My 1030 Experience journal

Things I like about the 1030.

1. Battery life. On a Yosemite 150 mile, mixed terrain ride I did this summer, the 1030 lasted 15.5 hours and at the end said it still had 20% battery left (with BT turned off since there was no phone signal most of the time). I got the 1030 because I wanted to be able to get the external battery pack to power it for my long adventures, but now I'm seeing that for the majority I do, the 1030 internal battery is completely satisfactory. My 705s lasted about 10-12 hours depending on screen brightness, 800/810 about 8-9 hours and the 1000 was usually 6-7 hours if I had BT connected. I was not expecting much from 1030, but very happy so far. Not planning to buy external battery pack any more unless I start doing 24+ hour events regularly.
2. Display is pretty nice in the bright sunshine. Better than the 1000
3. Touchscreen has not frozen during use as the 1000 did regularly
4. Connect IQ apps and data fields are a nice feature since Garmin released them.
5. Having verbal navigation via BT connection to the phone is nice when it works, which it generally seems to.

If I think of more I will add them to the list.

Feature requests for me to truly consider the 1030 the greatest GPS Garmin made.

1. There is no "Delete All" on the History page on the 1030. Go to History->Rides. There is only option to delete individual rides. All previous Edge units I have ever owned since the 305 have had Delete All as an option. It really should be here. And saying that the solution is to connect to a computer and delete from there is not the same. Sometimes I want to have the minimal amount of history on the device so it will run more quickly when downloading files.

2. Edge 705 had a data field under Time called "Paused Time". That field was removed starting with the Edge 500 and onwards. That was a very helpful field to use during timed organized events like brevets to help me know and manage my stopped time. Yes, there are now the fields, "Time" (ie moving time) and "Elapsed Time" (ie total time) and one can do the mental math subtraction, but when exhausted after riding 12-18 hours, it's much easier to just look at a field and see what I need. The math is easy, Garmin has already programmed this before. Why can't they add it back in?

3. "Vertical to Crs Point' data field. This was the most amazing field available on the Garmin 305 and then 705 but removed from the 500 onwards. Running a course with elevation, this data field would show the difference between your current elevation and the elevation of the next course point. The 305 had the great feature of an arrow point up or down next to the data field which would indicate whether that course point was above or below your current elevation. So nice. I was heartbroken when 500 removed this and is a reason that to this day I have a 705 mounted on my bike also when riding a course. In some ways, knowing the amount of climbing to the next course point was of more interest to me, especially to a summit, than knowing the distance. I sprung for the 1030 even though I didn't want to spend the money, primarily when I saw that it had "Ascent to Next Course Pt" field. That is a great data field and useful in its own way, but fails in these ways (a) if going downhill it will probably be zero. If I'm at the top of a 3000' descent, I want to know how much downhill I have ahead of me. Vert to point told me this, Ascent to next crs point does not. (b) If the elevation data is coming from inaccurate or rough data, the amount of climb can be way off. For example, I've seen going up a pure climb with no descents as part of it, that the Vert to Point would indicated 1500' to the summit and the Ascent to next course point would say 2000' to the summit. When I get to the summit and look at the data and analyze afterwards, the Vert to Point was correct in that it was a 1500' climb and the 1030 was wrong because the data it was calculating showed a constant spiky up and down whereas the climb was just a smooth continual uphill. PLEASE BRING BACK VERT TO CRS POINT!

4. I will add more later, but I think the 705 had the best Course screen Garmin has ever developed. Unfortunately that has been removed in all new Garmins. Will have to post screenshots to show it.

A few more things I've noticed in my several hundred miles of riding since posting this.

1. Bug/Oddity. BT connection to phone is extremely slow when compared to 1000 connection. This is most obvious with some of the ConnectIQ apps like some of the weather ones that query the internet through the phone to get information. Edge 1000 results returned in 2-3 seconds. Edge 1030 results can take 7-15 seconds. Same ConnectIQ app, Garmins connecting to same phone, why so slow?
2. I do find that Livetrack is auto-starting if I wait long enough. On my last 2 rides I forgot to open GCM on phone. I noticed about 2 minutes into the ride the notification that Livetrack was starting. So it does auto-start, just not immediately. I was used to Edge 1000 where it auto-started within 3-4 seconds after pushing start. Don't know why Edge 1030 takes 2 minutes
3. I received a lengthy SMS during ride. I used the Garmin reply function and sent reply. Then I wanted to read the extended message. Went into the messages area. Surprise, the SMS did not display at all, there was no record of it on 1030. Had to stop and pull out phone. This seems pretty poor design.
4. On the last couple rides, I have had fully had apparently full BT connectivity working. Turn on Garmin, connects automatically to phone without opening GCM first. Livetrack starts (after 2 minutes), without manually launching GCM on phone. At finish, ride auto-uploads again without touching phone.

I tough I knew my Garmin (705, 800, 1000 and 1030)... After reading your Journal, I understand that my knowledge was quite basic. So, here's my question : did you tried machine from another maker like Wahoo ? Why are you sticking to Garmin? With the bugs still present after a year on my 1030, I am wondering if it's time to look elsewhere for my next bike GPS. Is Garmin losing it?

So far I have not found something better which is why I have not tried different device. I had looked a lot into Hammerhead Karoo when one of my friends got it, but so far they have more bugs and less features than 1030. Unfortunately Garmin is only one in town still for advanced features like ConnectIQ apps and other features. For me the data field (Vertical to Point) on the 705 or now a similar type of idea on the 1030 with the Ascent to next course point on the 1030 is super important in the mountainous area I live. In many ways I like knowing how many feet I have to climb to reach the summit more than the distance. The only reason I sprang for the 1030 was when I saw a screenshot somewhere that showed the ascent to next course point field. I had not been planning to get one at all or wait a year or two longer until it stabilized before going to it. As far as I know, Wahoo, Lezyne, Hammerhead and others don't even have a field like this at all. If someone introduced some of these features I would definitely be willing to jump ship.

Some continuing oddities. Two days ago, Livetrack started by itself within 3s of pushing the start button on 1030. All the ConnectIQ apps downloaded data from the internet really quickly. At finish. ride auto-uploaded extremely rapidly. I thought maybe Garmin fixed something in GCM because I didn't change anything else. Today, it was 10 minutes before Livetrack auto-started. In both cases, I just stuck phone in pocket without checking it and just started the 1030 without opening GCM or checking anything. No idea why the difference. Remember that 1000 was always really quick to start Livetrack.

Today, 1030 stopped receiving SMS messages during the ride after I lost service for a while and then re-entered service area. This used to happen with 1000 too. I tried several things but could not get messages to show up. Finally did a reset of the 1030 by holding the power button 10s until it turned off. Was glad to see when I powered it back on, that my ride data was still there. Also really glad that it fixed the issue and new SMS messages did show up on the device again. Now I know how to resolve that issue.

I tough I knew my Garmin (705, 800, 1000 and 1030)... After reading your Journal, I understand that my knowledge was quite basic. So, here's my question : did you tried machine from another maker like Wahoo ? Why are you sticking to Garmin? With the bugs still present after a year on my 1030, I am wondering if it's time to look elsewhere for my next bike GPS. Is Garmin losing it?

That's a very good question. I am so frustrated with Garmin that I am one step away from selling it and just riding without anything.
Don't have much experience with other devices, and am somewhat skeptic to try it out, I feel already like beta fool with Garmin, plus the support (and retail network) for anything other than Garmin in my country is non-existant.

That's a very good question. I am so frustrated with Garmin that I am one step away from selling it and just riding without anything.
Don't have much experience with other devices, and am somewhat skeptic to try it out, I feel already like beta fool with Garmin, plus the support (and retail network) for anything other than Garmin in my country is non-existant.

I'm in Frisco CO for the Copper Triangle ride on Saturday. My wife with a 820, me with a 1030. We spend half our time cussing at how bad both Garmins' are and how their TBT Nav isn't always doing us favors, among other stupid software issues. When we get back, we're buying one Wahoo Elemnt to try out. Assuming it is as good as friends tell me it is Garmin could become a bad histroy for us.

For a while I've wanted to know how to add a new segment from Strava to be able to do while in the middle of a ride. Tested things out today with a trick I figured out and it worked.

During a pause in the ride, I stopped and using Strava app, starred a segment nearby I wanted to ride. Did a soft reset of the 1030 (ie hold down power button 10s until it turned off). Powered Garmin back on. When it came back up, my ride was still there and all my data. When I went to the Strava Segment Explore app I was able to see my new segment and then successfully ride it. Glad to know this trick, though I'm not sure Garmin intended it.

Sorry to hear the problems others have. Lately the 1030 has been doing well for me.