Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Garmin 305 or 705?

Ok first off, I tried to search the forum but everything I put in the search box came back with no results, so if I am asking a question that has been answered sorry, just direct me to the correct post.

Now for the question, I may have the opportunity to get the 305, 605 or the 705 at a price well under the suggested retail price, and yes, I would be obtaining it legally. I am a recreational road cyclist, meaning I don't race or have any desire to, I ride mostly for enjoyment and well as fitness. My usual rides consist of 15-20 miles in the AM before my wife goes to work, and then 30-50 miles on the weekend. Is the 705 overkill for my cycling needs? I don't plan on buying the extra maps for city streets so I am wondering if the 305 would be more my speed so to speak. I am leaning against the 605 since it has no ability for cadence and HR.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Husker

Do you need to measure power ?
How frequently would you be going on roads that you have never been before?
Would you be planning your route before hand or would you explore impromptu?
How much weight would you place on a color display vs. mere display of information

The answers to these would point to 305 or 705. I have the former and never miss out on what the latter offer$ as an extra!

No power is not a concern, I rarely if ever ride on unfamiliar roads, and I usually plan my route prior with MapMyRide. So I am really thinking the 305 is enough for me. I mainly am interested in being able to see my data like climb and decent, and heart rate at certain points of the ride to make sure I am staying in the right zone or seeing how quickly my HR recovers.

If you get lost a lot or if you explore new roads a lot, then the mapping feature of the 705 may be very useful. You will pay a lot of money for that feature, of course.

If you just want to review your data after the ride is over, then the 305 is plenty. There are even cheaper non-GPS computers on the market that record your elevation and HR info.

Any of the Garmin units are obscene overkill for your needs. All you need is an inexpensive cycle computer and spreadsheet program or ProLog software. You really don't even need that if you are riding regular routes and staying well within distances you are easily capable of riding.

Since you will not be buying the maps and won't use power the 605 and 705 are a waste of your money. Will you want cadence? You seem to indicate that you wont want that either. If no cadence then 205 is all you need.

As mentioned there are many good other computers out there that are much less. Short of cadence it sounds like the only feature you are really looking to tap into is the ability to load courses and routes from MapMyRide.com.

PS - I had the 305 and now have a 705 with a Power Tap and love them. I just cant tell you to go get the 705 based on your requirements.

Yes I actually do want the cadence feature as well. I reply want the garmin so I can track my heart rate and cadence at various point during my rides, such as during climbs and on long flats. I have a cateye computer that measures cadence now but I don't want to have to try and look at it during a hard climb to see what my cadence is, then have to look at my HR monitor and try to remember those figures an hour or two later.

I mainly am interested in being able to see my data like climb and decent, and heart rate at certain points of the ride to make sure I am staying in the right zone or seeing how quickly my HR recovers.

Yes you can do this. I do it with SportTracks (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/) which not only connects to the 305 to download data and displays it as a graph, but can also overlay it on Google maps (street/satellite) view for you to exactly see what your stats were at a given place. It is way better than what Garmin provides.