Head Units

Garmin Edge 1030 $780

Find new routes with the Garmin Edge 1030’s Trendline feature. It can recommend a route based on data uploaded from other riders. The unit also has pre-written messages than you can send to others in your group. You can let them know easily that you or your tire has popped. ( garmin.com)

Polar V650 with OH1 $410

Polar’s strength, when it comes to head units, is that they don’t become obsolete. In a market in which new products tend to render old ones into bricks (think Apple), Polar products are simply updated with new features. It’s refreshing. Recently, Polar added Strava Live Segments and advanced power metrics, such as normalized power and training stress score. When bundled with the OH1, an optical heart-rate monitor you wear on your arm, the V650 becomes a powerful training tool. ( polar.com)

Giant Neostrack GPS $250

Last year, Giant announced i ts new head unit, the Neostrack GPS, now the company’s top-end computer. It receives both ant+ and Bluetooth signals. It can give you turn-by-turn guidance on a route, as well as take you through an ftp test, which is “nice.” ( giant-bicycles.com)—matthew Pioro