a few years ago i got myself a garmin edge 305. at the time it was the only proper gps powered bicycle computer. it could be paired up with a cadence sensor (they were typically not very long lived) and a heart rate monitor. not a bad package, even at the price. that was about 9 years ago and things have moved on a bit since then.
after the usual bit of analysis and reading up on the internet in an effort to rationalise spending quite a bit of money i went for a garmin again, despite a few disappointments with garmin in the past.
the main improvements are the much bigger and better screen (colour touch screen), fewer buttons dirt will get under and auto-routing capability (which i really don’t use since i only ride trails) and mapping capability which i really missed on the 305 (where you could retrace your breadcrumbs but not overlay a map).
after some more research on the internet i found a very decently priced australian (not a grey import!) package and bought it. would garmin get it right this time? they already screwed me once a few years ago with the garmin 5 where they basically told me the built-in maps could be a few kilometres off and that was ok … on a gps unit that should be able to pinpoint it’s position within a few metres – really garmin?
to cut it short garmin again found a way to get it wrong. it turned out the package must have been on the seller’s shelves for a while and as a result it included an earlier version of the topographic maps. so i contacted the shop to get an upgrade since at this time the package should have contained a newer version with more detail and a higher resolution. the shop told me to contact garmin – which i did. can you guess what garmin said?
yep they sent me back to the shop; the shop would know what to do. clearly they either didn’t or didn’t bother. garmin’s final response was to say that the new maps were not much different. sounds like ‘our maps can be a few kilometres off’?
thanks garmin for again completely failing to stand behind your products and support your customers once you pocketed the money!
so what is the unit like? ok i guess. i time my rides and upload the data to strava.