Unplugged.
Garmin hates me. I must have battered wife syndrome, because no matter how much they abuse me, I keep coming back.
My first Garmin was an Edge 305. Crappy design that relied on the case to hold the battery to the contacts. A little vibration and pretty soon it would start shutting off mid-ride. As more time passed, the failures would happen more often. The fix was to solder wires to the contacts, which I did, and the unit was trouble-free for six months. Then it died. Hard.
I replaced it with an Edge 500. Pretty darn solid unit. I'm not a navigation-happy guy, so I only needed elapsed time, speed, distance, power, and heart rate, all of which the Edge 500 provided. The only issue with them I ever had was sensors (like power meters) were paired to a specific bike configuration and you could only pair one heart rate monitor. I had more than a few bikes with power meters and more than a couple heart rate monitors, so I ended up getting multiple units. I think I had four of them over the years. I gave a couple to friends as I replaced them with newer units. I still have one.
For some reason I got an Edge 800 somewhere along the line. Hated that thing. Hated the lack of buttons and touch screen, because if you tried to swipe sweat or raindrops off the screen you'd change pages. I would take it when I would ride in new locations because of the mapping function, which even then I rarely used. I like getting lost and then finding my way back home. Makes it more interesting. One day the screen shifted halfway to the right and stuck there, rendering all of the functions useless. I tried really hard not to shed a tear. I think it's in a gym bag somewhere around the house, because I never bothered to try to get a replacement for it from Garmin.
Then I got an Edge 520. I skipped the Edge 510 because by all accounts it was a shit-show. Suddenly I could pair all of my power meters, heart rate monitors, speed sensors, and whatever else I wanted, in any configuration. I loved that. To be honest, I didn't love the changes they made to the menu system and all of the fluff functions they had, but I found I could ignore them and just use the basic functionality of the device. I liked it so much I bought another one to use with my travel bike.
A month and a half or so ago my first Edge 520 died. Stopped charging and talking to the computer when hooked up to USB port. Multiple cables, multiple computers. Still dead. This one I will send in, if I can ever find it. Somehow when I was out of town it decided to hide.
I grabbed the last of my faithful Edge 500s and started using it again. The first ride I got a PR for peak power. Funny, I didn't remember sprinting. The next ride, it was five second power. Then another peak power. None of the locations lined up, and it was on different bikes with different power meters, so I eliminated power lines and faulty power meters. Nope, looks like the old girl was on her way out. To be honest, other than skewing my TSS and IF a bit on Training Peaks, it really didn't matter. The rest of the numbers were just fine, until a really short spike would hit. Then everything would settle down. It was kinda nice to be patted on the back again for a good performance, even if I knew the data was bogus.
Today I pushed out for a four hour ride, trying to get in some miles before the rain returned. Thirty minutes in, the 520 shut off. I powered it up, started it again, and it died once more. Seems like the battery is finally giving up the ghost. I may just fix this one myself, if I can source a battery for a decent price. So, for three and a half hours, I rode without recording data. At first it felt weird. Then liberating. Then annoying. Then I forgot about it, because a cold rain started to fall and a stiff headwind kicked up. Then I got a flat. I had no time for the data-driven world. I was strictly analog. And soaked.
After getting home and washing the road grime off my carcass, I jumped in the car and drove to a couple shops looking for discounted Edge 520s, since Gramin discontinued a few months ago. The one I found was still at retail (hard pass) and the new Edge 530s are bulky, more expensive, and loaded with even more features I will never, ever use. I resigned myself to either buying a used or NOS Edge 520 online, or sucking up and going with the 530 monstrosity (which got pretty darn good reviews).
Then I took a second look at the newly released Edge 130. All of Garmin's previous computers below the 500-level had little more functionality than a cheap wireless speedometer (no ANT+ connectivity), so I never bothered with them. The 130, though, was everything I want. It's smaller than a 500 (with the same size screen), but connects to a crap-ton of sensors (like the 520) and doesn't have a ton of fluffy functions cluttering it up. All the metrics are there in an easy-to-configure package. Oh, and it's $100 cheaper than a 530. The only thing I don't like about it at the moment is not being able to rename sensors, but I'll get over that.
Near-perfection.
Chances are I'll end up with a handful of them eventually.
So yeah, hopefully that will be my last unplugged ride for a while. Even though I'm not "training", I still like to know where I stand. All of my analysis goes on post-ride, so it's not like I am glued to the display, but rather I like watching the numbers to get an idea when it's all going to blow up.
I'll probably gather up all of my non-functioning Garmins and see what kind of deal they'll give me on a new or refurbed one. Maybe I can snag one or two 130s for a good price. I'd like that, but then again I've never turned down a chance to spend more money.
My first Garmin was an Edge 305. Crappy design that relied on the case to hold the battery to the contacts. A little vibration and pretty soon it would start shutting off mid-ride. As more time passed, the failures would happen more often. The fix was to solder wires to the contacts, which I did, and the unit was trouble-free for six months. Then it died. Hard.
I replaced it with an Edge 500. Pretty darn solid unit. I'm not a navigation-happy guy, so I only needed elapsed time, speed, distance, power, and heart rate, all of which the Edge 500 provided. The only issue with them I ever had was sensors (like power meters) were paired to a specific bike configuration and you could only pair one heart rate monitor. I had more than a few bikes with power meters and more than a couple heart rate monitors, so I ended up getting multiple units. I think I had four of them over the years. I gave a couple to friends as I replaced them with newer units. I still have one.
For some reason I got an Edge 800 somewhere along the line. Hated that thing. Hated the lack of buttons and touch screen, because if you tried to swipe sweat or raindrops off the screen you'd change pages. I would take it when I would ride in new locations because of the mapping function, which even then I rarely used. I like getting lost and then finding my way back home. Makes it more interesting. One day the screen shifted halfway to the right and stuck there, rendering all of the functions useless. I tried really hard not to shed a tear. I think it's in a gym bag somewhere around the house, because I never bothered to try to get a replacement for it from Garmin.
Then I got an Edge 520. I skipped the Edge 510 because by all accounts it was a shit-show. Suddenly I could pair all of my power meters, heart rate monitors, speed sensors, and whatever else I wanted, in any configuration. I loved that. To be honest, I didn't love the changes they made to the menu system and all of the fluff functions they had, but I found I could ignore them and just use the basic functionality of the device. I liked it so much I bought another one to use with my travel bike.
A month and a half or so ago my first Edge 520 died. Stopped charging and talking to the computer when hooked up to USB port. Multiple cables, multiple computers. Still dead. This one I will send in, if I can ever find it. Somehow when I was out of town it decided to hide.
I grabbed the last of my faithful Edge 500s and started using it again. The first ride I got a PR for peak power. Funny, I didn't remember sprinting. The next ride, it was five second power. Then another peak power. None of the locations lined up, and it was on different bikes with different power meters, so I eliminated power lines and faulty power meters. Nope, looks like the old girl was on her way out. To be honest, other than skewing my TSS and IF a bit on Training Peaks, it really didn't matter. The rest of the numbers were just fine, until a really short spike would hit. Then everything would settle down. It was kinda nice to be patted on the back again for a good performance, even if I knew the data was bogus.
Today I pushed out for a four hour ride, trying to get in some miles before the rain returned. Thirty minutes in, the 520 shut off. I powered it up, started it again, and it died once more. Seems like the battery is finally giving up the ghost. I may just fix this one myself, if I can source a battery for a decent price. So, for three and a half hours, I rode without recording data. At first it felt weird. Then liberating. Then annoying. Then I forgot about it, because a cold rain started to fall and a stiff headwind kicked up. Then I got a flat. I had no time for the data-driven world. I was strictly analog. And soaked.
After getting home and washing the road grime off my carcass, I jumped in the car and drove to a couple shops looking for discounted Edge 520s, since Gramin discontinued a few months ago. The one I found was still at retail (hard pass) and the new Edge 530s are bulky, more expensive, and loaded with even more features I will never, ever use. I resigned myself to either buying a used or NOS Edge 520 online, or sucking up and going with the 530 monstrosity (which got pretty darn good reviews).
Then I took a second look at the newly released Edge 130. All of Garmin's previous computers below the 500-level had little more functionality than a cheap wireless speedometer (no ANT+ connectivity), so I never bothered with them. The 130, though, was everything I want. It's smaller than a 500 (with the same size screen), but connects to a crap-ton of sensors (like the 520) and doesn't have a ton of fluffy functions cluttering it up. All the metrics are there in an easy-to-configure package. Oh, and it's $100 cheaper than a 530. The only thing I don't like about it at the moment is not being able to rename sensors, but I'll get over that.
Near-perfection.
Chances are I'll end up with a handful of them eventually.
So yeah, hopefully that will be my last unplugged ride for a while. Even though I'm not "training", I still like to know where I stand. All of my analysis goes on post-ride, so it's not like I am glued to the display, but rather I like watching the numbers to get an idea when it's all going to blow up.
I'll probably gather up all of my non-functioning Garmins and see what kind of deal they'll give me on a new or refurbed one. Maybe I can snag one or two 130s for a good price. I'd like that, but then again I've never turned down a chance to spend more money.
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