Tag Archives: Garmin Edge

Why I love the Garmin Edge 1000

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Ride data from the Edge 1000: uploaded from my iPhone

I blogged in 2012 why I loved my Garmin Edge 800 cycling GPS. I’ve now upgraded to the Garmin Edge 1000 – and I’ve fallen in love again.

Here’s why:

It’s so easy to set up. I went for the Garmin Edge 1000 performance bundle from Wiggle which includes speed and cadence sensors. I spent ages setting up the Edge 800 speed sensor so I was relieved and delighted how easy it was to fit and activate the new generation sensors for the Edge 1000. No magnets here – accelerometers rule! Once you have fitted them, the Garmin Edge 1000 head unit finds them in a flash – and you’re done.

Instant upload of your rides. Once you’ve paired your new Edge 1000 with your smartphone, and selected various other options, your ride data will upload to Garmin Connect and Strava. No more plugging in USB leads to sync – you can do this whenever you have a data signal on your phone.

Strava Live Segments. This is brilliant. When you’re approaching the start of a Strava segment that you’ve starred as a favourite, your Garmin Edge 1000 will tell you, and as you ride the segment it will tell you how your ride compares with your personal best (or the KOM and QOM) so you can up your pace. I recorded a personal record for two segments within the first two miles of today’s ride. Just make sure you pace yourself over longer rides…

The screen is brilliant. A lot better than the Edge 800, and I was always happy with that.

If you’ve used an earlier Garmin, you need to remember some of the set up tricks that you may have forgotten. For example, the auto pause and resume feature is really useful – twice today I forgot to set the new Edge 1000 recording again because I was so used to the Edge 800 doing this automatically after a break.

I can’t wait to get to know the Garmin Edge 1000 better over the coming weeks.

PS: when I got my Garmin Edge 800, I found the Frank Kinlan and DC Rainmaker blogs hugely helpful. Frank seems to have stepped off the blogging treadmill, but DC Rainmaker is as useful as ever. Highly recommended.

Long distance cycling: Cardiff to Bucks

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Above: departing Penarth, Wales for England

As 2013 draws to a close, I’m reflecting on one of my most memorable experiences of the year: fulfilling an old ambition of cycling from Wales to Buckinghamshire. I set off on Monday 2 September from my parents’ flat on the seafront at Penarth, just outside Cardiff.

It was a real challenge. This was my first cycle tour carrying my own luggage since 1998. I’ve put on a few pounds since that tour of Normandy, so I wasn’t surprised to find myself struggling up the hills. This was also my first tour relying on digital rather than paper maps, which proved very frustrating. I couldn’t help looking back to my 325 mile cycle tour of the West Country in 1995, when I got lost just once while navigating the most obscure country lanes, thanks to a stack of Ordnance Survey maps. This time, I wasted a huge amount of time as my Garmin Edge 800 failed to alert me to my programmed turns. (I had a back up with the Bike Hub app, but it wasn’t the same as having a map on the handlebars.)

It was a wonderful ride, but I’ll be honest and say I enjoyed it more in retrospect than at the time, with some exceptions. It was wonderful bowling along at 18mph on the levels between Cardiff and Newport. I loved the 25mph race towards Tetbury, as the first day’s 73 mile ride came to an end and I looked forward to dinner with my sister and her family in Cirencester. The Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire was a delight. I relished my al fresco lunch at the Cherry Tree pub in at Kingston Blount, Oxon on day 3, in glorious sunshine, followed by tea and cake at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre at Great Missenden on the final leg home.

My least favourite bit? The interminable attempt to escape from Swindon. My route past Purton was closed, so I had to navigate Swindon’s characterless sprawl. (I’d have been better off going straight through the town centre.) I was very relieved to reach open countryside – no wonder I enjoyed the Vale of the White Horse.

My biggest lesson: cycle touring rewards those who keep fit. But it’s still a peerless way to enjoy the countryside.

PS: my 16 year old Raleigh Randonneur proved a superb choice for the challenge, as did my Ortlieb front roller classic panniers and my old Camelbak classic hydration pack.

IMG_7583Above: into England, old Severn Bridge

IMG_7589Above: near Hawkesbury Upton, Glos

ImageAbove: Oxfordshire’s lovely Vale of the White Horse: Stanford in the Vale

ImageAbove: ploughman’s lunch at the Cherry Tree, Kingston Blount