Garmin Edge 500 or 705 - same price
- Thread starter Rando
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
henshaw11
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Walton-On-Thames
Yup, that's the one I ordered. I may well order the hrm strap at some point - my (late 90s ?) polar died - well, ran out of juice - ages ago..I've replaced the watch battery before, but the strap's a return/replace item (used to be 20 quid a long time ago).
FWIW I'm an engineer at a company designing chips for handheld/set-top-box/tablet -type applications, so I'm expecting it to be a little buggy - on the flip side, if the company only has a few products they're working on/supporting, that may mean they're a bit more focussed on fixing things. TBH it's also partly supporting decent competition to garmin - at the moment there's an element of 'no-one got fired for buying an IBM'.
Fiona N
Veteran
For the above reasons I have just ordered a 605. Don't need to know my HR, or how high I am, I also know how fast I'm pedalling without the gps telling me.
Only want it for mapping, and following pre-planned routes. Get ready for several posts on 'how does it work' type topics
I'll be watching to see how you get on as I'm also looking at getting a GPS but am not interested in HRM as I've at least 5 years' supply of Polar kit (which also has a pretty good altimeter)
Probably worth noting I've been mainly considering an Oregon 450 because of the AA batteries rather than the rather specific rechargeables and because I'll potentially use it not on the bike. Any comments from owners would be appreciated.
I work in I.T and we are full of IBM kit !
Hopefully the Bryton will arrive for the weekend so I can give it a test on Sunday.
henshaw11
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Walton-On-Thames
(Used to be Suns here, but we've now got a roomful of rackmount linux boxes..)
Yup, I had my shipping notice come through this morning.
I'll probably need a chunk of the weekend to workout how best to mount the thing ! - the short 'bar' mount I've got on the 'bent has room for two lights and not much else...I may have to move a light somewhere, or sort out some sort of clamp on the main frame boom...
Did it? Was it good?
Yes it did arrive in time for that weekends 100 mile charity ride. Charged it up and got the maps loaded to the sd card that came supplied with the rider 50 and downloaded the route to it. Had a general play with it on Saturday just to get used to it for my Sunday ride. Got to the event and started on my planned route on the Rider 50 and this is were it all went wrong. It kept trying to take me back to the start of the route (start / end point was same place). Anyway didn't have much time to mess about with it as I wanted to get out and riding the 100 miles. The unit froze a couple of times on the ride but it did eventually start tracking my pre planned route BUT it did not record any data despite me starting record........Did the 105 miles.
Got back home and fired several questions off to Bryton Support who I must admit were quick to respond to my questions but after the unit failed to allow me to download any pre planned rides through the Bryton Bridge software I gave up with the unit and sent it back and got a full refund. I just felt that there was a lack of a decent manual to assist me with the unit and also the Bryton software was very much hit and miss. Shame really because I did like the look and feel of the actual Rider 50 and for the price it was a solid feeling unit BUT let down by the software. (only my personal opinion as I am sure there are lots of users that are happy with it).
Also another reason for requesting a refund was that I new if I purchased a Garmin device there was much more help and advice available on the net as there are many many more users out there.
So after much debating between the Garmin Edge 705 and the Edge 800 (and trying to convince myself that the extra money for the 800 was worth it) I ordered a Garmin Edge 800 which was delivered yesterday. Still have buyers remorse over the price of the 800 (only purchased the base unit for now)......Will test it out Saturday on a local ride.
