Out of the Box: Garmin Edge 205 GPS unit
April 25th, 2007 by Tim GrahlBlue Collar received a Garmin Edge 205 GPS unit today for a review. The Edge series from Garmin is made specifically for cycling and comes in two flavors. The 205, which I’m reviewing, has all the specs listed below while the 305 has the added features of heart rate and cadence monitors.
In the box you receive:
- Edge 205 unit
- Bike mount
- Garmin Training Center® CD
- AC charger
- USB cable
- Owner’s manual
- Quick reference guide
The functionality seems to go pretty deep from the bit of reading I did in the manual and then messing around with the unit this afternoon. It tracks all the normal stuff such as speed, distance, elevation, direction, etc etc. However some of the things that stood out to me…
- display change - you can choose how much information and what information to show on the screen while you are riding. You can show between one and eight fields of data and can choose exactly what data to show in each of those fields. And your choices for that data is pretty big… calories, distance, distance per lap, distance last lap, elevation, GPS accuracy (within how many feet), grade, heading, laps, speed, average speed, lap speed, last lap speed, max speed, speed zone, time of ride, average lap time, last lap time and time of day.
- training options - you can race against a virtual partner. You can race against your own lap times, even from past rides (it holds up to 1000 laps). You can map out your own courses then keep track of them (or compare with buddies).
- included software - haven’t installed it yet, but the feature list seems pretty intriguing for keeping track of your stats long term
The Edge 205 retails for $269.22 but a quick search on eBay says you can get this for less than $150 including shipping.
I have this to try out for 30 days so I’ll give an update in a couple weeks and then a final review in late May. Stay tuned…
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I just got a 305 with both HR and Cad and it’s pretty frickin sweet. My only complaint is battery life really, when running both HR And the Cad it definetly isn’t its full 13 hours or so that you can/should get out of the 205. 2 Hints before you install it on your pc, Install Drivers of CD, then update the drivers off the web. The install the latest training center/patches from the web. Then make sure you update the firmware of the unit and then the units actual SW. Several important fixes in there. The big pain is the Driver off CD causes it to crash when trying to firmware/software update before installing the driver update from the web.
This software is free (by donation) + very cool. Shows a map, tells me my elevation gains and distances. Plus it sends the ride routes out for 3D flyaround views in GoogleEarth:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/
Love it!
Also on the installation/driver side of things, it is now fully supported on Macs (which is good since I have one). It was an incredibly simple installation.
Nice, once I tell my wife I have it she’ll want to borrow it for using it for HR training at the gym I’m sure.
Are you using Training Center or a Third Party? Gonna try out motion based also?
R
I am using the Training Center and am delving into Motion Based as well. I’m realizing there’s a huge amount you can do with this stuff so I’m trying to get as in depth as possible quickly so I’ll have a good understanding for the review.
Any suggestions for me?
It just dawned on me. Can’t believe it took so long. It’s not just about technology. This is a conspiracy driven by those who manufacture batteries. Can you believe their good furtune? Between portable music, digicams and now GPS cyclocomputers, we risk replacing three sets of batteries per weekend. I shudder to think how many batteries end up in landfills every day.
Tim - I haven’t had enough time to really play with it. The TC is a bit annoying in that insists on re-downloading rides I’ve already done (and deleted) (ie a test ride or such). I wish it had better mapping data/tied into google maps and such. Honestly I’ve only gotten a couple rides on it as it was dead when I went out to ride the other day, damn cadence and hr sensing does eat up more power.
The graphing overlays for comparing HR vs Speed vs Climb/etc are okay but I think I’m going to try MB out this weekend. What I need to do is go out and get a decent ride or two on. Trying to talk with wife into Schaeffer on Sunday and then maybe try and run to Greenbriar on Monday.
jdb - Actually it has a built in rechargable thats decent. Tim’s should go 10-13 hours on one charge, mine with the HR and Cadence on will not last as long. The battery does last pretty well apparently I’ve seen people are still using theres after a year or some almost 2. Factory service to replace the battery. But yah batteries do make me cringe. They have since all my battery toys in the 80’s….
Looking forward to your review on this, I’ve been using a Forerunner 305 (with cadence) for a few months, plus Cyclingpeaks software for workout analysis. Overall very happy with the hardware, the Garmin software is so-so, and Motion Based not impressed at all (at least after one try). Got a bunch of writeups on my tech review section in case folks want to compare notes.
Besides, what techie would not like a bike computer that says “Locating Satellites” when you turn it on?
Cheers
Karl
Cool I’ll have to try out that one also. The garmin software just isn’t very i dunno. polished. It feels like a crappy VisualBAsic junker thrown together by myself for a college project. Or maybe a sr. group project. Still have to try MB. I like the idea and like looking at tracks for things I want to ride. I almost picked up one of your routes the other day to look at Karl, man I miss being out on the west coast. East coast trails/etc are just different. Not to mention I got 2 flats on 1 trail earlier this week after 0 in CA…argh.
Yah it is a kick to watch the system power up as I get ready. Now if only I could remerge laps after ending up hugging my handle bars and accidentally setting a lap.
Cheers
Rob