Bike Gadgets....

[SnappyPix]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
I must not read this board, it's extremely bad for my bank balance (but great for my psyche!).
Been following this thread and have now found myself lusting after the Garmin Edge 305!
Thankfully my current situation means that I can only press my nose up against the glass for the foreseeable future and it remains on my wishlist, but gotta have something to aspire to!
The thought of not having to take a route book out with me on unfamiliar rides is really appealing (as is all the geeky data!).
For those who have the Garmin - a quick question - how easy is it to download maps. I'll be downloading UK ones and wondered if the sources you use are mainly for the US (though I don't suppose you'll have noticed, if it has what you want!).
Hopefully by the time I do get round to getting one, they might have fixed the calorie bug, but I guess it's a small problem considering the wealth of info it seems to offer otherwise.

[Blueberry]

Can you still use a wireless cycle computer without getting interference? I read some reviews that suggest that there isn't a total distance feature and some other things that I like...so I would have to have 2 computers...

I would *love* to have one of the Garmins, but I don't think that's in my budget right now either.....being a semi-employed person doesn't pay all that well...

A question for those of you who don't use altimiters (I have to have a distance reading to follow cue sheets...) - if you're training for a ride with lots of climbing, how do you ensure that you're climbing enough??? I know I need to ride all the hills I can find, but I wonder whether that will be sufficient for some of the rides I'd like to train for this summer...

[Dianyla]

Can you still use a wireless cycle computer without getting interference? I read some reviews that suggest that there isn't a total distance feature and some other things that I like...so I would have to have 2 computers...

When I was first setting up the Polar I was getting some weird readings that might have been from the other wireless computer. But, once everything was adjusted right I ran with two computers for a while and they both worked fine. I eventually took off the other one because I didn't want the clutter (two transmitters on the fork and two computers on the handlebar).

It's true that there is no "total distance elapsed" display on the Polar 720. I don't know about other models like the 625, etc. For the kind of riding I'm doing (commuting or going on known routes) I actually haven't missed the total distance feature. I plan my routes with gmaps-pedometer and generally know how far I'm going. I can see how that might be a problem on long rides and especially when following cue sheets. I'm still keeping my second computer around to put back on whenever necessary for those types of events.