Edge 510 vs 520
 

My Edge 500 is rapidly falling apart. A critical button fell off today and it's become nearly unusable. So I'm in the market for a new GPS unit, fast. I wanted to skip the 510 and wait for the 520 initially, but the rate at which my 500 is falling apart and the lack of availability of the 520 is tempting me to just spring for the 510 instead.

Would this be a mistake? Is the availability of the 520 imminent?

Another thing to consider; I ride in winter a lot, so I'm not sure if the touch screen on the 510 would be useful at all when I'm wearing long-fingered gloves. Anyone have any experience with that?

Do you like the idea of spending $200+ USD for a half-broken product that you get to beta test for bugs for a corporation?

Put it this way, Garmin just put out firmware v5.0 for the Edge 1000. Now my Edge has a "feature" whereby every ride save is corrupt and needs edited with Fit File Repair Tool. The Edge1000 is over a year old...and it still has issues.

As to winter riding, it depends on what gloves you have. IIRC the 510 is a bit more fussy on that score.

I'd go for a 520. It's not like all the other Garmins aren't still buggy. I don't think I've ever seen a Garmin firmware release that while fixing some things didn't break other things. In my experience, for any Garmin product, there's usually an optimum firmware rev, usually several versions removed from the final one, depending on how you use the device.

Buying and using a new Garmin is always an adventure.

I'm not being flippant when I suggest that if you can fit everything you need on to one screen, there is no need to scroll. My eyes are old enough to need reading glasses, so on the first screen of my 510, I have just six fields. It keeps two of them (average speed and current speed) big enough to see very easily, and the other four (current cadence, average cadence, time, heart rate) are still readable. The other screens are available if I want to see them, but I've never bothered to scroll while riding.

I ordered a 520 at the beginning of Jul and it will be in my hands on Tue. I'll let you know but from the early reports I see it appears to be working fine. These are fairly complicated devices particularly when used in conjunction with smartphones and internet software there are lots of opportunities for problems. I'm fairly confident it can do the basics properly like recording the ride data. All the rest of the data syncing, live Strava segments etc, I don't mind waiting for them to iron out some wrinkles.

I ride all through the winter with full fingered gloves and don't recall any problems with a Garmin 800 which also has a touchscreen. Most days my gloves aren't terribly thick and some of them have some type of thinner conductive patch on the index finger but I think they all work as the displays Garmin uses are resistive touch screen which are just pressure sensitive. Smartphones use capacitive touch screens which are affected more by gloves.

It seems to be available at Amazon. There are 11 reviews from people who have purchased. The shipping notes say "1 to 3 months," though...??? Performance Bike has them advertised with a shipping date of September 4. Sounds like they are in short supply.

Looigi and Marcus_Ti both make good points about Garmins in general. I've used several of their products and currently have an Edge 500 on my bike. I just returned a Fenix 3 which is an really flawed product, IMHO. I'm currently using an FR 610 which is cheap, and functions "OK" but even though it's an old product still has flaky automatic uploads via their "Ant stick." I'm seriously considering finding another supplier for my GPS needs! Any suggestions?

STP

Buy another 500? Save some bucks. I've seen them for around $160 on Amazon. And for those of you who like bluetooth syncing, I have to plug my Garmin in to charge it so I'm not that unhappy without bluetooth.

The Bluetooth sync doesn't always go off without a hitch. Often, I just get tired of the sync failing and end up plugging in my 510, just like you do with your 500.

I use an 800 and have never had a problem with the touch screen. But I live in the PNW where our winters are mild and wet, so a pair of light weight merino gloves does it for me. Mine don't even have the conductive patch, and work every time.

How long have you had your Edge 500? Mine is falling apart too, and held together with scotch tape. The tape keeps the buttons in and functioning, for now. I'm also eyeing the 520, but hope that the 500 holds up for a while longer (no, I don't want to be an early adopter). It's disappointing that my Garmin works just fine, except for the rubber around the buttons.

4 years now. I'm using electrical tape to hold mine in. It seems to do the trick.

I own a 510 but I'd get a 520 if I were buying now.