Hey everyone how's it going?
For your mountain bike rides do you use a GPS computer?
Do you just run Strava on your phone hopefully not attached to your handlebar like this?
Well for me, after using this little Lezyne for a couple of years
it was time to upgrade and this time I decided to go with the Garmin.
This is the little Garmin EDGE 130 Plus, let's check it out!
And I got this Garmin not because Nino's using it
but because I'm usually looking for something that is small
it doesn't take a lot of space on my handlebar has a small stack height
and also something that displays enough information
I'm usually a basic user of this kind of GPS computers.
This can be a perfect replacement or upgrade of my current unit not to mention that it even has
some mountain biking specific dynamics or data embedded in it.
The screen is 1.8 inches in diagonal, the battery life is up to 12 hours,
and there's a few other things that Garmin is bragging about here on the box.
For me, aside from the size that I mentioned already is connectivity.
This one is Bluetooth and ANT+ compatible which for me is important.
But unless you buy a bundle there's no sensors included with this unit.
And inside the box what you're gonna get - a USB cable
a little lanyard
rubber bands and the mount, the Garmin mount.
You're getting this user manual and finally the unit itself wrapped in cardboard.
The unit is slightly larger than my old Lezyne, you can see the screen is significantly bigger
and this unit has a lower stack height even compared to my tiny Lezyne.
To navigate the unit you have buttons, you see them here on the side and also at the bottom.
And also here at the back you're gonna see a charging port,
this is the Garmin mount and here - 130 EDGE Plus.
I guess for some applications you might want to use the Garmin with this lanyard
and you would install it by pushing it through this little port.
Also here on the mount you're gonna see that this is ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible
and it contains a rechargeable battery, not user replaceable.
You are also to see here that this is made in Taiwan
and what it seems to be tiny little holes most probably for the sensors inside.
You don't have to worry about those because these units are IPX7 certified
meaning that they can withstand splashes of water, rain.
Once you push aside that rubber cover you're going to reveal this
Micro USB connector that allows you to charge the unit.
And as you do that the unit's going to boot up, the first selection here
is selecting the language.
I'm also going to remove this protective film and replace it with a real protection for the screen.
To navigate the menus you have enter, back, up and down.
As you get to this menu obviously you're gonna have to download the Garmin Connect app
and that's gonna allow you to pair this with your phone.
Interestingly as the app comes up it recognizes the 130 Plus right away.
Yes, I want to connect the phone and I do connect it here, here we go,
it's going to show me a pin and setup is completed, awesome!
Also part of the setup is selecting some of your sensors.
I usually use Garmin sensors, I tried Wahoo sensors as well
they work just fine but the cadence sensor doesn't stay that nicely on the cranks.
If you buy these Garmin sensors
make sure you get replacement rubber bands because they are going to break.
One of the final steps of the setup is to sync the device.
It looks like part of that initial sync is the software or
firmware update for the GPS device.
To install this on the handlebars Garmin is providing what's
called the quarter turn bike mount.
These are kind of universal, you can find them everywhere and they're so popular
that you're gonna be able to find all kind of third party solutions
for installing these devices.
With the unit you're getting two mounts for two different bikes,
you have different size rubber bands you're gonna need two/per
and here you're gonna have two pieces of rubber,
these get installed here on the back of your mount.
Look at these cutouts and you want to make sure they're north-south on your bar, here we go!
Installation, super simple, quarter turn boom, done!
And you press on this top left button and the unit comes up.
This screen is very contrasty in this kind of light so I assume the screen is transflective
which makes it more visible in bright sunlight.
To start the ride just press that bottom right button
and then pick road, commuting, mountain, press it one more time and the unit is kind of ready to go.
You can have multiple pages of data displayed just press on
the down button here and you're gonna see them one by one.
We've been using this little Garmin the whole spring
and you can see that screen really nice and sharp.
I've used it with this little blue jacket just in case it falls off.
Overall it's a very good unit but I have to bring a couple of things to your attention.
First of all as you stop you're gonna see the unit stopping as well, here we go,
and this is going to restart as soon as I start going.
However, if you have a trail with slow technical climbs
expect this unit to do a lot of that Pause and Resume.
If you want to get the accurate distance for mountain biking.
I'm emphasizing that, mountain biking,
make sure you use that little Garmin with a speed sensor.
Not because it's going to give you a better speed indication
but it's going to give you a better indication of how many revolutions your front wheel or rear wheel did.
So if you want accurate distance for mountain biking definitely use this with the sensor.
If you want the cadence obviously you're gonna have to look into getting a cadence sensor.
This is a Garmin and I told you why I don't like the Wahoo in comparison.
Elevation or total ascent that you can display here I'm not sure is that accurate on this unit.
You're gonna have the grit, the lab grit, and jumps, things that are specific to mountain biking.
They're a bit gimmicky I don't know if you're gonna use it we don't find a lot of use for them ourselves.
As you know this unit can use multiple sources of GPS data
we've only used it with the GPS radio and it works really well even in the forests.
And with that the battery life that we're getting out of it it's probably in the range of 8 to 10 hours
which is not too bad for a tiny device like this.
In my experience using Strava on your phone is far less accurate than using a tiny device like this attached to your bike
definitely when you're using it in combination with the speed sensor.
So have you guys ever used this tiny Garmin 130 Plus?
Are you using your phone? Are you using a smart watch? What are using to record your rides?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
I hope you found this useful and if you did don't forget to like, subscribe, comment,
and until next time hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!