Garmin Edge 305 Question

[SadieKate]

Bicycles need birthday gifts also.

[tygab]

I have a forerunner 305 and love it. It is a tad large in both size and chest strap, but I've never had either slip once tucked/set where I want them. I am 5'3" and thin build. I have heard other women simply hack a piece off the elastic strap and resew it. I don't know how to sew but if the band ever stretches I will do that. I use the last hole on the watch band but it never moves around which was my initial fear. I got the Forerunner since it is a bit more multisport friendly.

I use Motionbased's free service, and have it set to topo correct for my GPS altitude (it is one of the upload preferences). I have had a few errors here and there with MB but nothing that waiting a little while didn't solve. I want to get a bike mount for it. I think either one offers a lot of features.

Extremely glad I got it and I bet your bike will love an Edge too.

[BikeDutchess]

The Edge 305 with barometric and GPS has very accurate elevation data when run through Garmin Training Center (the standard software that comes with the unit).

Is the standard software Mac-compatible?

[SadieKate]

Looks like it.
http://www8.garmin.com/products/trainingcenter/

There is a forum on www.motionbased.com which a ton of info also.

I just ordered an Edge 305 from Amazon for a great price. Thanks, bikerhen, for getting this thread started so I found out about the rebate. Edge prices are the lowest I've ever seen them.

[Lifesgreat]

BikerHen, I hear your new bike screaming for an Edge 305.

I got one a few months ago through Amazon and LOVE it. I am a total hillslug and slowpoke (see avatar) and I know I am not using it to its full capability. If I were a "techno-geek with time" rather than just a "techno-geek", I would figure it all out.

I splurged for the HR monitor/cadence features and recommend it. For me it was "duh, I KNOW my heartrate climbs as the elevation climbs", but it was interesting to see it on a graph. I learned it doesn't climb as much as I thought it would. It is also fun to see progress.

Do it, do it, do it. . .

[Mr. Bloom]

Best Father's Day gift I ever got!

[silver]

I have a forerunner 305 and love it. It is a tad large in both size and chest strap, but I've never had either slip once tucked/set where I want them. I am 5'3" and thin build. I have heard other women simply hack a piece off the elastic strap and resew it. I don't know how to sew but if the band ever stretches I will do that. I use the last hole on the watch band but it never moves around which was my initial fear. I got the Forerunner since it is a bit more multisport friendly.

I use Motionbased's free service, and have it set to topo correct for my GPS altitude (it is one of the upload preferences). I have had a few errors here and there with MB but nothing that waiting a little while didn't solve. I want to get a bike mount for it. I think either one offers a lot of features.

Extremely glad I got it and I bet your bike will love an Edge too.

I have the forerunner 205. So I don't have the HRM. But I have freakishly thin wrists. I can adjust the watch on my wrist by using the triangle past the last hole. But I've found it's more comfortable the wear a sweat band on my wrist and wear the forerunner over the sweat band. I do the same thing to mount it to my bike. Fold the sweat band over the bar and then strap the forerunner on.

[SouthernBelle]

Agree with all the plus recommendations above.

As to MB, they got slammed with the sudden big demand exceeding their expectations. I know they have added servers and thing s seem to have calmed down.

[onimity]

Thanks everyone. Everyone here is so knowledgeable and I really appreciate it. It makes sense that it would have little blips and that's probably unavoidable, I just get frustrated with the Forerunner because the elevation figures are *so* inflated, even with the Motionbased 'correction'; It just seems like the elevation gain/loss 'feature' shouldn't be included if its so wildly inaccurate.

Sarah, your comment about the grade had me laughing because my sister & I were riding this weekend in a mountain canyon and when the pain got too bad we took our minds off of it by comparing Garmin grades (she has a 205). 35%. -2%. -15%. 29%. 2%. -5%. 135%. Funny, it felt like steady climbing to me.

SadieKate, I think that you are right about the elevation data itself being pretty accurate. I took my Forerunner to South America with me to mark points so that I could map them when I got home and found that the elevation was pretty close to what was marked.

I just ordered an Edge 305 and am so excited to be able to set real climbing goals this month. Now if only I can figure out what they should be...

Anne

[Lifesgreat]

I just ordered an Edge 305 and am so excited to be able to set real climbing goals this month. Now if only I can figure out what they should be...

Anne

Just remember when calculating your climbing, if you are riding into a headwind while climbing (like I was this morning-a huge "canyon" wind), remember to double the total elevation to determine how much you actually climbed

[SadieKate]

. . . I just get frustrated with the Forerunner because the elevation figures are *so* inflated, even with the Motionbased 'correction'; It just seems like the elevation gain/loss 'feature' shouldn't be included if its so wildly inaccurate.

Tell that to Garmin. I talked to them earlier this week as the Forerunner is clealy marketed to multi-sport athletes including cyclists. They said that they "had so many products" that there was no way to state in the software manuals or make it clear on MB's website that gain/loss data obtained from Forereunner data (GPS only) is completely useless. I loved the "only way to keep up in the marketplace was to go to market with known problems and try to address them later." And "if you had called us we would have told you not to use it for cycling if you want gain/loss data." So I asked him why it had biking settings at all. As you'd expect, more BS.

I asked how to get release notes that tracked bug fixes. "We don't do that. We have too many products."

I told him (in nicer words) that he was full of it and that the company I worked for could put him in the shade with software products and ability to track changes, and had the financial success to prove it could be done.

However, other than this guy's BS, the reps have all been ready and willing to help. They replaced my original Forerunner when it had problems. They helped with the software updates on my new one when I told them I was a bit gun-shy after my first experience. The MB folks have emailed me back when I sent questions. I've also had good experience with a borrowed Garmin 60csx. Because of this I'm willing to take a risk on another Garmin product.

I'm going to go find an email from a geeky friend who explains the GPS-only elevation gain/loss problems and post just because someone may find it interesting.

[SadieKate]

gw_12 (whom I like to call geek_12) over on bikejournal sent me this explanation of GPS-only elevation gain/loss problems:

Consumer grade GPS is just not very good for accumulated elevation measurement (that’s why survey grade GPS units still cost about $5000). As you probably know consumer grade GPS can be off in the horizontal plane by 5-10 meters or so at any time. In the vertical plane they can easily be off by 2 to 3 times that much. While that drift in the horizontal plane may not produce an unacceptable error in the distance measurement of a bike ride (lots of horizontal travel vs relatively small errors), 2 to 3 times that error in the vertical plane over the same amount of time and much less vertical travel makes the accumulated elevation data practically worthless. Note that the indicated elevation is typically with 50 feet of actual, but varies over the ride from -50 to +50. The system has no way to discriminate between actual climbing and descending and error drift.

I, personally, have experienced gain/loss data 3x the actual with the Forerunner. So the deals to be had on the Edge make it worth having both.

The FR has been useful to Izaak the Wonder Poodle as he is currently racking up the mileage to the coffee shop and back. And I'll use it for snowshoeing once we move to Bend. It will definitely come in handy. Besides, I'm sure that yellow has dreams that someday she'll convert me to trail-shuffling.

[7rider]

So wait.
Let me state what I think may be obvious to some, but not to me.
SadieKate...
the gist of what you are saying is:
ForeRunner: GPS elevation only. Much variation/error. Essentially worthless for elevation readings.
Edge: GPS and barometric elevation readings. Some variation/error. Generally more accurate than GPS alone. Not perfect, but okay for consumer grade.

(that is the general sense I've gotten from other folks over the year I've had my Edge, at any rate).

[kelownagirl]

I love my Edge and have had very few "anomolies" other than a few artificially high heart rates. The elevation data has been fairly accurate so far and I run my data thru the garmin software as well as Motionbased. Motionbased has never been down when I've been online yet although I have not yet upgraded to a full account yet. I may once dh starts using his garmin as well.

I DID set my garmin up with my bike data and it was fairly easy to input the weight of the bike and the wheel size from their chart. It is possible to set it up for 3 different bikes so next time I use my MTbike, I'll add that as well. I also use my garmin for running - I just carry it in my hand or pocket. It was awesome to have it on our bike tour in France this summer - so cool to be able to see the graphs and maps online.

FWIW, DH and I bought two Garmins for ourselves as a wedding present last March...

Enjoy yours!

[SadieKate]

Regina, I've done a little editing. Make sure you differentiate between the measurement of the elevation of a certain point on your route (i.,e., at the top of Mt Diablo it is X feet high) and the calculation of the total feet you've climbed (i.e, I just rode up Mt Diablo and climbed X feet total). These are two different things.

ForeRunner: GPS elevation only. Much variation/error on gain/loss calculations (only available once you've downloaded your data to the Training Center or MotionBased). Essentially worthless for elevation gain/loss readings but fairly accurate for measuring the elevation of a certain point.

Edge: GPS and barometric elevation readings and gain/loss calculations. Some variation/error. Generally more accurate than GPS alone. Not perfect, but okay for consumer grade.