Unnoticed, another 8 months of cycling have passed, and we are already so close to the new winter of 2023.

The only difference from the previous 8 months of cycling is that my old Garmin Edge 530 - Mando has a new owner, and during the last 8 months I am actively testing the new Garmin Edge 540 with the code name Bo.

The Nikname "Bo" is short for Bo Katan Kryze.

In short, because while I remember the full name, my efforts to pronounce Bo Katan Kryze correctly and faithfully are overwhelming. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz07ivLgalU

The tradition is that my Garmin bicycle computers receive a Nickname related to a character from the series "The Mandalorian"

This tradition goes many centuries back to the battle against the Empire for the Force. :)

It started from my second Garmin bicycle computer model: Garmin Edge 130 with the Nickname Grogu.

You can read a detailed review of Garmin Edge 130 Grogu  in the publication in the Blog named: Garmin Edge 130 - Grogu Review by a randonneur - Part One

In fact, now when I think about that, actually my first Garmin was a very old and a tiny bicycle computer Garmin model 500!

For better or worse, this super compact and very old Garmin computer was with me for a very short time.

So, it never received its Mandalorian guerrilla name.

A few days after the aforementioned Garmin 500, I bought the new Garmin 130 from Decathlon, which was super modern compared to the antique Garmin 500 back then.

However, it turned out that Grogu's battery life was not suitable for the long endurance riding and moust of the brevets!

This was the reason why, just a few months later, Grogu departed with Speedy shipping company to its new owner and I acquired a pristine Garmin Edge 530... again from Decathlon.

After the little Jedi, Grogu (Garmin Edge 130), the new bicycle computer model Garmin Edge 530 was simply a WOW!

We together with him enjoyed two super pleasant years, traveling back and forth in time together with Mando, the brave Mandalorian.

With both current owners of Grogu and the owner of Mando I maintain a connection on Facebook.

The most interesting fact I observed in my periodic conversations with them is that after about 2.5 years of active use, both Grogu's and Mando's batteries are still working very well!

Surprisingly but true!

The batteries of both bike computers have almost no loss in their initial capacity!

And both bike computers work perfectly, without any bugs or problems!

I'm sharing all of this to support my colleagues who are wondering whether to buy a second-hand bike computer from the Garmin Edge 130, Edge 530, or Edge 830 series.

I assume the same positive trend in battery life applies to the larger Garmin Edge 1030 and Edge 1030 Plus.

IMPORTANT: Of all Garmin bike computers, I strongly do NOT recommend buying a computer from the Garmin Edge Explore series or Garmin Edge Explore 2!

Garmin Edge Explore, NO a firm NO! :)

At the moment, only two bike computers from the Edge Explore series have been released, namely the Garmin Edge Explore and Garmin Edge Explore 2

Both models are heavily hardware-crippled and have been severely stripped down in terms of software.

Do NOT waste your money and nerves on them!

Here are a few examples related to the Edge Explore:

With a colleague, we once rode several Super Randonnee brevet. More precisely, this was two years ago, in 2020.

The SR600 brevets are mountain climbing brevets with a length of 600 km and 10000 meters of elevation gain.

As I recall today: I was climbing in the heat on the last part of the super beautiful climb in the Sredna Gora mountain - the ascent from Strelcha to Koprivshtitsa.

At the top of the climb, there is a nearly flat section of several kilometers.

And right there, on the flat top, I caught up with the aforementioned colleague who was pedaling in circles...

Spinning circles, BECAUSE his Garmin Edge Explore regularly paused in the mountain passes under the trees.

It paused because it couldn't catch any GPS signal at all, so my colleague was forced to spin extra circles so that the brevet's mileage would finally match the GPS track in Strava...

ABSOLUTE MADNESS!

And all this from a bike computer costing several hundred BGN ...

I also remember another example with this colleague going on a three day brevet with the same Garmin Edge Explore ...

Attached to his bike's frame was a PowerBank tied with cable ties, resembling a street pavement, and in my opinion, it weighed at least 300-500 grams.

This PowerBank was vital for him to periodically recharge the problematic Garmin Explore every few hours because its battery was practically useless...

There are many other insanities and absurdities related to the Garmin Edge Explore series, from which I occasionally wake up sweaty, screaming... :)

I shared all of this above so that you do NOT think I'm some crazy Garmin fan... :)

Yes, I definitely like most of the Garmin bike computers models.

I even studied the Monkey C programming language used to write applications for Garmin watches and bike computers.

I have written and continue to write several applications with missing features and capabilities for Garmin Edge series bike computers.

But despite all that, I can't turn a blind eye to the products specifically from the Garmin Edge Explore series!

Garmin Edge 540 vs Edge 530 vs Edge 130

 After the long lyrical digression above, let's return to the main theme of this review: Garmin Edge 540 vs 530 vs 130 after 8 months of use

Let me clarify that in this comparison, we won't be discussing the Edge 130, as it is a completely different computer compared to the computers from the 530 / 830 and 540 / 840 series.

The little Jedi Edge 130 and Edge 130 Plus are excellent bike computers designed for cyclists who emphasize minimalism in every dimension: low weight, small size.

For all of them, Edge 130 Grogu is the PERFECT bicycle computer!

The battery life, as well as the software features and support for external sensors in Edge 130, are completely sufficient for full-fledged daily workouts and cycling races.

 So, how is the situation with the new Edge 540 and 840

1. Barometric Altimeter: 

Most importantly, the super annoying and serious problem of the wetting barometric altimeter in Garmin Edge 530 has now been completely eliminated in the new Edge 540 / Edge 840.

HOORAY!!!

In the past few weeks, during my last adventure in heavy rain, there were absolutely no problems with the altimeter. Both during the rain and after the rain, the altimeter worked perfectly.

A link to my latest ride in Strava in that heavy rain on the Devetashko Plateau can be found here: Ride in Heavy Rain on the Plateau

2. Battery in general: the battery in the new Edge 540 is NOT anything special compared to the battery in Edge 530!

FACT! :(

According to the manufacturer's specification, the battery was supposed to be better... well, I'm not convinced of that statement, but whatever!

My overall impression of the Edge 540 Bo Katan Kryze (I couldn't say the full name... :) ) battery is that, on long multi-day rides, it holds roughly the same time as the battery in the old reliable Edge 530 Mando, with the same other settings.

Yes, it's true that the manufacturer explicitly states that if you use the super-accurate Multi GNSS GPS mode, the battery will be used more, but precisely because of that, I rarely turn it on.

3. Multi-Frequency Multi GNSS GPS

Yes, the multi-frequency GNSS GPS is super accurate.

Under the dense trees in some sections of our Stara Planina passes like Beklemeto and Shipka, there are absolutely no problems with the new Multi-Frequency Multi GNSS GPS.

The only problem you MUST be aware of is that IF you decide to change the GPS mode from Multi-Frequency Multi GNSS GPS to Balanced Multi GNSS while recording the GPS track during your ride, the process of switching and reconnecting to the satellites takes A LOT of time!!!

Two days ago, a friend of mine Joro Pchelata and I went to climb Beklemeto pass from the North and South, and at the foot of the pass, I decided to switch from Balanced Multi GNSS to Multi-Frequency Multi GNSS GPS... unexpectedly, however, in the next 10-15 minutes, the new Edge 540 Bo Katan Kryze failed to connect to satellites and showed me a speed of 0 km/h and 0 km of distance covered, but the elevation gain was accumulating while I continued slowly up the bends towards Beklemeto.

Shortly after that, I had a SUPER STRANGE INCIDENT... an endless series of unexpected and completely absurd occurrences that happened one after another, forcing me to abort the climb to Beklemeto pass after only about 7 km from the start and a mere 450 meters of elevation gain.

I will tell this super strange and instructive story here in the coming days... ........ .........

Link to the ride in Strava of that semi-ascent to Beklemeto pass can be seen here: Morning Ride

In the GPS track in Strava, you can clearly see the problem when I switched from Balanced Multi GNSS to Multi-Frequency Multi GNSS GPS, and the GPS connectivity completely disappeared for 10 minutes or more!

Garmin couldn't connect to satellites, and I had to switch it back to Balanced Multi GNSS, and only after another 5 minutes, it connected... AWFUL... :(

4. The New ClimbPro... ....... .......... :( :( :(

The new ClimbPro was highly advertised by all bloggers and Garmin enthusiasts!

There was a huge (mostly marketing) HYPE around it.

However, the reality with the new ClimbPro is as follows:

Advantages of the new ClimbPro:

As a whole, for daily workouts, the innovations in ClimbPro are a cool extra... but definitely not a vital function for cycling!

You have a very good climb finder that you can use.

You have somewhat accurate statistics for the climb you are currently riding, yes, BUT everything has its PRICE!

Disadvantages of the new ClimbPro:

The disadvantages of the new ClimbPro are many times greater compared to its advantages!!!

You CANNOT upload large GPS tracks for multi-day rides!

FACT!

You can't upload long GPS tracks... RIDICULOUS! :(

With the old Garmin Edge 530 Mando, I had no problems whatsoever uploading tracks for 1000 km brevets, 1400 km in Romania, and the 600-kilometer tracks of mountain brevets Super Randonnee.

Unfortunately, this is NO LONGER possible with the new Garmin Edge 540, Edge 840, and even with the more expensive and more powerful hardware Garmin Edge 1040!

Unfortunately, this is a miserable FACT!

On the last 1200 km brevet "Walk in Prague," IF I loaded the track onto my Edge 540 or if my colleague from Varna with whom we rode loaded the entire 1200 km track onto his Garmin Edge 1040 Solar, the following happened: first, the Garmin loaded the track for about 10+ minutes.

And even if it managed to load the entire track, a few minutes into the ride, the Garmins started to LAG.

It started an endless, disgusting INTERFACE LAGGING both on my Edge 540 and on the interface of the more powerful hardware Garmin Edge 1040.

We were forced to use chopped-up, 150-200 km GPS tracks to be able to ride and record the brevet WITHOUT problems with INTERFACE LAG.

NIGHTMARE... and this on a bike computer worth 700 Euro?

SHAME ON YOU GARMIN developers!

Come on, clean up this LAGGY code that you expose yourselves with!

Aside from the INTERFACE LAG with long tracks, due to the new ClimbPro, the maps + the database of climbs now occupy TWICE as much space on the Garmin's memory card!

The larger map size is not a major problem for Garmin Edge 840 and Edge 1040, BUT for the small 16 GB memory card on Garmin Edge 540, it's a BIG problem!

Today, I read in the Garmin 540 forum about a fellow cyclist living right on the border between two Garmin maps for Europe, struggling and having problems with the default Garmin maps.

The only alternative is to use alternative maps to fix all this madness due to the bugs in the new ClimbPro...

And all of this is a FACT, even on the flagship Garmin Edge 1040 Solar priced at 1400 lv... ........ ..............

4. New Screen with Music Player Control

I use this feature daily, and it's super COOL!

Unfortunately, Garmin probably won't introduce it in the older Garmin Edge 530 / 830 / 1030 / 1030 Plus.

They won't introduce it not because it requires some special hardware, but simply because their marketing policy is like that - they want to force you to buy the new, MORE EXPENSIVE model.

Nothing new under the sun, right?

Apple is the same with their glossy iPhones for super users... Personal opinion, don't get upset if you're an Apple user, but for decades :) I personally use a rooted Android phone with a highly customized operating system, and Apple's limitations are nightmarish for me.

5. Interface in BULGARIAN Language! Oh, YES! :)

Yes, the new interface in Garmin Edge 540 / 840 / 1040 is super cool overall.

The old interface on Edge 530 Mando was quite annoying overall compared to the new interface... a fact.

And the fact that the interface is in BULGARIAN language is also super cool.

I use the Bulgarian interface NOT because I don't understand English, NO!

The principle is important, and that's why my Garmin is in BULGARIAN language. :)

And I honestly like having Garmin in Bulgarian.

For example, my Android phone mentioned earlier, I've always used it in English because it's easier for me to find what I need in the settings.

The original translation of Garmin Edge 540  and  model 1040 in Bulgarian was quite annoying in places, but I improved it significantly.

I changed a lot of crazy expressions, and now the Bulgarian interface is much better.

By the way, for all colleagues with Garmin Edge 530, 830 and 1030: I started translating the interface of these excellent and reliable bike computers into Bulgarian!

The translation is about 15-20% complete, BUT the problem is that about 12,000 sentences and phrases need to be translated... yes, you read that right, 12,000 lines for translation...

If you want to support my work on translating the interface of Garmin Edge 530 and Edge1030 Plus into Bulgarian, write to me by email or via Viber.

You can find my phone number in the contact form on the Blog.

6. USB-C Interface for the Charging Cable

Very valuable personally for me since almost all electronic devices I use daily on my bike have USB-C interfaces.

Both of my bike lights have USB-C interfaces.

My new bike radar, Magene L508, also has a USB-C interface!

You can read a detailed review in two parts of the Magene L508 bike radar in the Blog post: Bike Radar Technology, Test, and Review of the Magene L508 Bike Radar

The continuation is in the post in the Blog named: Magene L508 Bike Radar Review - Continuation

A few days after the two-part review of the Magene L508, I contacted a Bulgarian seller who imports the Magene L508 bike radar and sells it at a very good price: 210 lv.

Especially for all readers of the Downshifter Blog, he provided the code LUPO10 for a 10% discount on all bike accessories on his website.

Link to the online store with a price of only 210 lv for the Magene L508 is here: MAGENE L508 Bike Radar with Stop Light for Bicycles with Car Radar

Don't forget to enter the discount code when ordering: LUPO10

Conclusion:

The new Garmin Edge 540 and the new Edge 840 are excellent bike computers overall.

My Edge 540 with the Nickname Bo Katan Krayz is a real delight, but the numerous bug and issues due to the overhyped new ClimbPro are extremely annoying!

I don't regret buying my Edge 540 Bo at all!

Bo just has some irritating quirks, but while writing this review, I came up with a hacker's idea on how to hack away the problems caused by the new ClimbPro.