Garmin Edge 305 Review

I have to admit the idea seemed really cool. A GPS device attached directly to the handlebars of my road bike. The possibliltes seemed limitless. Real time satellite positioning, heading, grade, and speed. Couple that with heart rate and cadence and it was hard to pass up the Garmin Edge 305. For me the huge selling point was that you could create and/or upload routes. I loved the idea of never being lost again. In the worst cases I could just turn around and follow the map that I had already created back home. And who could ignore the idea of a virtual training partner to keep the rides interesting when I had to do a solo ride. If I just got this I reasoned, I would be in biking heaven.

Well I have recently purchased the Edge 305 (265$ off ebay) and I have come crashing back down to earth. The learning curve was a little steep for me but after about a week of tinkering with the software I felt I was pretty well enough enabled to try the unit on a real ride. Installation was pretty easy. The unit comes with some plastic ties that hold on the cadence unit and the Edge itself. The on board software was pretty user friendly with four buttons controlling all the functions. Once the unit is powered up there is a satellite acquisition screen and the process can take anywhere from 2 to 5 minute to get a good signal, depending on the conditions. The main screen is customizable up to eight windows simultaneously and if you are a numbers geek you are in heaven. Speed, Cadence, Heartrate, Grade, Heading, Elevation gain, it's all there. There is a screen specifically for elevation with speed and distance and some screens that are essentially menus for checking data and customization.

I was excited to try the mapping functions and was very disappointed with what the unit had to offer. With the software that ships with the unit there are no road labels and the maps are black and white. Pretty hard to read while cruising along in a pace line. There are websites for uploading routes directly to the unit and I found this to be the most useful aspect of the mapping functions. Motionbased.com is the best site I have found for doing uploads. There is a local metric century with several big climbs that I use for training and the maps I downloaded from motionbased.com were excellent with indicated turns and roads that were labeled.

The speed and cadence functions work pretty well but I was really looking forward to having one unit that I can switch between bikes. The 305 comes with an extra mounting bracket but since you have to purchase a additional Speed/Cadence sensor to use on a second bike the cost tends to creep up. Moreover, you have to have the Garmin "detect" the cadence sensor when changing bikes so you would always have to spend time setting it up before riding. So there is not really a good way to quickly change the 305 to another bike and still have all the functions the unit provides. This might be acceptable if your other bike is a Mtn. Bike.

Another problem is that the 305 would often loose satellite reception and auto pause. This was to a large degree modulated by having the Cadence/Speed sensor installed since when it lost reception it just would use the speed from the Cadence sensor and scan for a better signal from the satellite until it found one.

But the biggest problem that I encountered with the unit is that it started to just switch off on me during rides. At first I did not know what the issue was. I knew that if the unit lost satellite reception (which it did frequently) it would auto pause. I thought maybe it was powering down during this process but to my dismay I discovered that that what was actually happening was that whenever I hit a bump the unit would simply turn off. I would have to start the unit up again, wait for the satellite acquisition to finish, then start the timer again. All of this while riding.

I broke down and contacted customer support at Garmin. They were very prompt at answering my email but their "solution" was to reset the unit and reinstall the software. To me this sounded like a software solution to a hardware problem and I politely let them know in a follow up email that their "solution" was crap. I would later find out after doing some research online that this is a form letter that they send to you no matter what complaint you register and if you email them a second time they ask you to send the unit back to them,at your expense, so they can repair it. I sent the unit back two weeks ago and I am still waiting to hear something.

I think the concept of the Edge 305 is good. But Garmin has not quite worked out the bugs with this particular model. If GPS is what you are looking for in a cycling computer I would wait for the 705. Otherwise there are several other computers out there lacking the GPS function that perform the other functions just as good or better than the 305.

Update: A few weeks later I received a unit from Garmin that seems to be working flawlessly. I have since installed two thin strips of rubber between the the back of the unit and the stem of my bike to provide cushioning during use.

Blue Ridge Brutal Ride Report (NOT)

For a variety reasons I did not make it to the starting line on Saturday Aug 18th. I went on to Asheville and like anyone who was looking forward to about 6-7 hours of suffering and then being deprived I decided to map out a route through the Blue Ridge Parkway and have my own little BRB the following day (Sunday).

I was staying in a little town called Waynesville that is located just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Balsam Mtn and after about half an hour on Google maps I had found a reasonable 75-80 mile route that basically traced the outline of Haywood County. There were three mountain climbs and a reasonably long rolling section so I was happy with the route, at least on paper! I started out in Maggie Valley, which is essentially a valley floor that runs about 5 miles to the base of the Soco gap. I started climbing there and it would be over an hour before I saw another level section.

The grades varied on the Soco climb but the Garmin frequently showed 10-12%. It was about 3 miles to the top at which point you make a right turn and climb up over a bridge to get onto the parkway. Just over the bridge is the first big climb of the day, up Mt Lynn Lowry to Water Rock Knob Lookout which was about 5-6 miles with an average grade of 8.0%. It was never less than 6%. During the climb I passed a biker who was resting in a turn out and he warned me to watch myself in the tunnel if I was going to climb Balsam Mtn. I thanked him for the tip and continued. As was the case with all of the climbs that day the grades were not that bad it was just that they went on and on. At the top there was a tremendously beautiful view of the valley below but I only took a moment to appreciate the view before I was zipping my Gyro Jersey and rocketing down the other side.

The decents on the parkway are much gentler than the roads around the Mt Pilot area in that the roads are wide and there is plenty of open area to see the turns ahead. I was frequently decending at 40-45 mph and felt very comfortable on these roads. The bottom of this decent is the Balsm Gap area and immediately there is the next climb. Climbing up Balsm Mtn was just hard. There is no other away to describe it. It is no Mt. Pilot but it is really long at about 12 miles. Around halfway there is a traffic tunnel. Shortly before the tunnel there is a sign that says “Please Use Headlights.” After about 100 yards into the tunnel it was obvious why. The tunnel arches to the left such that there is a short section the middle where no light can enter from either of the openings. As soon as I reached this point I began to panic. I was riding in absolute dark. The experience was very unsettling. I could not see the walls or notice if there was a pothole or any other obstruction on the road. But the dark section was short and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel after those few horrible seconds. I was very happy that no cars entreated the tunnel while I was in there. Shortly after this section the grade leveled somewhat and at the top there was a turnout and I decided to make a rest stop. I took a picture on my cell phone of a sign stating that claimed “this is the highest point in the south east (6034 feet)” with my bike propped up next to it.

The next decent was shorter than the others and this was followed by several shorter climbs that would be considered rolling sections if there lengths were only but a little less. But after doing about 20-25 miles of pure climbing the legs were already getting a little soft. Thank god for my compact cranks! At about mile 50 I made a left onto Highway 215 (Lake Logan Road) and decended for literally 30 minutes. It was a winding two lane back road with a bad surface and lots of pot holes. If you are ever going to try this ride I would push on a little further and take US276 down through Cruso. 215 was really a pain to navigate safely. About halfway down there was a beautiful water fall that I stopped to get a picture of and while I was reaching for my phone two bikers shot past me on the way down. I quickly stowed the phone and set off to catch them. These guys were really fast and clearly better at decending than me. I was taking chances and sprinting out of turns but I did not catch up with them until the bottom which was a flat winding section that ran along a river. I finally got on but was immediately shocked by the pace they were setting. They were both pushing the big ring with either 11 or 12 on the back. I looked down a few times to see us cruising along at 25 mph.

I was just about to let them go when they slowed and made a right turn. They never said a word to me.

The flat section was a great break from all the climbing in during the morning and I really enjoyed traveling beside the river that ran through an area called Bethel. At the end of Highway 215 I made a right on Pigeon Rd/US276 and the fun began! This was a rolling section and it was relentless. Hill after hill with vicious grades of 9-12% and by this time the legs were totally wasted. I limped up most of them my speed dropping to 5 mph on more than one occasion. One hill was especially spirit breaking and ended at Pigeon gap. After this section the loop turns right and takes you down Main Street in Waynesville and I was fun to ride parade fashion down the street in this little Mtn town. I stayed on US276 which eventually brought me back to US19 and to Maggie Valley. I ended up with 77 miles with an average of 14.5 mph. It was not the Blue Ridge Brutal but it was certainly brutal!