Garmin 705 buying advice

gwillis
gwillis Posts: 998
edited January 2011 in Road buying advice
I'm looking to buy one one of the these this weekend . Ive seen the road performance pack on wiggle which comes with the heart rate monitor etc and of course the built in mapping. Is this then best way to buy it or are there other opt ins I should consider. I can afford the 800 so only interested in comments on the 705 please.

Comments

  • casob
    casob Posts: 10
    Have a look on Amazon its a lot cheaper
  • gwillis
    gwillis Posts: 998
    With the Sd card it works out the same price
  • nferrar
    nferrar Posts: 2,511
    I'd have said 2nd hand is the way to go, there must be loads of people that have switched from a 705 to an 800 now (I'm still thinking about it...). I think I bought the MTB pack for mine (came with HRM and Topo maps), I found the Topo maps a bit cluttered for road riding though so subsequently bought the City Navigator (Europe) maps on DVD which are a bit better (although I still don't think it's great to use as an on-the-fly navigation device, it's designed and much better when used with a pre-prepared route). The maps on DVD mean you can use them for plotting on the PC (you can't with an SD card) however it's not really a big loss as plenty of on-line mapping sites around.
  • Handtec used to do very good deals on these, failing that try ebay, as this has been usurped by the 800 you should be able to get it for a good price. Wiggle price looks very steep, I picked my one up (with maps) for £240 and that was before 800 came out thanks to ebay.
    Allez
    Brompton
    Krypton
    T-130

    Never tell her how much it costs ......
  • gwillis
    gwillis Posts: 998
    Im tied to wiggle due to having a load of vouchers , it seems like the sd card with maps pushes the price up. A while ago iI bought a generic sat nav and added the tom tom software off the net and was thinking of buying the mapping on its own. As long as ive got the heart strap and cad sensor to start I should be ok I was thinking
  • andrew_s
    andrew_s Posts: 2,511
    Handtec are £229 for 705/heart/cadence, and £59 for the Europe SD card

    You should be able to use the free OpenStreetMaps with the 705, and a card to put them on should only be £5