Forerunner 405 or Foretrex 401 ... which is better?

kevinharley

Hi all - have asked this over on the MTB forum too, but want advice from you guys as well ...

GPS on my phone is being decidedly flaky ... still searching for advice and solutions, but I suspect the GPS unit is in the phone is giving up the ghost ... phone is on contract, so will go back again to my network provider and see what they propose to do ..

However, the whole experience (and frustration of living with very patchy strava results for the last 3 weeks!) have caused me to think that a Garmin watch might be a good idea anyway, and I've seen a couple of used options pretty cheap. I like the idea of a watch because its lighter and more portable, battery run times are better etc. Would be used for cycling and running. I don't need / use mapping functionality, or heart monitoring (and couldn't afford a Garmin device with all that anyway) - I just want to record an activity, upload it, analyse distance, speed, average speed and strava segments.

Seen a used Garmin Forerunner 405 and a Garmin Foretrex 401 - any advice on which is better? Particularly interested in accurate and robust GPS tracking of the activity, and which (if any) of the two would be better.

Thanks

chris_bass

the battery run times for watches are much less than that of a dedicated bike gps system.

I have a forerunner 405 and it suffers from random reboots and the battery will suddenly empty and there are a few other bugs in it too, its a known issue with the watch and if you are getting second hand i'd be very wary. It might seem fine for a while and then it can go wrong.

Whats your budget? one of the newer models might be better suited.

not had any experience with the Garmin Foretrex 401 though.

southdownswolf

The problem that I have found with the watches is that the gps receiver is not as good as the cycle Garmins. I have used various Forerunners and currently have a 310XT for duathlons, which is fine for running, but if cycling quickly in a built up area or with plenty of trees then it can lose track of the gps. This soon catches up, but if you have gone around a few corners, then it draws a straight line between them, which obviously affects your average speed, distance etc.
I have not had problems with the batteries in any of them though, I might have been lucky.....

kevinharley

southdownswolf wrote:

The problem that I have found with the watches is that the gps receiver is not as good as the cycle Garmins. I have used various Forerunners and currently have a 310XT for duathlons, which is fine for running, but if cycling quickly in a built up area or with plenty of trees then it can lose track of the gps. This soon catches up, but if you have gone around a few corners, then it draws a straight line between them, which obviously affects your average speed, distance etc.
I have not had problems with the batteries in any of them though, I might have been lucky.....

Oh .. that's not good! Since making the original post, I've agreed to buy a used 310 xt from a mate for £45 ... thought that was a bit of a bargain, and figured that the GPS would be better than my phone used to be (when it was working), and certainly better than it is now ... :?