ok,you have owned a Garmin 605/705 for at least a year and..

mididoctors

how has it lasted reliability wise...

interested in the map functions for foreign travel. How useful and easy it to use?

is it distracting.. on a tour is the charger a pain? has anyone used one for a long brisk "credit card" style European tour?

not interested in "I've had one for 3months and it's great so far" type reviews

warts and all please

cheers in advance

APIII

I've had one since May 08. I rarely map out a route in advance, so only use the mapping features occasionally, like to reassure myself I'm heading in roughly the right direction. It's okay in that respect i.e. for day rides. However, I had a week in Majorca recently and just used a paper map stuffed in my jersey pocket. I find the screen is just too small on the garmin to navigate by.

mididoctors

APIII wrote:

I've had one since May 08. I rarely map out a route in advance, so only use the mapping features occasionally, like to reassure myself I'm heading in roughly the right direction. It's okay in that respect i.e. for day rides. However, I had a week in Majorca recently and just used a paper map stuffed in my jersey pocket. I find the screen is just too small on the garmin to navigate by.

cheers

schweiz

I've had a 305 for 2 years and a 705 since April this year.

The 305 was replaced under warranty after one of the buttons pushed through into the unit after about 10 months. Since then I've had no issues. The main problem I found with the 305 was that sometimes you ended up on the wrong road when following a route as you were just following a black line on a screen with no reference points. I still use it for everyday riding to record my rides.

I use the 705 with Topo maps both on the road and MTB and it is much better than the 305 for giving you situational awareness especially when following a pre-planned route. The first time I used it I planned a 140km ride from the bike shop where I bought my bike from and home. I planned the route on www.bikeroutetoaster.com, following lots of minor roads and it performed superbly. Don't expect the auto routing software to be any good unless you enjoy riding on motorways or purchase something like City Navigator, which still won't have bike paths and trails on it.

The 705 comes with European adaptors for the charger and it also charges from USB in a few hours from empty. I've had 12 hours battery life off one charge.

As mentioned above, the 705 does have a small screen though so for route planning a paper map is far better. My Aunt was in Austria MTBing with a Colorado 300 which has a bigger screen and the Topo maps and she said it was really useful. It is much bigger and heavier though. It does run on AA batteries which you can always get, so recharging is not a problem.

If I was going touring for multiple days, I would always take a paper map with me, it just makes planning the following day's route far easier. Even if you've pre-planned all the days and loaded the onto the 705, you never know when you might want to change your plans.

Hope some of that is of some help!

careful

I ve had a 705 for just over a year after having a couple of the similar 405s which both had to be replaced under warranty after death through ingresss of water. I now use a freeware map which (apart from being free) is more detailed than the Garmin one that cost me about £60. On tour in UK and France I sometimes take a laptop so I can plan routes day by day using Toaster and Tracklogs (for UK). Biggest problem with that is internet access. I find the mapping generally is ok as long as you have checked out the route with a map beforehand. There is a danger that it will route you down muddy tracks that look like minor roads. Having said all that, I wouldnt be without it and used with a degree of sensible mistrust it is a brilliant tool.

beatsystem

I have had my 705 for over a year and its been brilliant and 100 per cent reliable.

DaSy

Well over a year now with my 705; I've used it for a tour from Geneva to Nice, and also for a few days in Majorca. It was flawless on both occasions.

I even created a route for some friends for a route from Geneva to Venice, created daily .gpx's and loaded them onto their 705, they reported it worked without problem and they arrived at Venice as per the route!

I map most of my rides, and have found roads and areas I would never have found without the confidence it gives me to just explore.

The reliability is very good, and now the software is much better, many of the old annoying bugs have been eradicated.

If it blew up today, I would buy a replacement straight away.

mididoctors

cheers for all the replies guys

GavH

DaSy wrote:

If it blew up today, I would buy a replacement straight away.

+1 Utterly indespensible bit of kit

blorg

I've had a 705 for over a year now and had a 305 before that. Both have been back to Garmin several times, generally problems with the altimeter but also a few other problems that can be traced to water ingress. Also had problems with the wireless bit in the head unit with the 305 previously, both HR and cadence would disappear. Another altimeter problem popped up when the unit was left stationary in the sun for a while (e.g. having lunch) - the altimeter would freeze afterwards.

Indeed my 705 is currently showing altimeter flakiness once again with sticking particularly in the wet. Grade display intermittently disappeared while I was riding in the Pyrenees, showing __% - needed a reboot to get it back. This trip also had a very high level of corrupted history files. One of my three cadence units has also stopped functioning.

There is occasional other flakiness, particularly with regard to the XML history files getting corrupted- this results in loss of data. You need to edit the files manually to fix this and will find that tags just seem truncated midway through- so you might lose 10km of your ride for example.

Despite this I thoroughly recommend them and would not be without mine. Thing is, there really is no other unit that can do everything it can in such a package and I will put up with the flakiness as a result.

Garmin's warranty replacement service is also excellent and out of warranty they have a fixed-price replacement system that is very reasonable (this also covers stuff like crash damage, which I have had to avail of.) So you can get a new (refurb) 705 for around £100 if you break it.

The mapping is very good (you need to buy the detailed maps) and I have used it touring and for long rides in France, Spain and Italy as well as Ireland. It generally works best if you plot the route in advance- as others have said the screen is small and it is difficult to see an overview and particularly in bike routing mode you sometimes need to sanity-check what it is suggesting, it can decide on massive detours to avoid a small stretch of main road. When using it for that sort of on-the-fly routing generally it is best with a paper map and if you have a route in mind get it to route you to an intermediate town in the direction you want to go.

It lets you do complicated routes down unmarked small roads though and gives you turn by turn at every junction, it is infinitely quicker than reading a map if you are happy with the route you have in it. No need to stop the bike, just follow the instructions. If you go off course it will automatically re-route you although in France this did add an extra col to our Raid.

mididoctors

some good stuff here to take notice of....

a_n_t

blorg wrote:

Grade display intermittently disappeared while I was riding in the Pyrenees, showing __% - needed a reboot to get it back.

Mine does this now and again, no idea why?

blorg

a_n_t wrote:

blorg wrote:

Grade display intermittently disappeared while I was riding in the Pyrenees, showing __% - needed a reboot to get it back.

Mine does this now and again, no idea why?

It will always appear as __% if you don't have the timer started (indeed it a good way to remember to start the timer.) This is normal and by design as it needs to record a distance to calculate the grade. Technically not necessary as they manage speed when it is not started but a minor gripe to be sure.

If it does it for any length with the timer going you probably have a faulty barometric altimeter. It seems like a quite common issue, I know others who had it, grade display is just further up my important list than many Garmin owners. Garmin will replace it under warranty but it seems to be a common problem, replacement units I have got have suffered from the same issue.

a_n_t

blorg wrote:

It will always appear as __% if you don't have the timer started

I know, timer was on but is such a rare occurance I'll live with it!

fungus_the_muffin_man

I've been having a look at the Garmins recently as I've started to increase my mileage. looking at the 3/6/705 what would you all say is the best value system of the 3?
I was thinking of looking at the 305 but would I be able to use this to ensure I'm going in the right direction? If not is it then just a glorified bike computer?
How does the 605 differ from the 705?
I've not seen any of these in the flesh yet. how big, clear is the screen etc?

blorg

The 305 doesn't have mapping. It will give you a breadcrumb trail on a blank background as to where you went. You can program in routes but it is convoluted compared to the 705 and these routes don't have any other reference points; it also won't re-route you if you go off course, it will just tell you how many metres you are off course. I programmed a route before for a sportive with all the peaks marked and their altitude, and it does "work", telling you distance to next peak, etc. but the 705 is much better and easier for anything involving mapping. The 305 has an accurate barometric altimeter.

The benefit over a non-GPS computer is that it will record where you went, the altiude, your heart rate, etc. Makes it a lot easier to keep a log and it is great to review and you can see your rides all charted out, with elevation, grade, heart rate etc at any particular point. So you can review that it took you X minutes to climb this hill at this heart rate, or what your acceleration was in a sprint, etc.

The 605 has the mapping features but is quite crippled on the "sports training" features- it won't do heart rate or cadence for example (it lacks the wireless receiver for these, you can't add them.) It also lacks a barometric altimeter. Basically it might suit a rider looking for the mapping features but not interested in training features- a relaxed tourer perhaps.

The 705 has full mapping over the 305 (if you buy the maps- the basemap is useless.) I honestly didn't think I would use this as much as I have ended up doing, it is great. It has enabled me to do long cross-country trips on roads I don't know and has really opened that out for me. Once you have the route in, it gives you turn-by-turn directions and you just follow it, no stopping needed AT ALL. Longest one of these I did was 260km, basically all over back roads so very complicated routing and no real signage you could otherwise follow. I've also used it for a 300km audax, programming the route sheet in beforehand (much to the scepticism of the bearded ones )

Apart from that I do a fair bit of touring and it is also great for that, same deal, you can just follow its instructions and follow complicated back-roads routes without stopping that would be frankly impossible with a map. I have used it in Ireland, France, Spain and Italy and it has been excellent. You do need a map as a backup and to see the "big picture" - as the screen is small. It is also a good idea to sanity-check it's routing if you are programming it on the fly rather than putting in a route beforehand.

Other advantages are much better battery life and much extended memory (effectively unlimited.) The 305 gave around 10 hours which could be a limiting factor on longer rides- you would need to carry a portable charger or risk the thing running out. The 705 is at least 15, probably a touch more. The 305 also had a very limited internal memory in terms of the ride storage- doing the Camino de Santiago for example, I only had the last two or three days recorded. This was very annoying. The 705 will store a year or more of rides by contrast, you could probably do a full circumnavigation without needing to download.

Bottom line- if you always cycle routes you know, are looking for training features and don't mind the battery life/multi-day storage limitations the 305 is the best value and can be picked up substantially cheaper than the 705. Racing and training for racing this will do it all for you- with the exception of logging power, for which you need the 705 (and of course a power meter.) The accessories (HR strap & cadence meter) are compatible with the 705 should you upgrade.

If you want to add the mapping with the battery/storage benefits the 705. The 605 to be honest it is difficult to see who it would be suited to, particularly as it is not that much cheaper than the 705.

fungus_the_muffin_man

Cheers fella you've cleared it up for me nicely

Now just need to chat with the missus about christmas

holybinch

Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

Cheers fella you've cleared it up for me nicely

Now just need to chat with the missus about christmas

Err, yeah, another one in the same situation here

dodgy

I'm an early adopter, I bought a 305 when they first became available and immediately upgraded to the 705 when it came on the market in the UK.

With the 305, I would follow pre-plotted 'courses', essentially a breadcrumb trail. This really started to open my horizons to new rides in unfamiliar parts of the country (actually, even roads within say 30 miles from home).
The principle benefit for me when I first started using the 305 was the wealth of statistics and metrics you could gather. I spend time finding out (for instance) what is my fastest average speed for distances over 30 miles but below 70 miles in August 2006 only. You can pull that data out with Sporttracks and it's child's play. So now I find I go out with the intention of 'beating' my mileage for the same month last year, or increasing altitude gain, because all the metrics are there to be compared.

For the 705, the biggest change is full navigation, and I personally find it completely flawless. Again, my routes are 80% of the time pre-planned on my PC, but occasionally I will re-route to a cafe or something on a day ride confident in the ability of the 705 to get me there while avoiding busy roads.
Put it this way, if I lost / destroyed my 705 tomorrow I would be buying a new one as soon as I got home. I find it indispensible and has made a real improvement to me and my cycling.
My top tip is to don't buy the top maps, City Navigator is where it's at.

Edward Teach

I have had my 705 since July 2008, bought in the UK

This is my second one, broke the screen on the first after a trying to do a impression of superman. Replaced by Garmin within 5 day of sending in old one, so excellent service.

As to maps I have the Topo's on mine. I do my routing via mapsource.

Pro's
Good Battery hours (12hours)
Small
Light

Con's
Small screen
Limited to a 2GB microSD card (I can't fit all of Switzerland and all of France on the unit)
Battery has the be replaced by Garmin

As with other replies on here. If it blew up, I would definitely get another one.

dodgy

Edward Teach wrote:

I have had my 705 since July 2008, bought in the UK

This is my second one, broke the screen on the first after a trying to do a impression of superman. Replaced by Garmin within 5 day of sending in old one, so excellent service.

As to maps I have the Topo's on mine. I do my routing via mapsource.

Pro's
Good Battery hours (12hours)
Small
Light

Con's
Small screen
Limited to a 2GB microSD card (I can't fit all of Switzerland and all of France on the unit)
Battery has the be replaced by Garmin

As with other replies on here. If it blew up, I would definitely get another one.

Latest 2.9 firmware alows 4gb cards.

pickled

I've just started looking at one of these.
Are you guys saying you need to spend 60 quid on maps as well as forking out 360 odd quid for the device itself?

If so I think I might get the new Edge 500 instead.

amaferanga

pickled wrote:

I've just started looking at one of these.
Are you guys saying you need to spend 60 quid on maps as well as forking out 360 odd quid for the device itself?

If so I think I might get the new Edge 500 instead.

Garmin maps are ahem widely available.

amaferanga

mididoctors wrote:

how has it lasted reliability wise...

interested in the map functions for foreign travel. How useful and easy it to use?

is it distracting.. on a tour is the charger a pain? has anyone used one for a long brisk "credit card" style European tour?

not interested in "I've had one for 3months and it's great so far" type reviews

warts and all please

cheers in advance

If navigation is your reason for buying and you're concerned about battery life then you might want to consider an Etrex Legend HCx or Vista HCx. They use the same maps as the 605 and 705, have dedicated (and robust) mounts and run on standard AA's. There're no training functions though, but they are a bit cheaper. I used one to navigate my credit-card style LEJOG. I get >15 hours per set of batteries (rechargeables or Duracells) and obviously you can carry spares.

dodgy

pickled wrote:

I've just started looking at one of these.
Are you guys saying you need to spend 60 quid on maps as well as forking out 360 odd quid for the device itself?

If so I think I might get the new Edge 500 instead.

£360? Even the top of the range model with HR and cadence is 'only' £290 and that's without even looking particularly hard, possibly a lot cheaper.

pickled

I was quoting the price from heartratemonitor.co.uk who I've used before and trust.
I have found the top of the range for 290 now thanks. Except they're out of stock anyway.

I have found them cheaper, but I don't like the look of the websites.

dodgy

Handtec have them in stock, trustworthy site.
http://www.handtec.co.uk/section.php/100/1/garmin-edge

othello

Amazon have them fairly cheap too, though through 3rd party sellers (but you still get the guarantee of it arriving from Amazon)

pickled

Cheers for that guys.

mididoctors

amaferanga wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

how has it lasted reliability wise...

interested in the map functions for foreign travel. How useful and easy it to use?

is it distracting.. on a tour is the charger a pain? has anyone used one for a long brisk "credit card" style European tour?

not interested in "I've had one for 3months and it's great so far" type reviews

warts and all please

cheers in advance

If navigation is your reason for buying and you're concerned about battery life then you might want to consider an Etrex Legend HCx or Vista HCx. They use the same maps as the 605 and 705, have dedicated (and robust) mounts and run on standard AA's. There're no training functions though, but they are a bit cheaper. I used one to navigate my credit-card style LEJOG. I get >15 hours per set of batteries (rechargeables or Duracells) and obviously you can carry spares.

your speaking my lingo here

they have a bike mount?

a_n_t

amaferanga wrote:

Garmin maps are ahem widely available.