It looks like Garmin is currently discounting some of their bike tech, such as the Edge 1040 and Varia radar series, but not the Edge Explorer 2. Not yet anyway but Black Friday will be at the end of next week and there will probably also be an after-Christmas sale as well if you can be patient.

Around July 4th week I contemplated getting the Edge Explorer 2 myself for navigation when it went on sale for $50 off for the first time that I took notice of this.

Being cynical as I was, my first thought was that this may be because Garmin might be discontinuing Edge Explorer 2. I inquired about this here and was told that an occasional discount is quite normal for Garmin and doesn't necessarily mean anything else.

Anyway, someone suggested that I should create a spreadsheet for comparing the different Edge models. At first, this struck me as being ridiculous overkill but it did remind me to get rid of the tunnel-vision I was having, of either getting or not getting the Edge Explore 2, and see what my other options might be.

Turns out, by plain dumb luck, I found the Edge 1030 Plus being heavily discounted and I got it for $305 + tax.

I don't know what features that the Edge 1040 has that the 1030 Plus doesn't but the 1030 Plus does have a bigger screen and longer battery life than Edge Explore 2. My thinking was that, for my practical purposes, I was spending an extra $55 to essentially get an "Edge Explore 2XL".

The Edge 1030 Plus discount offer was very brief and went back up to full price not long after i pulled the trigger on my order and before i could post a message here giving a heads-up for anybody else who might have been interested. The $50 discount on the Edge Explore 2 did continue for a little while longer.

Be patient.