Bike computer with cadence and altimeter?

[Catrin]

I have a Polar 720 that I'm selling with cadence and an altimeter...It's in the For Sale section.

Veronica

I will meander over there and look at it

Personally I would save up for a decent GPS unit if you want to explore with it. Cadence can be measured just fine in your head. Have someone count for 15 secs. Or have a metronome going in your head so you know what a 60 sec/min beat is. Cadence can be done without a high tech device. True mapping GPS functionality cannot.

And there are some decent prices on various Garmin devices right now. Just don't get the fitness/recording units (like the Forerunner or the Edge 305) mixed up with a true mapping GPS.

I keep eyeing them but I just can't take the leap . . . yet.

I hear you, I would have to do some saving before I could afford to make this leap. I do want it for exploring, but I need to master the bar-end shifters and build some miles before I can start exploring.

[Catrin]

After a little more research and thinking, I've decided to go with my original plan. Throw on a $45 Cateye Strata Cadence (wired) on my LHT and save up for a good Garmin - knowing me it will be the 705 unless another unit catches my eye before then. By the time I can afford it my skills should have increased enough to do some real exploring

[OakLeaf]

Just FTR... I have a 705 and I love it, but for actual "exploring," you really still need paper maps. The screen on any GPS is just too small to be able to display both a bigger picture of where you are vs. where you want to wind up, and at the same time all the secondary roads between the two in a way that you can actually see them and explore them.

It's WONDERFUL for plugging in a pre-mapped route and letting it do the navigating. It's great for figuring out where you are so that you can locate that point on a paper map. It's okay for doing the navigating automatically when you're completely lost without a map and just need to get back home without panicking (although it doesn't always choose the best cycling roads - it does have car settings though, so you can use it in place of a car GPS as well, where I'm much more inclined to trust it).

But it's not a substitute for paper maps when you want to go exploring.

[Catrin]

But it's not a substitute for paper maps when you want to go exploring.

Thanks for your experience on this - I had assumed this to be the case but it is good to have that confirmed.

[Veronica]

I use the map source software that comes with Garmins (I think) to pre plot routes.

For touring we use a 60 CsX with a bike mount - it's big but when you're touring who cares... and download the pre plotted routes into that.

I do the same thing with my race courses when I pre ride them.

Veronica

[marni]

I am enjoying listening to Podrunner Podcasts on one ear phone of my nano, turned up slightly loud and hanging aroundd my neck, no it is not in my ear, while riding for cadence. They have a whole series of techno music at various ranges of beats per minute. They also have some freeway to 5 k and 10 k which add in a warm up and then do a series of various types of intervals followed by a cool down. These work sequentially week by week on length and speed of intervals.

Note re the nano- I ride way out in the country on straight stretches with little or no traffic, but I still keep the nnan earphone out of my ear on the off road side so that I can hear traffic coming behind me.

I also enjoy the podrunner podcasts while doing cardio at the gym on the treadmill or precore.

marni

[Miranda]

+1

yep

Garmin Edge 705

all you'll ever need