Battery Life

24% for a 3 hour ride (2h50min riding and 3h30min total time (autopaused when went shopping and chatted with a friend)
Cadence, Hr, speed sensors, 60% of backlight, course navigation on the background (switched to map screen occasionally)
BT on fit the full ride and connected to smart phone, but livetrack off.
And I use English as a language (don't think it influences battery )

My feeling was that some time ago it eat more juice, what I recently did (not fit the reason of battery, but the device was lagging and took 3-4 seconds to switch screens, map was 10-15 secs behind)
- lowered brightness from 90% to 60-70% (guess it eats a lot of juice)
- removed ride history (users report that deleting history helps with that map lagging a lot, so number 1 point to try)
- reset the device (keep settings. Fit to save odometer and totals. Fit to save milage per activity)
- removed all connect IQ fields (I tried "my edge", strava live score, couple of others. There was a report that strava live score slows down the device)

After that the device is fast again and fur the battery life - I have no longer a feeling that my battery is shorter then I expect (no accurate comparison here thought)

Mine seems to draw more power as the time progresses. During the first hour it goes down only 5%, but as the ride goes on, the drain goes to 8% or more per hour (that's a 5 hours+ ride).

No matter what, I can hardly expect more than 10-12 hours battery life. I guess it's fine for the majority of rides, although still a bit dissapointed.

I think the real moral of the story on the 520 is that garmin needs to know its target audience. I love the 520, great little device. But why not double or triple the battery size? The device is really small, adding a few more grams in weight would not be that much of a negative. Personally, I think garmin should set a standard target for their performace level devices. Sure, something like the edge 25, shoot for size, but 520... No.

I think their target should be 26 hours battery life (enough to complete a 24 hour event) with gps, glonass, bluetooth connected, 50% brightness. I think the 1000 should have the exact same requirement.

I mean, does weight really matter that much for the device? Its not like we are talking about adding a pound of battery. Just a few more grams.

Am I wrong here? Am I the only one that wants 26 hours out of my device to finish 24 hour races without dangling cables and extra batteries?

Garming could even build an accessory case that you plug the 520 into and that case connects to the garmin mount. So many options over dangling a cable to a battery.

I think Garmin does understand their target audience. The vast majority of cyclists do not participate on rides longer than 8 hours. I've noticed that on the many charity rides I participate in that the metric century is by far the most popular with very few riding the 100.

I don't see the problem with using a external battery for longer rides. Simply use plastic ties to strap it to the stem and plug it in to the Garmin. Cable is only about 4 inches long and is not dangling. Installing a larger battery in the Garmin would naturally increase its size which to me is a negative.

Have we determined whether firmware 6.20 has an issue regarding battery life? Until today I'd NEVER seen the low battery warning. Was out for 7 hours today, backlight was set to 30% (usually I have it set to 40%), and I got the warning half an hour from home.

I think Garmin does understand their target audience. The vast majority of cyclists do not participate on rides longer than 8 hours. I've noticed that on the many charity rides I participate in that the metric century is by far the most popular with very few riding the 100.

I don't see the problem with using a external battery for longer rides. Simply use plastic ties to strap it to the stem and plug it in to the Garmin. Cable is only about 4 inches long and is not dangling. Installing a larger battery in the Garmin would naturally increase its size which to me is a negative.

I don't think so, as 500 had up to 18 hours (tested!) battery life and is smaller than 520.
510 also has decent battery life and is pretty much similar in size with 520.

10 hrs is really poor from such a device, with everything turned off.

I think Garmin does understand their target audience. The vast majority of cyclists do not participate on rides longer than 8 hours. I've noticed that on the many charity rides I participate in that the metric century is by far the most popular with very few riding the 100.

I don't see the problem with using a external battery for longer rides. Simply use plastic ties to strap it to the stem and plug it in to the Garmin. Cable is only about 4 inches long and is not dangling. Installing a larger battery in the Garmin would naturally increase its size which to me is a negative.

I think I know more people who complain about battery life than not. Not to mention I have never heard someone say "I would rather have less battery life than more". I don't think it would add much size to the 520 to triple the battery life. I think 80% of the cycling population will never bike more than 4 hours, I will give you that. But there are at least 20% that do in some form or another. Whether its daily commuting, 24 hour races, multi day stage races, or just long vacations. Why wouldn't you set your target battery life to capture all of those groups?

Not to mention, elite level riders are the one group that don't want to mess with hanging batteries on their bike. So adding the battery life will only help your product.

Again, if it is adding a pound to the device well then I can see the point. But it wont, were talking adding a few grams here.

you're saying that 80% of riders don't need more than four hours run time. Probably 95% don't ride over 8 hours. Why should Garmin add a larger battery for only 5% of users when there is the option of simply plugging in a battery pack? From a business standpoint, it would not make sense to increase battery size.

Also, most elite riders are getting their data from power meter units.

Rode a century yesterday in the Sierras, my Garmin was on for 9 hours and 22 minutes with backlighting at 0% - ended the ride with 41% battery.