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Electronics : Garmin Edge 305 GPS Bundle |
- It's not where you are ... It's where you're going....GARMIN 010-00447-30 Edge 305 GPS Bundle
Great cycling accessory! The Heart Rate monitor let's you know exactly at what point in your ride your heart was about to explode. The eccentricities of GPS create erratic graphic charts postmortem, due to the inaccuracies built-in to the satellite-based system, but if you can ignore the inherit wigglies, the info presented is useful, and does a far better job of archiving your workouts than manual entry.
I ride a recumbent, and the display is hard to read at times; when in shadow, or with reflected sun glare. The built in backlight doesn't help with the shadows. The 705 color screen might work better in this application, if you are willing to pay the difference. The 705 also would be an easier "get Home' device" if you wander blindly when you ride, or if you need to find the nearest 7-Eleven, or if you also want to use it in your car.... If not, the 305 is lighter, smaller, easier on battery, much cheaper, and offers the same cycling data.
Rating:
- A Lot Of Stuff In One BundleI was a little shy about buying all of this stuff in one bundle because when just one thing goes out than your stuck short of stuff. I became brave enough when I was convinced that GARMIN was big enough to warrant the product good enough.
I was quite surprised when I seen all of the stats on the software page after downloading and even configured all of the graphs in any color or order that I wanted. Being a stat nut I was delighted and it only takes seconds to download from the unit to the computer via USB port.
The unit itself can be configured with your choice of (63) stats in as many as (1) to (8) windows per viewing page and with a touch of a button another page pops up with as many as (8) more. I don't have time or room here to name them but one that I'm not used to seeing in other units is the average cadence which for me is a tremendous training tool.
I really like being able to see the time, H/R, speed,distance,cadence,etc including the average for all of them all at once. It sounds complicated but it really is easy to understand and it is so big you will not be bored playing with it.
The downside is that sometimes it is hard to view the screen when sunlight conditions are low and I have to tip my sunglasses to see better.
Another problem is that the battery life is a bit short for all day riders (over 10 hours) however I rarely ride for over (7) hours. That sounds good for most peaple but keep in mind that the battery will lose juice just being stored for awhile so always make sure it is fully charged just before long rides.
Also you must make a concious effort to remember to turn the thing off when youre through else it keeps going till it's dead. After (15) years of automatic shutoff units I sometimes forget however that's not that big a dill because it charges up on the wall charger in a couple of houre like a cell phone. When you turn it back on you can download it's history in your desk computer and the info is stored in a calender for easy access.
If you want an easier to read screen and in color with longer battery life along with a few more bells and whistles than you have to spend hundreds more for the edge 705 however I'm sure that this will be all I'll ever need until the price comes down.
Rating:
- Garmin Edge 305GPS w/heart rate & cadenceGreat product.
Almost too much information.
Very easy setup.
I highly recommend this product.
Rating:
- Good idea - Poor reliability - terrible supportThe concept behind this product is novel and could be a great training aid. Unfortunately, Garmin has not made a reliable product. And to make things worse they have terrible support. I train with a significant group of cyclists who, like me, want to use this tool and each one of them has had some sort of problem with this product. Most of the problems were recoverable - sometimes requiring several days before the unit could be used again since it can lock up and won't reset. This product is a great concept - too bad Garmin has such poor quality contol and support. I have sent requests to their support line and never received a response back. What's up with that?
Rating:
- Fantastic Cycling Computer / GPS !!!It's difficult for me to find the words to describe how much I love this thing. I'll put it this way: I initially hesitated at the cost - but after using the 305 for almost a year and having logged > 3000 miles on it - I am not hesitating upgrading and spending twice as much to get the 705 for the additional features it provides.
Hats off to the Garmin folks for creating such a great unit.
I highly recommend this GPS.
About me: I'm a casual rider. I ride about 400 miles per month and use the Garmin to track my rides (I visually load my rides onto MapMyRide and into Google Earth), track my progress, track data associated with my rides.
I also have been using the unit to help me navigate long, unfamiliar rides. In this case, I load a course (.crs) file on the GPS from any number of mapping utilities.
Note that the 305 does not support built in maps and is not a turn-by-turn navigator, but with a course file loaded in, you can display a very simple visual course which you can follow while riding. I go long distances just by glancing at the map I've loaded. Of course you have to stick to the course you loaded and can't change it along the way - but it's still super helpful.
Some of PROS:
- Weather-proof - you wouldn't swim with it, but I've ridden in rain with it quite a bit
- Sturdy, solid construction - It's survived a few drops
- Screen - Legible, precise, looks great
- Backlight - Very good illumination
- Accurate GPS - works well in almost all parts of Manhattan, for example
- Customizable screens - chose the data points you'd to show across 2 customizable screens
- Visual course display - create or load courses from any number of utilities or web sites to use with the device
- Heart rate sensor - has worked flawlessly for me
- Barometric altimeter - great to have - love knowing how much I've climbed (even as an estimate) and the % grade is neat
- Support for workouts - intervals, etc and riding against your previous performance
- Battery - I think I get about 10 hours on a charge.
Some of the CONS (the PROS greatly outweigh any of these cons):
- Calorie count is not accurate (based on distance - does not take into account climbs or heart rate) - but then again, I didn't buy this unit to count calories.
- Packaged Software - It's not great, it's not bad - it does the trick. I use MapMyRide and I load data into Excel. I look forward to GarminConnect once it's up and running and includes all features. There are also other websites (including MotionBased) that you can use to import data into.
Enjoy!
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