GPS watches for running/cycling/other route tracking

thinking about getting one of these, what are we all rocking and recommending?

I have a Garmin Forerunner 405CX and it absolutely sucks. Takes ages to get a fix, and then a nightmare to figure out how to use. Also it has a flaky connection to my Mac.

EDIT crap battery life too.

Another unhappy forerunner 405Csx owner here. Battery life too poor for riding. Bezel is a PITA to use. Wrist strap is too fragile. Don’t buy one.

ok, good tips – my research so far has suggested the garmin 405 is best avoided, sorry you chaps can back that up!

If it is just route tracking and then viewing on the internet. Then Garmin forerunner 110 probably fits your needs. If you want anything else like pacing, following a route then it will be no good.

This is a track of a walk I did with my watch.
Walking track
Nick

cheers, in a way i’ve sort of answered my own question as i’m leaning towards the garmin 210. thinking that seems like a reasonable balance of price and features without going overboard on both.

I had the 610 which was grand; quick gps fix, more data output than I knew what to do with. Just overkill for what I was using it for (training runs mainly) so sold it. Which I regret other than the fact that as it was one of the first into the uk I sold for more than I paid.

I’ve got a forerunner fr60 with foot pod + hrm which cost me about 70 all in bought piecemeal on ebay and that does everything bar gps – distance etc all good and was found to be as accurate as GPS over distances tby he chap who does all the reviews of the Garmin sports units (DC something or other?). If I want gps of route I’ll use in conjunction with a ‘proper’ gps – either satmap or Garmin Oregon.

That said, the 910xt does look tempting tithe inner geek…

if you get a gps one then use Strava to upload your runs/rides – cracking piece of software.

I got a cheap second hand Forerunner 205 off ebay.
All I want is to record my distance and time and look at my routes on google earth.
It does all that perfectly and probably a load of other stuff I’m not interested in.

Can anyone tell me how the interval timing works on these watches? If I’m running intervals do they vibrate to signal the start/end of each programmed interval?

If it’s purely timed intervals you want then you can try something like a Gymboss – can be set to vibrate every x number of minutes or seconds. All of £15 odd from memory…

I’m pretty sure you can setup pretty much all of the Garmins to vibrate on intervals, both exercise and rest. I’m sure I had them setup on the 610

I have an Fr60, you set the interval (miles or km) and it beeps each time you complete one, displaying the pace ets of that interval.

i have the garmin 210, its a decent running watch, i also uses it to track some mtb rides/races. no problem with acuracy or getting a fix, way better than any phone…
my gf has the fr60 also a good watch but no gps, but can be warn as a proper full time watch unlike the 110/210 that will need charging every few rides.

you can use the interval timer for tabata and intervals but its fairly rubbish imo. i find the beeps to be difficult to accuratley determin the intervals.

better off with a gym boss for intervals.

i got some good interval app on my phone though which does the job though at home/not runs.

Can anyone tell me how the interval timing works on these watches?

strangely enough only today I got a facebook post saying the new endomondo phone app has an interval training feature that they did not have previously.

I recently got a Forerunner 310XT. Mainly because it is one of the few waterproof watches. Im shocked at how many other watches in this category wont withstand a dunking! I use it to track runs, rides, rows, and kayak trips. Pretty cool how it wirelessly syncs with a computer (mac or pc). I couldn’t get the Garmin Connect website to work properly, but use Rubitrack and rate it highly.

+1 for Rubitrack

I’ve got the Decathlon version, a Quechua Keymaze 500. Works very well, quick to lock, good battery life, better software than it used to have.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/keymaze-quechua-500-id_8056943.html

Can definitely recommend it. The desktop software lets you spit out routes in .gpx format, so can be uploaded to Strava etc.

cheers MTG and others, reckon it’s going to be the 210. basically i want it to help me track/structure training runs/rides and also to track distances and pace etc. sounds ideal.

I use the Garmin 305 and it is brilliant .

interesting. they all sound pretty tempting, tbf! what features do the 3xx have over the 2xx, do you know?

strava also sounds good – can see myself getting sucked in pretty quickly!

right, probably going to push the garmin 210 button later today. any questions? 🙂

theres a 405 on the classifieds at the moment.

that’s the crap one that everyone says should be avoided, though. apparently the controls are totally useless.

Interesting stuff, never thought about them before but I was really tempted to get a gps tracker after reading the Strava thread (don’t have a smartphone) and also need a decent interval timer as I’m training for a half marathon so seems like this could be pretty useful tbf

yeah that’s what i was thinking. a couple of things have swayed me, firstly i have been travelling a bit over the last few weeks and have done the odd run. i would like to be able to properly track how far i’m going, record routes and pace etc. easily.

also, i haven’t been on the bike anything like as much as i’d like to have recently, and so am actually trying to do some structured training. similar motive, the ability not just to record duration of rides but also to track more detailed data sounds appealing, and they don’t cost that much considering.

that’s the crap one that everyone says should be avoided, though. apparently the controls are totally useless.

Anyone interested can have mine for half what I paid for it, whatever that was! Had it less than a year and used about a dozen times. You never know – you may love it. I actually have a friend who swears by hers.

My only reservation is I think I would need an interval timer that vibrates- currently I run mainly in South Manchester and time my intervals carrying my (really old) Nokia phone which depite being crap does actually have an interval timer that vibrates to signal the start/end of each interval which is really useful.

I’m not sure if it just beeped I would be able to hear the interval start/end over traffic etc a lot of the time

from what i can gather, you can set the garmins to vibrate for intervals. basically just what you’re describing.

I’ve been using a Edge 500 on a watch strap for a couple of years now – gives you everything except pace. Just bought a 405 now :-/

I’ve got a 910xt which is awesome… does have some funny moments in the woods/ behind tall buildings where it momentarily miscalculates speed.

Another one here with a 910XT – the main advantage over anything else for me being the barometric altimeter for accurate height/ascent measurements. Shame the altimeter bit doesn’t work as well as my previous Suunto, or even my decade old Etrex Summit – funny stuff with auto-calibration which you can’t turn off, though I’m hoping a firmware upgrade will sort this. Otherwise apart from a few little niggles it’s excellent – very quick to get a fix, generally very accurate.

Oh, and if you want you can program workouts for it with intervals either distance or time – fully custom, ie if you wanted you could have interval 230m, rest 27s, interval 43s, rest 80m…

I was going to say thanks for the Rubitrack suggestion (I have Connect working fine, but it’s missing certain features, and nothing else I’ve tried seems to do all I want either), until I discovered it only works on toy computers.

and now ordered. looking forward to new levels of abject geekery. 🙂

Aracer – presume you’ve tried Training Peaks and Sport Tracks?

presume you’ve tried Training Peaks and Sport Tracks?

Yeah – I must have another try at those (and MapMyRide, which seemed to come closest) now I’ve used it a bit more and got a better idea of my needs. All seemed lacking in certain aspects though.

that’s the crap one that everyone says should be avoided, though. apparently the controls are totally useless.

I’ve got a 405CX and I think it’s quite good. Yes the bezel is slightly annoying, but once you learn to lock it it’s fine. Battery life is good for 8 hours or so. Fixes very quickly (I turn it in my flat, walk down the stairs and by the time i’m outside it’s got a fix – hardly ideal conditions for it!). Does custom workouts (via garmin connect) that are very handy – quite like the interval training where it beeps at you if your heart rate drops outside of a specified range – good for making you run so hard you puke. It’s also quite customisable – e.g i’ve got mine so the back light is on it’s lowest setting but is permantly on so i don’t have to find the button when running (in the dark). Garmin connect is very good and the upload is flawless on my PC – just bring the thing within about 10ft of the computer and it’s done.

As you can tell, I quite like it. If I wanted to spend more I’d buy the 910XT but frankly the 405 is more than worth the money (I paid 75 quid from amazon IIRC).

BTW before you buy anywhere spend a few hours on this site: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/10/garmin-forerunner-910xt-in-depth-review.html

I’ve a couple of friends with the 310xt which is a staggering piece of kit. Both have had them replaced by Garmin because they’ve leaked or developed software faults.

I’ve a Suunto X10 which does a fraction of the data with no HRM/cadence capability and limited mapping. More of a novelty than a really useful tool.