Garmin Edge 530 Bundle GPS Computer

I bought this primarily so I could use a setup with the RTL510 rear radar light and the Varia Vision heads-up display (no longer in production). It works well and connects to GPS satellites pretty much as soon as it's turned on, which is a definite improvement over other models. (I also have an 810 and a 500.) The interface isn't quite as intuitive as the touchscreen on the 810, but that's no biggie. I haven't had any problems with dropout while riding. The bundle is a good deal, but I'm not sure about the reliability of the heart rate strap. Several months ago my respiration data started showing up improperly -- way lower than my actual respiration rate, which I could count while riding. I spent about a month trying to trouble-shoot with Garmin tech support, which eventually led to a ridiculous claim that "it's working correctly." My guess is there was a software update to the Edge that screwed up the respiration data. The end result is that the caloric burn data is inaccurate. Without the heart rate strap the estimated caloric burn is way too high, and with the inaccurate respiration data it's too low. If that doesn't bother you then this is a nice computer loaded with features (many of which you might not use, even though you're paying for them). It connects easily to the cadence and speed sensors, as well as the radar and Varia Vision. Smartphone connection is weird. I get text messages while I'm riding so it must be connected to my phone, but when the ride is over about 95% of the time the Edge doesn't connect directly to the Connect app on my phone. Instead, I need to manually start the Connect app, after which my ride downloads to my phone and from there to the Garmin Connect website.

I've been using it for over 2 months and I'm overall satisfied. It was easy to set up and the sensors paired seamlessly. I bought it because I realized that the heart rate sensor of my old Fitbit is really inaccurate at higher heart rates, and it was on sale. I have used it to navigate complex routes and visit many places, and to keep recovery rides and rest between intervals easy enough (which I really had trouble doing with just RPE). Also, the battery life is long so I usually charge it once a week. The battery can definitely last through a long day trip and still have enough remaining for a few shorter weekday rides. The screen can be easily read in the sun and through polarized sunglasses. I also like the ClimbPro screen when following a course, so I can see the grade almost real time (there's a slight lag) and see how much (and how steep) climbing remains.

Caveats:

1. The navigation occasionally lags behind by a few seconds and occasionally does not remind me of a turn when the intersection is confusing (e.g. due to irregularly shaped roads), causing me to miss the turn.

2. I really don't like it when I have to deviate from the course because of road closure or just curiosity and it just keeps on wanting me to make a U turn to return to where I began to deviate, and it still says make a U turn for quite a while after I have reentered the course.

3. I don't find the virtual partner helpful and I still wonder why it exists. I haven't found out a way to completely get rid of it, like making it disappear from the map and the climbing screen when following a course.

I like the Edge 530, it's easy to use and mostly does what it's supposed to do... minus connectivity issues. This thing has Bluetooth, BLE (low-energy), Ant+, & Wifi. I think this is where the issues stem from, to many connection options.

I have been using the bundle (heart rate, cadence & speed sensors) for just about 2 months and I have problems with connectivity about 50% of the time I set out on a ride; mostly the heart rate monitor just staying static vs. reading an actual heart rate. I have improved this slightly with wetting the sensor pads on the strap. Yay, sort of.

During the 1st few weeks of riding after initial setup with sensors in Ant+ mode, I had all the sensors just randomly drop connection and I added them as new on-the-fly during my ride. Weird thing is they were added as bluetooth vs. ant+ randomly, no option during setup to pick any other connection type, strange. So I figure this out after digging into the sensors on the Edge and unpair/repair all the sensors again as Ant+ hoping my connectivity issues would be resolved. Unfortunately, Ant+ doesn't seem to solve the problem, as of my last ride my cadence sensor just wasn't picked up by the Edge.

So with that said, the sensors are extremely underwhelming from a connectivity standpoint. I have reached out to Garmin (with some of the best tech support I've seen in the business), and apparently I have a corrupted file. I do some techy things per instruction and I'll see how this plays out over time, I guess.

The other major issue I have is the ride uploading, post-ride. I get home, I review my ride and hit that 'Upload Ride' button, only to fail EVERY SINGLE TIME. But randomly, my ride get's uploaded after I retry the upload ride 3-5 times usually. I have tried with bluetooth only (using iOS app), Wifi only (no bluetooth), Auto-upload over wifi, Auto-upload on bluetooth only... nothing. Super ridiculous from a software perspective.

I have my Di2 paired to the unit (huge reason I wanted a cycling computer in the 1st place), and that has worked 98% of the time no issue. Sometimes the edge reads out my shift mode (S1, S2, etc) randomly 5-15 minutes after a ride (bugs are great eh).

I think the software is pretty good, however I would love to sync my activity profiles with the Garmin app so I could customize there vs. with fumbly button presses... not hard to do really (Looking at Wahoo).

Overall, I'm not super pleased with this unit... while it does work and gets the job done, the amount of time and sanity (likely safety too on the road trying to figure out why the eff my sensor dropped out or HR is stuck at 65 bpm...) is probably a reason to drive me to a competitor in the future.

Value for money here is the big one, I think in no way this unit is worth

My Garmin 530 is awesome! It provides me with all the information I need and more. It's easy to view while riding and I like the different screens for each type of riding I do. I would buy it again.

I really wasn't sure when I ordered this that I really needed it but going from a simple computer the The Edge 530 has shown me that I had been missing out on a lot! I can download routes and navigate to them. Customizing the screens lets me see the info I want to see when I want to see it. It shows me so much more than a basic computer! And, I love that I am able to move this computer from my road bike, to mountain bike to my indoor spin bike.

I ride typically 4-6 days a week and am very satisfied with the Garmin 530. The heart sensor works great as does the cadence and speed sensors. Super easy to install since its all wireless. The free phone app works very well. Out of the box you can get standard data, like heart rate, respiration and of course speed, altitude, and general statistics for your ride, like some metrics on ride intensity by zone. The app allows you to gauge and compare your overall fitness to your peer group. I recently added a power meter to the bike - it paired easily with the 530, and now I get power and V02 Max, which adds a whole 'nuther level of info (which I highly recommend) - so I am very satiated with the info that I can capture and study, and all this motivates me to continuously improve my performance.

The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of touch screen. This is because navigating the menus with the side buttons is not very intuitive, and sometimes downright confusing - it could really use some improvement on that, and a touch screen would easily address that. One is available but you need to buy the next level up for that,

Works as advertised. I regret not getting the 1030, as the bigger screen is more visible, and the touch screen is more intuitive. I've got it hooked up to the Varia Radar and the RS 200 power pedals. I have it integrated with Ride With GPS as my club (Santa Rosa Cycling Club) posts all its rides with a Ride with GPS route. GPS works great,directions work, never get lost!

I bought it to replace my old Garmin 800 and really love this unit. Set-up was easy and so was pairing with my phone - no issues at all. It's lighter than my old unit and overall smaller but the screen size is very close. I do miss the touch screen feature, but the buttons are easy to use. Definitely recommended!

* Setup is involved but not too bad. I watched a video on how to setup the receiver and it wasn't that complicated.

* Wished there was an option for "average moving speed", as the average speed includes time when stopping for traffic lights, etc.

* Still trying to figure out how to utilize the heart rate information - Garmin's website information needs improvement.

I use this to keep track of my training and progress.

Just what I needed and a good step up from my old 500. Everything worked perfectly right out of the box and it all syncs smoothly with Garmin Connect. BTD's price was as competitive as any and the service was efficient. A fine product and a fine deal.

i ride 100-150 miles per week and use the garmin 530 to monitor distance , heart rate ,cadence ,speed and statistics to recover.I'M still learning how to download routes which is little challenging .

The main complaint is i need to read text messages while riding for work and they are difficult to see.

Only been on a few rides so far but the edge 530 is packed with features and you can customize the display screens.

The Garmin 530 work well and provides all the information needed for fitness and performance.

I cannot express how disappointed I am that I went with this bike computer and bundle over several other competitors. I purchased the new Garmin Edge 530 bundle (with cadence sensor, heart rate sensor, and speed sensor) when it came out. There are several things that Garmin gets correct, like recording rides, having different screens to view while on a ride but there are some pretty basic features that just don't work (and I would consider a lot of these features to be your bare bones requirements to having any decent bike computer).

The biggest one is just uploading rides. No matter if I am connected to WiFi or just my phone or both - I cannot get this thing to upload any rides without tinkering around for 30 minutes. This is a reported issue to Garmin with multiple users experiencing it as well and so far, several months after the product has been released, it remains unsolved. I consider this to be one of the most basic features that any modern bike computer should have and be able to get right.

The heart rate sensor does not sync with the device consistently. It seems like every other ride I lose communication with the sensors or the computer is unable to find the sensors to begin with. I have encountered this issues with the heart rate sensor mostly, but also the cadence sensor.

Those are the two major items that I have encountered. Outside of those I've had issues finding my WiFi (while standing next to the router mind you) and even typing in a password for the WiFi since the graphical keyboard on the computer does not include an apostrophe ('). There are also issues with the responsiveness and touch of the buttons, which I expected, but I know others have had greater challenges with this than myself - this too is a issue that has been reported to Garmin with no corrective action in place several months after product release.

Incredibly disappointed with this piece of technology. I always considered Garmin to be one of the higher brands in terms of quality but this piece of junk fails to meet even the basic requirements of a bike computer, to throw it in the trash would be an insult to my trashcan. I will not be buying Garmin again anytime in the future nor will I be suggesting this device to any of my friends. Buyer beware.

Dramatic improvement over the 500 it replaced for me. Lots of additional, valuable features such as anticipated recovery time from a ride and jump data (number of jumps, time and distance in the air). Easy to use. But satellite reception still isn't great. The device usually pairs reliably with the IMUs for speed and cadence. But when it doesn't and it records speed and distance by satellite instead, numbers can be way off (like 30 percent or more underreported). Even so, this is the best product for MTB use of the many Garmins I've owned and vastly superior to any phone app I've used. BTD was the best price by many dollars, had the unit in stock when others sellers did not (which I discovered during price checks) and had the unit in my hands in two days. Very pleased with the product and the purchase process.

Perfect product enjoying from the first day.

Im new to the bike computer scene and now I know why Ive been so reluctant. This unit was a nightmare to set up and the customer service was b team at best. Really surprised that such a big company would put out a product that needed updating and customer service right out of the box. Anyways, after a lot of frustration it is set up and I absolutely love it!

Great bike computer. The battery life is amazing (definitely lasts longer than any ride I'll ever do!) and the climb pro feature is a game-changer. Definitely worth it to upgrade from the 520.

Increase your performance with this efficient equipment.