I'm a BAAAAD girl

[SouthernBelle]

Went to the bike shop with Meg yesterday. Came away with a Garmin Edge.

I'm such a gadget ****.

Haven't completely finished setting it up as the charging took me into the evening hours. I decided that futzing with when I was tired wasn't a good idea.

[mimitabby]

are you related to my DH? I need a restraining order to keep him away from bike shops!
He met up with me and X and Kitsune after our bike ride and led us to Recycled Cycles then HE spent 40 bucks on tiny little parts!

[SouthernBelle]

But I spent nearly $400!!

[kelownagirl]

Oooh, let me know how you like it. I am planning to buy one next weekend. Can't wait!!!

[susan.wells]

Another gadget w!@^e checking in. I've had my Edge 305 since July of last year. I absolutely love it. Here's a link to one of my rides last summer. Enjoy it!

Susan

[ridebikeme]

Thanks for your imput on the Garmin... I am comtemplating whether to buy one as well. I would love to hear more about what you like, dislike ...

Thanks for the help!

[SouthernBelle]

Susan, the link wouldn't show your ride.

Played with it last night but got home too late to ride. Lots of bells & whistles. But it's still seems very cool.

Planning on a ride with the default setup tonight to see what I want to change. Will report back.

[7rider]

I'm also a Garmin Edge 305 user.
I like it a lot.
Like the fact that I have 3 bikes and one computer (although I keep the wired one on my commuter as a check on the Garmin, as it doesn't work so well in a city with large buildings or in the parking garage where I park the bike).
Like the coolness factor of the datapoints (but be careful not to load too much onto the display screen...you can get overloaded with too much info...best to save a lot of that for looking at AFTER the ride).
I like heart rate and cadance and checking that out vs. other ride metrics like elevation, % grade, speed, etc.
Dislike the fact that I can't correct obvious errors in the file (like, my 325 mph max speed).
Dislike the fact that it doesn't give me turn by turn directions for a new route but maybe I was hoping for too much!
Not a big fan of the stock desktop application. Susan - how do you like MotionBased? Do you use the freebie or are you a subscriber? Is it worth the switch?
I also don't like the fact that I know I'll never use it to its full capacity.
I'd love to hear your impressions, SB.

[SouthernBelle]

My Edge had it's maiden voyage yesterday. I went with the default screens which got changed as soon as I got home. I really don't need to know what my average lap speed is. I never ride a lap. I had also set the cadence alarm which was really irritating as I was in town. That should be reserved for only specific training rides. Everything seemed to record ok, including heart rate, cadence, and route from satellite. Grades seem to be good too, though my route was short with only one significant hill.

FYI, there are 2 pages of display that can have up to 8 items each. Right now I put 5 on the first and 4 on the second. I've included mph, grade, total time, current time of day, cadence, % grade, total ascent, heart rate, ... drat one more. Blanking. Everything else is recorded, just not displayed. You can get that info when you download.

I dl'd into GTC. I've only looked at this in a cursory manner. They seem to try to put too much info on a page. For example, the map of where I rode was there, along with other stuff. There may be a way to bring the map to full size, don't know yet. (I was very hungry by then).

Regina, I haven't tried MB yet but intend to. I'll post when I do, and probably ask you some dumb Qs. Assuming I like it, & it does look cool, I'll probably stay with the free service for this year and maybe pay next.

I'm trying to take this one block of info at a time, so haven't gotten to entering things like way points yet. Plus yesterday's route isn't worth retaining. I've read them in the manual.

BTW, the manual falls apart really easily. One of the first things I did was put a big staple thru the corner so I wouldn't lose any pages. Though you can dld a pdf version from the website.

[SouthernBelle]

Downloaded yesterday's ride into GTC and have to agree it's not a real useful program except as a conduit for uploading to motion based (assumption).

Regina, or anybody else, can the default displays be changed in GTC? I looked at the help, but didn't find much there.