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 Product Catalog > Bicycle Accessories > Global Position System (GPS) Garmin Edge 705 GPS-Enabled Cycling Computer (Includes Heart Rate Monitor and Speed/Cadence Sensor) By: Garmin Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 49 Features:
Dimensions: Length: 2" Width: 4.3" Height: 1" Product Description: GARMIN Edge 705 Speed/ Cade Outdoor Fitness GPS. Wherever you go, you can bring it on with the Garmin Edge 705 navigating trainer. Edge 705 pushes you to do your best, then shows you the way back. This GPS enabled cycle computer knows no limits. Get heart rate, cadence, turn by turn directions, power data /from ANT plus Sport enabled third party power meters/ the works. Even share your data with other Edge 705 buddies after your ride. All wireless with a color display, this is no ordinary cycle computer. Where to Buy
Reviews A Great Bicycle Computer  by: on: 24-Sep 2009 The unit itself is small, sturdy, lightweight, and very easy to install. The software includes a training program and a mapping program. I bought mine with the Garmin map card, and that's made my club rides a real pleasure (no need for cue sheets). When I get home from a ride, I upload the data into the Garmin Training Center software, and I can compare every aspect of the ride to previous rides (distance, speed, cadence, heart rate, elevation, etc.). If I feel like it, I'll upload the ride onto the Garmin Connect webpage. I can't say enough good stuff about this GPS/bike computer. I haven't used it to figure out routes from Point A to Point B, but I can see where that would be a tough task for any system (how to choose safe bike routes from among the many alternatives?). All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase and would recommend this unit to anyone in the market for a bike computer or bike GPS. A comparison of the Edge 705 and Garmin 60 CSx for bike navigation  by: on: 08-Sep 2009 For me, a bike GPS is primarily interesting because of the possibility of navigating while riding the bike. Having speed, cadence and distance info is nice, but you can get that for a fraction of the price without the hassle of having to remember to keep your bike computer charged. Any Cat-Eye will run for at least a year on a set of batteries. This Edge 705 will need to be charged at least weekly if you are an avid rider. I like to go out for rides in a random direction and then use the GPS to guide me home. I also like to plan rides carefully at home on the computer, download them to my navigation device and ride a route with turn by turn directions, not needing to ever consult a paper map during the ride. I don't download performance (speed, cadence,heart rate) data to my computer an analyze it. I just don't care about that data. I don't use the heart rate monitor. I used to use heart rate monitors but no longer am training seriously enough to care. I also find that having a mapping GPS on my bike is entertaining. I get to watch the map as I ride and find out the names of parks and other large green areas around me. The idea of having turn by turn navigation on my bike has long appealed to me. I bought a GPS 60 CS when it first came out, and then upgraded to the Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigatorwhen it came out (but more sensitive GPS reception). To get navigation with that device, I had to buy the city navigator DVDs and plan my routes using Mapsource on my PC. The 60CSx only comes with base maps. Mapsource is functional but primitive and rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. Nevertheless, it gets the job done. The 60 CSx is a wonderful turn by turn navigator on the bike. The screen is easy to read and pretty large. The device is waterproof and mounts to the bike with a solid, if somewhat large, bike mount kit. I bought the 705 because it promised the same basic navigation features of the Garmin 60 CSx but in a much smaller package, and with an integrated cadence sensor. The 705 is much smaller and lighter than the 60 CSx. But to get to that size, the battery in the 705 is rechargeable and not field replaceable. What that means is that I need to make sure the device is charging the night before if I want to ride. The 60 CSx takes AA batteries. Not only can I ride at a moment's notice, but if the batteries are near the end of the their life, I can ride with a spare set and just keep on going. The 60 CSx calculates routes significantly faster than the 705 does, even though the 60 CSx is a 2 yr old design at this point. That mostly does not matter, except when you go off route and need to recalculate the route. Most glaringly, the 705 only supports 100 waypoints. Yes, you read that right. Only 100 waypoints. Why? I have no idea. It seems like an idiotic limit. I don't know what the limit is on the 60 CSx, but it is large enough that I never hit it. Routes created in Mapsource use waypoints. In fact, when you download a route from Mapsource, you are really downloading an ordered set of waypoints. The Garmin device recalculates the route every time you ride it. This usually works out fine because the routing engine in Mapsource is the same or similar enough that the actual route is the same on the computer and the device. At least that was true for the 60 CSx. For the Edge 705, I have had slightly more trouble with my workflow. Sometimes during a ride, I will get a bad cue to take a turn that I know is not needed. I only know that because I planned the route on the computer. I will skip the turn and the Edge 705 will recalculate. I don't know if this problem is really a problem with the Edge 705 or because of differences between the routing engine on the computer versus the 705. There is also the concept of course points and being able to plot a route that includes course points. To my knowledge, such courses require you to manually stay on course by looking down at the map, versus get cued for each turn. If you go off course, you are expected to find your way back to the course. This holds no interest for me and I don't use the feature. I suspect that Garmin expected me to use the course point feature because there is no crazy 100 course point limit built in - or so I hear. I have never created a course, only a route. And routes use waypoints. The 100 waypoint limit is actually not a huge problem for me. Most routes include fewer than 40 turns, even when they are 40 miles long. And hence, I just upload the route I am currently using. But that is a bit of a hassle I will admit. I bought the 705 without maps built in and also bought the current US city navigator DVD. That was a bit of a nightmare. First, the software claimed to be mac compatible. So I tried it on a Mac. But the map loader would only load 400 megabytes of maps onto the device because that is what the software thought I had available for use on the device, even though I had installed a 2 GB micro SD card. The mac install does not include Mapsource route planning software so plotting routes is not possible! Finally, I gave up and booted my PC and used Mapsource with my 2 yr old maps and was able to deal with the 705 just as I had the 60 CSx. But if those maps worked, I did not even need the new DVD. Oh well. As anyone who is really into Garmin products knows, computer software is not their forte, and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless, they have great products and their customers put up with all sorts of nightmares to get their solution working. But you have to be an enthusiast to want to try. Overall, I am happy with my Garmin 705 Edge on my road bike. But if feels like much more of fussy bike-specific device where navigation is a feature compared to my Garmin 60 CSx. My Garmin 60 CSx is a survivalist device. It is built like a tank, can run forever as long as you carry your weight in batteries, and greets you with a big bold "Ready to Navigate" after it gets GPS lock. Those words probably best describe why I love the 60 CSx so much. At the end of the day, I want a navigation device on my bike. The Edge 705 is a "bike computer" with navigation. There are compromises there. Other differences. The 60 CSx has no start and stop buttons. After you reset it, it is running and the clocks are ticking. This is mostly fine for me, especially because it also calculates the average speed while moving. On the other hand, the 705 has a start/stop button. That can be used manually to start your clock when you are ready, or it can be set to auto start and stop when it detects movement. I don't really prefer one methodology over the other. The 60 CSx has tons of other cool stuff including sunrise and sunset tables, a geocaching mode, one button marking of weypoints, and a dedicated find button that brings up close by way points. The 60 CSx also a magnetic compass, making it useful for Geocaching and getting your bearings while standing still. The 705 does not have a compass. Note that I would consider the Oregon series of GPS devices for bike navigation, but the word is that they are not nearly as readable in daylight. If you look at the reviews of the Garmin 60 CSx, you will see that it is one of the most beloved products Garmin has ever come out with. They can't get some customers to upgrade to the touchscreen Oregon devices because people love their 60 CSx so much. That is amazing considering that entering an address on a 60 CSx is like winning a game of Asteroids and having to enter your initials with the roller ball. People of a certain vintage know what I mean. I would consider getting a 60 CSx if you don't own one and want one device for hiking and biking. They are dirt cheap now and still as wonderful as the day they were first released. It's also interesting that Garmin still sells the thing. Why? Because people buy them. Go figure. fun gadget - map advice by: on: 01-Sep 2009 I have had the Edge 705 a little over a week and am enjoying riding with it. I did take the advice of several reviewers and bought the city navigator map separately on DVD so I could use it both on my computer and on the Edge. I first bought a 4GB microSD through Amazon to put the maps in the Edge. The card would not work on the Edge - my computer would not recognize the Garmin and I couldn't get beyond the opening screen on the Garmin. I then bought a 2 GB microSD at Walmart which did work. I realized afterwards that the 4GB was an HC card (it took 6 minutes to load the maps versus 48 minutes). I am not sure if it was the size or the HC that prevented the microSD from working with this unit. One Week Later - I learned yesterday that Garmin just released a Firmware update. I updated the Firmware to 2.9 and the 4 GB HC card does work. Untested software, very poor choice of display fonts  by: on: 18-Aug 2009 Wow, I'm usually pleased with Garmin products, but this is a real stinker. On Mac Training Center the device is unable to load ride data into computer due to profile conflicts. The software keeps asking which profile to use and upload fails. No progress bar or percentage to help you know when to give up. The ride data and laps are all visible on the 705, but never make onto computer. The square blocky fonts from the 70s are out of place, their legibility (of lack there of) is really evident if you set the device to display just a couple of data fields. For the size and cost of this product the screen should be 20% larger. Designed/programmed by people that have never ridden with a cycling computer. Unit fails to poll the speed sensor until after the satellite signal has been lost for many seconds. Consequently auto stop doesn't work. Every time the unit drops satellite reception the software assumes you've stopped, but you're actually going 30 mph on the drops of your bars with your head creating a reception shadow. Accurate determination of stopped/moving is a basic function of any cycling computer and this unit fails. Average cadence data is useless as it fails to account for coasting. Lap history viewed on the unit fails to show ascent/descent totals. You must plug into computer to see those numbers. The buttons are confusing and poorly labeled. The unit does not effectively display start/stop status and you'll lose miles of data because you pressed the stop button instead of the lap button. The button labels are too small and are all white. The PC Training Center software is incapable of loading waypoints (favorites) to the unit. This and other basic GPS functions are inexplicably absent. View All ReviewsView All Global Position System (GPS) |
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