Geek Out

One of my main Christmas gifts for this year was a Garmin Edge 305 purchased at Revolution Cycles.

To give it a little review, this is one cool gadget. It is GPS based, but also has a barometric altimeter and heart rate monitor. A cadence kit is also available, but I don't have that. The altimeter and HRM on it both work really well.

Garmin apparently is really good at making their devices. The features are great, the setup and screens are easy to navigate, the interface is responsive, and so far I have had no problems with data loss, etc. The data screens that display realtime data are very customizable. They let you choose how many things you want to show simultaneously and the numbers get larger if you reduce the number of fields.

This first picture shows a ride I did today, and then plotted using GoReedGo.com. The site is still beta (or alpha), but it really is cool to see your rides on the map. Riding with an altimeter is interesting. I think of today's ride to be a flat one, but there was actually 2400 feet of climbing.

In addition to this ride today, I have used it for backcountry skiing, running, and resort skiing, all with no problems. I've stuck in pics for running and skiing. It can record about 3.5 hrs of data in 1 second intervals, or the user can select a smart mode that has some algorithm for deciding when to take a reading. The smart mode seems to work fairly well, but I haven't been overly demanding of it yet. The battery is a built-in lithium that worked all day at the resort, but I don't think it would go much longer than that. I'm not sure it would make it through the E-100, and it would definitely not make it through the Wasatch 100 or something like that. Since you can't change the battery, there is nothing to really be done about that. It is a tough thing, because if the batteries were normal ones (my preferred choice for MP3 players and cameras), the weight or the runtime would suffer, so I think they made the right choice, but it might be limiting once in a while. The battery recharges off the USB port or a supplied wall DC power supply.

The HR monitor is coded, so it should work around other monitors without interference. I haven't actually tried that, but it definitely does not send HR to my Powertap (which it would be nice if it did). My polar monitor does work with the PT once it is keyed with the watch, but I've heard no one else's does. It might have something to do with my polar being an old model. I bought it in 1999. The 305 also has a mode to turn off the GPS, and will work as a normal HRM even if satellites are not available in the local gym-dungeon.

The only thing I've come across so far on the unit itself that I would change is I wish it required you to hold the stop button for a full second to stop the recording. I haven't actually bumped it, but it would be easy to do if it is running in your pocket. On the bike I think it is less of a concern, but even then in the heat of a ride one might hit the stop instead of the lap button since they are right next to each other.Nothing to do with the GPS, but here is one last image, just for fun, taken by Scott M in Days.