There is rarely much to criticise about Garmin's market-leading Edge GPS computers, but one aspect that occasionally comes under fire is battery life. Most units will get you through an imperial century, including navigation and cake stops – and will have plenty to spare even if your legs don't.
But what about if you're looking to step that usage up a level – multi-day trips and even bikepacking adventures into the wild? Even in the latter case you can of course use a power bank (standard issue kit for bikepackers), but if you can do away with having to worry about your head unit running out of juice at an inconvenient moment, that's another layer of stress dealt with.
After all, nobody wants to be digging through their frame bags and messing around with cables and chargers unnecessarily – especially when they're exhausted.
While I personally have not used this item (though I've used and owned a few other Garmin Edges), somebody who definitely has is my brother and colleague Steve. He's a self-confessed ultra-riding addict who owns the unit himself, and has raved about it both publicly and privately.
He used the 540 Solar on events including the Southern Divide, Great British Escapades and the Cotswold 200.
With it being so well discounted this Black Friday weekend I asked him to let me have a few thoughts on it – and it left me wondering whether it's pretty much all the GPS unit anyone will ever need.
"The Garmin 540 Solar has been front and centre of my cockpit set-up for the past two years," he said. "I'm not sure if it's a result of its solar powered credentials (I'm in the UK after all) but this headset seems to go on and on... and on.
"I think I saw it run out of battery once but this was pushing beyond any reasonable boundaries – 38 hours into an ultra-endurance schlep [told you he loved his ultra riding] when, as well as taking it care of the usual power, heart rate and distance readings, it was also assigned map reading duties, which is another area it has shone.
He concluded: "So if you want good battery life and a very capable navigator, I would be looking no further than this little gem."
That 38 hours he mentions is the equivalent to more than five seven-hour days in the saddle, which would presumably mean you could take it on a long weekend of riding without having to charge it at all.
To hear Steve and me chatting about his Southern Divide experience, check out our Going Long podcast.
And Steve isn't the only CW writer who waxed lyrical about the 540 Solar. Tech writer Aaron Borrill called it "the finest cycling computer I've ever used", adding: "Its diminutive size, coupled with its intuitive operation, is just one of the features I can't go without, but it's the impressive battery life that I genuinely appreciate."
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