Irritated Garmin Edge user lookin to commiserate

[OakLeaf]

I LOVE my 705. Besides being a total data geek, the mapping capability is an enormous comfort to me, since I have the world's worst sense of direction. And, anyone can miss turns in an unfamiliar area, and cue sheets and road markings aren't always what they should be.

People will tell you not to rely on any electronic gadget, and that's good advice - I try to always carry a paper map when I'm in an unfamiliar area, and the small screen on the Garmin makes it hard to create a route on the fly when you need to make a detour, etc. - but it's enormously valuable to me. Even when you do decide to pull the paper map out, the map can't tell you where you are.

Firmware version 2.6 has been stable and trouble-free for me and for most users. If you go to the MotionBased forums, I'm pretty sure there's a link to where you can download a patch to revert your firmware back to 2.6.

The drowning cadence sensors are a bigger issue than the firmware bugs IMO, and I see no good reason why Garmin can't have waterproofed the things after all these years. It wouldn't keep me from buying another Garmin product - especially since they're willing to replace the cadence sensors under warranty with very little hassle - but it's still a PITA going without it when it drowns.

My advice would be to take the cadence sensor off whenever you wash your bike, and carry a small pair of side cutters in your tool kit to remove it and stash it in your waterproof storage with your phone and paperwork whenever it starts to rain during a ride.

I don't use a power meter and I've never seen the Suunto unit, so I can't comment on those. But I don't believe any other GPS has mapping capability.


ETA: I don't "train" on the bike - I just ride . But I have a Garmin Forerunner that I use for running, and I really like the ability to create various interval and tempo workouts. So many people here do their intervals on the treadmill just to be able to have pace monitoring . GPS isn't ever going to be as consistent as a treadmill, but the benefits of being able to do my speedwork outdoors FAR outweigh any accuracy glitches, IMO. It'll give audible and visible alerts so you don't have to be constantly looking at the screen to know when you're outside your target speed or HR range, or when you're about to go to the next segment (which you can set for time, distance, or whenever your HR reaches a particular target).