GarminEdge® Explore 2, Easy-To-Use GPS Cycling Navigator, eBike Compatibility, Maps and Navigation, with Safety Features

The Edge Explore 2 is exactly the right system for someone who wants a simple package that will take in data from all your sensors. Mine is linked to my heart rate strap, my indoor trainer, the cadence/speed sensor on one bike, and the cadence-only sensor on another. The display is a good and useable size without being ridiculously big. Setup and use is simple for a tech-challenged guy like myself. And with the ability to link through the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone, it's easy to transfer the data to iHealth and Strava. I'm able to set it up to track and display exactly what I need develop my workouts. Essentially, it's everything I need without extraneous stuff. The longest ride I've done with it so far is about 30 miles on hilly terrain at 8,500+ feet MSL, and the ride barely made a dent in the battery life. By the way, the interface is a blend of touch-screen and three buttons. It's intuitive and easy to learn.

A very helpful gadget if you like to ride a bike. Simple and easy to use.

This was a buy once cry once purchase. Got it “used like new” and it definitely was as advertised. Original box and packaging. Saved $40. It barely fits on the left with the separately sold out front mount. Like barely. Could just be dumb luck with my setup but I don’t see it fitting on the right without going to a VERY minimalist stem. Don’t care for the included top mounts.It does what I want…in style, navigation, custom routes and performance stats, controls my iPhone music. It shares with the apps but I’m not into that. I don’t need to be KOM. I like to track, review my training, do stats math and set goals while I’m riding.Auto start is cool. Bigger screen is nice. It’s pretty basic compared to newer more expensive models but it’s getting the job done without me worrying about it.

Despite my initial disappointment with this item (see below), I decided to try it for a few more days before returning it and ended up keeping it. Here's why.I tried to use it in a dense city and was expecting Google maps-like navigation. That isn't what this is for and if that's what you need, use Google maps. This device needs a relatively good view of the sky, and doesn't update your position as much as a phone does (it seems).I decided to trust it to navigate a ~35 mile ride outside of the city. I designed the route on gpx.studio and uploaded it to the device through the garmin connect website. It's a little buggy but I got it to work. From there it becomes available on my phone, then syncs to the unit. On this ride, navigation was much better. Still took some getting used to, but it was functional.My recommendation is to spend some time learning how to use this thing, and learning how it gives instructions. Updating from 2 to 4 stars; I like it, and don't ride without it now.---Original Review---I've been serious about cycling for about a year now and after riding with some friends who had bike computers and seeing how much easier it was to do long, complex rides, decided it was time to get one. I compared options from wahoo, hammerhead, and garmin, and ultimately settled on this one.I mostly wanted a computer to help me navigate, don't really care about advanced fitness tracking. The reviews I found said this was great for navigation. With a large screen and plenty of ways to search for desitnations, it seemed good. Upon receiving the unit I took it out for a quick 5 mile ride. The fitness tracking features worked well; it was neat to see my (GPS-estimated) speed, total distance, time, and a trace of my route.The issues started when I tried to do some navigation. There are a few ways to configure the device in terms of routing. You can choose short routes, easy routes, and routes based on popularity (from data garmin collects). I live in a large bike friendly city on the east coast in the US, and the edge explore 2 had a lot of problems even picking a route to get me where I wanted to go. In one instance, it told me to cross a river using a bridge, cross the street, the take the bridge back over to where I started, albeit on the other side of the road. I could have just crossed the road.In general, the navigation lags behind my actual position significantly enough that I missed turns. This especially matters when riding in a city where turns come up fast and cars are not patient. It also gave me a few directions to go the wrong way down one-way streets and to ride in very pedestrian-heavy areas. I kept missing turns because of the lag and got so frustrated with it that I gave up trying to navigate with it and found my own way home.Though I was able to tune the route planning algorithm to give me more desirable routes, its abysmal live navigation renders them ineffective. When you inevitably miss a turn, it will try to reroute you back onto the course it already has, rather than adjust the entire route accordingly as google maps would. I understand that this is more appropriate for the computational abilities of the device, but its still annoying.The final straw for me came when I tried to update the maps using my computer. I thought that this might solve some of the navigation issues I was having. I downloaded the software from the garmin website, plugged in the edge explore 2, and found a 6GB map update ready for installation. Perfect. Except...I made numerous attempts to install the update and all of them failed with a non-descriptive error message. At this point I had no interest in coddling this device any more and decided to return it.------I do want to speak briefly about the ecosystem around this device for those that are still considering it. You can install an app on your phone, which your rides sync to over bluetooth. The app will then estimate how many calories you burn per day and stuff. Neat if you're into it. I was mostly interested in the ability to create a route on the app (or garmin connect website) and load it onto the computer. The route designer worked just okay, both on mobile and web. What surprised me, though, was the inability to export routes from garmin connect. This includes both routes ridden and routes planned. As someone who likes to play with data myself, I was disappointed that I could not export a .gpx file or something.One last comment, because I had this question and could not find the answer anywhere. Yes this unit has a compass screen, but it only displays heading. There is no magnetometer. So if you get confused by "ride to trail" instructions and don't know which way to head when starting your ride, you might get frustrated with this unit as I did. If you want a true digital compass, go for the edge 530 or edge 830.

It’s a good value for the price if you’re looking for a bike computer mainly for workout tracking, gps, and speed/mileage data in the garmin family. I use my garmin watch to broadcast hr and this works great.

My Hammerhead Karoo1 died after 6 years. I didn’t need all the “bells and whistles” of a Karoo 3 or a Garmin 1040, and after watching the DC Rainmaker review, I decided to go with Garmin Explore 2 (my main requirement/criteria was navigation). What a mistake…. I used it for one ride and returned it properly.1) The navigation map icons and colors are very subtle. I wear sunglasses-readers, and the icon distinctions were hard to make out, it required taking eyes off the road for long period of time.2) Battery life is poor. To be able to view the navigation map in varying lighting conditions, the screen brightness had to be turned up 100%. Even with 100% brightness, it was still hard to read in some conditions. Also, the battery life went down from 100% to 14% within a 4-hour ride.As the Garmin did not come close in meeting my expectations, I returned the Garmin, and bit the bullet and bought a Karoo 3, (superior display)

For the money it doesn't offer enough benefit and the user interface is painful. Out of the box, even though I bought it in the US, I had to delete the EU maps and upload the US maps. Then I come to find that this thing is basically a brick unless I use what I was already using, RideWithGPS (you can use Strava or Komoot) to create and edit routes, then upload to the Garmin unit. This reduces the benefit of the Garmin unit to just durability and battery life. For less $$, one can invest in a shock mount and power bank, and just use a phone. I have no doubt that there is someone out there with a cycling lifestyle that can use this unit, but for me, my multi day paved trail riding in Ohio, it simply is overkill of expense and complexity.

Everything I need, nothing that I don't. This Garmin Explore replaced a Garmin Edge 1000, wish I bought it years ago. Wonderful to have on bicycle rides. Much longer battery life, easier to read, and faster satellite connectivity. Works well with the Garmin Varia Radar.