Garmin Edge 830 Head Unit
Racing might be on hold at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be in need of some important training tools through the summer. For many triathletes, being able to monitor what is happening while you’re on the bike is an important part of each ride. For those looking for a computer that pulls out all the stops on that front, the Garmin Edge 830 is well worth a look.
We reviewed the 830 by itself ($550), but it’s also available as package that includes sensors and a heart rate monitor strap ($680).
While the 830 isn’t Garmin’s top -of-the-line model (that would be the slightly larger 1030), it’s hard to imagine what more you could possibly want, or need, in a computer. The 830 manages remains compact enough not to dominate your cockpit, but offers a decent-sized screen that’s really easy to read with enough space for lots of information. The touchscreen works really well and adds to the intuitive nature of working around the computer. Set up is a breeze through a combination of Garmin Connect on your phone and on the device and you can completely customize the data screens, all of which is made that much easier thanks to the touchscreen capabilities.
Once you’ve got things set up and get out riding, you’ll quickly start to wonder where this computer has been all your cycling life. You can get pretty much any bit of info you would ever want – speed, distance, time, power, weather, altitude and the like. The 830 goes way beyond that, though, providing lots of dynamic performance monitoring including insights on your VO2 Max, training load, and even nutrition and hydration information – after each ride the 830 asks you to log your fluid intake, for example. Triathletes will especially appreciate the 830s capability to use advanced metrics to provide insights on how performance is affected by position and bike set up. You can connect the 830 to your smartphone to get notifications, too.
The mapping functions on the 830 are truly impressive. Even when you don’t have a route plugged in to the unit (which can be done either by downloading files or on the fly right on the unit), it’ll provide turn notifications for upcoming sharp corners – a nice feature especially when you’re on a fast descent. The ClimbPro feature provides info on how much more ascending you still have to do and what sort of grade to expect up ahead, and you can keep track of Strava segments in real time, too. Syncing workouts to Strava or Training Peaks, once your done, is a breeze thanks to Garmin Connect.
Somehow the 830 manages to do all this while also providing an impressive 20 hours of battery life using GPS. Put it all together and it is hard to imagine what more a triathlete could need.—KM