Garmin Edge 705 GPS Enabled Cycling Computer Includes Heart Rate Monitor and Speed Cadence Sensor
Garmin Edge 705 GPS Enabled Cycling Computer Includes Heart Rate Monitor and Speed Cadence Sensor
Trainer. Navigator. Edge 705 pushes you to do your best, then shows you the way back. This GPS-enabled cycle computer knows no limits. Get heart rate, cadence (select models), turn-by-turn directions (data card preloaded with maps is required), power data ? the works. Even share your data with other Edge 705 buddies after your ride. All wireless with a color display, this is no ordinary cycle computer.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Serious bicyclists need this, but be aware that you will need tech supp
An odd mix of positives and negatives:
Pros:
Incomparable data graphs of numerous measured parameters during your ride, permitting quantification of training beyond anything even dreamed of a couple of decades ago.
All the other well-known advantages of GPS to display current location and to be able to plan routes and courses (as well, of course, as showing details of ridden courses).
The variety, choice, and arrangement of displayed measurements (the `fields’) are just amazing. Essentially, you can put on the screen virtually whatever you want and wherever you want it, and the screen is high resolution (as is required, to be sure, for detailed maps).
Heart-rate and cadence are reliably detected. Heart-rate is intelligently smoothed (but will detect tachycardia).
Tech support is US based and, therefore, native English speaking (unfortunately, it is needed far too often).
Battery life is good enough for a very long ride – I suspect easily over 10 hours (if back-lighting is not over-used).
Cons:
No temperature sensor
Barometer does not permit user calibration, thereby insuring that it can only be accurate in the accident of exactly the right weather (as atmospheric pressure, which it is actually measuring, varies with the weather). Why the maker would have done this is incomprehensible. Since the weather changes constantly, the indicated `elevation’ changes, even though you have not moved. Moreover, because there is no temperature sensor, the barometer transducer cannot be temperature compensated, inducing the inevitability of yet another error in that measurement. Consequently, I was able to watch the elevation drift from plus 150 feet to minus (!!) 200 feet in the space of a few minutes (the actual elevation was 245 feet). Finally, it is quite possible to have the device show a difference in altitude for the beginning and end of the ride of over 50 feet, even when you start and finish at the same place (with no perceptible change in weather)! At the very least, the user should be able to calibrate the instrument at the start of a ride (provided, of course, that he knows the elevation at that starting point). This would help ensure that `elevation’ (altitude) measurements at any point on the ride will be reasonably accurate.
The user manual is woefully inadequate. Example: you are told that, at a rate of 1 second intervals for route recordings, the device will begin to overwrite previous data after about 4.5 hours (without warning!). You are encouraged to `reset’ the device after 4 hours. What you are not told is what happens to your data in this circumstance (it turns out that, fortunately, it is saved!). Example: There is virtually no explanation of how `calories’ are calculated. If you are not using a power sensor, this number has to be interpolated from some algorithm. There is no information about this whatsoever in the manual and, you can obtain virtually nothing on this subject from Garmin tech support even over the phone! (I personally believe – admittedly, without quantitative proof – their calculation for calories burned to be grossly inaccurate, perhaps by as much as a factor of 2 too high.) Example: the `save location’ feature has 3 choices: “Avg”, “Max” and “OK”, none of which is explained in the manual. And I could go on with many other issues.
Copy/piracy protection for their maps is so obsessive that even their own staff cannot easily circumvent it in the (inevitable) case where copying is necessary. In my own case, I had to replace my 705 with another, but since I had already downloaded my (purchased) North American DVD of maps, I was unable to unlock the map without 3 hours (!) of telephone assistance from technical support. ! This is supposed to be called customer service?? There just has to be a better way…
The “Training Center” software, available as a free download from their web address, does not permit any user designation of units to be used in the graph, just how coarse or fine, for example, one can plot any particular variable (such as slope, or what Garmin calls `grade’) – it just arbitrarily chooses the ordinate, and cannot be changed. ? Surely Garmin can do better than this.
In sum: I have not tried other competitive models (or even know that they exist). As a cycling computer, this thing is amazing, blowing away the pre-GPS varieties, yet at the same time it is disappointing. With a bit more effort, especially with software and documentation, Garmin could have had something truly awesome. As it stands, it is a major achievement, but the user is made to feel uncomfortably dependent on tech support due to the poor documentation.
5 Stars Garmin Edge 705
I absolutely love this purchase! Very easy to install and use. I particularly like the integration with Training Center. Routes and performance can be uploaded to a computer and compared to other rides. Very cool. The map on Training Center leaves much to be desired, but the ability to overlay over Google Earth is nice.
4 Stars Pleased
I like the unit, but Garmin is just confounding. The unit itself is nice. Only missing feature, for me, is that it does not tell me the current temperature. But I was blown away by all of the data that you can get from it.
Oh yeah, there’s so much data that I am disappointed in how limited the unit’s views are. They give me a standard data view, but you only get 1 page. What I’d like is the ability to create 1 or more pages and then as I am riding I should be able to cycle between them. You can already cycle between data / map / elevation – but I want multiple data pages (2 would do it for me).
As for Garmin – man what a confusing mess. They have so many software options (Base Camp, Training Center, Map Source, and website Garmin Connect). But the biggest complaint I have is the maps. I get that the maps are their bread and butter, but it is very confusing as to how and what to purchase, and in what form factor. Also, very bummed that I have to spend $100 every time I want the map updated for the unit (I have the Citi Nav North America SDcard as well as the Great Lakes 24K Topo card).
All in all, however, I say thumbs-up.
Oh, and I am using heart rate monitor and cadence sensor – all works goods.
3 Stars Out of Date Technology
As you can probably tell from my title, I’m a bit dissapointed with the Garmin Edge 605. First I realized that NO maps come with the edge. You must buy them for around $100 each. (I don’t really call the included freeway maps relevant to a bike computer.) Anyway, you must find the “Trainer” application on their web site. When you run it, it has all the sophistication of software written for PCs in the early 90s. It also crashes often just like the 90s software. (To be fair, it says you can install Google earth to see your tracks on top of Google maps.)
Last week I purchased a Droid Motorola phone. I found a free app under the “Market”, in Lifestyles category called “My Tracks”. This app tracked my route as well as the Garmin, and it has better maps, I just tap a menu item to send it to my google account. If you are thinking of buying a Garmin or any handheld GPS you should really consider instead just buying a Droid. Don’t fool around with multiple devices especially while biking.
Now here’s a “however”: I have no mount for the Droid for my bike. It just goes where I always keep my cell phone. So this could be the clincher for sticking with the separate Garmin GPS. But I’ll bet dollars to donuts that bike mounts for the Droid will be showing up soon.
After using the Droid and My Tracks, Garmin has some major catching up to do.
4 Stars Great gadget
This is a great exercise computer/GPS. I had a bicycle shop install it but in watching the process installing on your own does not seem difficult. It is easy to use with plenty of video clips available on Garmin’s site and Youtube to help out. Use any number of websites to plot a course and easily download to the unit. Only gripe: the unit does not exactly follow the course you map out and has you making turns where you did not indicate because it is looking to take the fastest route. Be sure to check out Edge’s minsite on Garmin: [...].
