10 hours ago
Garmin Edge MTB Is A Tougher, More Accurate Bike Computer
Garmin Edge MTB
Garmin has made GPS-equipped bike computers for almost 20 years. Its first arrived in 2006, but the Garmin Edge MTB is the first from Garmin made specifically for mountain biking.
The obvious question: what does that even mean? Garmin's mountain biking angle has two key strands.
Ruggedization is the first. The Garmin Edge MTB has a tougher design than any other model in the Edge range. First up, there are its 'overmolded' buttons, meaning there are no gaps between the body and button to let dust, muck and grime find their way in.
Garmin specifies the screen protection is Corning Gorilla Glass too, where screen protection often isn't even listed for bike computers. They typically stay rooted to a bike's handlebar during use, after all.
GPS is the other specific strand to the Garmin Edge MTB mountain biking chops. Garmin brought dual-band GPS to some of its top-tier watches, like the Garmin Fenix 7, in 2022, and it's used to improve signal in areas that might otherwise struggle.
This includes when you're in a skyscraper-packed city or, more pertinent for the mountain biker, a thick forest. The Garmin Edge get this dual-band form of GPS.
'View trail lines in greater detail while using the enduro or downhill ride profiles thanks to technology that is recording location data five times more frequently than other cycling computers,' says Garmin.
The Garmin Edge MTB also features modes designed specifically for mountain biking. Its Downhill mode tracks downhill segments automatically, discounting the time spent heading back up to the start. And the Enduro mode tracks descent and ascent figures for each run, and for the session as a whole.
This is also a high-end enough model to get trail data from Trailforks, alongside maps you can load to the 32GB internal storage.
The most flush of mountain bikers might still want to get the Garmin Edge 1050 instead, though. It remains Garmin's top-tier cycling computer and has a super-bright LCD screen where the Edge MTB uses a more conventional 2.13-inch translfective display of 320 x 240 pixel resolution. The Edge 1050's 800 x 480 pixel screen will likely make maps look better.
There is quite a disparity in cost too. The Garmin Edge MTB costs $399.99, the Edge 1050 is $699.99, and is available to order now.
