Originally Posted by Steve B.

I'd be looking at the Elemnt. It's the size of an 820 yet has the ability to easily zoom in/out of the data screen so you can set the display to a size that's comfortable for your eyes. REI sells these so you could boot one up and play with the unit or just buy one and return it if you don't like it.

I think in general folks have a huge variety of the uses of the maps on a bike computer. Some don't really need to see the map but want to navigate, thus only need turn by turn. A 520 probably does this best. Others might want to be able to see some form of map to maybe pick an alternative road. An 820, Bolt and Element (and others) do this reasonably well. Others might need a better or larger map display and will want a 1000/1030. Sometimes it's only for use on paved road where the base maps as installed on the Wahoos and Garmin 820/1000/1030 will work. Other times it might be for extensive off road use where you might need to install topo base maps to keep from getting lost in woods. I think only the Garmin's allow you to install the Topo OpenStreetMaps for this kind of use.


For giggles I used RWGPS to generate a route in the Adirondacks, on dirt roads in the Fulton Chain of lakes regions. The RWGPS online map gives an option of displaying a topo map (as does Garmin Connect), but the saved route as sent to my Bolt only shows a route in a green background, so obviously the Wahoo base map file has no topo or off road display capabilities, this might be an issue if using this unit when riding among roads that do not show up on the unit map. How it generates turn by turn in this instance is a puzzle, if it does it at all. So this becomes one consideration as to choosing a unit.

EDIT: Never mind, just saw your reply