I'm such a gadget geek...

[Running Mommy]

But I want one of THESE!!

http://www.trisports.com/gaed305bu.html

Still trying to figure out where on my bike I could mount the dang gum thing! I can't even mount my forerunner on my bike, so I have to wear it on my wrist- which I HATE when I'm riding... sigh... But I WANT one of those!!!
And then of course there's the 400.00 price tag... Though I did see it somwhere for 349.99... hmmm... And I *do* get a 15% discount at trisports!
ahhhh the wheels are a turnin... and I don't mean on the bike!!

[tprevost]

Caligurl has one of those and she LOVES it. She has it mounted directly over her stem, I think. You may want to PM her and ask her - she's quite the gadget geek herself! She can probably also tell ya where to get the best deal.

I will probably get something like that when I get my life in order. Right now I just don't have the mental wherewithall to figure it all out! I have the simplest HRM one can get and I barely have the brain cells for that one!

I think you should get one... also, over on bikeforum.com under the road biking section there is a review thread. They have all kinds of good info there!

Go Get One, they're really COOL!!!

Tracy

[tprevost]

I was just looking at the pics of your bike - I think Cali's is mounted right over the "circle" part of the stem (right where it attaches). Sorry, I don't know what that is called

You can do it, Denise!!! (I'm not sure why I'm so excited for you to get this, but I am!)

Trac'

[Running Mommy]

Yeah, but I just spent like 400.00 on "last minute" race items.. ahem... and then I just KNOW that when I get to the race site next week I'm going to buy up anything and everything that is A). Cute and B). says Ironman on it! LOL
I have this thing where I will not wear a shirt from a race I didn't do. So consequently I will not allow myself to wear anything that sayd IM on it until I do the race. Let's just say I've been waiting a LOOOONNNGGGG time!!
I do have a "training for IMAZ" shirt, but that's it.
And I saw a cute pink IM running hat that I'm drooling over. Of course the marketing folks can see a sucker like me coming- well 2000 or so of us, so I'm sure the prices will be mighty steep!

But yeah, that is def. on my list of must haves...

[Nanci]

RM,

They sell all the same stuff at IM after it is over, only it now says "Finisher" on it. And it sells out FAST!!! And so do any of the large sizes of all the cool stuff as soon as the Expo opens.

Nanci

[Surlygirl]

We have the Garmin Etrex and hubby has his mounted on the stem. They do sell bike mounts for them. I think if you go to Garmin's site they have them and I know they have them at REI. We love it. We plan a route on the computer and then download it on the Garmin and off we go. We haven't gotten lost yet.

[Running Mommy]

Ohh surly it's SOOOO on my list! In fact I was just telling my hubby about it on the phone and he said "yeah, I saw it in my bike magazine. I was just wondering when you'd see it in your tri geek magazine and ask for it. It's pretty cool. We'll have to get one. Will you share it with me?"... YES!!!

But yeah, gotta get my Im gear first! And yeah Nanci, I hear that Inside out sports doesn't do a very good job of stocking the IM gear! grrrr
I've heard that they sell the "finishers" stuff BEFORE the race too! Now I am WAY to supersticious to buy finishers gear before I've even towed the line! So I don't know what I'm going to do??
The IM store opens Weds, which is the day before alot of out of town people are going to get here, so I think I might have to take a special shopping trip.. hee hee
But I don't know what to do about the finisher stuff?? And yeah, god knows I'm not a SMALL! Or even a MEDIUM for that matter... grrrrrr
You would think all the teenie weenie tri peeps would take the small sizes? hmmph!

[crazycanuck]

Hey there,

We have one & i'm still figuring out how to use it. It's wayyyyy cool...funky toy.

I';ll just have to sit down and read the instruction booklet as i keep hitting the wrong button when i'm biking in the dark....

c

[caligurl]

oh good gawd... i LOVE my edge! it's really IS the neatest little toy/gadget/useful thingamabob! the only thing i don't like is the calorie counter is way flawed.. WAY off! there is a huge thread at motionbased with a lot of complaints about the calorie count!

i have mine set with the 8 item view... then if i switch to the second view (also 8 items) i have mostly different info more relating to climbing (i.e. total elevation gain, current elevation)

motionbased is another fun tool! you d/l to it (or i guess technically upload to it) and they have this neat little player feature.. you can "fly" the course!

it's so customizeable (as in you can have less items than the 8)... you can have 3 bikes "connected" to it.... (perfect for me.. since i have 3! you can do more but have to change it for one of them each time)

i have the cadence/speed sensor for both my road bikes.. but didn't get one for the mtb.. don't need cadence and can get speed from the gps unit!

the HR strap is comfy (but i end up wearing 2 cuz i've taken to wearing my polar f11 strap to get a REAL calorie count!)

the software that came with the unit leaves some to desire after having the polar software... but i use it to get the info that i transfer over to bikejournal (as well as motionbased) i haven't paid for motionbased yet.. i can only see my last 10 rides... but if/when i pay i can go back to ride number one.. .cuz they are saved there! (so if i want to compare a ride from this year to next year)

the battery life worried me so i bought a portable charger for my longer epic climb rides and double metrics... they claim 12.. which would get me through a ride... but 12 is best case and i didn't want to take any chances of loosing info!

if you are on bikejournal.. there is a thread there about the garmin with some posts.. but the best and most on a cycling forum are at bikeforums.net.. a LOT of good info/feedback.. also motionbased forums has good info!

if they would fix the calorie count (it's based on speed of all things! so if you are climbing a grueling hill and really burning calories... since you are going slow.. according to the edge you don't burn hardly any calories.. whereas going downhill or with a tailwind where you aren't working so hard.. because you are going fast. .you burn a TON of calories! i get so ticked when i watch the dumb thing! GRRRRRRR this past weekend for the savage hill climb... at one point in the ride around hill #2.. the most viscious one... the polar and edge were 1000.. that's ONE THOUSAND calories apart because, i was going slow when climbing! at the end of the ride after riding the flatter areas and downhill area.. it came back to a 600 spread when all was said and done! i guess i could not wear the garmin HR strap (since it doesn't use HR to get the calorie count) but i like d/l ALL the info.. so i wear both but for my purposes of what i can eat/how many caloires... i use polars number!)

[Susie]

Hi everyone,

I stopped by the Garmin booth at the Sea Otter Classic and asked about the calorie count problem. They know about the problem and say that they have it on their bug list to fix. There will eventually be a software update that everyone will be able to download and install. Unfortunately, it didn't sound like it was a very high priority for them -- they wouldn't even give me some sort of ETA on the fix. They wouldn't even tell me if they thought it would happen in 2006 or not. They did want me to go ahead and buy it now and wait for the fix. I told them that I wasn't going to buy the product until this is fixed because I have no intention of wearing two heartrate monitors during rides. The product manager was quite a bit surprised by that reaction from me. I got the impression that the Garmin folks are big on mapping functionality, but don't realize the importance of the other functionality.

Susie

[caligurl]

yep.... one of the emails i sent to garmin support came back with "it's only calories"... uh.. ONLY???????????????????????????

at one point during my century saturday.. there was 2000.. yes.. that's TWO THOUSAND calories difference between my polar and my edge! because it was a flat, "fast" century.. i was "burning" calories like crazy, accoring to the edge!

i've ended up wearing 2 straps.. cuz i already have the garmin and like everything else about it.... so i just add on my fitness polar (f11).. but it IS frustrating!