Garmin intros two bike-centric GPS units

If you've been riding your bike around town, yet finding yourself completely stupefied when you need to make directional decisions, perhaps you need to check into Garmin's latest cycle-friendly GPS boxes -- the Edge 605 and 705. The latter -- which is the company's higher-end bike-mountable unit -- comes crammed with a slew of features aimed at cycling enthusiasts hoping to get more out of their workout, including automatic speed, distance, time, calories burned, altitude, climb, and descent tracking, plus the ability to review the recorded data. The 705 also has an array of add-ons that further assist the obsessed dedicated rider to suss out his or her performance levels, including a heart rate monitor and a speed / cadence sensor. The lower-priced Edge 605 takes a slightly less hardcore approach, though still delivers on skill-testing functions like "Virtual Partner," which allows you to "race" a ghost-competitor over a specified distance and speed, and "Courses," which lets you make a rival out of yourself by clocking your performance against a previously recorded run. Both devices will make an appearance in December, with the 705 ranging in price from $499.99 to $649.99 (depending on the configuration) and the 605 will be $399.99.

[HineyWipe @ Aug 29th 2007 12:19PM]

"And, they cost more than most of your bicycles!"

(well, not mine. but then, I go too fast on my roadbike to have time to look down and see where it thinks I am going. And then there is the latency...and the wonderful accuracy of Garmin's street info...[sarcasm])

[Zach @ Aug 29th 2007 12:36PM]

depends on the bike. The crowd that these things are marketed to buys bikes that cost upwards of 1500 dollars (myself included).

Nice to see a new edge out. It's sweet that they are color and do full maping.

[engadget.com @ Aug 29th 2007 12:43PM]

Most definitely not mine, my bike costs around 5600 (mountain bike).. Now if you compared the cost to some laptops, thats abit more valid :)

As someone pointed out, these are geared towards the higher end of the cycling spectrum. I especially love the fact that it supports topo maps..

[Juvois @ Aug 29th 2007 12:35PM]

Finally, this years (or perhaps next years is Sweden) most definitive buy!

[theo @ Aug 29th 2007 12:43PM]

marvellous! can't wait to put the 705er on my bike. 305 was just the best ever! let's hope they get longer battery life, the only negative with the 305er...

[Brent @ Aug 29th 2007 1:58PM]

Did you try updating? That really helped with my battery problem... until mine was stolen :( Maybe one of these to replace it :)

[Sporkinum @ Aug 30th 2007 12:03AM]

I see no point to these on a road bike. Terrible battery life, and you can get a barometer style computer or watch to give you altitude data is you want it. Then again, I'm a cheapskate who rides a '92 and a '95 bike. BTW, my cateye HR and mity both get around 4 years out of a battery. From what I understand, a GPS is good for 4 or 5 hrs.

[Travis @ Aug 31st 2007 12:36PM]

"From what I understand, a GPS is good for 4 or 5 hrs."

I've done rides of 6+ hours with HR and cadence on the whole time. And then uploaded the track to share with everyone else that was on the route with me, which is tough to do with a Cateye.

[TrueDis @ Aug 29th 2007 12:45PM]

Jesus, these bike-centric GPS units are a ripoff. I'll stick with my eTrex Legend + handlebar mount...

[Craig @ Aug 29th 2007 3:06PM]

I don't do much hiking these days, and my cyclocomputer broke, so I've been using the handlebar mount with my eTrex Vista C. It works OK, but I get significantly different distance measurements on different days when I ride the same route. I don't know if these units would do any better, but I'm thinking that if you're mainly interested in measuring traditional cyclocomputer parameters (speed, avg speed, distance, etc) you're probably better off with a traditional cyclocomputer.

[TrueDis @ Aug 29th 2007 3:23PM]

Agreed, GPS and cyclocomputers have different purposes.

[Travis @ Aug 29th 2007 7:37PM]

I've been using the Edge 305 for over a year now, and I would never want to go back to a basic cyclocomputer. You're right in that it all depends on what you care about, but I like being able to correlate cadence and heartrate to terrain and distance.

Regarding accuracy, with the SIRF chipset I had only about a 1% variation in distance between the GPS and a Cateye computer.

[Chad @ Aug 29th 2007 12:48PM]

Do these GPS units also some with altimeters? I'm thinking of a mountain biking scenario. Topos are great, but the simple addition of an altimeter (even if it is coarse) would be extremely helpful.

[Richy @ Aug 29th 2007 12:51PM]

Think I'll stick to my mobile phone and BT GPS widget. I always take my moble with me, and the Garmin would be extra weight -- totally negating my titanium bolts and carbon fibre bottle cage!

[shaka999 @ Aug 29th 2007 1:23PM]

Hey, my Google phone with gps and gmaps will be better than this :)

[engadget.com @ Aug 29th 2007 1:28PM]

Yes.. and your first accident.. or heavy rain will totally destroy it too... especially if you are mountain biking..

[fustanella @ Aug 31st 2007 6:55AM]

Feh. My Garmin GPSmap 60c works great with the handlebar mount. Not much call for an altimeter in Florida, but I'll have it for the mountains!

[Duarte @ Aug 29th 2007 1:09PM]

!@#$%^&*! I just bought a 305 a month ago.

[steve @ Aug 29th 2007 3:03PM]

a month ago...how about two days ago.
i just got my 305 and started using it today!

damn.

[shiftless @ Aug 29th 2007 1:43PM]

I can't wait for this thing. I have the 205 model and it has been a nifty gadget (and far more affordable than the ones in this article). You can also import your path into Google earth with this free program: http://tinyurl.com/2234w3. The accuracy is a little off because the unit is so small. But here's an example of what your trail looks like: http://tinyurl.com/25jvd8.

[pauly @ Aug 29th 2007 1:49PM]

I hope it is easily removeable so you can take it off when not riding. No need to be an easy target for thieves.

[Travis @ Aug 29th 2007 2:13PM]

Assuming they use the same mounting bracket as the earlier Edge models, you can remove it in about three seconds.

[john russell @ Aug 29th 2007 3:04PM]

What happened to the good old days when people could just use a map?

[Chris @ Aug 29th 2007 4:46PM]

I don't know that I've ever been able to "just use a map" while on my bike.

[SanDiegoSteve @ Aug 29th 2007 4:29PM]

Sweet!

I've got the 305 with Cad and HR and love it. Battery life is the question I will have.

Price is a little high, but when I can afford the $8,000 bike I want, it won't seem like much.

[pstelman @ Aug 29th 2007 8:13PM]

Ahh... I was wondering when this would appear. Still, I think I'll stick with the eTrex HCx on my bars. The only thing this really has that I want is a display of percent grade (steepness) of the road. And the Edge units need to be charged every couple of rides. If they run out of juice on the road, you're stuck. With the eTrex, I just stop at a country store and pick up a couple of AAs. Still, these new units have a nice feature set. I've been riding with GPS for about five years now, but I'll always ride with a "conventional" cyclometer (a little Cateye) as backup.

[Phil Carlson @ Oct 1st 2007 12:16PM]

I've owned an Edge305 for several months now & I do really like it. I'm a long distance rider/tourist and sometime racer. For training, it's got some nice features/capabilities. The biggest drawbacks that I'd like to see addressed are batt life & routing. Couldn,t they put some type of solar panel? Creating routes (several) & loading them is very nice, but the memory is very limited. If the 705, with it's micro sd card lets you use that to load routes that have been programmed, that would be great! Are the heart-rate and cadence/wheelspeed sensors the same as the 305, so that all you have to do is get the 705 unit only? Other than that, the features of the 705 don't sound much different than the 305.