Garmin Forerunner 405

H*Bomb

Does anyone use a Garmin Forerunner 405 as a cycle compuer?

I am currently using a Topeak V12 Mini for which I have sensors on my road and MTB bike - at least I did until the cable tie on the wireless sensor broke the other day while out and the sensor was lost!

I have been thinking of upgrading to a Garmin for sometime. Whilst if I were to buy one I would go for an Edge, my partner has a Forerunner 405 which she does not use.

So my question is - will a Forerunner 405 do what an entry level Edge will do? Does anyone have any experience of using a 405 on a bike? Is it worthwhile getting the cadence add on?

d87heaven

I use a 405 on a bike. Not very good if you wear it on the wrist as every time you move your hands the buttons get pressed. I fudged up a bar mount in the end. It gives you plenty of info if you set it up with 3 different screens and scroll through. I just use mine for time, distance and avg speed. Its awful if you use it to navigate routes although it will give you a rough idea of where to go but the direction arrow changes just as you get to the junction with no time to prepare if you need to lane change.
Cadence sensor works fine as does the hr monitor.
You can set it for hr zones, intervals etc etc.
Its fiddly to use whilst riding and all but impossible if its raining.

meanredspider

I use the Forerunner 305 on my bike which is great. Colleagues use the 405 and seem very happy - in fact one has just gone to the 410 (the upgraded version). There's a bar mount and, yes, the cadence sensor is very worthwhile.

To stop the button issue, use the bezel lock

danowat

I've used mine on my bike for years, I have / had a bar mount, but just wear it on my wrist now, also use a cadence sensor, but I am not convinced the data from it is worthwhile.

d87heaven

meanredspider wrote:

To stop the button issue, use the bezel lock

Or wear it on the right wrist. Trouble is on the left when you bend the wrist you press both the buttons and unlock it again.
Better products about for cycling but not a better watch style gps (although the timex gps has a few recommends). Battery life is not brilliant if you are out for over 5 hrs.

Hinzy9

The official Garmin bike mount is about at tenner I think, definitely worth while getting IMO.

As others have said, it's excellent for tracking/recording, ave speed, distance, route, hr etc but trying to follow a pre planned route is a challenge at times. I've missed many a turning before realizing the compass arrow is pointing from the direction I've just come from. It's not brilliant but it will stop you getting totally lost....eventually.

rich164h

d87heaven wrote:

Its awful if you use it to navigate routes although it will give you a rough idea of where to go but the direction arrow changes just as you get to the junction with no time to prepare if you need to lane change.

bikeroutetoaster allows you to include earlier warning at a distance you choose (50m prior to the junction works for me) so you don't have to have this problem.

What I find is that as it's only a simple, left, right or straight on, it's not so clear at complex junction or roundabouts. To be honest it just takes a bit of time to interpret what the messages are saying and what they actually mean. If you do go off track it does tell you almost immediately and then it's pretty obvious where you need to go so you can quickly get back on track again. Not great in a busy city I suppose but in the countryside it's ok.

My biggest complaint is that the mapping on those sites sometimes suggests you can go down roads which are often private property or old tracks that don't exist anymore. Without full mapping it's impossible to tell how to get around to where you can rejoin the route as the device will just keep pointing you to the next waypoint (i.e. the bit you can't go down, or if you're lucky the subsequent waypoint which could be miles aware and out of your line of sight). At least on something like the Edge 800 you would be able to see that if you took the next turning, and carried on for a mile etc etc you'd get back on track.

H*Bomb

OK, dug it out and it is currently charging. Why did she have to buy the lime green version - apparently 'it is pretty'. Hmmmm.
Sounds like it will do what I want, so that's good. Will order a bar mount and consider the cadence mount later.
Will have a look at bikeroutetoaster later too - have always used mapmyride to date.

Hinzy9

rich164h wrote:

d87heaven wrote:

Its awful if you use it to navigate routes although it will give you a rough idea of where to go but the direction arrow changes just as you get to the junction with no time to prepare if you need to lane change.

bikeroutetoaster allows you to include earlier warning at a distance you choose (50m prior to the junction works for me) so you don't have to have this problem.

What I find is that as it's only a simple, left, right or straight on, it's not so clear at complex junction or roundabouts. To be honest it just takes a bit of time to interpret what the messages are saying and what they actually mean. If you do go off track it does tell you almost immediately and then it's pretty obvious where you need to go so you can quickly get back on track again. Not great in a busy city I suppose but in the countryside it's ok.

My biggest complaint is that the mapping on those sites sometimes suggests you can go down roads which are often private property or old tracks that don't exist anymore. Without full mapping it's impossible to tell how to get around to where you can rejoin the route as the device will just keep pointing you to the next waypoint (i.e. the bit you can't go down, or if you're lucky the subsequent waypoint which could be miles aware and out of your line of sight). At least on something like the Edge 800 you would be able to see that if you took the next turning, and carried on for a mile etc etc you'd get back on track.

Interesting....so the arrow would point left (for example) 50 meters before a left turn?

richh

yep, it's the thing called "course point warnings" in the summary tab.

Hinzy9

Thanks, I'll give it a go!