Bike computers are great, but having to fiddle with a touchscreen while riding a bike is just distracting for cyclists. So why not put that voice control tech that’s available on so many devices now into the humble bike computer? That’s exactly what they did with the Garmin Edge 1060.
The outfit’s new flagship bike computer, the device now has a microphone and a speaker, allowing it to not just take voice commands, but deliver spoken responses in turn. That way, you can just keep your hands on the handlebars and your eyes on the road, even when you need to change a bunch of settings your bike computer.
The Garmin Edge 1060 has a 3.5-inch touchscreen display that’s on the bigger side for bike computers, with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution that should make it sharp enough while still being easy to read at a glance. While you can still tap, swipe, and pinch on it much like the outfit’s previous bike computers, you can now control the device using voice commands, allowing you to check on select new routes, find points of interest, or bring up specific riding stats by simply using natural language after prompting it with “Okay, Garmin.” For appropriate instructions, it can even respond using the speaker, so you check on your current heart rate without having to even look at the screen. It can also read out turn-by-turn instructions and incoming messages, among other things.
The device retains all the navigation features from their previous flagship. That means, you get preloaded maps with MTB trail data, allowing it to find routes that are best suited for you, regardless of whether you’re riding a mountain, gravel, or road bike. New for this model is a “Route Options” function that presents different route suggestions to the same destination while informing you of the different ride times and elevations for each one. There’s also an expanded Route Previews feature that lets you know everything you should expect to encounter on a route, including traffic and potential hazards. It also offers a “Free Flow” routing mode that adjusts the route in real-time based on where it can find uninterrupted paths with minimal stops.
The Garmin Edge 1060 also has an “Up Ahead” feature for riders who want to prioritize points of interest available on the map, essentially putting you on routes with more interesting stuff on it, while making your life easier by keeping track of road closures in real time, along with the potholes, obstructions, and aggressive animals it monitored in previous iterations. You can also report any of these problems you encounter yourself using voice commands to help other riders in the same area.
The bike computer’s extensive training features are all onboard, of course, from tracking all your cycling metrics and offering your evaluations to daily ride suggestions and recommending training focus if you want to tackle a specific course. Other features include 20 hours of battery life in demanding use cases, stored profiles on your enduro and downhill runs, incident detection (it automatically sends out a message with your location), digital bike bell, music playback for your phone, smart notifications, and more.
The Garmin Edge 1060 is available now, priced at $799.99.
