Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

Pros:- Large, readable color screen- Broad range of cycling functions in one unit- Wireless speed/cadence sensor- Supports wireless power meters (haven’t tested yet)Cons- Large and heavy- Expensive- Mapping has serious bugs (unit freezes repeatedly)- Joystick is difficult to use when ridingI have the Edge 705 with the North America City Navigator pre loaded on the Micro SD card. I have used it extensively for a month now. My overall assessment of the product is that it is an evolutionary step from the previous product (the Edge 305, which I also own), not a revolutionary step. I am a cyclist with amateur road racing, time trial, criterium, long distance and randoneering experience. I ride with a club and average 100+ miles per week. The Garmin 705 is an adequate, albeit large, multi-function cycling computer with mapping capability. I wanted the 705 to be the ideal cycle computer. It is an interesting product and meets many of my needs but it could have been much more. But then maybe I am not their intended market. As an early adopter of technology products I am used to encountering operational bugs as the manufacturer works through the teething process of a new product. Usually software/firmware updates are issued to resolve the bugs along the way or I find other workarounds. I have found and reported to Garmin support a number of operational bugs. Most are the types of bugs I can live with until Garmin issues updates, but not the problems with mapping. At the time of this writing (April 2008) the 705 mapping function is unreliable to the point of being nearly unusable. Worst of the bugs is the “Map Freeze.” When in the map display mode the 705 freezes at random times during a ride, requiring powering off and on to get it running again. It isn’t obvious from the display that it is frozen so you could ride a while without realizing it. Powering the 705 off and on again is dangerous while riding so you have to stop and interrupt your ride. You lose the tracking data during the time the unit was frozen. I have had it lock up so badly on a few occasions that the only recovery was a hardware reset. It is possible that I have a defective unit and Garmin customer service is replacing it, but I have seen too many similar reports to believe this is an isolated problem. There are other niggling issues such as the inability to download routes much longer than 30 miles from the Garmin MapSource routing program. The 705 will truncate such routes rendering them worthless. I have to use a third party utility (wingdb) to create routes over 30 miles. I go through some software gymnastics to get the track loaded into the 705 so I can use it to provide turn by turn prompts (cue sheet) for my ride – the main reason I bought the 705 in the first place. This shouldn’t be necessary; the 705 should work with MapSource. These are the two most serious bugs I have encountered. If you plan on using the 705 for mapping I would encourage you to wait until Garmin resolves the hardware and/or firmware issues or be prepared to have the unit freeze up on you. [...]I have many Garmin products, including the 305, several handheld GPS units and the Nuvi. They have been excellent products so I am confident Garmin will eventually sort out the issues with the 705 (or maybe introduce a new model, the 805?). In the meantime caveat emptor.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

I have the Forerunner 305 and the Edge 705. I got the Edge for the bigger display and mapping. I am a triathlete and need good analytic data from my training sessions. Unfortunately, the Edge 705 falls very short (literally). The Distance and Speed data displayed and saved in the history files are about 30% low, e.g. avg speed displayed is 13 mph when you really are at 18 - 19 mph, distance travelled shows 42 miles when you really have gone 67. I contacted Garmin support and they informed this is "a known problem".

That said . . . what is it good for when on your training rides? Unless ofcourse you want to be seriously overtrained, or very depressed.

Once you upload to Motionbased, the real data magically appears, but that is a little late during your ride.

I wonder if Team Garmin Chipoltle use this thing?

I haven't seen one on any of their bikes.

No Wonder!!

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

This is a dream if you're into data on your workouts: calories, distance, heartrate, speed & dozens of others. I'm just beginning to use the GPS maps. The fun gets multiplied when combined with either Garmin Training (free) or Motion Based (free & subscription) sites; see your route mapped next to a chart overlaying the metrics you track - at every point during your ride! Fantastic. I waited for 705 (all the fitness metrics plus ability to load maps) because I wanted something I could use biking & hiking.

Service and delivery comments:

I have been unable to get cadence funtion to work despite getting all the appropriate lights to blink. Brought my bike & 705 into Bloomington MN REI. Sales in biking told me to go to GPS. GPS sales tried to help, couldn't resolve it & sent me back to biking - try the repair guys. "Nope, we can't help with cadence system". They sell a variety of cadence devices - this unit cost $650 - very unsatisfactory response. I'll head to my local bike shop, and no surprise, I'll give them my biking related business.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

I use the Garmin mostly to track my riding an rides, and upload the data to Ascent (Mac). Here I can replay the ride and check the data from the Garmin. In fact I've used it from Long Beach, CA through Texas, Biking Across Kansas, Bike Ride Across Illinois, Eastern Shore, Maryland and the Outer Bank of North Carolina.

I like the ability of the instrument to display all that data which, I guess over time is more a salve for my effort. I've also used it to as a map.

What is not great is, as was previously stated by another that the mapping function freezes if one does not switch it off frequently.

The Cadence sensor was also a pain, quitting,i.e.going off and on, sending impossible data - and finally just quitting.

Finally, the blasted thing died on me, i.e. Once turned off, I was never able to turn it back on.

I bought the Garmin at REI because I knew if I had a problem, they would either solve it or exchange it - or indeed even refund.

And so the first problem was the cadence sensor. It finally died. REI took it back and got me a new one.

A month later the whole Garmin 705 went South. I returned that to REI and got my second 705 in less than a week.

1 star for Garmin, 5 for REI.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

The Good: The unit is simple to install, easy to use, has pretty good battery life, finds you & sats pretty quickly, and indicates your current stats in a easy to read fashion. With the Navigation Micro SD card that comes with the full bundle the unit also does a great job of telling you where you are at any given time. Have not hooked up the cadence or heart rate as of yet, but expect those to work fine as with other Garmin products.

The Bad: The routing function with this unit is possibly the absolute worst creation known to our species. The routing function has three general settings: Car/Motorcycle, Bike, Walking. These settings dictate the route the unit will calculate from point A to point B. Further you can toggle on/off to aviod highways, toll roads, etc. in each setting. The "Bike" setting unfortunately avoids any and all major streets. This sounds OK on the surface but it avoids streets that are truely adequate biking thoroughfares. For instance, it is about 6 blocks from my house to the grocery store. The most direct route is on a big street with a big bike lane; it is a type of street you grand parents could ride and feel safe. The "bike" setting takes me on a 10 block adventure to avoid any and all major streets. Also, I tried to route from my home to Santa Barbara, a 120 mile ride, using the "Bike" setting; after a 10 minute wait the unit seemed to time-out and not be able to complete this task. Customer support at Garmin is quite good. Their suggestion was to change the route setting to Car/Motorcycle and "avoid highways" & "toll roads". This worked to a certain degree but still routed me many, many miles out of my way. For instance,I bought the Garmin 705 to use on a bike tour from San Francisco to Santa Barbara on the Pacific Coast Highway and used it to navigate from Watsonville, CA through Monterey to Big Sur. The paper map route & math indicated a 65 mile trek. There seemed to be no command in the universe to have the unit auto-calcuate a reasonable route less than 88 miles. So, long and short of it, this unit is horrible for auto mapping bike routes.

Garmin customer support is sending me the DVD version of the Street Nav program. With this in hand, one can make routes on your computer, download to the GPS unit and then use the route while underway. This cannot be done using the SD chip supplied from REI and must be swapped. It seems to be a bit clunky, but I'll give it a shot.

Overall Summary: The unit worked great to indicate stats and navigating when within 5 to 7 miles of the destination. But it you plan to use an auto mapping funtion for a route greater than theses distances, expect to pedal much further than needed.

I would maybe recommend this unit to a friend.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

I've had my 705 for about 3 weeks and have used it on over 400 miles of bike training. It's a great bike computer - very easy to setup, lots of data available, but only the data you decide to have on each screen. The GPS and in-unit maps are great. Installation is also easy since the sensor is wireless.The Garmin Training Center software (Windows version in my case) is okay, but appears to have only basic integration with the 705 so far. GTC is a separate, but free, download from the Garmin site. Hopefully future versions will provide more/better 705 integration.Something to watch out for as it isn't mentioned in the 705 docs or on the Garmin site, if you buy the 705 with the map card, those detailed maps will only be available in the 705, not in GTC. If you want detailed maps in GTC, you have to buy a PC/Mac version of the very same maps you have on the 705. That's another [$] on top of the [$] you just spent on the 705. Why? Ask Garmin.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

Some of the posts indicate issues with the screen freezing, that was an issue with the first version of the software. On 5/14/08 Garmin released a free update to correct this and many other issues.This is great bike GPS. Mine has about 1,000 miles on it now and it is great. I used a Garmin Edge 305 since they came out several years ago and always wished for a color screen and mapping abilities. This unit does that and more!Don't overlook the fact that you can also use this unit for backpacking, geocaching, navigating in the car and more. Garmin has a great reputation [...]. You can't go wrong!

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

This is the second Garmin Edge product I have bought. This one froze up after a bike ride and after reset the altimeter was out to lunch 10k when I was only at 5k. Reset it a number of times and still no luck with the altimeter. My first one was a 305 that went dead after a ride in a rain storm. They need to make this product more robust!

Other than the robustness it needs 2 features: (1) Electronic Compass to orient the map. (2) Take distance off the wheel sensor for that will always be more accurate than desecrate GPS points.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

I and others have experienced screen freezes (easy recovery with on/off). Also, battery life is limited to 15 hours ... okay for many rides, but not longer brevets.

Comments about Garmin Edge 705 Deluxe Bundle Bike Computer:

I bought this to replace my 305 that had a screen crack. For the most part I have been quite happy. I use the 705 to track milage, altitude gain, speed, etc., while training. I really like having the data on my computer once I upload, so I can compare times over certain routes to track performance gains. I have used the maping feature out riding when I am in an unfamiliar area just trying to find a route back.

I have 2 issues that are problems:
1- The heartrate monitor is not always accurate. When I start out riding, sometimes I look down and find a HR of 200 or so, when I know I am around 140. If I stop for a minute, or try and stabilize the chest strap by holding it with my hand, the number will come down. Thereafter it is usually fine for the rest of the ride. The number will also get whacky on fast descents as well.
2-I am not completely confident on the accuracy of the altitude and distance. When uploading the data to different programs, I get different numbers. Accent (Mac) is my favorite and it is clearly different than the Motion Based. I am not certain if either is correct. I think it is consistant, however, which is reliable.

I do not think there is another product out there that gives you as much as the 705 does. I am hoping to have a power meter in the future that will be read by the 705, but right now there is not a good one that will talk with it.