My birthday has been and gone (hooray!) and I’m sitting on a pile of money (well a couple of hundred) that I have been told to spend on a GPS. Now, IMO if I am going to splash a wedge of cash on a GPS it may as well have some cross over functions for cycling. Originally in the frame was the Garmin Legend or Vista but they had no bike type functions so I moved onto the Edge. As always, I started at the XTR end of the range and decided that the 705 had everything I wanted, but then the 605 seemed ok too. As it stands, I’m up for either of those but some questions:

I assume they work equally well as bog standard GPS systems for walking etc…is this true?

What are the screens like in bright sunlight?

Are they easy to use?

Is the 705 tht much better than the 605?

Any feedback on the units generally would be appreciated.

I was lucky enough to demo the 605 for a week or so from my lbs its a great unit if you dont have any need for heart rate data as a training tool then it is fine
if you are a bit nerdy like me and you want the barometric altimeter heart rate data etc then go for a 705 i was gonna get the 605 but thought spend once rather than outgrow the 605 then end up buying a 705

I’ve got a 705 and I’d buy one again if I was looking today.

Just to make your choce slightly harder I’ve got a 605 and I love it. Having the cadence and the heart rate monitor (which you only get on the 705) running with the GPS massively drains the battery life. So I guess it would be OK for mid length rides in a civilized area but then if you are not going to use them just get a 605. I am pretty inept when it comes to technology so my 605 is the perfect pairing for me.

1. yes
2. fine, they’re reflective underneath or something so work ok.
3. yes initially. but downloading routes etc can be troublesome sometimes as not all GPX files are compatible without modification. May require some fiddling.
4. i like mine. Mapping nowhere near as good as an OS map though, but outweighed by the general convenience of it. I use mine on the MTB, commuter and road bike so use pretty much all of the navigation functions: following off-road GPX routes, previous rides and Tomtom like road navigation.

i have a 705 and noticed no difference in battery life when running the heart rate monitor.

I have a 705 and you can switch the heart rate monitor off if you want to extend the battery life.

You will need to get a map package with it as the base maps are rubbish. I got the Topo UK mtb package and it does everything I need it to.

I was going to get the 605 until I found the 705 for the same price at cycle surgery.. its around £290 with maps.. an absolute bargain as the 605 is about that from wiggle.

Enjoy!

I got my 605 with Topo from wiggle for £230!

Ive got the 705. Havent noticed any change in battery life when using the heart rate monitor – it comfortably lasts all day long which is all I need it for – I ride for about 3 or 4 hours a weekend and only charge it once a month a month. I really like it and use it all the time. I used to have a 205 which did have really bad battery life.

If you do get it download sportstracks. a properly good and almost entirely free (depending on which plugins you want) piece of software – great for tracking what you’ve done etc

Aaaaargh! The Cycle Surgery 705 deal looks very tempting. They cal the maps “mtb” maps but I assume what they mean is it is a sort of OS lite? Is this the same Topo map you can buy for £107 elsewhere?

Are they compatible with Macs?

G

The Topo maps show contours and most tracks but don’t differentiate between footpaths and bridleways. You can try out the mapping software on the Garmin site.
If you go for the mapping get it on disc rather than SD card as you can’t load the SD card version on your PC.

The Cycle Surgery deal includes the maps on DVD.

I think that they are compatible with Macs now, not 100% sure though!

Garmin have *some* mac software on their site, but it looks like its just for loading the maps
http://www8.garmin.com/support/mappingsw.jsp

Training centre is mac compatible. This loads what you ahve done and shows you graphs etc like sporttracks
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99999-04

Garmin have a complete suite of Mac-compatible software:

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

One note of caution.

Last night I planned an 80 mile ride and downloaded it to my Edge 705
Today I road 40 miles without incident and stopped for a nice cup of tea in a cafe near Broadway, never been there before.

On leaving the cafe, my GPS suddenly decided that I was pressing the “In” button which zooms into the map. It zoomed in to 20 ft and then beeped..continuously. At this zoom level I could not see the plotted track. So I tried to turn it off, but no buttons would respond. It would not reset, it simply beeped.

Of course, being an ex-cub scout I’d left the back up map at home. And so set off in roughly the direction of home hoping to come across a familiar village or town name. Thankfully I spotted a sign to Stow-On-The-Wold and took a long diversion to get there and back home via a route I knew. The **** Garmin just beeped, and it would not switch off.After a mile it was annoying, after ten miles I actually stopped and shouted at it. After 20 miles I had completely lost the will to live and just concentrated on dictating a pointless but arsey letter to Garmin. The only thing that stopped me destroying it with my pump was the amount of money I’d paid in the first place.

I’ve owned every generation of Garmin bike GPS from the first Etrex models up to this one. In my opinion Garmin’s quality is going backwards and the Edge is full of bugs and stupid user interface/protocol decisions.

Sat here I can still here the bloody thing beeping from the garage and given its 12 hour battery life it will be bedtime before it final shuts up and gets sent back to Garmin..again.

Are you using the latest firmware (V 2.60? Have you tried a “hard reset”?

I’m sitting here looking at two broken Garmin GPS (Edge 205 and a Nuvi 360), both out of warrenty, both a ton+ to fix. Shame no one makes gadgets to rival Garmin but I’m wary of giving them any more of my money!!!

I use mine with a mac, and as mentioned above the Garmin software works. Another useful tip is to use the bike hike website. I use that to plan routes for free using OS mapping, then download to the GPS.

As for using in bright sunlight, it has a backlight that can be activated whenever something happens (you reach a checkpoint, press a button etc).

Generally, I’m very pleased with it. I’m certainly glad I got one with a screen big enough to display the route on it – that way I can anticipate which way to go at junctions.