Garmin Launch Solar-Powered Edge 540 & Edge 840
Garmin has launched two new GPS devices that can charge themselves from the sun as you ride: the Edge 540 and 840 Solar. They use a technology which Garmin call POWER GLASS™; which consists of transparent photovoltaic solar traces embedded in the glass, allowing the screen to also act as a small solar panel. It's an example of a transparent solar cell, which are being developed to potentially help power buildings and cars by harvesting some of the unwanted solar energy that passes through their windows.
Currently, transparent solar cells aren't very efficient and Garmin's solar screen isn't designed to be a primary power source. But Garmin says it can extend battery life by up to 40%, with up to 60 hours in battery saver mode or up to 32 hours in intense mode. Presumably the phrase "up to" is working pretty hard in that sentence.
Both devices are available with touchscreen or button controls; they feature multi-band GNSS technology for accurate location data, and training features such as suggested workouts and adaptive coaching. For mountain bikers, they have ride-specific routing and "MTB Dynamics", which claims to track jumps, measure how well you flow through tricky sections and gauge how hard a trail is, using factors like gradient and corner angles. In addition, Trailforks is available on all Garmin Edge devices.
The Edge 540 and 840 Solar are both priced at $550 USD with a touchscreen and $450 USD without. The non-solar equivalent is $100 less.
For more, head to garmin.com.
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I was hoping I could use it to follow new trail systems better and stop pulling out my phone every 5 seconds just look down for a quick sec and know where I’m going. The screen is too small and the zoom is too screwy to make this useful without stopping (garmin 5:30) I pull out my phone most times
Even preprogrammed routes it sucks and is not accurate enough to keep you on course or recognize you are on the right course in complex trail systems(the main place you want it).
Failing at its core function it is heavily laden with useless crap like asking me how
Much water I drank during a ride and how many calories I consumed or providing worthless affirmation “nice jump” when I roll a log.
It’s too frequently “acquiring satellites”. And will many times miss a ride
On the road it has crash detection something that has false alarmed many times to the point I turned it off
If you ignore it being a near useless expensive POS It’s fairly robust and has good battery life and as such I still take it with me in the event my phone dies or is broken and I need to navigate out as fast possible. However I consider the spare inner tube strapped to my bike unused in the last 2 years to be a more valuable accessory
Regardless, I guess it's kindof an unimportant question since it sounds like the rest of your experience means I should just skip this thing and hope that we eventually see Trailforks on more smartwatch platforms.
Zoom and scrolling on the touchscreen is easy. With the non touch screen zoom is still easy, but the scroll is less intuitive.
You have to be smarter than the GPS. It isn't a private guide. A paper map would be no more useful if you don't know how to read it.
You can turn off the water and calorie tracking. While it is fluff to me,you can just turn that off. Some people actually use that though. You can also turn off the jump tracker, but I find it to be pretty accurate for me, and kind of fun once in a while.
I usually have a satellite lock in seconds. Usually by the time I turn the power on and put on my helmet, it is ready. But I also normally turn it on when I get to the trail head, so I have several minutes of bike prep to do anyway.
I have luckily enough have not to need crash detection, it has been great for me. Every time I actually crash, it prepares to send an alert (and once did when I didn't get it canceled in time). Knowing I will likely not be laying on the side of the trail unconscious after an incident is nice. I rarely get false detections. But I will take those rare false when it does work on real incidents.
That said...most people really don't need one. If you don't feel the need, then save your money. For me it is a need. I ride 20,000 kilometers a year (mixed road, commute, and MTB), the data is useful for me, and the functions add to my life, especially since I like to explore different route as often as possible.
I also have a Fenix 6 (I also run ultra marathons) along with an 830. They are a great combo. But a waste of money for most people.
I will say, in long gravel races it would have been nice to have numbers right in front of me (mainly HR to see if I'm overdoing it). But navigation-wise, I've been led astray by people following the dots on their GPS head units enough times (and then being rerouted via some absolutely insane route) that I'd probably be whipping my phone out as a sanity check periodically no matter what if I don't know the area.
The data it captures is useful if you are interested in looking at it after each ride and tracking and adjusting to changes over time.
During actual rides the most useful data points I look at are heart rate, power (only on my road bike), and duration (how long I’ve been riding) and I look at the rest of the data later (elevation change, Ave heart rate, power, temperature, route covered, recovery, calories consumed, time spent in different heart and power zones, etc.).
If all you are interested in is checking where you are on Trailforks then your phone is a better device.
#2 - Unlike other posters, I've had pretty good luck using my Garmin 530 to ride new areas without pulling out my phone for directions nearly as much. It's not perfect, but I'd say that on average, it lets me get my phone out of my pocket 75% less when I'm finding a new route.
#3 - It can be motivating on a climb. When I see that I'm getting close to a PR, or beating one of my friend's times, it can help me suck it up and go a little faster.
#4 - It's a nice "reality check" when you're riding, comparing your perceptions of your ride with the reality. Feel gassed? Sometimes it's nice to look down and see that you've really done a lot of distance/climbing, and other times it's useful (if not as nice) to look down and realize you just need to suck it up because you haven't really done that much.
All that said, they're stupid expensive, and if I were buying right now, I'd buy the discounted 530 that you can sometimes find for ~$150, instead of the new solar powered 540 that's $350.
"I was hoping I could use it to follow new trail systems better and stop pulling out my phone every 5 seconds just look down for a quick sec and know where I’m going."
My barrier is cost: That does not seem to be worth ~$300 (CDN).
So snow, rain splashing water dripping sweat gloves and or sweaty fingers alone or in combination are all likely to make a touch screen not work or work without being touched.
820 was crucified for this so I avoided it
buttons are the way to go….they could make the zoom easy…they just didn’t…..the screwy part is there is a when stopped zoom (easily adjusted) and while riding zoom that is way too hard to adjust. Couple this with the unit not really knowing if you are moving or not accurately a small screen where zoom becomes crucial and you not knowing if this is the stopped zoom or the moving zoom which both look the same and you get some really screwy unintuitive trail maps….which should just be a Fkn simple button press.
Bigger screen would likely help as would better software
Personally I can't see myself manipulating a topo map on a screen while pedaling, so I don't really see much value in a lot of the mapping features. I'll just pull my phone out if I'm lost.
Oh, the other thing that's great about the Garmin devices is that they use ANT+ signals rather than electro-magnetic signals. If you have ridden at nights with LED lights, you'll know that the LED interferes with the signals to the computer and essentially stops the computer from recording anything. The ANT+ signals aren't affected by LED lights. In addition, you don't need to have a speed sensor since the device can use GPS to record your distance albeit probably not as accurate as one with speed sensor. You do lose some distance in more sheltered areas in the forest.
If your bike packing you should have a power bank for your phone and bike packers are such a fringe case imo
Just plug in the 540 and you'll be good for 20h+
You work on your bike each night post ride so it's not too hard to just plug it in
Why the solar panel area is not covering the whole black frame? It would increase solar panel efficiency.
Perfect thx!
to be fair I am keen for a bit of data but more just logging my rides and use the navigation for exploring new routes. The old version is not great and pan and zoom on the map as it’s a little clunky but does work. Stay clear of the expensive maps though as there is alternatives out there with excellent detail, as good as OS but make the device next level.
For lights that always work though, it's bloody great.