Originally Posted by
peugeot mongrel
I use a Garmin Edge 200. It is a lot cheaper than the 500 and I only wanted to track miles, speed and my routs. A big drawback it has is on the active screen you use it doesn't give you the current time. It shows elapsed time but not the current time.
Hmm. I picked up an Edge 200 for a friend, and hers tells time. In fact, she set the screens to only show Time of Day/Elapsed Time on one screen, and Avg Speed/Actual Speed on a second screen.
Originally Posted by
brandon98
Pro Tip: Get the velcro wrist strap and put a 2" section of foam pipe insulation on your bars next to the stem. Garmin's own handlebar mounts are either fussy (the molded rubber shim type) or insecure (the QR type) and tend to eject your new gadget on the road when you ride over any less than glassy surface. Pipe insulation's dirt cheap (about $2) and has tons of use for bike hoarders.
Are you using the round quarter-turn mount with the thin rubber backing and 2 O-rings? That's what I've got and they work fine on my C&V bars, using the smaller O-rings. Solid and secure, easy to use. I tried them on the quill stem, not quite as tight, so it rotates if you ham-fist the Garmin buttons. If you really want a secure, centered mount on C&V, use that mount over the quill stem's bar clamping area, run your O-rings around the bars. Very secure, right below your eyes, and unobtrusive.
For modern bars, I use the cheap SRAM "out in front" 31.8 Garmin mount. Outstanding value, wish they made a 25.4-26.4 model. I've also used the O-ring mount on an FSA Plasma bar/stem combo, but I had to use large O-rings and it looked funny. I ended up buying a Chinese mount that acts as a 5mm steerer spacer, as well. The part that holds the cyclo unit was way too small in circumference to hold the unit, so I trimmed one of the quarter-turn mounts down, used it without the rubber washer, and hot-glued it to the Chinese spacer mount. When the glue dried, I sanded it down and sprayed it with black Testor's, and it looks like a custom mount. Of course, then I sold the bike....
Since I use XP, Garmin's software is less than friendly and won't work very well with XP's last IE. With Garmin's USB add-on and Firefox, no problem. I'd recommend a used Garmin any time, but if you can get the Bluetooth models, they seem to upload to Garmin Connect a lot quicker, straight through your smart phone, if you have one.
Originally Posted by
brandon98
The Garmin 500 is the F-150 of cyclocomputers. It just works.
Word.
The Garmin HRM chest strap blows goats in my opinion: it tends to drop out and give spurious readings, even when applied wet and given a fresh battery. I'm enamored with my new Mio Link optical HRM that just goes around my wrist. It's accurate, comfortable, and I don't feel like a bridesmaid tugging a strapless dress during a ride as the chest strap slowly works its way down.
I agree. Though my HR monitor works very well, I'm not a big fan of the strap. Since I'm fat, I don't have the V-shaped torso that has the strap sliding down, and I've already tried it in a couple of jerseys with chest pockets, not all that great. I tried braiding it to my chest hair, but it looked funny, so I use the strap. I considered adding a strap over the shoulder, but then I looked like, well, let's not go there.
I have issues with inconsistent cadence sensors, both the older chainstay-type and the newer crank-arm type. Bike shops tell me it must be me, but what do they know; they've only mounted hundreds successfully.