaks I noticed when I first updated. Mostly things in various menus and how they appeared. I’ve honestly forgot what they were (and don’t have a further detailed list), but a couple times I thought to myself “Oh, that’s a bit cleaner than before”.

  122. Dkevdog

    Ray- Does the Clever Training discount code not apply to the Edge 1000? It doesn’t work in their cart, saying it is not a qualifying item.

    • Hi Dkevdog-

      The DCR discount still applies, but you’ll just need to utilize the VIP club instead. The Edge 1000 is one of the handful of products that requires VIP membership instead. Here’s all the details there: link to dcrainmaker.com

      It gets a bunch of other benefits and also benefits the charity Girls On The Run. Cheers!

    • Dkevdog

      Thanks Ray- I’ll do that then- thanks for running everything through the grinder so we don’t have to!

  123. First ride this morning with the new firmware. No Bluetooth disconnections, much better segment detection (only detected segments in the direction I was going) so seems much better.
    Also managed to stay connected to my HRM which it looses connection to sometimes.

    It did “find” my virb halfway through the ride (which had already been connected to) but that could be an issue with the Virb.

  124. TML

    Great review!
    I am a weekend warrior on MTB and are looking to maybe upgrade my tracking gear.
    This may be a little off topic, but…

    Currently using Wahoo RFLKT (not+) and the Wahoo HR band and cadence meter. They work absolutely great, no doubt about it, but I still have to bring my iPhone 5s for it to work, which drains my phone battery.

    Thus I have been looking into Garmin to be sure not to drain my iPhone during longer rides. But taken all the issues coming up with BT dropouts, Strava compability, and so on, I now start figuring if not a solution for the iPhone including a bigger battery and STURDY mount would be the best solution, taken also that would negate any issues with Strava compability and include all the possibilities with new apps coming up. Actually I use the Wahoo Fitness app which I find better than all other bike apps out there, including Strava.

    Could you advice on any “sturdy” easy mount to the iPhone 5s which includes a 2x+ battery life and shelter towards the environment? I do not know if this even exist. Have tried the usual iPhone plastic cases to mount onto the bike, but the ones Ive tried are to flimsy (actually one broke and flew and one just dangled from the handle bar after a while), also they did not have any extra battery power.

    What I am looking for is a sturdy handlebar mounted iPhone case including extra battery power for the iPhone 5s. That would basically be all I need. Easy upload to Strava, battery life, protection and sturdiness, and the iPhone world of apps and ease. I am not looking for a extra battery pack to keep in the backpack (I have that), works fine, but don’t always want to bring along my backpack. Also some longer rides drains the battery on the iPhone before I can start charging it.

  125. wkochi

    Ray, with the SM-EWW01 Di2 component…did you have to get another short wire? or is that included with the SM-EWW01? just curious…it looks like its plugged in, not a wired in plug.

    great review as always. for me, larger is better since my eyes have a difficult time seeing the reading distance. i use single vision glasses and don’t have progressives, so it helps to have it larger in that sense.

    • Eek, I’m honestly not sure on that piece. I say that because my LBS (local bike shop) did the full install there.

    • wkochi

      i’ve also read somewhere that you can actually hide the unit inside the frame so its out of sight. i haven’t verified that yet, but it would be nice to hide it since the rubber bands look awful.

    • Henry Collet

      My SM-EWW01 came without a cable so I picked up a short (150mm) one. I’ve heard that others have one in the box.

      I started with the transmitter on the seatstay (as per the usual photos) and have now moved it to inside the downtube without any issues. It can be plugging in anywhere within the circuit without issue.

      No issues noticed otherwise.

    • wkochi

      thx for the reply Henry. interesting that you can plug it anywhere….which i may just do, near the battery in the seat tube. BTW, mine did not come with an extra wire.

  126. thegruf

    well mine was all packed up to return to dealer and I spotted the 2.30 update.
    Unpacked again and a substantial improvement on a quick ride. In particular the sensor and BT drops seem much improved which for me was a fundamental issue rendering the unit all but worthless previously.
    Will try to get out again today to see if initial impressions hold.

    Maybe if Garmin had done another month of field testing they could have avoided being slammed for releasing buggy product. Still early adopters of complex hi-tech units should expect a few maintenance releases to fine tune stability, so maybe if Garmin keep working on it the result will be a really good unit.

    Garmin express/Connect could do with a LOT more work though, is a horrible mess at the moment.
    Be good to see DCR’s experience after the update if you have time please and thanks again for the reviews.

  127. Phil Hargreaves

    Great review. Gutted that it is not compatible with my 3T Integra stem though; I so wanted to get one and I’m NOT getting rid of my lovely 3T stem.
    Surely, had they positioned the unit mount further towards the bottom end of the unit, it would have been ok no? The larger size would have then been out front.
    Thank you.

    • I suspect the reason is that if they did that it would make it offbalance, which if mounted on a handlebar with a simple band mount, might eventually lead to weird wobble/etc…

  128. Geoff Crowther

    What are the options for charging the Edge 1000 while on a ride? I have only used the Edge 705 in the past, and with that, if you plugged in a standard USB cable into the back of the unit, it would shutdown and go into data transfer mode. The only way around this was to use a special USB plug that had an internal resistor that told the device it was charging only, so did not need to shut down. I am hoping that Garmin has simplified this, so that it only shuts down if there is a computer to communicate with on the end of the USB cable?

  129. JCE

    Hi Ray and thanks for the AWESOME review, as always.
    Now, I had the device very early and did quite some testing.
    The issues reported by others nearly all applied. Very frustrating workouts I had – I must say. Now after the Firmware Update things got much better – at least in terms of bugs.
    No drops of bluetooth connection so far, no screen locks anymore (THAT WAS A MESS).
    No idea what they fixed in addition to the things I realized but one thing is interesting: At turn-offs during navigation it clearly does things different:

    The automatic zoom-in and out of the map now works different – in some terms very annoying to me but it works consistantly (which it did not before). It zooms in a little, as soon as you enter a town. Makes sense though it zooms in that much you always need to get your hands dirty and zoom out again to gain an overview where u’re going^^
    Once you leave town again and accellerate, it zooms out. Fine. Just no idea to which speed that applies but anything beyond 30 Km/h did the trick.

    Turn-by-turn navigation oddities:
    They now come in time, fluent and automatic zoom-in works. BUT: in many cases u need to tap on the screen after you had your turn otherwise it gets stuck and you see jack what comes ahead of u!
    So in other terms: if the route goes right and left egain in 200m, you’ll very likely miss the turn-off^^ (try me – had the issue at elast 5 times yesterday – THAT got me swearing).
    In other words: there is no way to control on how long the turn-off option ahead is being shown on screen and why it hangs again and again, I don’t know. Something HIGHLY annoying if you go fast and want to keep the pace…

    Related to navigation and map material a common problem still exists: lets say, the road ahead splits up and u need to go left. The Garmin tells u jack. No turn-off applied and u just can’t make out where to go without zooming in…pitty because the chance to hit the wrong turn-off is rather high.^^ This is clearly a very complex problem somewhere between routing algorithms, the map material and the reality on-site 🙂 There is no way to fix this 100% but if I use a common navigation app on my phone, it would show me…which tells me: GARMIN, u messed this up…oh dear. The open cycle map material is WAAAY better in terms of details and navigation – at least in Germany. But applying the Garmin routing algorithm to it, is not perfect yet.
    However, I’ll report more oddities ahead as I stumble into them.
    Cheers!

  130. Bhav Parmar

    Hi,
    Can you upload any data from Garmin 1000 to strava?
    Not bothered about segmnets etc but data like total mileage, av mph etc?
    if so, how?
    cheers

  131. Zalman

    Hello
    Can anybody tell me how to change the screen orientation on the edge 1000 from horizontal to vertical , as I believe the unit is supposedly able to do this ?

    Thanks
    Zalman

  132. Oisin

    I still cannot get my Tickr to work with my Edge 1000 – anyone have a trick to get this working?
    I just tried with the 2.30 Firmware version….same as before – does not work.

  133. Paul K

    One feature that would be nice on the 1000 (which I don’t think is available at the moment) would be to have an option whereby you can quickly disable all segments loaded onto the device. At the moment you have to disable them all individually which can be quite time consuming.

    Or have it such that each activity profile allows you to decide whether you want segments on or off. For example – if yuo are in Touring mode and have an activity as such, you may want Segments off. Yet when doing Training (Training profile) you may want them on.

    Otherwise, I’m very glad they got 2.30 released as quickly as they did. Much better now.

    As someone else said though – Garmin Connect still needs a LOT of work done. Strava is by far the superior interface and is much quicker to interact with too. Segments in Garmin Connect are almost pointless at the moment. But being able to upload them to the 1000 and race yourself real-time is very slick. I just wish I could have mroe data fields showing on the Segment race screen when it pops up. If its a long segment, knowing HR / cadence etc would be nice fields to be able to see.

    • Agree with that Paul. I would also like to be able to disable navigation on segments. I generally know where I am going on a segment and having the navigation screen pop up when I am pushing 600W trying to maintain that +1 second is very annoying and generally means that I don’t know how I am doing at the end of a certain segment that I do quite a bit.

  134. Bhav Parmar

    hi,
    Im doing the Etape Du Tour in 4 weeks, i got my Edge 1000 from the UK; does it have European maps built in?

    Or do i need to download these from somewhere else?

    cheers
    Bhav

  135. Peter

    I am having altimeter problems. Gave me 3000 extra feet on an 800 ft ride. First few rides were OK, but now elevation readings are inaccurate. Elevation never seems to settle down at start. Elevation ticks away like a clock, changing the reading every second Just now, sitting at desk altitude increased 300 feet. Since the troulbes started the total descent doesn’t come close to matching total ascent…from rides that start and stop and same place.

    The problem produces bizarre grade reading. 30% uphill grade when going down hill. Presumably it is the math resulting from the elevation readjusting.

    Have ridden with the both the 800 and 1000 and differences in eleation readings are startling.

    Did firmware upgrade to 2.3. Didn’t fix. Spoke with garmin, No solution. Merchant has agreed to exchange.

  136. Peter

    PS I might mention that I bought 2 units at about the same time and both are having similar problems. Other day I rode with all 3 on bike. The 2 1000’s were quite similar in their inaccuracies. I live at about 500 feet and drop into valley for a flat ride. Total shold be no more than 800 feet. The 800 was correct, both 1000’s added close to 3000 feet.

  137. Ron Green

    Ray,

    Curious to know if you saw that ride with GPS has come out with an app that does turn by turn on a phone. Right now only on android but they are coming out with version for I Phone. It will also read all bluetooth accessories.
    It will basically act like a garmin but using your phone. It will read bluetood cadence speed and heart rate. Very curious on your opinion
    Thanks,

  138. Oisin

    Does anyone know of a good tool which allows you to take a downloaded course (.gpx for example) and edit it?
    I’d like to be able to take course and change the start, lenghten it, shorten it etc.. – and then upload to me Edge.
    Seems like a pretty simple request, right?

  139. Alex

    What a marvellous resource! Thank you so much for such a well-written, utterly clear assessment of the Edge 1000. I will heed your advice to wait for a better version and bug clear-up before taking the plunge.

  140. steve Powell

    Great article. Wish I had read it before purchasing my edge 1000!!
    My Samsung s5 and edge 1000 will not pair via blue tooth. I receive the acceptance code on on both my phone and edge, but once I open up the Garmin connect app, as per instructions, the edge just searches repeatedly and never connects. Any ideas???

    • It should work with the S5 pretty easily. I’d double-check you’re on the latest Edge 1000 firmware and then try out the Garmin Forums as well.

    • Bill Rush

      It happens that I cannot connect in the same way with my Note 3. I reboot phone or unpair the Edge 1000 under settings and repair. One of those always works

    • Tom

      I always turn the blue tooth on first on my Note 3 and then power up my Edge. With the latest update, blue tooth has worked for me so far each time.

    • Steve powell

      It’s now working!! Thank you all for your helpful responses. So glad I found this site. I will use it regularly and recommend to friends and colleagues.
      For your info, it appears the problem was the phone. It required an update!!

    • Steve Powell

      It’s fixed!!! Thank you all for your support. Great site which I will recommend to friends and family.
      The issue was the Samsung phone- it required an update!

  141. Nick

    When I got my Edge 1000 it wouldn’t connect reliably at all, but having done the new software update (2.30 IIRC) at the weekend it’s perfect now, and the notifications work.

    • Wkochi

      It’s amazing how a company as large
      As Garmin, can release a evolutionary product successor to the 810, and have so many bug issues without testing or putting it through the paces. It’s criminal and would only put more nails into Garmin’s coffin.

  142. vici

    it was not quite clear to me whether the 1000 can:
    -read in GPX (I guess so)
    -create turn by turn from this.
    -how about the old “training” mode of the 705?

    –this is not possible with the 705 – despite the comment in the review.

    Thanks for a great review.
    Vici

  143. Geoff Crowther

    Received my unit last week (and immediately upgraded to release 2.30), and have just completed my 1000Km test ride with it. Here are some of my experiences, and some questions:

    Battery life (with WiFi, Bluetooth, and Glonass disabled) was close to 15 hours provide the back light was off. I tended to recharge it on the night legs of the ride as applying power to the unit automatically assumes you want the back light anyway

    The “Distance to Destination” field and “Distance to Next” had an intermittent problem. When navigating a track, these fields started off displaying sensible numbers. However part way through the ride both these fields started showing numbers of around 6000, which every few seconds would go up or down by 1 Km. The only thing that would clear this was to stop navigating the track, and start navigation again.

    The turn by turn navigation was generally good, but occasionally it seemed to stop providing advanced notifications of turns. Also, occasionally it would notify me of turns coming in about 10Km time which was rather pointless.

    The Vertical speed field seems rather erratic. I can understand that this is difficult to make accurate given the small pressure changes involved, but it seemed as if the Speed multiplied by the Grade gave a more accurate reflection of the vertical speed, so maybe Garmin need to use different smoothing of the data to give more accurate results.

    The barometric altimeter gradually drifted out over the 3 day event. Is there any way to get the device to recalibrate the altimeter from the GPS signal?

    One weird one. The ride had over 10000 m of ascent. As I approached this value I was watching to see it roll over to 10000, but instead it displayed – – – -. As I really wanted to know the total climb, I decided to stop so that I could end one ride, and start a new one from zero. However, when I stopped the bike, and looked at the unit again, it was happily reading 10004, and continued to display sensible data for the rest of the ride. Is it just 10000 that it has a problem with??

    Thanks for great review and continued updates.

    • Mr Nofish

      I don’t know that you want to calibrate altitude using GPS: the numbers usually are pretty ugly. There should be an option to set elevation points, so the altimeter can pick them up along the way, but I’m not sure if or how you can do that in advance.

    • Mr Nofish

      Forgot to mention: the unit also knows the elevation profile from the track you’ve loaded, so the unit might be able to compare the two and figure out if there’s a lot of drift. I don’t think that’s ever been implemented anyway.

  144. Dale Blanchard

    Observations on Total Ascent:
    I’m now on my third 1000. The first one wildly exaggerated elevation gains as some other users have noted.
    The second one, an under-warranty replacement, under states elevation gain, at least as compared to the 810 I have running beside it.
    The third one, also replaced at no charge by Garmin, tracks almost exactly with the second one.
    It looks to me like Garmin has set a threshold below which the 1000s ignore small gains which the 810 picks up. For example, if my ride starts out with a steady climb, all three units will report roughly the same Total Ascent. However, if the ride goes over slightly undulating terrain, the 810 continues to show gains while the two 1000 do not.

    I would think this is something easily fixable in software.

    • Marco

      hi,
      I too am affected with the problem of the total ascent.
      Is there a remedy for this or do I have to send my device for repair?
      thanks

  145. Allan Timm

    You just saved me $600 – have been tracking the Garmin 1000 for some time but think i should rather but the 810 for now, your thoughts ? am currently using a XT910 but want to get a dedicated bike computer to use on on TT, road and MTB ?…. as a matter of interest how robust would the 1000 be on a MTB ?

    Great review – keep them coming !!!

    Cheers Allan

    • For now I think the 810 is the best bet. By the same token, if you have a 910XT I’d honestly wait and see how the Edge 1000 cleans up over the next few months.

      From a mountain biking standpoint many people use the 810 today in mountain biking, but just try and place it in a well ‘protected’ area, both in terms of physical protection, but also in a place like the stem because it offers lateral protection in terms of bumps/etc…

  146. Tim Rice

    I’ve had mine (Edge 1000) now for three weeks and have used it pretty much every day.
    I run a mountain bike tour company in Byron Bay (Australia) and have used it on tours (mountain bike mounted on head stem coupled with the new Garmin magnetless speed and cadence sensor) and road training and racing (again mounted on head stem matched with Power Tap GS). I’m not using all the mapping features (yet) but as a cycling computer I can’t fault it. Altimeter seems to work fine (one of my tours is along the beach and shows 1m (about right) and another tour goes up to 300m and again seems to be about right – I know it’s not 1000m high but at this rage 0 to 300 is seems to be accurate. Anyway – I’ve been following the posts with interest and just wanted to say that if you don’t have something already then go ahead and do it. I’ve not had any of the other units (500/510/800/810) so can’t comment but I’m very happy with my 1000 – especially the ability to have multiple screens for various riding types (Mountain Biking – with lots of altitude info / Road Racing – with lots of lap and power info / general road training bits of everything). Next step is to get the auto link to Training Peaks set up (hope it’s not too hard).

  147. Bob Goodman

    Does anyone know how “DeviceTransfers” which is new for firmware 2.3 is supposed to work? I’ve tried to do it with two Edge’s, but you end up with the spinning wheel of wait. You can select what you want to transfer, and after selecting device transfers on both devices, the sending device displays the name of the receiving device. After you select it, nothing happens…….

  148. Have you compared if the suprise me routing got faster with 2.3 update?

  149. And does Garmin actually provide any information on what they update within maps?

  150. Todd S.

    Hello Rainmaker,

    I’m new to cycling and have just purchased my first carbon road bike (Ridley Fenix). I purchased my bike at a store that gives “points back” and I have enough points to buy a new Garmin with no money out of pocket. I want to expand my riding experience – training, saving and sharing rides, turn by turn directions and whatever else I can get my head wrapped around. I’m trying to decide which would be best for me, 800, 810 or 1000. I want a cycling focused GPS but also hope to use it for more than cycling (navigating back to your hotel in a strange city, hiking etc). I’m concerned over the comments above regarding interface with apps (Strava) and am wondering if there is any reason to wait and see…. Would you be interested in making a recommendation?

    thx,
    Todd

    • It depends, the Edge 1000 is slowly getting better – but I’m not clear if things will be ‘all good’ by the end of summer, or by next spring. My hope would be sooner rather than later. Thus, if you want something that I feel ‘just works’ today, go with the Edge 810. But if you’re willing to live with beta type software, you could look at the Edge 1000 instead (if the larger size doesn’t matter).

      There’s no issues with either units with Strava.

    • Paul K

      Hi Todd,

      I have both the 810 and the 1000.

      Generally – I prefer the 1000 by a long way. But I don’t use the maps on it that aggresively so not sure how bad the bugs are with it.

      If you want “bullet proof” – go with the 810.

      If you want “the best that might still need a few months to sort a bit out of niggles here and there but will ultimately get sorted” then get the 1000.

      The recent firmware 2.30 made a lot of difference to the basic problems with the device -otherwise I wouldn’t be recommending it at all!

      Paul

    • Paul K

      Meant to add – I’ve never had any issues interfacing it with Strava / Garmin Connect / Sport Tracks. It works fine.

      I also love being able to cycle segments and compete against them real time on the device. Makes so much of a difference. And (so far) the 1000 is the only device that allows that.

    • Todd S.

      thank you

    • Todd S.

      Thanks Paul, looks like I am getting a new toy.

    • Todd S.

      Thanks for the quick reply, I think I will go with the 1000 and deal with the getting better period.

  151. Ian Blackburn

    Hi Ray,

    Fantastic review again!

    I was wondering if there is any news on Segments being available on 810 or earlier devices?

    I am sort of impressed by the number of segments that are appearing on GC already – maybe Strava does have some serious competition here!

    Cheers

    Ian

    • Garmin have said they’ll decide later in the year of the 510/810 will get Segments. Though, I suppose perhaps first they should actually make Garmin Connect’s Segments feature work…

    • Ian Blackburn

      Isn’t that working now? I saw it was down for a few days but seems to be showing segments now in modern here: link to connect.garmin.com – or is there something broken elsewhere?

    • It’s “up”, but it’s still operating on a multi-day delay for updating/new segments, etc…

    • Ian Blackburn

      Gotcha – thanks Ray! Yes I can see that would be a pain and would really devalue the use of segments. I expect most riders like to see how they have done on segments the moment (or fairly soon after) they get back. That is certainly how I do it on Strava. Hopefully they’ll fix soon…

    • Indeed. Though, the delays have been similar since launch. I guess if this were Strava they wouldn’t really ‘allow’ things to be broken for a month+.

    • Ian Blackburn

      Interesting – for such a key feature that has such obvious competition you would expect they would get it right early – sort of typical of many large companies that they they don’t though. Do you sense that Garmin are gradually getting worse at this sort of thing? There is a revolution in health monitoring just around the corner…

    • Andrew

      I think its such a consumer driven market that any old crap will do. Just get it out the door and let the customers winge and we’ll try and fix the problems. Quality and Assurance is a thing of the past it would seem. Its all about letting the customer fix the stuff ups and tell us what wrong as opposed to thinking something through. Its a sad age we live in. If it dont work, throw it away and buy another…and its us suckers that keep doing it. I had the 305 and the 705 and frankly they work even though I would have liked to 1000 or the Mio 505

    • Mr Nofish

      TBH Ray, Strava’s segments have had their share of problems for a while now. Not all efforts are kept into account while building leaderboards, this situation has been dragging on for months now, they do have an advisory on that is dated May 1st but I think the problem has been around for much longer.

      link to strava.zendesk.com

      More recently, leaderboards started taking a much longer time to be built on new segments, although I suppose that might be related to the other, more important bug.

  152. Andrew

    I think I will stick with my Edge 705….terrific little unit and wait for Mio to allow map upgrades for other countries before jumping in head first.
    Great review.

  153. Scott Buchanan

    For whose that have an Edge 1000 with speed and cadence can I ask….

    When you leave the bike do you remove the sensors or are you leaving them on the bike?

    I’m thinking of upgrading to them (mainly to get rid of the constant spiking of the older version) but not sure I want the added hassle of removing them each time I leave the bike as they would appear all to easily and quickly swiped by a thief.
    Thanks

  154. Tim Rice

    Hey any Edge 1000 users out there know if you can alter the measurment from Calories to Kilojules.

    Obviosly you can do Kg’s and Km’s so just wondering if you have stumbled across altering the Calorie counter to the metric system ???

    Tim ….

    • You can get KJ with a power meter: link to dcrainmaker.com (see data fields section).

      But otherwise it’s just calories.

    • Tim Rice

      I wish that was true but yes I’m using it with a PowerTap GS but if you have a look at one of your pwer files (as a test) in Garmin Connect the Calories AND Kilojoules’s show the exact same figure. Another glitch (?) I’m guessing the calories are correct and they have just forgotten to do some sort of conversion/maths to KJ’s.

    • I have that “issue” as well, but I also had it on my 810. I think that as calorie calculation (guessing) is so inaccurate if there is a power meter available (much more accurate) they just use that figure instead.

      Hopefully Ray will give us some clarification on this as I’m just guessing (like the calorie calculation!)

    • Mr Nofish

      I think you’re right Giles, kiloJoules is the SI unit of measure for energy, and the figure shown is the work done by the cyclist in a given ride.

      The work done is the energy output of the cyclist, while energy burnt (kCal) is the energy input, so how they can be the same number?

      Because we know that on average the efficiency of a trained cyclist is about 25% (i.e. a quarter of the energy used turn into mechanical energy at the pedals), but a kcal is worth roughly 4 kJ, so they cancel out and the actual number is more or less the same.

      Since calorie estimation is built on a lot of guesswork, it is thought that this provides a better number for energy used.

      That said, I noticed that the estimation provided by Garmin Edge units is pretty close to the kJ number I’m getting from virtual power (which knows absolutely nothing about heart rate).

  155. Oisin

    I just managed to get hold of an Edge 1000 remote – where have you placed the remote? Any reccomendations?

    • Oisin

      My question refers to a road bike! 🙂
      I am pretty sure I will mount it next to the brakes on my MTB.

  156. Mark

    Hi –

    I have a question regarding the OSM cycle maps that comes with the 1000 and the Touring models. Is it different from the maps you get at this link?:

    link to dcrainmaker.com

    I have an eTrex 20 and downloaded the maps segments I needed, with perfect instructions from you. Thank you very much. It even worked with dial-up service!

    If it is different, is there somewhere online where one can download the OSM maps that come with the 1000 and Touring models?

    Thanks in advance and thanks for all your great work. It is much appreciated.

    Mark

    • My understanding is that it’s the exact same maps (the Touring and Edge 1000 are the same – and my understanding is that it’s the same set as per my instructions).

    • Mark

      Thanks for the reply. I was wondering as the one per your instructions has “Lite” in the name, which usually implies a less than full version. Any idea why it is called Lite?

      Thanks again.

    • I’m not sure actually, that’s handled by OSM, rather than Garmin.

  157. Wouter

    I’ve been using my Edge 1000 for a few rides and until now pretty happy with the unit.
    As I’m this week on completely unknow terrain the round-trip-routing feature (south of France) came up with some really nice trips, all on secondary and very decent roads. Only remark I have is that a requested 55km trip turned out to be a 67km trip. During some very rainy weather the screen only failed me once (unresponsive due to too much waterdrops on it), but worked fine after wiping it with my glove.

    The only really annoying thing is the map selection in the Activity Profiles …
    I have multiple maps installed (default Garmin Maps, but also OSM en OpenFietsMap.
    Even though I have different profiles where I can configure what map to use this does not work.
    When you change the map in one profile it changes for all profiles (seems to be a global setting).
    Anyone else with the same problem? Any workarround available?

  158. Ian Blackburn

    Hi Ray

    Are notifications on the Edge 1000 limited purely to Texts and Missed Calls?

    I find it strange they didn’t adopt the same approach as the Fenix2 which notifies you of anything you have configured (on iOS) to appear in the notification centre which is a much more flexible approach?

  159. Oisin

    Has anyone tried having more than one remote in the sensor list?
    I bought two remotes so that I would not need to swap them between bikes (didn’t initially realise how easy the swapping was).
    I cannot get the Edge 1000 to add a second remote if it already has one remote in the list…..annoying.

    • Declan Mc Glone

      Oisin,

      Had the same thought as you, and got the same problem, it seems to only “see” one remote at a time. So I’ve just used the cradle and change the remote over from bike to bike. I’ve now got a spare remote, not the end of the world of course, but would just be useful if I could use one per bike and have the E1000 recognise both.

      Dex.

    • Oisin

      Thanks Dex
      Maybe it’ll become possible in a future FW….

  160. vici

    can anyone comment the way that the routing of GPX tracks are used by the autoroute functions?
    -does it route gpx tracks?
    -does it route gpx tracks if the track is not on the map road?
    -does it give turn by turn in this case?
    thanks vici

  161. Elliotz

    Does anyone know how to get a mapmyride route into the 1000?

  162. Aaron

    Has there been any mention of fixing the issue where the unit automatically turns on when plugged in to charge and then again when unplugged? The reason I as is that if my computer goes into sleep mode and I forget or go to work then my 1000 will turn itself on when the charge supply sleeps and then I come home to a flat Garmin. It’s rather frustrating as I used to habitually leave my 800 plugged into my desktop any time it wasn’t on the bike.

  163. Paul K

    I have this issue too – but in a slighlty different way which is still very annoying.

    On firmware 2.20 it would quite often not connect to your PC when using USB mode. 2.30 seems to have fixed that but now when you are finished syncing and want to just disconnect it from your PC, instead of just powering down it then decides to boot itself into fully up and running cycling mode.

    Stupid I say…!

  164. Arne

    Hey all,
    I just got this device after your comprehensive review and I mostly like it.

    One thing I cannot comprehend is how to navigate to the beginning of a course (or any other part of the course for that matter). Importing a gpx track is easy, you then load it via “where to”, but then it basically says travel for xk before you hit the first waypoint of the route, however it does not navigate you there. I seem to remember that the old Garmin 800 asked me when I started a course whether I wanted to be navigated there, does the 1000 not do this?

  165. Paul K

    Does anyone know if the 1000 can work across 2 bikes that each have a wireless Di2 transmitter, and different gear ratios, where one bike is 10 speed and the other is 11 speed?

    I’m still waiting for the transmitter to be available in stock here in the UK so wondering if anyone has had a chance to try this out yet?

    From what I’ve read here, I see the device can’t support multiple remotes (ie. one on each bike), so wondering if this is the same for the Di2 transmitters.

    Thanks.

  166. Tim Rice

    I’ve just mapped this course (link to ridewithgps.com) into my GC and uploaded to GE1000 – can’t believe on the elevation profile it does not indicate grade % – is that not the first thing people look at when looking at climbs ???? – is there something I need to do to turn this on in Garmin Connect.

    Help !!

  167. De Weerd Kirsten

    Any idea what algorithm the Edge 1000 uses for calculating calories ?

    Did a ride with both the Forerunner 310XT and the Edge 1000 and the FR gave me 684 kcal (which should be Firstbeat 2nd gen as of Firmware 3.70) whereas the Edge gave 720 kcal though measuring from the same HRM strap.

    • Paul S

      Those numbers are only 36 kcal apart, which is way below the error bars I’d place on them. Generally, based on the estimates (“calculate” is too precise a word in my opinion) of kcal of various web sites and software I use, I expect that the numbers are only within 30% or so of whatever the “right” answer is.

      Want to have some fun? Upload your track to Strava, look at the initial calorie estimate, and then wait 15 minutes or so. Then go back, look again, and have that extra donut!

    • De Weerd Kirsten

      I agree that these figures are estimates, but from what I gathered prior to purchasing the 310 XT, the Firstbeat 2nd gen algorithm is considered to be one of the more accurate of algorithms based on Heart Rate. And, should the Edge 1000 use the same algorithm, I would expect the numbers to be even closer together if not the same for exactly the same exercise. Hence, I started wondering if the newer device (being obviously the Edge 1000) had a different algorithm. After all, I would not expect a device in that price range to use some formula based on weight and distance or something of the sorts.

  168. MBWilson

    I have recently gotten the guts to try my 1000 instead of my trusty 810. I like most folks miss my bike profiles for various reasons, most of all for the odometer.

    That said, I like the idea of many of the features on the 1000. For instance segments looks great. The ability to upload segments to the device seems to be working for most folks. I have followed the directions from Garmin Connect as well as the tips I have seen on this and other sites, yet I still get the ‘sync failed’ message every time. I’m hoping that I am missing something obvious here so that I can start using this feature. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

    • MBWilson

      So after consistently attempting to download a local segment onto my 1000 everyday for one week, it now worked without issue this morning. I’ll try to test it out later today on the road.

      Garmin did send back the below information for anyone having a similar issue. Not as helpful for Mac users, but good for the Windows folks.

      Make sure you are using the latest version of Garmin Express that you can find at this link:

      PC Direct download

      Mac Direct download

      If you are using the latest version of Garmin Express on a Windows computer and are still having the issue transferring data, please try this:

      Open the Start Menu and type “%programdata%” (without quotes) in the search bar and press enter
      Open the folder labeled “Garmin”
      Open “LegacyProxy”
      Delete any files or folders in this folder
      Open Garmin Express
      Make sure the device is selected at the top left and click on the button labeled “Device”
      Select the option to “Delete device from Express” and select to keep the device in Connect
      Pair the device with Garmin Express again (Note that you may have to put the device in pairing mode again)
      Try syncing the data with Garmin Connect again
      If this still does not resolve the issue, please collect the Garmin Express logs and attach them in a reply to this email. This will help us determine what the issue is so we can resolve this for you. Please run Garmin Express until you get the error again on the screen. Then follow this article with instructions on how to collect the logs: link to support.garmin.com{35620ca0-ca66-11e3-e635-000000000000}&kbName=garmin

      Please enter this code to collect the logs: 63RW3

  169. Steve Clare

    I have used my 705 since it was first released and very keen to upgrade. But the lack of bike profiles on the 1000 is a big disappointment and a buying deterrent. I have kept records of miles on all my bikes ( three is the max on the 705 so use a simple computer too).

    Is there any word that Garmin having had the feedback have reconsidered and hence likely to enhance the software and reinstate that functionality. Was going to but this weekend but will not now be doing so unless…….

    By the way I have only recently found your review and think it is by far the best I have ever seen of any bike related gadget. Thanks for that. I’m going to read many of your other ones now just for interest.

  170. Mitch

    Ray,
    Will the 1000 work while charging?
    There are USB connecting type external battery packs which you can use to recharge or extend the life of a smartphone….
    If used on the 1000 would they put the 1000 into a charging mode?

    I was wondering if one of these could be used to give extended life to the 1000

    thanks in advance
    M

    • Yes it does. Just be aware that because of the position of the charging port on the unit, it may not work on your bike in the top-tube center mount position.

    • Pablo

      Hello,
      It did not work for me. I was riding 100 mile MTB race, after 8:50 in the race, the device’s battery was below 20%. Plugged the external battery but did not work. 30 min later the device turns itself off. It seems like the external battery only works before starting any ride but
      Once you start you are out of luck…

    • Hmm, that sounds strange. Have you tried it since getting home (just sitting there)? The Edge should at least do something when you plug it in (I don’t have one with me at the moment, travelling).

    • Pablo

      Yes, once I got home I used the same battery (Topeak) to charge it and worked . I’ll try starting the ride with the battery plugged in and see if it uses the external first and then Garmin’s internal battery.

    • Pablo, have you discovered how to charge it while riding?

    • Bill Rush

      I have plugged my garmin into a 5000 mah battery pack which I put in a small top tune bag. It consumes the external battery first. Went on a 2 hour ride and came back with the garmin at 100% charge. Had two of these batteries. One plugged into my Garmin Virb camera as well. I would guess a battery this size will easily double the run time of the g1000 or more. Anyone know the battery capacity of the internal battery? Cheers

    • Pablo

      I tried again yesterday and it worked!!!! Plugged the battery (Topeak) after started the workout in the trainer and it worked… Good news. Not sure why it didn’t work in the MTB race…

  171. freezes when put on pause. Then, requires hard reset. Has happened also if I turn off the unit and try to restart after a pause. Requires manual connection with cadence and bike settings every time the unit is turned on. This hardware may be a step up. But, in terms of functionality it is several steps DOWN from my 800 and even my 705 in terms of smoothness of operation. And, while you’re at it I should be able to keep miles by by bike. Instead I can only measure all miles by all bikes. That makes NO SENSE at all. I’m very disappointed. This was VERY expensive for the junk functionality. This is a horrible piece of junk for $600.

    • Do you have a MicroSD card in there by chance? Try removing it, and see if that helps. Additionally, try taking off all existing activity files and/or courses and see if it continues. Just cut/paste them to your desktop.

  172. thegruf

    well I held onto mine in the end as couldnt be boethered to change it, but a number of issues still harrassing me

    – Auto wifi upload is great but always loads to same account without prompt, so eg the wife cant use it one day and save her data to her account. No intention of buying a second one at this price. Is there a workaround?

    – the text is too small to read for some notifications, eg start of a segment

    – segments dont work if you are riding a course

    – segments sometimes arent detected reliably, gps seems very accurate though

    – still sensor connectivity issues but better with v2.30

    -will connect to 2 hrms at the same time – results in amusing heart rates – nearly gave me a heart attack lol

    -avg speed doesnt work

    I could go on and on and … and the website 🙁 …

    Any info from Garmin about timing for a further software update?

  173. Jarrell

    It goes without saying that Ray does an amazing job reviewing products; I’m impressed with a job well done!
    So without the time to read the entire reply section…The one thing that seems to be argued is why have a phone that operates as a cycling computer? I’d rather ask for a 1000 with the glitches fixed, who cares about getting pushed emails and or text to a head unit…Me and what I would like to see is a unit that you can transfer a cell chip to while your riding or probably more likely is the ability for the head unit to work as a cell phone but not only by having a cell phone number forwarded to it. That should get around the problem of chip compatibility. The one other thing that could be interesting is to have the ability to turn operate the Garmin VIrb with the head unit…No fumbling to turn on a rear mounted camera.

  174. Hi Ray,
    Great review as always.
    Just a quickie, have Garmin released the update yet to make live tracking work consistently?
    Taking part in the RideLondon100 in August and would like friends/family to track my progress and thought this would be a good upgrade from my edge800 which just recently jumped out if it’s holder onto the floor below :-/
    Or any tips on how they could follow my whereabouts? (Android 4.4 user)
    Thanks
    Will

    • Joe

      Hi, you could sign up for free at endomondo.com and have your friends/family download the app and add you as their friend. I use mine so that my wife can be assured that I’m still alive and well during my long ride and not worry that something happened to me, especially since I used to forget to check in every few hours. Now, I don’t even have to call or text at all. She can see my progress and not have to rely on a forgetful husband. I believe she mentioned that she needs to refresh the page in order to see my progress. Hope this helps.

  175. I’ve used live tracking a few times with my Edge 1000 and have not had any issues. I plan to use it on RideLondon 100 as well! I am also an Android user.

  176. Jarrell

    I have since read most of the comments, being I live literally 1.3 miles from Garmin headquarters in Olathe I went to customer service with some questions yesterday…Simply put, Garmin do yourselves a favor and train your customer service department. LOVE Garmin but not the 1000 just yet. Won’t be purchasing a 1000 until positive reviews start happening. Maybe I’ll buy a 1100 LOL

  177. Paul K

    There seems to be something odd that happens with my Edge 1000 related to segments or navigation – I’m not quite sure and wondering if anyone else has this / knows of it?

    I do a regular circuit – head out to park, do a few laps, head back home. I have these circuits saved on the device as courses, but I don’t load them at the beginning of a ride. I also have the lap of the park section saved on the device as a segment.

    When I start my ride, I turn on the device, don’t load a course, and head off. When I approach the start of the lap (segment) it automatically comes up and off I go and all is working perfectly. It even tells me to turn left / right etc in order to stay on segment which is great.

    The segment (lap) finishes and after about 20m it starts again and the 1000 picks this up and off we go again for another lap of the same segment. All working great!

    Until I get about 200m into the segment again and it suddenly asks me to “Allow recalculation?” Any idea what is going on here? No course is loaded, I’m on the segment proceeding correctly – why / what does it want to recalculate??

    Does the device still think its trying to navigate a course which might have been loaded a long time ago? If so, it shuold be giving me directions before the segment starts – not just after its started.

    Or is it something to do with the proximity of start / finish points of the segment? It seems to finish the segment and start the next lap (same segment) fine though so not sure how it can be confused?

    Yet another random bug with the 1000 I fear. Thankfully I don’t use it much for navigation – but when its time for me to depend on this functionality, I have no faith in it working, which is pathetic really considering an app on my phone could probably do a better job!

  178. Joe

    Hi, great review, as always. I bought my Edge 800 based on your review of it. I love my Edge 800, but my main gripe is that the screen is too small.

    I know that all the 20 and 30 something out there are clamoring for another little 500, but as a member of the baby boomers, let me be the first to say “I really want an even bigger Garmin Edge that’s far more expensive than any previous unit!.” Going from a 2.75″ to a 3 inch screen did not impress me enough to make the switch, but the moment they come up with 4 or even 5 inch screens, I will be over it. You will not understand my view until you reach age 50 or so. Then and only then, you will jump on the side of the big screen fence. Until then, I may have to switch to my smart phone when I need map guidance. For everything else, the 800 seems OK.

    Thanks for your great reviews. Please keep them coming.

  179. James

    Hi, just got my Edge 1000, and updated it to the latest firmware, maps etc.

    All worked well with the first ride.. until I finished and came to press the ‘save ride’ button. As I pressed ‘Save’ the unit locked up completely and the only way to bring it back to life was to turn it off and back on again. Unfortunately this seems to have resulted in some file corruption – after uploading the file, Garmin Connect displays the full route on the small map but the stats show a distance of 0km and a time of 0:01 (the ride was almost six hours and approx. 130km).

    Strava came to the rescue though – when I uploaded the file there, everything worked ok (except the ‘Elevation’ which Strava helpfully calculated manually from its database).

    Is this a known bug? Just wondered if anyone has experienced something similar, or knows how to fix the Garmin Connect data – it would be nice to have everything recorded properly.

    Thanks for all the advice.

    • Paul S

      The obvious thing to try is to export the activity from Strava in gpx form and import it into Garmin Connect. I don’t know whether Strava exports all the information it gets in their GPX’s, though.

  180. Daniel

    Hi Rainmaker Community,

    ever since i updated to 2.30 most problems have been solved for me, BUT ever since then any OSM Map Data that I install onto the device (with MapInstall) doesn’t show up in the Maps selection on the Unit. (Source: openmtbmaps)
    Any tips out there? Thanks lots, Daniel

  181. David Blanton

    HI All — I have the 1000 and love it but may have a use-ability question — I am trying to make dual orientation mode work — basically I want to have the device sit in the horizontal orientation vs. standard vertical mode to allow for easier map viewing. Problem is, the device does not re-orient the screen when you turn it on the horizontal and there appears to be no menu option to ‘activate’ it …. ideas anyone?

    • The horizontal orientation mode is set for a future firmware update, planned for this summer.

    • David Blanton

      Thanks so much for the info. And for the very fast reply. With all you have going on I really appreciate the follow-up.

      Goes without saying that your reviews are beyond helpful. Thank you for all the work you do to get us all solid, reliable info we can use to make smart buying decisions!

      djb
      Plano, TX

  182. Matthew

    In your review under “Mapping & Routing Functionality”, you noted that you were able to transfer a course from the Garmin Connect route builder to the Edge 1000 unit. It looks like you have a usable elevation profile and total ascent/descent number that came with the route.

    I’ve never been able to get that to work. I get a flat line for my profile and a zero foot elevation gain. After some research, I’ve found out *why* it’s happening (Short story: Garmin use integers for the data type behind their elevation, but the GPX file type’s standard is decimals for the data type. The mismatch causes a fault, and the fault ruins your elevation profile. This is an issue that I’ve been able to find mentioned on the internet since at least the Edge 500/800 based on forum comments from 2012.)

    My only question is what are you doing differently that makes Garmin Connect work and allows you to see the elevation profile?

    • Yeah, I just do everything in GC and then transfer from there and it shows up.

      Are you building the route/course in GC and transferring, or were you doing it from a downloaded GPX file?

      I’m not sure if it matters, but I’m always always developing the courses with the Google Map option, and that it shows the elevation at the bottom.

    • Matthew

      Strange, but doing the transfer by “Send to Device” on the GC Course Designer works; transferring by the Bluetooth connection via the app does not. Another one for the ever-deepening Garmin bugs list.

      Thanks for the help, Ray. Just tell me: how does it feel to be Garmin’s de facto unpaid customer service agent? Seems like whenever Garmin releases a device that has tech issues at shipment, everyone seems to pile onto your site’s comments! You take it like a pro too.

  183. C R

    Going from the edge 500 to this was a big leap. The biggest selling feature for me was the large crystal clear screen. Using the navigation feature on the 500 was pitiful at best and when you are riding more than 75 miles it is really nice to have the large/clear navigation. I actually do like the “VCR” type buttons on top of the unit (especially when I am doing my 30 second intervals). The text feature works perfectly well with my iphone 5.
    The unit paired with my old Garmin sensors and power meter in a matter of seconds.
    If those were my pros here are my cons.
    There is no way I am putting this thing on my MT bike. One crash and this thing is toast, picture an iphone strapped to your handlebars with no case.
    Battery life is over exaggerated. I am doing a 100 mile ride through big bear CA this weekend and bringing my edge 500 as a back up. When paired to the iphone and using navigation I estimate 6 hours of battery life. (the wife and I are taking bets on which lasts longer, iphone or G1000). When doing intervals there is a 3-5 pause when pushing the lap button. I freaked out the first time I used it as I had just done a 30 minute steady state session and had 2 more to go. It freezes but is still recording data as it appears to be frozen. Lastly, it doesn’t always want to connect to my PC when logging into training peaks and strava. The 500 never had that issue.
    I am glad I bought it, I got my money worth out of the 500 and I can justify the investment into this unit.

  184. Max

    Thanks for the great review. As I read even with firmware 2.3 BT Smart Sensors are still not working. Have you any idea if this is planned for one of the next updates or is it a failure by Design ?

    All new sensors work with BT LE and the most expensive bike computer doesn’t support it – unbelievable

    • It’s currently ‘by design’. It’s one of the things I’ll be pushing for (change-wise) in some upcoming meetings.

    • Max

      So it doesn’t make any sense to wait for the next update, when it’s a Problem “by design”. All my sensors (Powermeter, Cadence, HR, etc.) are BT now and they seem to be more stable than the old ANT+ and there is no way back for me.

      So a Smartphone seems to be the only sense full solution today.

    • Sorry, to be clear, it’s actually something that could easily change down the road – should Garmin choose to do so.

  185. Colleen

    I’m confused. I am looking for something that will let me plug in an address, choose from more than one route, or specify a road to take, tell me when it is time to turn, when I’m off route, tell me the grade of roads, and tell me my cadence and heart rate last time I rode there. Blue tooth only matters to me if I need to download something on the fly, notifying me of calls and all doesn’t matter. Are these things that are stable?

  186. Sam Q.

    First thank you for such a thorough review of the new Edge 1000. I am using the Edge 1000 on a bike with the older speed/cadence sensor. I have set the auto pause feature to stop the timer when I’m stopped. I’ve noticed that when I’m on the trainer and turn off GPS, the timer does not stop when the rear wheel stops. If I turn on the GPS, even though I’m on the trainer and not moving, the timer will stop when the rear wheel stops. I’ve gone back and forth with Garmin on this and they insist it’s not a bug. Any chance you’ve seen the same thing or is it just my unit? It’s not a big issue since I can just leave the GPS enabled or manual stop the timer but it would be best if it worked like the older units. Thanks.

  187. Sam Q.

    It worked perfectly on my Edge 800.

  188. HUys Peter

    Hi,

    Just bought the Edge 1000 but It’s rather full of annoying bugs and shortcomings.
    Last monday I made a ride in the rain and the touchscreen just failed on me. Yet when I read you review the screen should had worked. In my case just nothing happened. Is this a problem which everyone has or is it just my device?

    Also other shortcomings are that the height profile of a ride used 3/4 of the screen to show hills you have already ridden but the rider doesn’t know what comes because that part is only used for about 1/4 of the screen.

    Another shortcoming is that you can’t disable the TBT directions. With the Edge 800 you could choose with or without guidance, with the newer more expensive 1000 Garmin doesn’t seem to care.

    Too be honest I’m rather dissapointed in this device.

    Peter

  189. David Blanton

    Hi All – I wondered if anyone has been able to download, view and correlate (chart) to other metrics, the gear / shift data for their Di2? I installed the transmitter and after updating the bikes firmware, the unit works great. Display is quick and crisp on the Edge 1000. That said, when I uploaded today’s ride to GC, I can’t figure out how to get to the gear data. Any ideas? Thx in advance!

  190. Thomas M.

    Is it true as one reply stated that once you upgrade to 2.3 you can no longer download and use OSM ? If that truly is the case and reflective of the mindset at Garmin then it’s case closed. Magellan, here I come!

  191. Frédéric Van Grembergen

    Hello Ray,

    First of all, congratulations on your website.
    I discovered it some time ago while I was looking and searching for information about equipment for a passion I have for years, but finally, recently, translated it to a more seriously and actively way, meaning cycling.

    Everytime I need, I want, to invest on some equipment, I first check your website containing your “objectif”, “from a practical point of view” reviews. Even from Belgium 😉

    I bought the Garmin Edge 1000 and refering to your review, excellent, again, I understood that connecting a hart rate sensor other than Garmin should not be a problem, if it support ANT+.
    The Wahoo Tickr is such a sensor but I experience some difficulties to make a good connection. In fact, both, Edge 1000 and Tickr find each other and some times they connect but it’s a very unstable connection. One moment the are connected, the other moment not. And kind of the same with my Android Samsung S3 smartphone – while communication with the Wahoo Tickr is perfectly stable.
    The communication with the (new) Garmin Cadence sensor is ok.

    Did you experienced some difficulties concerning connectivity with “not-Garmin” sensors?

    Thank you for your reply and advice.

    Frédéric.

    • It’s funny, I had no problems with the TICKR and the Edge 1000 in June (and yet others did). Yet in July and now August I’ve had all sorts of problems between the two not communicating. I can’t figure out why. I’m going to chat with Wahoo about it tomorrow.

      I’ve never had issues with other units and the TICKR, nor other straps and the Edge 1000. Very odd.

    • Frédéric Van Grembergen

      Hello Ray,

      Thank you for your assistance.

      Do you have news about this issue? From Wahoo? Garmin?

      I also contacted Wahoo, they are indeed aware of some connectivity problems between the TICKR and de Egde1000. The WAHOO-developers are looking into the issue to know if it is a fault with the Garmin or the TICKR.

      Meanwhile I contacted Garmin to know the other side of the problem. A problem that is increasing with a complete block of my unit. I couldn’t even use the OFF button to switch it off. Waiting for the battery to discharge fully….

      And about the connectivity via LBE/Wifi, well, maybe I still have to get use to it but I’m for now, disappointed about the “firiendly” use of the Connect / Express way….

      To be continued….

    • I talked with Wahoo a bit about it earlier this morning. They’re still trying to replicate it, to figure out where the fault is.

  192. fsantore

    Anyone know if the 1000 adds scale Garmin Connect upload ability directly from the cyclocomputer? On the 810, rides can be uploaded via a phone connection, but weight must be transferred while tethered USB to a computer. Would be nice if the WiFi addition on the Edge 1000 permits one to step off the scale, and have the new data points on one’s GC health page.

  193. Gideon Liberman

    I am using the old Training Center for History and my prebuild Courses with my EDGE 705.
    I am building my courses in the Google Earth and translating the .kml files to .tcx by TCX Converter.
    I understand from your review that the Garmin 1000 will work only with Garmin Express & Connect.
    I cannot find a way to upload my existing Courses from the TC.
    Also the history can be loaded to Connect from my .tcx data base, one by one (In Strava you can load 25 files at a time).
    Can the edge 810 be a better solution from the History & Courses Perspective by continuing using the Training Center or is any work around for the EDGE 1000, Express & Connect combination?
    Are the reported bugs in your review of the edge 810 already solved?

    • Mr Nofish

      If the Edge 1000 retains the Garmin filesystem (and it appears like it does), then TCX courses go into the X:\Garmin\NewFiles folder. The unit is then ejected, the cable uplugged, turn on the Edge, it should think about it for a while and then the new course becomes available for selection. I.e. just like all the other Edges.

      I have to say your current workflow sounds terribly convoluted to me, is there a reason why you can’t create your routes in Strava or any other of the many sites offering the same feature and download the TCX straight away?

    • Gideon Liberman

      OK thanks
      Is the 1000 can continue to work with the Training center?
      You are right when you create a single course in Strava and exporting this single one to your GPS, but I am not sure how accurate it is (it is still beta)
      I already tried Strava but it still lack an option of mass loading/downloading of my existing courses.
      With the Training Center you can up/down load all your courses in a single step and also backup the whole file

  194. Ian Blackburn

    Hi Ray,

    Have you had any experience fitting the d-fly? Just bought one only to find out I may need to upgrade firmware for the di2 which requires a £150 unit to enable connection to a pc, an electrical cable (not supplied) and a special tool to remove the cables.

    Seems like I have bitten of more than I wanted unless I am missing something.

    I have the 6870 11 speed di2 by the way and it’s not entirely clear to me exactly what i need to buy to get this working, or if I should just take to the LBS?

    • Giles Roadnight

      I’ve just gone through this and it is a bit involved. You don’t need a £150 unit, I think that was the old Di2 system. I just used the USB cable that I use to charge the gears. Just plug it into a computer rather than a power source.
      I had some issues with the e-tube software but eventually got the firmware for all components updated.
      I then had issues pairing my edge. In the end I had to unplug my dfly, start the edge looking for the Di2 then plug in the dfly.
      Good luck.

    • Oisin

      I was able to update my firmware with the battery charges which I received with my bike – I didn’t need the fancier (i.e. 150quid) unit.
      Also, the tool to remove the cables was supplied with my bike when I received it from Canyon. Sure you didn’t get one?
      I did need to buy a cable for the unit however.

      I also have 6870.

    • Bill Rush

      My lbs did the firmware update for free. Arms I didn’t buy my bike there. I have noticed a significant reduction in battery life of the di2 after installing. mine is 6770.

    • Laurent Vedrinne

      Hi Guys,

      I have the original Canyon Speedmax 10s Ultegra 6770 I think – I just realized after purchasing the D-Fly (and the 150mm cable that is not delivered with) that I probably need a firmware update as the edge Unit is simply not responsive or seiing any di2 unit.
      Once I plug the USB on my computer rather than on an power socket do I have to go on a specific Shimano page or something? On garmin express?
      Thx for the help
      Laurent

    • Oisin

      yep – you need to download & install the Shimano E-Tube Project software.
      It’s pretty easy to update then, just make sure you follow the instructions.

      link to e-tubeproject.shimano.com

    • Laurent Vedrinne

      Thx Oisin – I will test it this week end!

    • Laurent

      Worked like a sharm – this was so easy to set up and update!
      The wireless di2 unit can be plugged anywhere in the system!

  195. Joan Alcover

    Thank you for this great review that I have now read three times.
    I notice that in the settings for the “power zones” there are 7 zones (as per Joe Friel’s guides). In contrast, for heart rate zones, there are only 5, as opposed to 7 in other litterature (Joe Friel, again, has zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, 5c).
    Any workaround? Or should we just hope Garmin releases a firmware update that allows us to select the number of heart rate zones we want?

  196. Nigel

    Hello Ray,

    Do you know whether the Edge 1000 will pair with the Polar H7 HR monitor? They’re both BT4, so they should, but that doesn’t mean that they do!

    • Mr Nofish

      This is mentioned in the post and IIRC expanded in the comments and it boils down to: there’s nothing preventing the hardware from connecting to BTLE sensors except there is no provision for this in software.

    • Nigel

      That’s pretty much what I posted already. What I was wondering was whether anyone (Ray? Anyone else passing by?) had actually got access to both pieces of equipment and tested them. Since I have neither, it would be a pretty expensive experiment.

  197. Tim Rice

    Help Garmin Edge 1000 owners.

    I’ve just ‘accidentally’ deleted a ride from my Garmin Connect account but it is still on my GE1000 (and also TrainingPeaks Account) – anybody know how I can get it to download again (I use the wirless download function) and/or a way to manually get it off the GE1000 or TRaining Peaks and load it back into Garmin Connect.

    Thanks in advance for any help …..

    Tim !

    • K De Weerd

      Sorry, posted it as a new comment instead of a reply …

      If you go into history on the device and to that specific ride, there is an upload button on the bottom.
      If that doesn’t work (because it has been uploaded in the past), connect the device to a PC via USB and find the Activities folder on the mapped drive for the Edge to locate the proper FIT file and upload that manually.

  198. Tim Rice

    Thanks – K De Weerd – the logic is right but in reality Garmin Connect just gives me the spinning wheel of death saying it’s loading (and has been for about 15 mins) but knowing now how to find the file I just loaded it straight to Strava which was my end goal anyway. So thanks again !

    PS: As you quite rightly assumed once you have uploaded the file (wirelessly) you can’t just hit the upload button on the GE1000 – I guess it knows it’s been uploaded once and wont let you do it again.

  199. joan alcover

    Firmware 2.40 is out.
    Details as follows:

    link to www8.garmin.com

    Changes made from version 2.30 to 2.40:
    ◦Added support for call and text notifications for Android (4.3 and higher). Requires Garmin Connect Mobile app update (2.3 and higher).
    ◦Improved Bluetooth connection stability.
    ◦Added many options for courses and segments, including a turn guidance option that is off by default. Previously, turn guidance was always on, enabling turn-by-turn directions using available roads in the map. With turn guidance off, an off-course warning will be given if you stray from the course.
    ◦Added Vector S support.
    ◦Added a step to enter crank length to the initial Vector setup process.
    ◦Added ability to customize Vector left and right pedal scale factors.
    ◦Fixed issues with setting slope for SRM power meters.
    ◦Added activity profile totals, which includes total distance, time, calories, and number of rides. If you miss the bike profile odometer feature, you can track totals by creating activity profiles for each bike.
    ◦Added upcoming elevation information to the elevation profile while following a course, segment, or route.
    ◦Increased text size for alert messages.
    ◦Improved post-ride experience by adding an activity review and an improved personal records summary.
    ◦Improved reliablity of device transfers.
    ◦Improved Wi-Fi stability.
    ◦Fixed issue sending WEP passwords from Garmin Express to the device.
    ◦Made numerous general UI improvements.

    • K De Weerd

      Just had a first little play with this.
      If you want text notifications to contain meaningful information (sender/content) you need to enable message preview in the messaging app on Android. The Edge does not get to read the text itself, thus can only display what the notification on the phone itself says.
      For some reason in my tests, all Texts have the correct time when received, but all display a date of Dec 3rd 2003 ..

      Begin able to disable turn guidance for courses is a nice addition. Took me a while to find it though, but if you go to courses and then tap the bottom right softkey to get to Course Options, you’ll find it there.

    • Hi I only get a notification with my email address in when I get a text message on my Edge. I have looked for the enable message preview setting but I can’t find it anywhere. Any tips?

  200. joan alcover

    Dear all,
    What is the experience of other users with the “lap” button?
    Do you always see the pop-up window (3 to 5 seconds duration) giving you the summary statistics of the lap you just completed? Do you never see it? Do you see it appear “randomly”? Any workarounds to make it work correctly?
    Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments on this issue.

    • Bill Rush

      Mine works every time. I use it during intervals. The length of time it stays up is annoying. .but just touch it and it goes away immediately. I have my screen set so heart rate is above the pop up as I am often interested in that metric after an interval.