Garmin Edge 305 Waterproof Cycling GPS With Heart Rate Monitor by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $285.00 You Save: $64.99 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin Edge 305 Waterproof Cycling GPS With Heart Rate Monitor
Digital camera Review: Track every juicy detail of your next bicycle ride...
Summary: 5 Stars
I upgraded to the Edge 305HR after owning the 205 for about 5 months and after deciding that I wanted heart rate information to accompany the wealth of information that was already being captured by the 205.
I've used the new Edge 305HR for about 60 miles of combined road and mountain biking. Like the 205 it captures a wide range of information about your ride - distance, elevation, calories burned, etc.
After following the directions (which involve wetting the sensors prior to putting on the heart rate monitor), I've found that the heart rate information is incredibly reliable. It is great to see, for example, that on a recent 32 mile ride in a hilly area of Northwest San Antonio that over an hour of the ride was at my target heart rate (80% of my maximum heart rate). I upload my info from the Edge and take advantage of the free Motionbased.com account in order to chart my progress.
I have experienced ZERO problems with erratic heart rate readings, etc. that have been indicated in previous reviews of this unit. I'd suggest owners of the 305HR that are having these problems should review the instructions carefully (making sure that the sensors are wet and the unit is snug on the body...just below the breastbone) or contact Garmin to order a replacement.
This unit is working exactly as advertised and will provide a great deal of quality information to help you achieve your training goals.
Digital camera Review: Track your progress
Summary: 5 Stars
This is actually the second Edge 305 that I have owned. I bought one in January and recently lost it because I did not make sure that it was securely clipped into my bicycle mount. I would recommend this to anyone that likes to keep track of details and improve performance. Everything you need is here. It tracks heart rate, distance, speed, time, elevation, cadence and maps your ride automatically using GarminConnect or MapMyRide websites. This particular one only had the heart rate monitor in the box. I would recommend getting the one with the speed and cadence sensors also. Mounting it to the bicycle was a breeze and the heart rate monitor just clips around your chest. If you get the box with the other two sensors they are a little trickier to place, but not too bad. I like that it is wireless except for the connection to the computer which is a standard UB connection. I have also used this during hiking and snowshoeing excursions to monitor my performance and map my hikes.Digital camera Review: Wonderful Tool for Cyclists
Summary: 5 Stars
I have found the Gramin Edge 305 to be an outstanding tool for cyclists. It was SO easy to install and modify the data I wanted to observe. Being a senior cyclist (over 60) I was just amazed at the amount of data this unit collects and calulated. I remember when just having a simple mechanical bike speed indicator was a BIG deal. Now I can download all the data I ever wanted to observe about every ride. Now my only problem is my wife is tired of looking at my ride analysis after every ride.Digital camera Review: Wonderful tool, so much potential, lousy software
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, I really love this gadget. It's great to have heartrate, speed, distance, cadence, grade, and averages all on one unit. After a ride, you can review, graphically, the entire data for the ride. Also great to have your entire history of rides on your computer. But it takes a fair amount of effort to keep that history. The software just randomly loses your history from time to time--so you have to back up frequently. This is not just me--check out the forums on Garmin's sites, and you'll see that everyone seems to experience these glitches from time to time. Calory calculation is, well, bizarre---I don't really need exact calory counting (though the forums at Garmin's site certainly suggest that others do), but I'd like it to at least serve for comparison purposes. Not so--the same exact ride, with very similar speed, can show up with dramatically different calories burned. The unit also interfaces with Garmin's web-based program, Motion Based--- a very interesting concept that lets you look at your own and other people's rides, and search for them using key words. You can then download these rides to your unit and follow them on your bike using the course map. That's a really cool idea---essentially a community created trail guide, but it could be better. The ability to comment on these rides would be nice---much like this Amazon review system, users could choose or modify routes that are posted according to their own purposes if comments were permitted. It would also be nice to search for rides by GPS coordinates (this is Garmin, after all) but right now that doesn't appear possible.
If you back up frequently, it is nice to compare one ride (say a favorite route early in the season) with another (same route later in the season). You can watch your heartrate lower as you train from ride to ride. But as I mentioned above, you will lose this ability if you don't back up often. You also have to occasionally reset the device, or it will begion to misbehave both in interfacing with your computer and on the bike.
Honestly, I've had my Edge for 3 months and I've enjoyed it tremendously. I will continue to use it, and really wouldn't want to do any significant ride without one. But it's software is finicky, and you have to use the user forums on Motion Based from time to time to figure out how to get the thing unstuck or on or reset or backed up. The Motion Based idea is absolutely killer, but I fear that with Garmin's apparent weakness in the software area it will be a long time before they start to really exploit its potential. Let's hope they hire some good software developers and make this thing really fly.
Digital camera Review: Works for me and the price was great!
Summary: 4 Stars
Performs flawlessly. Great price. I use it on my MTB to monitor my HR and track my rides. Afterwards, I usually import into Google Maps and check out where I've been... It's fun.