Garmin Question

[The Central Scrutinizer]

@Dogtrousers
I’ve had the 130 two years and did a 68 mile ride last year and the battery was fine.
I think the 130 came out in 2019.

 

[ianbarton]

I have the Garmin Edge 130 and planning to do a century ride in May uploading to strava.I'm planning a maximum of about eight hours to complete because i'm old and slow..ish
I won't be using any sensors but will be following a downloaded route and i'm just wondering will a fully charged battery last the ride?

I haven't used a Garmin for a few years. One of the reasons I stopped using Garmins was mine crashed if I was following a route downloaded from RideWithGPS if the ride was longer than 60 miles. I don't know if downloads from Strava have the same problem. This was all some time ago, so I hope the problem has been fixed.

 

[Dogtrousers]

@Dogtrousers
I’ve had the 130 two years and did a 68 mile ride last year and the battery was fine.
I think the 130 came out in 2019.

Should be fine then. The bonkers Garmins that couldn't record and charge were circa 2010-2015 or something like that.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The old adage:

A man with a watch knows the time. A man with two watches is never quite sure.

A man with no watches has a more relaxed time.

 

[si_c]

Don't go for expensive device specific power banks. Get an Anker or similar plus a couple of cables. Something like this
Amazon product ASIN B07S829LBXView: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Technology-High-Capacity-Compatible-Black/dp/B07S829LBX/ref=asc_df_B07S829LBX/


Also be aware that some (very) old Garmin units cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. That is they can't take charge and record simultaneously. And they throw a wobbly and shut down when you disconnect the charge. I don't know if yours is one of these.

The Edge 130 should be fine I think (it's one of the newer ones, certainly my Edge 820 can (much older), worst case you stop for food and charge then.

I use a set of RavPower power banks for charging my devices, but they seem to have withdrawn from the UK market, Anker are another reputable brand as noted above.

Avoid any weird brands on Amazon/eBay, they *might* be ok, but also they *might* explode.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

@si_c
Didn’t want to buy anything too expensive as it’s something I probably wouldn’t use a lot.
Was looking at the juice brand in Argos.
I might not need it but I don’t want to take that chance.

 

[si_c]

@si_c
Didn’t want to buy anything too expensive as it’s something I probably wouldn’t use a lot.
Was looking at the juice brand in Argos.
I might not need it but I don’t want to take that chance.

You really don't need anything expensive for a day ride, around 5000mAh should be sufficient to keep your phone and GPS topped up for the day. Buying from a retailer is also a good shout, a lot of the problem with Amazon/eBay buys is that the cells in the battery may not be what they advertise, or unsafely put together.

At least with Argos you should get the capacity you are looking for and can assume there won't be any safety issues, and at least you have an avenue to return it should it not meet expectations.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Most gps are around 1000-1500mAh, even a battery booster lipstick style of 3,000mAh will be able to recharge your gps twice over. You don’t need a large battery pack to keep it topped up for your 100 miler.

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

The Garmin 130 battery is 180mah so even a lipstick style power bank would be fine, smaller and cheaper unless you need one for the phone too

 

[si_c]

Most gps are around 1000-1500mAh, even a battery booster lipstick style of 3,000mAh will be able to recharge your gps twice over. You don’t need a large battery pack to keep it topped up for your 100 miler.

More modern ones are around that size, however all of those would have no difficulty outlasting an 8 hour ride. I did @ColinJ's ride from Garforth last year with my 1030plus, at the end of that ride (about 9 hours, 100miles) with full navigation and plenty of sensors, I had just under 80% battery remaining.

 

[ianrauk]

I use the Garmin Edge 130 for my imperial century rides. You should get 8 hours out of it easy enough if you switch off at breaks/stops etc. In much colder weather it comes down to about 7 hours. So I use a small power bank and give it a quick boost at a lunch stop.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

That’s good to know @ianrauk seeing how many century rides you have done.👍

 

[PK99]

Don't display the map all the time. Continually redrawing the screen eats battery.

Ride with a data screen. Map will pop up in advance of turns. Useful to have 'distance to next turn' as a data filed on the showing screen.

 

[cyberknight]

I haven't used a Garmin for a few years. One of the reasons I stopped using Garmins was mine crashed if I was following a route downloaded from RideWithGPS if the ride was longer than 60 miles. I don't know if downloads from Strava have the same problem. This was all some time ago, so I hope the problem has been fixed.

strava and garmin connect routes are fine, i tend to use garmin connect to transfer routes to my explore as that model seems to prefer that way ,
Doing a century ride with a breadcrumb map is doable but i prefer better maps especially on routes you do not know well

 

[ianrauk]

I haven't used a Garmin for a few years. One of the reasons I stopped using Garmins was mine crashed if I was following a route downloaded from RideWithGPS if the ride was longer than 60 miles. I don't know if downloads from Strava have the same problem. This was all some time ago, so I hope the problem has been fixed.

Was that a Garmin Edge 500 you were using? There was a lot of reported problems with it at the time, mine included. Having the same problem ie crashing with a long route. Other Garmins I have had no such problems with.