One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2022 is to get back into road cycling after a year of being hooked up to a trainer, the Magene T300. The first order of the day was to get the bike fully serviced at my local bike store. The mechanics had to put in a lot elbow grease to address the level of internal rush, particularly at where the shifters meet the handlebars and within the head tube.
Fortunately, they took a pragmatic approach (with the aforementioned elbow grease), and I didn’t have to replace any parts, except for the bar tape and a shifter wire. I chose the Guee SL Dazzle bar tape as the shop didn’t stock what I previously used (the SL Dual Metallic). I’ll have to consider replacing the Shimano STI hoods within the next few months, as the left hood felt loose.
One component that I considered getting this week was a bike computer and the necessary sensors (cadence, speed and heart rate monitor). Two of the options that I had in mind were the Garmin Edge 130 Plus and the Edge 530. Both of them are actually quite expensive as base units with the 130 going for nearly USD 190, and the 530 having a USD 100 premium over its younger sibling.
Price aside, another reason for my reticence over getting a Garmin bike computer would be my experience with Garmin sports products in general. I used to use a Garmin Fenix 2, and that watch was RMA-ed thrice, each time with Garmin replacing the unit at that time with another Fenix 2.
Finally fed up, I replaced the Fenix 2 with a Suunto Spartan Ultra, which at that time was newly released and being sold at a discount due to the lack of market interest. I bought a Suunto bike pod (basically a speed + cadence combined sensor) but I left it to mothball as Garmin released an interesting product, their V2 version of the speed and cadence sensors which ran on Bluetooth and worked directly with the Garmin app (making it a pseudo-bike computer).
The Garmin sensors didn’t last long though, with the cadence sensor breaking during the first quarantine period in 2020. The replacement sensor, which I went with Magene, was unreliable at best, proving very finicky on the trainer. There seems to be plenty of road races scheduled for this year, so I’m looking forward to the outdoors.
