laxpatrick

Like you, used sigmas. Totally love the Garmin 800. Easy switch between 4 bikes. Got it awhile back for like 200 off.

Dreaded1

Finally had a warm day and got out for a ride yesterday. The Bolt is awesome. Setup is straight forward and simple. Part of the setup is connecting it to your WIFI, so when the Bolt connects to that wifi it will automatically upload to whatever sites you have chosen. You can also email a link to someone on and they will be able to follow your ride live.

As far as riding with it, I loved it. Some times it seemed like there was too much data to take in at once. By using the zoom buttons you can cut out some data fields and only see a few options, like speed, hr, distance, or you can zoom all the way in and only see speed. The auto pause/start ride feature was really accurate and didn't hiccup.

The only computers I have used before are the lower end Sigmas, I have never used a Garmin. But I think this thing is the $h!+, and well worth the money.

I spoke to a co-worker who rode with his Garmin yesterday, he said that he has to connect his to the computer and reconfigure some of his screens because he had too much data showing, I did mine on the fly. There are many more features that I didn't even get to yesterday.

ill.clyde

Thanks for the report ... I think that's the one I'm going with

Dreaded1

Order it soon, they are on back order now. A friend of mine ordered one Saturday, they are on back order, his wont ship until 4/17

jack_flack

DC Rainmaker is my go to guy for all things exercise tech. Very good in depth reviews and doesn't really try to steer you toward any particular brand. He will tell you what he uses if you want. check out the site: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/ (hopefully that isn't a terms of service violation).

Method829

I currently made the jump from the rflkt+, to the elemnt. I love it! I live in a pretty strava segment heavy area, so I'll need to remove some starred segments, I kind of dislike it beeping often reminding of the live strava segment.

Moriarty

DC Rainmaker is great. I love his reviews and advice.

edawg55

Thanks for the link. I didn't know the sales going on. I'm leaning towards the Garmin 520. It's my 2nd year cycling and might be more then I need but always looking for good deals.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Price range is around $250.

Dreaded1

There are a boat load of Strava segments in my area too. Since I already have the Bolt, what's another $60 to go premium? I should probably do that today, since I am buying a new car next week and don't want to feel guilty about spending the extra money.

jack_flack

I used to use an edge 705. I rode with it for the better part of 6 years. Used it for two years when I lived in India and it helped a lot with the streets and trails in and around Delhi. I also used it for a long time back home after I returned. Just recently, I got the bug to upgrade and now my wife and I own 820s. I wanted the group tracking option since when my wife and I ride together, we often do so at different speeds and this lets us keep track of each other so we can meet up during the ride.

Because we wanted the group tracking option, I didn't look very closely at the 520, so I'm not sure that I'm the best guy to ask. I've always been a data junkie and do love the rich data, mapping, turn directions and such. IIRC the review from DC rainmaker was pretty good. I don't remember about the ability to add maps to the device, though. So I'm not sure about that. I do use that feature on and off, so it is handy to have if you ride in different areas, states, etc.

I do know the 520 and 820 are the same size and I like the size a lot. Much more compact overall than my 705 and with more/same screen real estate. As far as price goes, I think the $250 is a great price for the 520 - I think it is a $50 off thing for the month of April.

Sorry not much help.

chaadster

I have a Bolt, and agree it is stupendous. I'm an old Garmin Edge500 guy, but always hated the UI and so many other things about that unit; the newer models all seemed to have weird stuff about them which I didn't like, so I waited. The ELEMNT release made me hopeful that someone was finally bringing an Apple-like perspective to UI, but ELEMNT still didn't deliver what I wanted in terms of features and ease of use, so I kept waiting. BOLT hit the nail on the head for me in more ways than I imagined, from the auto route loading, to the app management, down to the slick mount.

Easy to use, properly sized, fully featured and handsome, the BOLT is easily the best bike computer out there for most needs. Those with particular training feedback and management needs, specific touring requirement, advanced map needs, or maybe just a larger display, may want to look at other units, but BOLT probably nails it for 99% of riders.