Can I trust the 1030?

For mountain biking, I prefer Garmin. Color maps, and you can load your own topo maps, or in my case overlay that with a custom transparent map I made of all the trails in my state. I've only had one corrupt ride file over a year of riding, and that was many firmware versions ago. However, I still have issues getting my device to reliably upload after my rides...it's just hit or miss. Not a huge deal as I can always sync once I get home, or just keep trying till it works.
The one thing that REALLY irritates me to no end is the fact that the remote has random connectivity issues if you keep a phone paired. After a year, it's obvious that Garmin isn't capable of finding a fix for this, as it's likely a hardware issue they won't admit to. No issues using the remote on the 1000. Not a biggie for most people, but I ride full finger gloves so it is a huge deal for me when it comes time to change screens (especially in the winter). It usually starts working again a few minutes later, but can be irritating as all hell if you're riding fast and need to look for a turn on the map screen, etc...
The other thing that worries me greatly is the 'blue halo' issue. I've commented multiple times in that thread asking what will happen after the 1 year warranty timeframe in the US and it's been crickets by Garmin.

So, no I don't HATE the device. I can't find another brand that will do what I need regarding maps, so as of now I prefer it over the competition. But the issues above irritate me constantly.
You should note that all the competitors (that I've found) do *not* display street names or allow for custom maps. Except for the Karoo, the maps look gorgeous on that thing (no custom maps) but I'd be really surprised if that device lasts another year (it has its own issues).

Simply put for me the 1030 on firmware 6.0 is great. Phone connects right away. Previous firmware it could take minutes to connect and often required resets and retries. Livetrack seems flawless now. I don't have a power meter or any bluetooth peripherals so I may not have the whole story, but for my needs the 1030 is rock solid.

The 1030 now seems fairly reliable with FW 6. However, I'm on my second unit because of the blue halo screen defect, and the replacement unit is starting to demonstrate the same problem. Given that, and that multiple other users have experienced the same defect, there's obviously a manufacturing fault there. Garmin *say* they're fixing it, but words are cheap.

The 1030 is also more cheaply built than its predecessors. Compared with my 1000:

a) The 1030 case is welded/glued together, compared with the previous Garmins I've had, which used small Torx screws. Good luck if you need to replace the battery at any future date, as I did on my 1000 a while ago.

b) There is no metal plate on the underside of the case for the temperature sensor, as there is on the 1000. The 1030 takes much longer for the temperature reading to change when the unit undergoes a change of temperature.

I'm going to use it for MTB XC training (complete workouts through my trainer given by him and built by either GC or TP) and long navigation rides.

I can speak to the long navigation rides with experience... although on-road, road-biking, not MTB. That is one of my most common uses. I like long rides (think 100 miles), I like riding new places, I like riding in mountains. I typically go to Strava, use the routing tool there, export as gpx, connect the 1030 and drop the gpx file into the "new_files" folder on the 1030. When I get on the bike I just tap navigation, saved courses, pick the course I just created, and off I go :) I have done that a million times, and it never fails me. While vacationing in Europe I purchased the euro-maps, and used the navigation feature for long rides there as well, going places I had never been - without a need for route cliff-notes, looking at the cellphone, worry about getting lost, etc.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and tips!
Much appreciated.
I think I have come to a decision.
Good rides.

Data corruption is incredible. I uploaded an entire ride only to find that one segment was totally missing; despite the unit showing that as my last ride @ correct speed but also shows my pb as a(slower) older ride? Look at all the 'can someone fix my fit file' requests.
Uploading rides is now always by wire although the prev FW had finally cracked this problem.
I appear nowhere in the 'everyone' leader board on GC despite the 'me only' version declaring times that almost always place me in the top 1% and top 6 on many local segments. It is infuriating that viewing the ride segments, almost every seg has to be read on the 2 leaderboards. So many segs just don't show on screen during the ride.
Often when I leave the ferry, the speed shows as ferry speed until I stop and give it 5 seconds to sort itself out, this despite my using speed sensors on all bikes.
Navigation is no better than the 1000, segs don't show the single line map, but you do get an elevation indication and a choice of who to chase.
FW 6 update peculiarly caused me to have to relink all cadence sensors - all other sensors were fine.
I'm never sure if the phone is linked to the 1030. Being told its connected does not confirm true status, so my phone ringing can be oblivious to the 1030 and trying to get the phone from a zipped rear pocket is just another dangerous distraction.
Incident detection is worthwhile but a dry run is essential as it is not intuitive.
Being so disappointed at what is not a cheap item and then finding you've to dump >£200 gloves is just staggering given that the 1000 was happy wit them.

Having used my Edge 1030 extensively this summer and fall having taken two, month-long cycling trip through France and Spain I found mine totally reliable and worked well. These trips would not have been half as enjoyable without the navigation features Garmin has provided for the cycling community. Live track is now very reliable and have had no issues since a couple of updates ago. Both Bluetooth connections now sync reliably and stay connected. Power meter data, Heart rate data, Di2 connectivity all work as promised. That said the learning curve on Garmin products is steep and not intuitive so a lot of the complaints and concerns mentioned can be overcome once one learns how the product works. Lastly, there is no real competitor with a comparable feature set on the market at present it really breaks down to what features you want and will use.

I used my new 1030 for the first time this weekend. It's running v6 so I have no experience of earlier hardware.

Thoughts:

Map readability is way better than my old 1000. One reason for buying a 1030 is that I often need glasses to read fine detail but the 1030 is much more readable without glasses.

The bigger screen also means I can add two more fields and not loose any readability.

The better battery life is welcome, but I never ran out of battery on my 1000, even on 8hr+ London - Paris days.

Crash detection is a pain in the backside. Most times I came to a halt by braking quite hard, it went into crash mode. It's now turned off.

The display fields have some options that I didn't see on my 1000, so I need to play more and see what I like. HR 'bars' is not one of them but this could so easily be coloured HR zones, which would be superb.

I've loaded on an IQ that is lovely to read, but needs a PM to be fully functional. I don't plan to get one.


I'm pleased with it.

Which IQ are you speaking of? I have a PM :-)