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| GARMIN 010-00447-30 Edge 305 GPS Bundle | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $319.99
Buy New: $249.99
You Save: $70.00 (22%)
New (75) Used (1) Refurbished (3)
Avg. Customer Rating:  117 reviews
Sales Rank: 728
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Native Resolution: 128x160
Display Size: 1.86
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Size: Garmin Part #010-00447-30
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 6 x 6 x 6
Array:
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 010-00447-30
Model: 010-00447-30
UPC: 753759053574
EAN: 0753759053574
ASIN: B000BS4PZW
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Solid August 7, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I got the 305 HR+ to consolidate a basic cyclometer and Suunto altimeter/HR monitor. The installation is very clean with one sensor on the chain stay and no wires. The display is easily configurable and easy enough to read. It's a huge step up from the way I cobbled info together before and priced cheaper than the sum of the other devices I was using.
pros:
- Records a comprehensive set of training info. I find it especially useful for rides involving a lot of climbing.
- Friendly and helpful tech support.
cons:
- Adequate but mediocre Mac software.
tips:
- Battery life: I hate wearing out built-in batteries with frequent deep discharges so for any ride longer than a couple hours I use an Eveready Energi w/ mini USB (from Circuit CIty - cheaper than Amazon). I checked with Garmin customer support first and they assured me the Energi and 305 were compatible. With this battery pack, I can get well over 12 hrs without running down the internal battery.
- Occasional glitch: The 305 hung up right at the start of the Markleeville Death Ride and was frustrating brick for the entire event. If only I had known the simple two-button reset that clears the unit without erasing anything.
Garmin Edge 305 July 27, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an excellent product for those cyclist who like data on rides and training. However, for serious competitive athletes they would probably be better off with a product that measures power as well. I have been using the Garmin for the past month now and have found it very easy to use, enjoyable and easy to download data even with a MAC computer. My only complaint would be the measure of calories burned. The Garmin only takes into account your age, weight, and heart rate. This compared to the Polar models lacks your input on activity level. This leads to calorie output discrepencys of over 5oo calories on an average one hour ride. There have been time when I haven't used the heart rate monitor strap and the Garmin still counts calories burned without heart rate data. This leads me to believe that this feature is not completely accurate. However, this is a minor detail compared to all that this little black beauty can do. I highly recommend the Garmin for those who love data and like to see their riding accomplishments displayed for them in an easy to read manner.
Wish for a longer battery life July 23, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
this thing rocks it helps me stay motivated to try to go farther and faster little expensive but well worth it for me
Wonderful tool, so much potential, lousy software July 17, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
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. Calorie calculation is, well, bizarre---I don't really need exact calorie 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. Another glitch has even earned its own acronym of JFS--jersey flap syndrome, when certain synthetic jerseys, at high speed, interfere with the heart rate monitor sensor, causing impossibly high heart rate readings (no, my heart rate did not actually go to 265 on that downhill section).
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 begin to misbehave both in interfacing with your computer and on the bike. Recently, my unit has developed an irritating habit of shutting off mid-ride--though turning it back on keeps the mileage count going , the elapsed time after restart is mysteriously, almost randomly, altered--completely messing up average pace. You get some, but not all of this data back when you upload to motionbased (as opposed to using the training center software), but it's still no longer accurate once it shuts down. Again, reading the forums, this shutting off appears to be a common problem.
Transferring non-Garmin GPS routes to the unit, for use as a course, should be a lot easier. There are free third party programs out there on the Web that are useable, but it's difficult and hit and miss. One would hope that future upgrades will allow for easy transformation of the relatively few GPS coordinate files out there (e.g. .tcx) to Garmin's .crs format. Following a course (once it's successfully loaded) is really cool--zoom in and out on the map, and race the person who initially rode the course virtually. It's easy to convert a course you've ridden to a stored course to ride again, a little more involved, but not difficult, to use someone else's ride from the Motion Based website--it would just be nice to download a course from the several other GPS sites and use it as a cue sheet for a new ride.
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. (I believe I could send it back to Garmin to resolve the shutting-off mid-ride issue, but I'm waiting until the weather isn't so nice for riding before giving it up for a few days--I'd really miss it). But its 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 Trail Network 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. And it's not the only source of GPS routes out there, but the only source that is readily useable with the unit (though a bit of tinkering around on line helps thios a bit). Let's hope they hire some good software developers and make this thing really fly.
GREAT cyclometer in a small package July 17, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I received my 305 from Amazon (at a greatly discounted rate) just last week, and have since had the time to log 3 seperate rides. Overall, I am very pleased w/ the unit - it's a small, very lightweight unit and convenient to monitor onboard - I have had no problem reading the data in daylight or at dusk. This thing does a lot more that I need it to - I bought it for the HR and basic distance/time/speed info, and it's great to be able to plug it into the PC and instantly download the raw data - though I do wish it used a cradle (like the Forerunners), the USB plug on the back of the unit is a little awkard (and its the only way to charge it - I've forgotten to plug it into/keep it plugged into the computer a few times and when I'm headed out for a ride, find it dead - it doesn't quick charge and the rebound is slow, so I've had to leave it at home a few times... bummer. The cadence sensor and speed sensor magnet (I suppose for stationary training, since the Garmin uses GPS to calculate speed) are okay - I had trouble getting them to align on my Klein frame - they wanted the sensors w/in 5mm of each other (cadencce on the crank arm and magnets on the spoke), but they're not that close on my bike w/o haning off the frame dramatically. I finagled w/ it and got it to work, but the magnet is designed for cross spokes and doesn't work w/ ,my single spoke Campy's - no big ddeal, I think I've subsequently removed the cadence thing altogether - that info is not a concern for me. I'm just a recreational rider, and was more interested in heartrate, speed, distance, etc. and here the Garmin is flawless. The software is fun to review after a long ride, here's some data from a ride this weekend:
Distance: 50.03
Total Time: 3.04.00
Average Pace: 3.41mins/mile
Average speed: 16.3mph
Max speed: 34.8mph
Total Calories: 3,586 (who know how accurate this is?)
Average HR 160 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 214 - probably not true, it takes a second for the monitor to start working - needs some moisture (sweat) between it and your chest. Actual is probably closer to 185
Average Cadence: 255 (not working anymore since I took it off)
Total Accent: 1,832
Total Descent: 2,032 - I stopped in the Valley w/ a few problems and drove it to the boke shop, otherwise Accent/Descent would be the same.
Under Heart Rate it shows time/distance in each zone:
For example, I spent 1.56 hrs and 33.3 miles in zone 4 = 150-167 bpm
The above information is plotted on a graph, showing zones/intervals over time/distance. Neat. Also shows an overhead map of the course - though not impeccably detailed, you can zoom in and it services a basic purpose, etc.
As for the accuracy of the GPS unit itself, it seems pretty spot on - I played w/ it in the car one night and it seems to be w/in a few 1/10's mph and w/in a few feet as far as location - that was the extent of my scientific testing. Overall, I am pleased w/ the unit - I'll use it on every ride from now on.
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