Very stylish. Loaded with lots of stuff I'll probably never use. I believe that Garmin is phasing out support for 500 so I decided to upgrade to the 530. I had great success with the Garmin 500. It had just the right amount of basic functions. The 530 has all the 500 has and lots more, more than I really need. I can link the 530 to my IPhone and get my ride results immediately. That I like. It's a little bigger and heavier, but it has a very nice look on the bike.
This is the best cycling computer I have used to date. The battery life is phenomenal. The boot time is faster than I can open Strava. I can upload my rides from zwift so it can calculate my training load. I used the edge 820 prior to this and the upgrade is well worth the price.
Upgraded from a 5+ year old model. Battery life and satellite acquisition is great, and maps have been useful when trying some new routes on the fly as well as doing some "asynchronous group rides" with planned routes. Garmin needs to work on the interface...too many buttons on the device and too many clicks to do the basics.
Great GPS if you want to stay in the Garmin ecosystem and not want to have a touch screen (although initial setup is slow due to the button-only interface). Really liked to new popularity coloring on the maps and the built in TrailForks integration.
The screen is very easy to read (screen set up with speed, cadence, HR, gradient, clasped time, time of day). Initial setup a bit tricky but once set up no problems. The big flaw is that it is a very delicate device. Had it for a month and it slipped from the hand and hit the floor. Completely dead. If Garmin won't repair it I'll get another - and put a silicon case on it. Would be a five star review if it was not so delicate.
As winter falls upon Wisconsin, I have been training (biking & running) indoors more often. The profiles allow me to set certain data fields for indoor biking vs ones I want for the open road. I used to use my Garmin watch for the bike, but having a head unit is a great improvement. Being cheap I utilize Garmin Segments, creating ones to mimic Strava segments, which then allows me to race against them. This feature alone makes the purchase worth it for me. I had been trying to take the crown on particular segment all summer and with the real time feedback, I smashed it by 20 seconds. We don't have many "climbs" in Wisconsin, but I could see how that new feature would be very useful after using it just two times. I had a couple issues with losing connection to my Garmin Vector pedals, but since the latest update, that has improved. Connects well with other sensors: heart rate strap, speed/cadence sensors on my other bikes. Nice to have decent mapping as well. I find the menu arrangements slightly different than other Garmin products. I also sometimes wish I had spent more for the touch screen model.
I love all of the metrics you can get from the Edge 530. I especially like the detailed maps, turn notifications, nutrition/hydration alerts, and climbpro. The unit has a great screen that is easy read even in the bright sun. The user interface takes some getting used to. I also had trouble with routes I loaded constantly telling me to make a U-turn even though I know I am going right way.
I have a road profile for my road bike and another profile for my gravel bike. The unit came with two mounts and I have one on my road bike and one on my gravel bike.
The road profile includes average speed in addition to distance, time, and speed. The gravel profile adds temperature and time of day to the parameters. My only concern is that with my sunglasses prescription I don't have a reading lens and I have to limit the number of parameters displayed so they are large enough to read. Not a complaint since there is flexibility in the number of parameters and size of the boxes for the information displayed.
All in all, very pleased with the product. Now that I am wearing winter gloves, I can say that the buttons are really easy to use!
My Garmin Edge 530 was easy to set up, sync with Garmin connect which syncs with MapMyRide. It is easy to read under clouds or direct sunlight. The battery lasts a long time--should be no problem for a 100 mile ride. I can see text messages coming in through phone pairing. Interesting to see the grade % on those tough climbs--although it does lag by a few yards. There are certainly more features than I have used so far. Mount is solid as well.
Fantastic product significantly larger screen with similar footprint than the 530 and far better screen resolution, this thing is amazing. Gifted 2nd one to Pop for his 70th bday. I have mine paired with rear blinkie radar and front light, all purchased from Western, could not be more pleased with the product and the latter with the shop.
Been a fan of the Garmin's 500 series for quite sometime. I bought the Garmin Edge 530 to replace my aging 500. The screen is bigger and brighter than its predecessor. The new features such as turn by turn map, live strava segment, and MTB tracking (air time, ft) if you're into that sort of things.
One thing is taken out and i wish Garmin leaves it, the bike profile which tracks each bike odometer (up to 3 bikes). On 530 you can set your bike profile as eitber road or mtb.
Been a fan of the Garmin's 500 series for quite sometime. I bought the Garmin Edge 530 to replace my aging 500. The screen is bigger and brighter than its predecessor. The new features such as turn by turn map, live strava segment, and MTB tracking (air time, ft) if you're into that sort of things.
One thing is taken out and i wish Garmin leaves it, the bike profile which tracks each bike odometer (up to 3 bikes). On 530 you can set your bike profile as eitber road or mtb.
So far so good after a month. No problem using my 4yr old speed/cadence sensor & quickly find GPS. Customizing data screens can be tedious but you get use to it. Nice to be alerted that a sharp curve was ahead. Can't wait to get a smart trainer to pair to and re-ride a previous course.
I mainly purchased this for navigational purposes, but also use it on local rides. Interface is user friendly and easy to get accustom to. Climb profile is a neat touch! Navigation has been pretty spot on. Happy with the purchase
I bought this Garmin 530 thinking i was going too have routes created so not to get bored riding the same routes doesnt work too great twice I got lost with this. What did wirk great was the emergency contact sos it sends your exact location out too whoever your emergency contacts are that was pin point location of where I needed to get picked up. I do like the drunk and eat alert vert nice feature as well.
The 530 is nice provides alot if cycling stats depending on what you really want info on.
I do like it though its a little quarks though.
Test it out in short distance and experience it for yourself
Also when directions say cycleway that means sidewalk or bike trail that can be very confusing and annoying.
Experiment with it set up you ER accounts and good luck
Safe riding
Great upgrade over 520 while retaining a lot of the familiar button sequences you are already used to. Big time improvement in battery life. YUUUUGGGEE battery. It's very bigly. Biggest battery ever I'm told. Color display is crisp, size is right, not too big, not too small.
