Review: Garmin Edge Explore 2 bike computer

My last Garmin was nine years old, the on/off button wasn’t working properly, it randomly turned itself off during rides, the battery life was almost non-existent and the turn-by-turn directions had stopped working. It was time for a new one.

I wanted something with a decent-sized screen that I could easily follow without having to squint down at the unit. I ride in central London and don’t want to be distracted. It also had to connect with my phone and sync with Garmin Connect and Strava.

It should track some data – time, distance, speed, calories and so on – but I’m not interested in connecting heart rate or power monitors. I wanted mapping, routes and turn-by-turn directions. Garmin’s Edge Explore 2 ticked all the boxes.

In the box

It came with a wrist strap, a USB to USB 3 charging cable and two handlebar mounts with different sized rubber rings to attach them. It was very simple to use straight out of the box. I just turned it on, made sure Bluetooth was switched on in the unit and my phone and the two paired up.

If you’re not already a Garmin user you will have to set up an account with Garmin Connect and download the app to your phone.

It was easy to attach the Edge to my bikes’ handlebars with the mounts. These are the same as those supplied with my previous Garmin so I’ve got spares. However, the Edge is bigger than my old unit so I had to find new places to mount it. My out-front mount also no longer works – it isn’t long enough for the Edge to fit in.

You choose your preferences on the unit and set up your activity profiles. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the profiles and settings. There are three profiles: Road, Indoor and Off-road.

Within each of these you choose what data is displayed on the screen when recording a ride, what alerts and prompts you want, your routing mode, what your maps look like, and several other different settings.

There are also further options where you can add various sensors, choose what stats to record, safety and tracking settings and more. There’s a lot to work through and it’ll take a while before you hit on the exact combination that’s right for you.

But you don’t need to have these settings in place before you can use the Garmin. It’s ride ready pretty much once you’ve synced and chosen your activity profile.

Two settings that I found incredibly annoying that were automatically turned on were auto-pause and alert noises. The heavy traffic alert is useful if you’re riding in cities and want to avoid congested areas. But the beeping got on my nerves, especially as I was riding in London during rush hour.

I simply don’t like auto-pause. It takes too long to react to me stopping and starting. The addition of a beep alert at every set of traffic lights made it worse. Both settings were switched off as soon as I got to the office. The elevation meter is fun to watch but stays depressingly green and flat in much of London.

Ready to go

Recording a ride couldn’t be easier. You just press the start/stop button on the bottom of the Garmin and you’re good to go. You can swipe left or right to cycle through the different screens, which includes the map screen.

It took me a bit of time to get used to the colour screen – my old Garmin was black and white. I found it hard to follow where I was, but after a bit of practice I got used to it and now find it much easier than the old black and white screen.

To pause recording, press the start/stop button again. You can save the ride from this screen – tap the flag icon to save or discard. To resume recording, you –no doubt you’ve guessed it – press that same button.

You can add routes – or courses as Garmin refers to them – by sending them to your device from your Connect web account. To access the route, tap on Courses on the home screen and then on the route you want to load. Tap the big blue Ride button and off you go. You can also save a ride that you’ve recorded as a Course.

New to me was the option to create courses in the Edge itself. I’ve only ever been able to do this via my online Connect account. Creating a Round-trip Course was easy. You just set a distance and the start location and the Garmin calculates a route. The 40km one I asked for produced a decent road ride.

Create a course

The course creator I found to be fiddly and not especially easy to use. You might get used to it if you use it a lot, but it’s much easier to plot a route online and send it the Edge. I’m not entirely sure when you’d use this anyway. Plotting a course on the fly when you find your planned route is closed maybe? I’d just find a way around the inaccessible section.

I don’t ride in a group so I haven’t tested the GroupTrack or GroupRide features but can see how these will be very useful for group riders, especially ride leaders.

At £249.99 the Edge isn’t cheap and there are more budget-friendly options out there. I saved up for this one using nothing but ‘round-ups’ on my Monzo bank account. It didn’t take as long as you might think.

Verdict

The Edge Explore 2 does everything I want of it and much more besides. It’s easy to use and the large, clear screen makes it a winner. It’s even easy to see when riding during dark mornings and evenings. It’s not cheap, but for me it’s worth the outlay.

Other options

Beeline Velo 2 £99.99

Stripped-down navigation that uses your smartphone’s GPS to provide visual and spoken directions. Dave Barter reviewed it for Cycle magazine.

Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2 GPS bike computer £249.99

A high-specced compact bike computer with a price point to match.

All information correct at time of publishing.