anyone experienced/owning the new Garmin solar units?

[redefined_cycles]

After this weekends ride, the amount of time I needed to keep sticking the powerbank charger on, to allow the battery to stay up to 80% (in case the rains came after and I found it hard to recharge) was stightly annoying. Maybe it was the new updates on the Wahoo Roam v2. I only had the HR belt connected and had the maps on breadcrumb.

Auto lights were off but orientation was on. Got me wondering Wahoo will go to solar charging but alas it seems 'not in the pipeline'. Add to this the elevation that it kept getting little gremlins on - recorded 15000ft when in actual fact I'd only done 6000ft by the time I chucked in the towel.

Had brought me back to thinking about the solar version of the new Garmins. Not that Garmin works well with my brain (ever) but am willing to give it another go if it saves from the battery issues and I don't need to pay for full mapping (UK only as I'd not wanna leave and have my citizenship revoked by some t**ser home secretary - 1st world worries as a loudmouth UK muslim ).

Anyway, Gamin solar... thoughts!? Another option could be to get a solar powrr bank but it doesn't seem the tech has come far enough yet to be compact enough for an ITT!!

[Dave Barter]

I used my Solar 540 in Spain for 9 days and it never went below 80% even on 10 hour riding days. I took a Garmin charge and with that on its own I reckon I could have done the entire ride without power cord.

I’m totally sold on it

Edit: 5 of those 9 days were distinctly British in weather

[redefined_cycles]

That's excellent Dave, thanks. I assume their mapping is Barter-approved too. I think I might just have to get one I'm hopeing to do the boundary of Britain at some point v soon and don't like dynamo stuff.

Thanks Dave.

[whitestone]

Cath got the 540 recently after her ten(?) year old 800 decided it wasn't really wanting to play anymore. Seems to have pretty good battery life.

[Dave Barter]

That's excellent Dave, thanks. I assume their mapping is Barter-approved too. I think I might just have to get one I'm hopeing to do the boundary of Britain at some point v soon and don't like dynamo stuff.

Thanks Dave.

I used Openfietsmap in Spain. In the Uk I’ll use the Garmin maps for road and mine for off-road. Theres a decent size of internal storage but the 840 has more.

[redefined_cycles]

It's downloading of maps that used to get me (and my brain). But for road I guess I'm good and maybe just use the Wahoo for the off roading rudes...

[whitestone]

It's downloading of maps that used to get me (and my brain). But for road I guess I'm good and maybe just use the Wahoo for the off roading rudes...

Pretty easy on the 530/540 as you just plug the unit into your computer and drag and drop the file over. There is a restriction (at least on the 530) in that you can only have one map associated with one Activity profile. I only found this out when we went to Ireland last year and having downloaded the OpenFiets map of Ireland then tried to load it. (I actually needed both the UK and Ireland maps) I had to create a new "Ireland" profile and point that profile at the Irish map. Easy enough to do but a bit frustrating until you figure it out. You can change the map associated with a particular profile but it's quite a way down in the menus.

[redefined_cycles]

Thanks v much Bob. If I did get another Garmin it'd be one of the solar ones. So should be easy enough... I guess.

[Lazarus]

I have os mapping if you want it

[redefined_cycles]

I have os mapping if you want it

Can you still upload proper OS maps straight onto these newer devices? Thanks for that John (though I'd probably have to look into whether I'd be allowed to do so from an ethics/religious perspective. Definitely grts a point for being able to load proper OS maps onto it (540 solar I'm thinking).

[Lazarus]

Will text you about it