Garmin 010-02060-00 Edge 530, GPS Cycling/Bike Computer with Mapping, Dynamic Performance Monitoring and Popularity Routing

I have had and enjoyed using an Edge 520 for a number of years. But the battery has lost significant capacity and I decided it was time for a new one. And I decided I should get something with a few more bells and whistles, specifically navigation wise. So I opted for this. The layout is standard Garmin: on-off and scroll buttons on the left, enter and back buttons on the right, and start-stop and lap buttons on the bottom. No touch screen on this, but I didn’t want a touchscreen. I haven’t yet familiarized myself with all the screens available but I imagine there’s a screen for just about any purpose. I found it pretty easy to pair up with my phone, and also to pair up with my hr and cadence sensors. I have 2 bikes with 2 different cadence sensors and so far it seems to switch seamlessly between the two. My old Edge sometimes wouldn’t switch for reasons I never quite managed to figure out. The display visibility can be tricky. I have found it to be somewhat sensitive to the angle you have it mounted at. For me, having the display face flat instead of slanted a bit back is better. Time of day and season is a factor too. Late afternoon in winter, when the sun is low, can cause difficulties. I might add at this point, that my eyesight is not the best, someone with good vision might have fewer problems. But now that I have the display angle worked out, I can see it pretty well when in the saddle. Having the backlight turned on helps. Battery life is pretty good. I average about an hour to 90 minutes a day, 7 days a week and I can go well over a week before I need to recharge.

This is my first bike computer, and I love it. I'm a dedicated mountain biker and do zero road biking or racing, although I do like to push my own cardio performance... But bike computers really didn't have anything I needed. I was attracted by the built in Trailforks integration as I often travel with a bike, and hate pulling out my phone to navigate. Even without the navigation, I immediately loved the data available, specifically being able to see my heart rate stats live. I really like the jump tracking, and find it reliable and accurate. It somehow knows when it's just my front wheel on the air, and when I actually get both wheels off the ground. The live Strava segment tracking, and the ability to see my pr and my comparison to that time live as I'm biking is awesome. I purchased the MTB package, and this is the first time I've ever gotten a tech product where I was amazing at the number of high quality accessories included. The MTB specific mount is great, and the remote is also well done and makes it easy to flip through pages without taking my hands of the handlebars or brakes. I didn't think I'd want the remote, but it's actually an awesome idea for MTB. The only thing I don't like is that the navigation screens are a bit difficult to digest. They are busy and the trails don't pop out well, although I suspect that is a limitation of the screen type. I'm sure I'll adapt to it, but it's not as easy too immediately digest info as the other screens. All in all, I'd highly recommend. Thanks to Garmin for all the MTB features. I suspect you just opened a whole new market of people who will now be interested in your bike computers!

This little bike computer does a great job with providing metrics to my bike rides. I use it to collect data from my speed sensor, cadence sensor, and the smart trainer. It is also fairly tough, I had a disagreement with the pavement and the computer was fine. I did not need the better graphics of the Edge 540 yet and this computer is good as an entry level bike computer for someone getting into cycling.

Found a solid deal here for $200. Avid cyclist. Upgraded from both Bryton 460 and Lezyne. Both don't support custom cues and waypoints from Ridewithgps. Battery life at 20 hours is good enough. Very useful battery saver will stretch to 40! Don't use our care about half the features. Good size easy to read. Don't care about touchscreen. If purchasing full retail at $300, stiff competition from Wahoo. Garmin really started and owns the GPS space so great support going forward. NOTE!! Mine came preloaded only with South America maps!! Garmin will take additional $50 for North America. Free OSM maps can easily be downloaded online for the world

So, received my new Garmin Edge 530 and started the programming process. Added it through Garmin Express. No problems. Issues started when I tried to pair it with my phone. I work in the electronics field. I know pairing proprietary devices can be sometimes quirky. I spent two hours starting, re-starting, synchronized starting, power ff/on, etc... Could not get a Blue Tooth signal period. Then came Garmin Tech Support. They had me repeat all the same processes to no avail. But, my big disappointment was their lack or even offer to stand behind their product. Not an offer to replace or support directly whatsoever. Finally, out of frustration of just repeating their failed process I told them I'd just send it back to Amazon. You severely need to step up your customer support game Garmin. They should've offered to at the least send me a replacement and have this unit sent in to them so they could investigate and find the failure point in their product! I mean, what company would not want to know what caused a failure in one of their flagship products that I'm sure makes up a huge part of their revenue. Big fail. Seriously considering trying maybe Wahoo or Hammerhead after being a 15 year patron of Garmin.

This is a bike computer that looks like it was designed by someone who has never used a bike computer. It missing some elementary functions such as auto-pausing tracking when you stop, and even manually pausing and resuming is a ordeal. The reason I bought it was for the pairing and getting warnings from the Garmin Radar/Rear Light unit, which is a top notch piece of engineering. The only thing the 530 does well is display the warnings from the Radar unit nicely, with an audio alert so you don't have to continually monitor the display. The display show you distance from you to overtaking traffic and will display positions of multiple overtaking cars (or bikes). The fancy features of the 530 are inscrutable, but I only have a PhD in computer systems from MIT so I can't figure them out. Simple features such as being able to pick the data to be displayed on the screen are missing as is the auto-pause. Update on above. With considerable detective work, downloading additional not so good instructions from Garmin, reading and exploring, figured how to do everything a bike computer should do, though admittedly it was a challenge. From a features point of view would give it a five, though downrating it to 4 stars because you have to be pretty clever to get to everything this bike computer offers. It would be better if they actually shipped enough documentation to figure this out, even better if the documentation was clear. Do see third party YouTube videos that might help, but did not review them to separate any good from bad amatuer help. Would guess some are clear though. Don't know why Garmin could not provide video instructions, instead of cryptic set of instructions you have to download. Did find some useful features not mentioned in documentation, which must be software updates beyond when the instructions were composed. Again, the highlight beyond the ordinary is the pairing to the rear raday/light which works very well.

Great bike computer that has some awesome capabilities and features. I mainly mountain bike so those are the features I use often. The jump tracking is surprisingly very good and neat to see your stats and attempt to beat them. This is the same with the flow and grit statistics that offer a cool analysis to compete with. It shows nearby routes for mountain biking trails which is awesome especially if going to a new trail you can try a route to stay on course and not get lost. GPS is superb for tracking even in the woods. With that, battery was not affected too much, ~45 min ride in the woods in 26 degree weather with GPS + GLONASS enabled (most battery consumption) lost 4% battery. The Garmin connect app is very good, I've had zero issues and really like what it has to offer and the user interface along with viewing my activities. It is on par with strava and almost makes me want to buy a garmin smartwatch honestly. Having no touchscreen may be a plus for me actually, I use gloves often so a touchscreen would be painful. Also, the buttons work well and are easy to get use to after playing around with the device here and there. I have more features to try out but so far this is a awesome bike computer and I have no things that bother me about it at all so far. I've seen reviews saying it's too complicated and took long to setup. The app walks you through setup that takes 5 minutes and if you want to customize all your screens/profiles that display while riding that will take a bit longer but that is not setup. This is a electronic device that offers some great features and yes using some of these features requires technical prowess. But what electronic device doesn't, phones, tablets, laptops, computers etc do. There will be a learning curve as there is with many things in life. For me I am highly technologically skilled in consumer and some business electronics(IT professional) this device is relatively easy to use for me. For others it may be similar to buying a phone from another manufacturer or a new model with a new operating system. The point is it will take a bit of time to get use to like most things. If it's too complicated I suggest another bike computer that has much less features such as it only tracks speed/distance/time/clock. But if you want to up your cycling skills this will help with its advanced data and analysis along with some features to smile about.

Okay - well it was a secret to me at least. I'll get to that button in a moment after a quick user review of this device. As a pilot who has used a few different models of Garmin in the cockpit (430, 530, G1000), I was curious how this unit stacked up against the other options out there. After all, the Wahoo Element ROAM and Hammerhead Karoo were developed by cycling experts, while the Garmin was developed by GPS experts. The latter was great with the technology, but covered many different modes of transportation. I imagined that Wahoo or Hammerhead would "understand" the needs of the cyclist better. But ultimately, it was my experience with Garmin and the reviews of others that made me pick the Edge 530. So to be fair, I cannot compare it with the offerings from Wahoo or Hammerhead, and can only speak for this unit. There is a lot to this small screen that I am still learning, but it is Information Central on my rides. The 530 lacks the touch screen of the 830, but riding on bumpy gravel paths, the touchscreen would not only be of limited use beyond configuring things at the breakfast table before a ride, but in fact could prove a nuisance if accidently touched during a ride. And now - THAT HIDDEN BUTTON! If you read nothing else about the 530 - read this.... The buttons on each side are easy enough to get used to. There is one big button however that many people apparently miss (I picture it with this review). It's perhaps the most important one of all, because without pressing it, everything on the 530 remains simply a plan and NOT an active route. It is at the bottom of the screen next to the USB port. I was wondering why my rides never started recording. The GPS directions were working, but the ride clock remained at zero. It turns out that this "play" button at the bottom of the screen - which is essentially hidden visually and less tactile than the more obvious side buttons - is key to the unit's operation. I was so confused as to why my rides never started that I called Garmin tech support and the guy on the phone laughed and said he had the same problem when he first got the unit (before he worked for Garmin) and it took him a few rides to figure it out. So if this review is any help at all - look at ALL the buttons on the unit - not just the ones on the side! That of course brings up one more piece of this review. Tech support was responsive, effective and engaging. In all, the Garmin Edge 530 is highly recommended by this cyclist.