Garmin Edge 305 Bicycle GPS Navigator with Heart Rate Monitor and Speed/Cadence Sensor
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $399.00 You Save: $34.00 (8%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $159.99 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Edge 305 Bicycle GPS Navigator with Heart Rate Monitor and Speed/Cadence Sensor
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this product. I purchased the Edge 305 to go on a new bike, it was easy to install, with decent instructions. It was easy to get started using it. It gives all the information you could possibly want about your ride, and its simple to download. Some people might think its too much information, but you can tailor the data fields that are displayed to see as little or as much info as you want. The data (milage, elevation) appears to be very accurate.
On the down side, the display can be hard to read in the sunlight. I've played around with the contrast tool, but still have problems. I also think the use instructions could be clearer, on my first ride, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting milage, and later realized you have to turn it on! I'm used to bike computers that start automatically. Changing the data fields being displayed is a bit of a pain, I want a timer showing when I'm on the indoor trainer, and % grade when I'm on the road, and its a pain to constantly switch the fields. Also, if a data field is not being displayed because you don't need to see it constantly, (average speed comes to mind) you have to change the data fields being displayed to view the info, and then change back if you are not at the end of your ride. I am fortunate because several people in my bike club have the Edge 305 and they could answer questions so I didn't have to constantly thumb through the instruction manual. The software that comes with the Edge is very basic, but I have no complaints about it.
All the issues I mentioned above are annoyances rather than problems and I feel this is a great product and I recommend it to anyone who is not intimidated by all the features.
Customer Review: Garmin 305 HR and Cadence
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this product for a little over a month now biking an average of 100 miles a week and love it. I really like the programmable screens where I can choose how many fields of data I want displayed. I like one screen with current data and another with average data, but you can set it up in any combination. Very easy to set up on my Serotta and worked perfectly. I also like the pause feature....you can set in a threshold speed where if you stop the device will auto pause and not count time/averages against your workout....set mine for 0.5mph and it works great. Computer download of workouts is a snap. I read several complaints about archaic graphics. While the computer map used to download could definitely be better, I was impressed with the amount of data that can be obtained from a workout as well as keeping your weekly averages for review. The device does have a few features that have no real function for me...but that's me...the virtual racing partner for example where you can race your own previous route/time. I also notice that on my typical roundtrip routes that it always shows more ascent than descent...GPS altitude data is a bit suspect. As for the heart rate monitor...it works great and is one of the more comfortable ones I've worn. Cadence sensor works great too. Agree with other posts that calorie burn seems high. For a 2.5 hr ride I'd expect around 1500 and it usually shows about 2500. Oh....amazed too that the GPS rang in (found satellites) inside my home in seconds. Drove 100 miles to ride with a friend and it rang in inside a home in seconds there too. Great little gadget! Highly recommend! Paid $250 for it on here through Target!
Customer Review: Probably the coolest bicycle computer ever mounted on a bike
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned this unit for a few weeks now and my comments are:
Pros:
**Extremely accurate display of speed (My Cateye Double Wireless is also on my bike) Easy to read.
**Stem mounting is rugged. I was a bit concerned that this would be awkward but I like it better than units that mount on the handle bars. Also, the angle of my stem at least makes for easy, solid button manipulation and viewing.
**No magnets or other sensor mounting required. The unit comes with two mounts, so you can easily switch between two bikes. Because of the GPS, you are not required to mount a wheel sensor. I think this is a real plus. I bought the HR and wheel/cadence sensor 305 unit but have yet to use them. Looking back, I probably would have purchased the 205 instead of the 305 because of the simplicity and clean mounting, I'd imagine this would be great for mountain bikes as well, where mud can be an issue.
**The software interface is quite impressive. You can view your route plotted against the map. Haven't explored all the options, but software was easy to install and GPS unit data was easy to upload via USB.
Cons
**Battery life When it comes to battery life, it's kind of like a cell phone. They say 12 hours, continuous use but I have yet to experience. All I know, is that I have to remember to charge it the night before I go out to avoid a nasty surprise. On the plus side, it will seem to continue to function on low battery for quite some time. I have yet to lose data because of battery failure.
Customer Review: Best bicycle computer so far
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are looking to get more out of your biking make sure to try Garmin Edge 305 bicycle computer. Despite the hefty price tag it delivers a lot of value and make rides more enjoyable.
Edge 305 provides the following high level features:
* typical bike data (speed, distance, cadence and ect)
* heart rate monitor (heart rate zones)
* map (rudimentary)
* altitude graph
* virtual partner
Stuff I like about device:
Very easy to install. Not need to know tire radius, the device would use GPS data to calculate all required information (and in most cases would use GPS to calculate your route anyway)
Automatic heart rate zone calculation based on your Max heart rate.
Ability to upload all info about route (map and data) into the computer or web site to see how you did and where exactly you biked. You can sign up (free account) into [...] and upload data and see other peoples routes. (I only wish this site used Flash/Flex technology instead of html/ajax to make it more interactive and usable).
The only somewhat bad comment I have - battery life. For most cases as long as you remember to charge it's not a problem. But it's somewhat different from my previous bike computer that didn't require any charging at all.
Overall, if you like to bicycle (road or mountain) and somewhat geeky, Garmin Edge 305 would give you more data then you even need.
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Customer Review: Exceeded my expectations in every way.
Summary: 5 Stars
Works surprisingly well. I've had every combination of cycling computer/heart rate monitor and the Garmin 305 out performs them all (even Polar). Because of everything this thing can do I just expected it would be complicated to set up and use. But it worked great right out of the box (even the battery in the cadence/speed sensor was good). I was using the majority of the features the first week and the configuration is intuitive and as simple as possible given the depth of functionality.
I've heard some people have complained about the computer software but I felt it worked great. As with any software it takes a little bit of time to get used to the logic but once you do it's quite powerful and easy to use. After I ride I just hook it up to my PC and my workouts are uploaded just like that. I actually upload them to web as well using MotionBased and AllSportGPS. Very cool and easy to do. If you're not as neurotic as myself you can wait to upload your rides as the 305 will store up to two years of rides before deleting. The software really makes it easy to keep a detailed log of your rides too. I finally have my riding log.
If I had to complain about anything it would be that the information on the unit is a bit small and sometimes difficult to read if you're descending. But you can change it so it displays less information and as a result the font will be larger.
I'm really happy with it and Amazon had a smoking deal.