I find this "beaten to death" angle ridiculous. Anybody can say the same thing about different GPS units, not to mention a thousand other topics.
Besides, I did not start this thread. And I estimate countless people see threads and posts like this for the first time. If you find it repetitive, just move along.

Smartphone overheats under the sun if mounted on the bars during summer. You could keep it stashed away, with the GPS track recording still on, but checking the map then requires stopping.

Fine for home area riding, but cumbersome on tour, especially in Europe and Asia where roads are more complex. I support the smartphone camp for home area use.

Well, the OP pointed out he does not need maps. And he never mentioned touring or Europe/Asia trips. People keep moving the goal posts here.
I merely noted, from personal experience, some options that might work for the OP. Leave it up to him to decide.
Excessive heat afflicted me three or four times over my 50k+ Strava miles. It still records just fine; my iPhone screen simply goes blank.

Roland and Julianna, rode across most of the U.S., Austria, France, Slovenia, Majorca, all the while using a smartphone and Kamoots, plus an external battery. Works for some people it seems. Funny thing is his wife was using a Garmin, yet they used the phone to navigate,

Judging by their attire it doesn't seem they are riding in very hot weather.

I rode briefly with some German university students last August in Slovenia down through the Balkans, who were attempting to use handlebar mounted phones. It was basically unusable for them. Over heats very quickly and the phone automatically enters self-protection mode.

Also can't be healthy for the longevity of a phone battery to be constantly roasting. Modern phones with non-replaceable batteries, when the battery ages out, the phone is caput. $1200 phone in the trash. Yikes.

If you watch when they are on the Katy Trail, they comment about not camping and instead heading to hotels due to the temps being in the 90’s and near 100, as well, Roland, who seemingly takes care of navigating, uses a smartphone with a cable connected to a battery in a bar bag, thus does have battery issues.

The coop sells what it gets donated and it's mostly older bikes, that appeal to riders who like vintage. Bike computers fall in that category. Bikes account for about 85 to 90% of sales, the rest is offered because I don't want to just landfill everything.

Money? No & Yes. I've seen many coops fail because they were paying too much rent or paying staff. or they get kicked out of temporarily donated space. But I would like a far larger building. In a town that saw some 4000 houses and buildings torn down due to epic flooding in 2008 and a derecho 5 years ago, commercial real estate is crazy high. I'd estimate $1m for a decent size building here. A local bar sold for $1m just for the corner lot (bar torn down) and that was 20 years ago. Many coops only exist because they get a constant stream of grant money. Very few are truly self sustaining.

The 1040 is the best cycle computer I’ve ever used by far. Mine has been flawless for 2.5 years.

Mine as well.

Jenny Graham was before Lael Wilcox. Graham's book was enthralling. I'm glad I chose the audio format, because she herself read it, and she included a few voice memos she recorded during her trip.

I followed Wilcox as she rode around the world, listening to her podcast. It was not very engaging. I shouldn't fault her for not being a good writer, but it does seem that she had more support than she was entitled to, people following her and taking care of many of her needs.

Of course, I remember the pre-digital days when paper maps were the only maps. I appreciate the digital maps and use them heavily, but I'm sure you agree that we lost a bit when we lost paper maps.

Your parking brake is nice. I've done something similar but manage to live without it most of the time. Remember the Flickstand? It was clever, but of course, it doesn't work with fenders.

I've had a Garmin Edge 200, Garmin eTrex 20x, Lezyne Macro, Garmin 1040 Solar, and now a Garmine 840. The 200 and eTrex worked flawlessly for years. In order of reliability:

From worst to best: 840, 1040, Lezyne, 200, eTrex 20x.

The 840 has frozen mid-ride three times. In all cases it froze on the map screen navigating unfamiliar roads, and I rode some distance not realizing the screen was static. It has inexplicably changed fields and even the layout of the second data screen, mid-ride. A friend at Garmin tells me this is not possible. BS. I'm a software engineer. It's a frickin' bug, possibly hardware related.

The 1040 froze once mid-ride, again freezing on a map screen. On several occasions is ended navigation inexplicably mid-ride. Fantastic battery life, at least.

The Lezyne gets dinged mainly because it didn't handle routes that crossed themselves. I think the intended purpose of this device is urban navigation in conjunction with a smartphone, using the Lezyne mapping app. Sort of a fail IMO, as a navigation device.

The Garmin 200 display blacked out once under extreme sun, but it recovered once shaded. The unit functioned fully during this time. Navigation was dirt simple - just keep the dot on the black line. Short battery life. Outdated of course.

eTrex 20x wins for robustness. Heavy, clunky UI, outdated, screen hard to see in full sun, turn-by-turn supposedly worked but I never figured it out. I sold it years ago, but now wish I had it for hiking.

Bike touring, I always have a paper map in my map case on top of my handlebar bag. Sometimes a local road makes a lot more sense than the electronically suggested routing, I think electronic routing prioritizes state and federal roads over local or county. Nova Scotia map, below.



And when you get on a really busy road with inadequate shoulder, a paper map comes in really handy to find an alternative, it is much bigger than a GPS screen.

I remember the Flickstand, but I do not recall ever owning one. That and tire savers were a common thing on our tubular tires half a century ago.

I have not used an eTrex 20x. As you can see in my post above, I use a Garmin 64. I also have a Garmin 62S, and since it is getting harder to find devices that use AA batteries, I have a 64ST that I recently bought used on Ebay to have as a backup.

I usually use my Garmin 62S for backpacking, canoeing, kayaking. I can't charge the batteries inside it like I can with the 64, so the older 62S is for backpacking and canoeing only. The 64 is the one I use on my bike because I can charge it while in use, but in a pinch can use that for any other outdoor activities too.

I recall reading that a couple Tour Divide racers this year navigated using an Etrex, not sure the model, but they had a Garmin cycling specific GPS along as a backup. I thought it was interesting that the cycling specific ones were the backups instead of primary use.

On a tour a year ago, I started to worry. Turned on my Garmin, usually takes maybe a minute to get up and going. But it kept saying it was loading favorites or maps or something for a LONG time. But finally got up and going, worked fine for rest of trip. After that scare, I might bring a spare GPS on future tours, for the weight it is a cheap insurance policy to have a spare since I already own one.

Flash memory does have a limited number of write cycles before it fails. Software is usually written to spread the wear evenly, and even to avoid segments that go bad, but that only works for so long. Usually people discard electronics before that happens, or something else goes bad first, but it's something to be aware of when relying on older electronics.

This has been covered ad nauseam on this forum.

1.) Phones and Strava work ok for short rides. GPS kills the battery when recording or navigating and there isn't a phone out there that has battery life that will last as long as a garmin or similar device for recording or navigating. Carrying an extra battery to keep it charged is a PIA.

2.) Phones are heavy...They suck for mountain bike use as nobody makes a sturdy enough mount. They tend to fly off.

3.) Riding in cold weather (those of us that fat bike in winter) is even worse using a phone. Battery life is cut in half.

As someone who thought the way you did at one time I learned very quickly the downside to using the phone.

1980 called. They want their paper map back.

As I stated before, I provided a workable solution for the OP.
Like you, he may possess his own reasons to avoid going the iPhone/Strava route.
And I do not recall you contributing anything within the thread.
Covering BF topics "ad nauseum" occurs multiple times daily.
Should members not chime in concerning tubeless, tubular, stuck components, favorite lubes, etc.?

Thanks. I was not aware.

The OP asked about using a different cycling computer. He didn't ask about using a phone.

A smart phone is a computer. And it has a GPS. So it seems to qualify to me since the OP didn't specify no phones.

Unless you meant the old POTS type phones we use to use BITD when phones were on a table or on the wall of our homes.

Though for me there are still to many cons for using my smartphone and not enough pros.

Are you making fun of my rotary dial phone?

Since it is connected to a little black box that is plugged into my router to use VOIP, it qualifies as modern. But this phone will not fit on handlebars.

can’t speak to the reliability of dedicated bike computers, but I’ll add a data point that the phone I use as a bike computer has never overheated. i’d imagine as long as you’re moving at a reasonable speed the airflow would keep it cool. I don’t ride in sweltering heat but 5+ hour rides in bright california sun, with long slow climbs, has never killed the battery or overheated the phone.

the only time a phone has ever overheated on me was when it was sitting on the sun on a 110 degree day in Vegas, poolside. no air flow and extremely hot out. I would certainly fail before the phone on a bike in those conditions 😂

It's a big world out there. If some of it doesn't make sense to you, that's okay. It doesn't mean it's wrong.

No, POTS is still a useful system. I have a few POTS phones tucked away. Some from the 50's and a more modern one from this century that also is connected to a VOIP that goes out via fiber.

But I might poke fun of those still using the early style of mobile cell phones. Feature phones or dumb phones I think is what they are called.

Routing for cycling shouldn't do this. There is no "state" or "federal" attribute for ways on OSM maps (so, they can't pick/prefer these roads).

The (newer) Garmin cycling computers seem to prefer cycleways over other road types.