Great computer, but screen quality could be improved
This is a great bike computer with tons of aweinspiring features. My only complaint in regards to the unit itself is that the screen quality could be improved. It is not clear and easy to read - particularly when you just want to glimpse down and see information. You actually need to take your eyes off of the road for a moment or two to figure out what fields you are observing and what they say.
I have not had any difficulties at all with the function of the unit. It without apparent effort found satelites and is gorgeous evident how to configure. I genuinely like the capacity to connect this to my computer after rides and keep a elaborated log of my rides. I gave the software three stars because it is very buggy and still rather rough around the edges.
I purchased the Garmin Heart Rate Monitorseparately. I do not have the Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor- it seems unnecessary for me. I don't in truth have a need to monitor my cadence and the speed measurements from the gps are very precise - even on trails under finelooking heavy foliage. I don't use this on a trainer.
I would strongy suggest that any person who is giving careful consideration to this buy make sure they visit the Garmin Edge 500 Forum on the Garmin website. You will learn more there than you ever wanted to know with regards to the device. The DC Rainmaker blog likewise has an splendid elaborate write-up.
As far as size, it is roughly the same size as my old Planet Bike Protege 9.0 9-Function Bike Computer with 4-Line Display and Temperature. The mount couldn't be easier. It uses two rubber bands to attach the base to the handlebars or stem. The unit locks into the base with a 90 degree twist - very easy and secure. It comes with tons of extra bands and I threw an extra set in my seat bag - just in case.
Just what I expected
The Garmin Edge 500 is just what I expected it to be. I think it was the most envisioned GPS/cycle computer from Garmin. It's little and pretty does the all the things (and numerous more) that you suppose a cycle computer to do. To start out with the size of the computer was a little more prominent that what I expected it to be, but having said that, it fits utterly fine on my handle bar stem and note I have a short stem (80 mm). I did my introductory ride with it a while ago and it was pretty much ready to go from the box it arrived it in. It did not have any difficulties acquiring sattelites, and effortlessly paired with the Garmin Heart Rate monitor and the Bontrager Duotrap cadence/speed sensor. Did not see any drops in signal for the duration of my ride, something that I would see with the former Garmin that I had. You have three screens which you may 8 fields of selective information per screen. So you may monitor 24 data sets real time for the duration of your ride. There are far more choices than I may list here, just to keep it short it's a plenty.
I personally am upgrading from a Forerunner 50 and I think this is just great! I think that everyone will be enjoyably astonished by the capablenesses of this device except for the Edge 705 owners who will feel it is a downgrade for the lack of maps (which it is).
A new level of bike computer
I got this unit to upgrade the tracking of my workouts and to start out using a heart rate monitor to get more out of the time I was spending exercising.
I was wary of plunking out the bucks for this because there are a great deal of stories of the unit not working very well. It seemed from reviews it was great or it was unworthy depending on the luck of the draw. So I made sure to buy it from a place with a very liberal return policy.
Overview
This is the basi GPS enabled unit that I've seen that was little sufficient for me to mount on my bike and not have it mistaken for a PDA or Smart Phone. It is optimized for biking.
The overall construction seems finelooking good. The unit seems well sealed, has a huge screen and a nice backlight.
There are 4 control buttons, two on each side. The buttons on the left in general activate or conform menu items, the buttons on the right are used for navigation. The buttons require a firm press and have a muted click, you won't be hitting them accidentally. Actually attempting to hit them while riding is a tad difficult.
Underneath at the bottom of the unit there is a rubber stopper that plugs a mini-usb port. This port is used for selective information transfer as well as charging.
The mount is simple and awesome. There is a base piece with a formed rubber pad that goes under it. There are four hooks on the mount and you get a bag full of elastomeric gasket seal like rubber bands. You merely put the base piece where you want it and hook the band to one hook, stretch it around your bar/stem and hook it to the hook on the other side. Two bands and your done. Clicking the unit in is easy, press it in and rotate 90 degrees. The mount is secure, flexible and easy, I can't believe that more bike items don't use this mount, it actually allows me to put it places I could never think of. On one of my bikes the handlebars were taken up with lights but I am competent to put this mount ON TOP OF a Bike Planet safety light which is cylinder shaped. Clamps on with no problem. On my other bike I have it attached to the basket mounting bracket, good luck at doing that with any other mount. If only all mounts were this good. The unit comes with two finish mounts standard.
The battery is an integral Li-ion unit that is not user accessible or replaceable. Its supposedly good for up to 18 hours and has a charge % listed. I ran it for 2.5 hours with occasional backlight use and it went from 100% to 87%. The battery may be charged with the included adaptor or from a computer USB port.
Some people criticize the unit for not having a replaceable battery. I don't think that's such a huge deal, the life is long, the battery will last for years before calling for replacement. When you consider how much power these units normally use if ran on CR-2032's or other similar batteries you'd rack up rather a battery bill over the life of the unit and it wouldn't be closely as well sealed. The size of the unit would rule out AA or AAA's without making it much bigger.
Features
The unit has a lot of features, it records more selective information than you recognise what to do with. It has support for external heart monitor and cadence sensor. You may read the specs to see all the stuff it records.
What is in truth nice is that you have three possible screens to look at. Each screen may be setup with whatsoever data you want. You may select to display anyplace amidst 1 and 8 pieces of information. 5 seems to be optimal in that you may get a huge amount of screen space for your single most primary selective information and then 4 littler bits in other boxes. Each time you switch screens the backlight comes on which is great at night (this may be turned off).
The routine for choosing data is not incisively intuitive or friendly but it works after you figure it out (hint>Bike settings>Data fields).
To get more precise calorie count you will need to enter numerous selective information when it comes to yourself (height, weight, age etc). Don't forget your bike information, the weight of your bike probably affects it as well.
Use
Using the unit on the ride is easy enough. Turn it on, it boots up in a few seconds and has your satellites locked shortly thereafter. Usually less than 10 seconds. Being GPS based you don't need to program in wheel size or mess with sensors. Its easy to transfer from bike to bike and may hold 3 bike profiles.
I have the automati pause turned on so I hit commence and then ride without worry. At the end of the ride I hit stop. You won't "accidentally" clear your selective information because you have to press and hold the clear button for 3 seconds and it shows you a countdown.
Computer Interface
One of the huge features of a unit like this is the capacity to download and closely question or examine your exercise data. The unit doesn't ship with any software but Garmin provides two utilities for free. There is the Garmin Training Center Software free to download from their website. It serves as a basic organizer downloader/uploader. It doesn't have all the analysis tools and it is Maps are gorgeous anemic at best. The nice portion notwithstanding is you may transfer your data to Google Earth (if installed) which displays your data on a Google world map. You may "play" your animation as well as look at each of your data points. If you right click on the path and choose Elevation Profile you get further and added choices for examining elevation and grade.
There is likewise the Garmin Connect Website that lets you upload your info to Garmins website. They have better graph and analysis tools. In addition to having your data stored online you may likewise send the link to others to percentage your info which is nice.
Accuracy & Reliability
Horror stories regarding the accuracy (or lack their off) and the unit freezing up or flaking out were pretty scary. One thing that I did before I ever applied the device was wholly charge the battery and then get the latest firmware update from the Garmin Website. There were a LOT of issues that we fixed. If you look at the revision history it is wonder they let the thing out the door with that numerous issues. Installing the firmware involves downloading a program which then loads selective information into the unit. After that when you turn the unit on it compiles the new firmware into it over the amount of time of a few minutes and then is ready to go.
I'm happy with the results. It's as precise as most buyer grade GPS units. Accuracy of course varies with time and location. If I look at my track on Google Maps at times I may see what side of the road I was going down and how I zigged and zagged going up a huge hill. Other times it has me biking through everyone's front yard. I'd say it is off by 20 feet in one direction at worst which is not bad when your riding miles.
Elevation is a bit spotier, largely because the variance is much less. Plus or minus 20 feet on 20 miles is nothing, plus or minus 20 feet on 200 ft elevation is a lot. I've seen elevation swings as much as 50 feet at any one point but it averages out of a lot of selective information points. If you want to recognise what the precise elevation is at any one point you may be disappointed until you take multiple samples. But if you are looking for a gorgeous good record of the changes in your overall miles long ride it is sufficient. Also in my experience this varience in elevation is not distinctive to this unit. Every GPS unit I've employed has had similar issues.
Temperature is another area of questionable accuracy. If you hold the unit for any length of time over 30 seconds it is going to heat up. Same if exposed to direct sunlight. It doesn't seem to refresh the temperature that often. Seems to heat up fast, cool off slow.
Other Uses
While this is technically a Bike Computer with it is capacity to sync with Heart Rate Monitors there genuinely isn't a reason you couldn't use it for other outdoor sports as well. You'd just have to make sure you have a place to hold it that it may receive signal.
To Recap
Pro's
Excellent Mount
Very Flexible in utility
Long Battery life
Very configurable
Lots of information
Cons
Not Very Friendly Interface
Buttons Hard to Push
Doesn't seem to have a indicator if you are going below, at or above average.
Associated Software is lacking
Bit of a learning curve to figure out all the quirks.
Conclusion-
An splendid device that takes the conception of a bike computer to a new level. Provides all sorts of info before and after the ride that you may find useful. If you've got the cash I'd commend it.
UPDATE - Heart Rate monitor
I got the Garmin Comfort Strap Heart Rate monitor. After going back and telling the unit that I had a HRM it picked the monitor up almost without any delay and has worked great. The only Gotcha (aside from having to reconfigure you screens to include HRM data) is that having the HRM active does drain the battery. I don't have any solid numbers but 2x as fast would be a reasonable estimate.
