I am looking at getting a Garmin 305 for my '03 Trek 7500. The concern I have is about mounting the speed/cadence sensor. My current cadence sensor needed a fair amount of shimming to get is close enough to the crank arm magnet. As I understand it the sensor on the 305 is an all-in-one unit with a little arm that stick out to track the spoke magnet. I'm concerned that as I shim the sensor body away from the spokes (and toward the crank), the sensor arm won't be long enough.

Anyone have any experience with this type of setup?

Forget about the arm to track the spoke magnet. That's just to measure speed/distance should you not be in an area with GPS coverage. Just get the sensor close enough to work with the cadence magnet.

The cadence monitor arm has a little screw in it and you can adjust the little arm of the unit fairly easy and keep the unit away from the crank arm and adjust for the spokes. I have a cadence\speed monitor on my hybrid and the little arm is almost 30 deg angle away from the unit, but it works fine.

Thanks! I gotta believe that your '03 Trek 7300 has about the same configuration as my '03 Trek 7500, so I put the Garmin 305 on order.

Does anyone use the 305 as a general-purpose HRM? I'd like to use it while skiing and running, too, but didn't know how to carry it!

I don't use it other than on the bike, but you could certainly carry it in a hip pack, back pack or "pouch" made for an ipod or cell phone.

Why not get the forerunner instead?

I like the bike-specific features of the Edge 305.

BTW, it seemed to work fine as a simple HRM on the treadmill last night, though the "auto-pause when stopped" feature messed me up. GPS reception was lousy in my basement, too.

Calories didn't record either, but that's not the most important feature to me. Mainly I like that I get a breakdown of time spent in HR zones. It's cool!