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Garmin advice

Posted: 18 May 2018 13:54
by Simon Woodward
Hi everyone,
I'm doing a JOGLE with a friend in June and am after some advice on Garmins for him. I use my android with a Dyno hub so don't know much about Garmin. He doesn't have a dynamo so needs one with good battery life.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 18 May 2018 15:14
by George
With Garmins, battery power is not an issue for normal riding: every model I have come across runs for at least 12 hours on a single charge. Go to the Garmin website and use the 'Compare' feature to see which model does what. Whether a feature is worth paying extra for is all about personal preference and usage habits. For touring, I would say that the ability to load extra maps on an SD card is a valuable feature, as is a reasonably large screen. Fancy training analysis features probably less so.

By shopping around, you can usually get all the models well below the prices quoted by Garmin.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 18 May 2018 16:26
by petemarshall
I think you will be very lucky to get 10 hrs on a single charge from any Garmin Edge, other than perhaps the very latest models, if you are using them for anything other than just recording a gps trace of your ride. I have owned a 200. 510, 810 and presently have a 1000. If you are using turn by turn navigation or connecting by bluetooth to a phone or connecting to HRM power monitors etc this uses considerable power, particularly bluetooth and TBT navigation. My present 1000 is great for navigation but will struggle to make 6 hours on a single charge when used with lots of stuff connected and running.

You can either carry a small charger and top up on stops or get a handheld style Garmin which are cheaper and use AA batteries (very popular with serious Audax types) if you are going for long rides and require TBT. If you don't need fancy navigation and aren't using HRM, power monitors etc and just want something to record your ride then the old 200 has really good battery life and you should be able to pick up a second hand one for not much money on ebAY or new, the Edge 25 is a basic unit much like an updated Edge 200 and although I have never used one at a guess would do the job and last for ages on a single charge.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 18 May 2018 16:33
by laurence_cooley
petemarshall wrote:
18 May 2018 16:26
I think you will be very lucky to get 10 hrs on a single charge from any Garmin Edge, other than perhaps the very latest models, if you are using them for anything other than just recording a gps trace of your ride.
I managed to get to Weston and back on a single charge of a 500, with the backlight and all sounds switched off (though I did have an HRM connected). That was 13 hours 50 min moving, 18 and a half hours elapsed time, but I wasn't using it to follow a route and the 500 is pretty basic compared to the ones with full mapping.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 20 May 2018 17:04
by George
I too did Weston and back on a single charge; I've also ridden a 12-hour event in Denmark on a single charge, and I've done umpteen rides when I was riding for between 7 and 10 hours and stopped at cafés for several more hours (with the Garmin left on). I don't have the latest/best model, and I have the backlight permanently on. I've been using Garmins since about 2010 and I've never had a battery run flat except when I myself screwed up (e.g. forgetting to recharge overnight before a long ride).

Anyway, even if you assume that Pete's pessimistic view is correct, and that ten hours is indeed the limit, the point remains: unless you are an 'extreme' tourist, you can go touring with any model of Garmin and simply charge it up overnight at the end of each day's riding.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 20 May 2018 20:13
by CakeStop
Maybe carry one of those back-up phone batteries in case you have a long day or can't charge every night. Given a good one will charge a phone a few times I should imagine a Garmin would be no more hungry.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 20 May 2018 21:03
by Simon Woodward
Thanks for your advice everyone. Hopefully most nights he will be able to find somewhere to charge and for those few nights when we'll be wild camping a powerbank should be fine.
I was surprised to find that some Garmins don't have mapping and those that do you have to purchase the maps. Is that really correct?

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 20 May 2018 21:50
by laurence_cooley
Simon Woodward wrote:
20 May 2018 21:03
I was surprised to find that some Garmins don't have mapping and those that do you have to purchase the maps. Is that really correct?
I've never had one with full mapping, but I think people tend to download and use free OpenStreetMap maps rather than pay for the Garmin ones.

Re: Garmin advice

Posted: 21 May 2018 07:03
by Si_Walker
This site is good for selecting the map area you require and getting a download in Zip file format. There are several different versions of map available for routing and it is free. The downloaded map is then unzipped and copied into the top level of the Garmin folder on the device. In the device's system settings the map can then be selected for display.
https://extract.bbbike.org/

I also have a Gomadic power bank which will charge a Garmin 'on the fly', not all generic ones will do that.