Garmin Edge 305 Handheld GPS Receiver

Overview

I'd been looking for a GPS device for a while now and picked the Edge 305 for a number of reasons:

- I mainly want to log where I mountain bike, often places where there are no defined trails.
- Elevation accuracy is important (this unit has a barometric sensor) for calculating your climbs (although this sensor seems to calibrates itself from GPS data alone - you can't tell it a known altitude).
- HR and Cadence sensors are really 'toys' for me, but very nice ones all the same. For more serious trainers these will be much more useful.

There are cheaper devices on the market that will record GPS tracks, but the cycle/trip computer functions are useful and for this purpose the unit functions brilliantly. Actually, you don't have to be cycling to use this - for example, I recently recorded a quad bike outing in the sand dunes with the Edge.

GPS and Navigation

The Edge's GPS receiver seems very sensitive indeed - you can hold the unit in your hand and wave it to get a reading of movement. Don't forget this is pure GPS, there are no gyroscopes or anything else involved! Also works well under trees and in canyons. Records walking pace (I took this out bushwalking) accurately, right up to driving speeds.

I have to report that after a few weeks of use the Edge did go completely haywire at one point. Cycling in the bush it began to record alarming speeds and plot movement way off course in a straight line in almost the opposite direction. Luckily a power cycle of the device sorted that one!

As the unit is meant primarily as a cycle computer the GPS navigation features you normally get in a handheld unit are a little lacking. For example, one cannot pan the GPS map showing your breadcrumb trail (only zoom). One cannot enter waypoint co-ordinates manually (although you can edit a point when marking the current location and do it that way). These functions are kind of hidden down at lower menu levels too.

Cycle/Trip Computer Functions

Luckily, the cycle computer features are great. The manual lists 32 data fields from speed & time to altitude gain/loss, average cadence, heart rate, etc. These can be arranged on 2 custom screens which can show up to 8 variables each and are toggled between easily. Do the math, not enough screens for all those data fields, one should be able to add custom screens and name them (ie. current speed, trip averages, etc.).

Some minor grips that I would hope will be fixed in future software updates: it does not record tracks if you haven't started (by pressing 'start/stop' button) - there should be an 'auto start' feature. This same button (and the lap button - you cannot 'undo' a lap once you hit this) can be pressed accidentally far too easily - there really needs to be a key lock. There is an auto pause feature but this needs some kind of sensitivity setting, it can pause and re-start a little too often if you stop momentarily.

Battery and Memory Life

The battery life is a claimed 12 hours, which seems a little optimistic. The unit stayed on for 10h40m when I left it on my balcony without remote HR/cadence sensor use. I recently took part in a long distance event which was completed in a rather slow 8h20m. The Edge was on charge until 15 minutes before the start of this event and gave a low battery warning about 30 minutes after the finish - probably some 9 hours after coming off charge and indicating that using the remote sensors and moving don't make a huge different to the battery life. Given all this, I'm thinking for most day rides and all but the most hardcore events things should be fine.

The memory everything is stored in is non-volatile so don't worry about loosing stuff even if the battery does expire. There is apparently a 13,000 point memory which is good for a claimed 3.5 hours recording every second. Luckily there is a smart recording mode whereby points are only used when something being recorded changes (speed, direction, heart rate, etc). The above 8 hour event used around 5,300 points for example, in 100Km of pretty much standard off-road terrain (big climbs, twisting sections, etc).

Training Software

Sadly, the included Training Centre Software isn't the best. For example, there's no way to combine/split laps or training sessions. There's no way to export as GPX or other more generic path/route. The software insists on loading all the tracks in the Edge s memory on import and not just the ones it hasn t seen.

Out on a ride I managed to turn the unit off by accident once (more key lock issues) and didn't restart the timer on powering it back up, noticing about 2Km later. The best you could hope Training Centre to do would be to assume this 2Km was is a straight line, but no, it just omitted this distance altogether.

Some shortfalls can be overcome if users can register at the excellent Motion Based website (http://motionbased.com/) and use it for analysis (for example, the 2Km gap in the path I just mention was handled as I would expect here). Motion Based can also export sessions as GPX and Google Earth KMZ. Shame to make full use of this site there is a subscription fee. Given Garmin own the site, you should get one year free with the unit or something.

Robust?

The unit feels sturdily designed, although I do worry about the long term scratch resistance of the screen. I must also report that one of the two included mounting brackets cracked after a few weeks on the bike. The bracket consists of a solid ABS type plate with thinner, sort of rubberised surround and it is the surround part that cracked. Thankfully this made the Edge harder to remove so it didn't fall of my bike, and the sold ABS plate is unscathed so could be used with some pipe insulation or other material to improvise a fix. Still - this experience shouldn t really have happened.

Having said that, since replacing the bracket I've cycled some very rough and tough terrain, sometimes at high speed and things have stayed in place which is very commendable.