Garmin 010-00555-00 Edge 605 Bicycle Monitor with GPS Garmin has really upped the ante on the entire cycling computercategory with it’s two new gps-enabled navigator/computers, the 705 and its younger sibling, the 605. These are true navigational aids with full-color maps and turn-by-turn directions in addition to advanced route-planning and saving capabilities. On top of that, the 705 adds heart rate and cadence monitors, a barometric altimeter, and wireless capability that lets you share routes and workout data with other riders instantly. Sleek and waterproof, with a 2.2-inch color screen that lets you customize what data you see and how you see it, these two devices help make the most of every ride.
The Power Of Location-Based Data
Anyone who has used Garmin’s original Edge 205 or 305 already understands the power that attaching location data to traditional measurements like distance, speed, time, calories burned, and heart rate can provide. Knowing exactly where you worked hardest, rode fastest (or most slowly) lets you tailor your workouts to improve to improve your riding skills for specific distances, conditions, and types of terrain. It gives a complete picture of how you interact with every portion of your ride.
Altitude is recorded using a barometric altimeter for the Edge 705. This accurate altitude data makes it much easier for cyclists to match their altitude profile with their speed, cadence, and heart rate during post-ride analysis. The Edge 605 gives a somewhat less precise altitude measurement via the GPS positioning system itself.
A First-Rate Bike Computer
The Edge 605 automatically measures your speed, distance, time, calories burned and altitude. The 705 also track your heart rate, cadence, power (from optional ANT + Sport-enabled third-party power meters), climb and descent. Other nifty features include the following.
- Virtual Partner lets you race a virtual competitor over a specified distance and speed.
- Courses let you race against a previously recorded workout, so you can compare your current and past performances over the same ride.
- Auto Pause pauses the timer when you slow down or stop and resumes when you speed up again, so you can focus on your ride.
- Auto Lap automatically starts a new lap each time you pass a specified location or travel a preset distance
- Click stick helps users navigate through the various options.
Full-Featured Navigation
The Edge 305 Screen (actual size) The larger color screen (actual size) on the Edge 605 and 705 shows you your surroundings more clearly and supports real turn-by-turn navigation. |
No more scratch paper paper-clipped to your handlebars. In addition to their cycling computer functions, The Edge 705 and 605 provide the same robust navigation as Garmin’s vehicle navigators, with turn-by-turn spoken directions (turn left in 500 yards) and a 2.2-inch (diagonal) color display that shows maps in great detail.
Both devices come pre-loaded with a built-in basemap, and a MicroSD card slot you can use to load new maps or store workout, course and ride data. Garmin has lots of street and topographic maps available for purchase and you can download courses and rides from Garmin or other riders at the Garmin Connect website.
Both feature a high-sensitivity receiver that holds a signal under trees and near tall buildings and have a click stick for easy screen navigation.
Connectivity and “ANT + Sport”
One of Garmin’s most ambitious decisions has been to approach fitness devices as a total platform with their “ANT + Sport” connectivity system. All of Garmin’s new fitness devices, including the Edge 605 and 705, the Forerunner 50 heart rate monitor watches, will interface wirelessly with any devices that are compatible wiht the “ANT + Sport” protocol, including devices from other manufacturers. Currently, Garmin the devices will pair with power meter from SRM or Quarq to measure power – torque and cadence for each leg at the pedals – which is often cited as a true indicator of an efficient ride. It’s unclear what other manufacturers will buy into the ANT + Sport platform, but this kind of open connectivity with products from other companies offers a great deal of potential flexibility.
The wireless function also makes it easy to connect one Edge unit to another to share rides, courses and workout data.
Heart Rate and Cadence Monitors
The Edge 705 heart rate monitor uses a robust wireless technology that eliminates cross-talk and interference and delivers real-time heart rate data exclusively to the user’s device. This data is stored with each track point for post-workout analysis. The Edge 705 with speed/cadence sensor incorporates a self-calibrating, wireless speed/cadence sensor that mounts to the rear chain stay of the bicycle.
Be Part of A Community
In 2007, Garmin acquired Motion-based, the largest shared repository of customer-generated gps-based routes, courses and maps. This was a significant move for Garmin to support the gps user community and bring a wealth of route options to gps users. With a simple connection to your computer, you can join a worldwide network of cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts through Garmin Connect our new, one-stop site for data analysis an sharing.
You can also upload to optional Garmin Training Center software for further analysis. Garmin Training Center stores large quanities of workout and ride data. Some of the things you can do are
- Review your workout data, including pace/speed, distance, time, calories burned; and if available, heart rate, cadence and detailed elevation.
- View a detailed graph of your workout data, plotted over time or distance.
- View a map of your workout that shows the exact path you traveled.
- Categorize your workout history according to type of activity.
- Review previous workouts, which are saved by day and week.
- Create customized workouts with specific goals and rest intervals. Then send them to your fitness device.*
- Schedule workouts for a specific day with calendar.
- Get custom workout templates designed by the experts at TrainingPeaks.com
What’s In The Box
Edge 605 GPS-enabled cycling computer, bike mounts, AC charger, USB cable, owner’s manual on CD-ROM, quick reference guide
Customer Review: The Garmin 605 Shines Off-Road.
I must start by saying that I don’t live in a big city, so I’m not exactly using the 605 as a commuting tool or for directions. I live in central Florida (a place with few elevation changes) and cycle cross country. The altitude has always been spot on, as have the speed readings, % grade, and positioning. The training function is a GREAT tool for those who intend to use it for its intended pupose - training. Every ride I go on is saved into the history with detailed information on each ride - elevation graphs, average speed, top speed, etc. I can race a blip on the GPS map of a stored trail to better my lap times. Marking all of the 16-35 mile off-road loops is so nice and neat to see exactly what the trail is shaped like and what to expect right ahead of you.
The only reason I can see how this can be bad in ANY way is if you plan on using this for primarily on-road purposes. If so, you’ll have to buy a programmed SD card with updated road maps. Otherwise, you can trust Garmin to uphold is reputation in accurate satellite positioning.
Customer Review: Buggy device, buggy software
I have used the Garmin Edge 605 for the past 9 months, I only used basic functionality like logging tracks, nothing fancy like navigation or riding courses. I used the device once or twice a week on my mountainbike. Some of the problems I encountered:
-tracking a ride without displaying a map works well, displaying a map without tracking the ride also works well but a combination of tracking a ride and displaying a map at the same time hangs up the device after a short while
-in the beginning all my rides showed up in the history, after a few months of operations the device stopped doing that and only showed the last ride. When connecting the device to the PC however all the rides were still there and visible in the history directory
-after storing about a dozen rides in the GPX directory (accessible through the device as “Saved Rides”) showing a directory listing of these rides took the device no less than 3 minutes! All rides were between 1 and 1.5 Mb in size so it took minutes just to display a directory listing of a few files of moderate size
-when selecting a ride to track from my “Saved Rides” the system often just hung up, after consultation with Garmin support they explained that the track files were probably too big. It turned out that with the default settings for tracking, the number of points that is recorded is so high that rides that are longer than appr. 55 km can no longer be handled. The system just hangs up while reading the file. By the way, this can be fixed by using the filter function in Mapsource to reduce the number of points in a track, not sure yet if and how the default setting for logging a track can be changed in the device to avoid this problem
-Did I just mention Mapsource? This is the software used to (among other things) manage rides. But guess what, the format in which the device logs tracks is not recognized by Mapsource. At first I did not believe this to be true: you get a device with software but the files created by the device can not be read by the software, it can’t get much weirder than that! The solution for this is to use an external website to convert the files from the internal Garmin Edge history format to the GPX format used by Mapsource (I use www.gpsies.com to do just that)
-The steering mount broke in two pieces after about 7 months of operations, the mount is a rather cheap piece of plastic. I used some glue to put everything back in one piece again which fixed this problem for the time being
-After 9 months and many problems (the listing above is by no means complete) the device has now broken down completely. Apparently it cannot read its internal memory anymore. After consultation with Garmin support I have sent in the device for repair.
If you want my advice: using a GPS while mountainbiking is great fun but this device is really not suited for the job.
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