Been looking at Garmin Forerunner watches as away of tracking rides and runs without draining my phone battery.

Anyone out use one (or something similar) and care to share their experiences?

Ta!

Have been using a Suunto Ambit 2s since Christmas – very good bit of kit.
Accurate, battery life seems pretty good, can upload to Suunto’s own Movescount which can then sync with Strava (if that’s your thing).

Haven’t tried using it as a mapping/navigation tool, just tracking runs and rides. It can also track swimming and other sports too but I haven’t tried that.

Recommended.

DC rainmaker has best reviews and discussion.. It comes down to how much do you want to spend…do you want heart rate monitoring and/or to be able to use with a turbo trainer, mostly running with a bit of cycling or mostly cycling with a bit of running.

Garmin forerunner 10 is cheap, no frills and good and has just come down a few quid more since Forerunner 15 with activity tracking has been introduced.

Worth checking Aldi?

http://road.cc/content/news/121748-bargain-gps-watch-headlines-latest-aldi-cycling-offers

I’ve just got the Garmin FR220. I think it’s brilliant. Had the 405 before, and this is much simplier, gets GPS lock in seconds, can be used as a normal watch (small and lightweight), and the battery lasts about 2 weeks before charging (even when using GPS for an hour a day).

Highly recommend.

Nick

Was looking at the Garmin FR 110, 10 and 15. Initially I only wanted to track rides, but the idea of adding in a HRM is actually quite appealing.

The 10 was recommended by a running friend as a simple way of tracking movement (yes – I’d want to link to Strava too. STRAVA!), but all the FR Garmins seem to be quite running-orientated. Can’t see this being a huge problem, but don’t want to pay for functions I won’t use (such as step count). I’d also *like* it to be waterproof, just because my stick needs a moon on it. 🙂

Budget? The FR 10 was suggested at £80, but realistically if I felt the benefits were worth it I could go higher. I guess I’ve got a ceiling of about £150.

After some further hunting, has anyone got experience with Oregon Scientific?

I had a FR210 (before selling it and getting an Ambit 2S), for the money the Garmin is an excellent piece of kit.

Why did I sell it? Battery life, basically, and the Ambit is fully waterproof (rather than shower proof). The Garmin HR belt was also very uncomfortable, but apparently while I’m not alone in having suffering this, it doesn’t happen to everyone.

everything I have ever used from Oregon Scientific has been total pants

If you want cheap, you can’t go wrong with the Aldi one – 4 profiles for Hiking, running, sailing and cycling plus a custom option, HRM and 10 routes of 99 waypoints plus a digital compass wrapped up with a 3 year warranty all for £65!

If you can’t get to Aldi, they sell on ebay as Runtastic. Think they are a bit more though

I have a Garmin Forerunner 220 as well. It’s a nice bit of kit, and the indoor mode is useful if you run on a treadmill. GPS seems to work well, and the stride length feature is nice.

I use one of these to monitor heart rate – I’m not a huge fan of chest straps.
Mio Link

The Forerunner 220 is waterproof by the way, but it doesn’t have a cycling mode – you need to change the activity on Garmin Connect after synch. The more expensive 620 does now have a simple cycling mode apparently.

Hi I’ve been using a forerunner 110 for over a year now ,same as you I just wanted a basic reliable watch to track my rides.
All I can say is I’m totally happy with it ,its never lost signal or let me down to the point of three of my mates have had them to save carrying their smart phones around .
I got the better heart rate monitor new off fleebay for around 25 big ones .
The one thing it has done in really cold weather is mist up as the 110 isn’t waterproof as the casing has metallic tabs on the back to charge/connect to your laptop etc. ,I just shoved it on a radiator which sorted it,yet I’ve forgot I had it on in the shower several times and it was fine

hope this helps cheers-H.

For the Garmin watches, is the wrist strap much more stronger than the old models? I’ve got to replace mine every 6 months usually. Probably more if I was not running or cycling…

My Forerunner 410 was about £110 off Amazon and it’s spot on.

310xt from handtec well within budget. Love mine. Has bike and run modes, 4 data fields per screen, will work with HRM and speed cadence sensor so you can use it on the turbo. Good battery life.
Only downside is its too bulky to wear as a watch.
http://www.handtec.co.uk/garmin-forerunner-310xt-310-010-00741-00.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0025VKUPM?cache=2f93b44576ec534d9dc6770e4ffc6209&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1404507978&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

Just bought my 310 to replace my 305 that I lost at ukge. £130, very good price

+2 on the Ambit, though didn’t know about the Strava link thing..:)

Must get the instruction book out again.

That said, it works great in every sense, very well made and does what it says on the tin!

Ambit 2.

Movescount directly syncs with your Strava account.
I use mine all the time.

Only snag was sticky buttons which they fixed FOC.

+1 for the Aldi watch. One of the best battery lives out there. It’s nice and light, you don’t realise you’re wearing a GPS watch. You can still export as a gpx for Strava. Not sure on the waterproofness, it says up to 30m, then in the instructions it says avoid getting wet. Hmmm.

Thanks all. Seems there’s plenty of good options out there.

I’ll be doing some more research tonight then. 🙂