do they display the time of day?

one simple answer: maybe

jk, of course they display the time

yes

haha alright cool. i know this may sound kinda sad, but despite the fact that i really want all those cool features, the one thats most important to me is a simple clock. haha

They can, but some need to be configured for this, I use a 200, and a Forerunner 305, the 200 has the ToD always displayed when in ride mode, the 305 has to be configured for this, and the ToD can be set as a display option when using the 3 or 4 way split screen

Only if you ask nicely.

To be honest, I thought buying a garmin 500 would make my riding experience much more awesome. Its been kind of a let down considering the cost. The best thing about it is the fact that its completely stand alone and wireless.

Yes, you just have to select it to display on one of the screens..

There's a screen with a bunch of data fields, like your current speed, how long you've been riding for (this outing) so far, etc. You can choose which fields. Time of day is one of the ones I've got. You can put what time the sun will set on the screen if you want to. Also, with the 800 at least, when you back out to the main menu, the time is at the top of the screen.

I assume that the device is smart enough to just ask for your timezone and to pull time from GPS, right?

^ No. It doesn't ask for your time zone. That comes from your location, it happens automagically.

But the time comes from GPS, and it'll be the most accurate clock you have. If it's a second off, your location will be wrong by miles.

You have five screens of up to 8 data fields each. You can put time on one or all of those screens.

I have a 910 xt, and since I'm training by HR, it's been a very helpful tool, particularly seeing my speed/HR correlations so come race day (I'm doing a half ironman so it's a solo nondraft time trial bike leg of 56 miles), I know roughly where I should be on flat terrain. It's also very good to see whether I might be slacking off or going too hard. I trained for 18 hours this week, and my fatigue is definitely being reflected in my declining bike speeds - will be on a pullback week next week fortunately.

If I weren't training for an event on a plan based on HR (or power), I'd be a lot more underwhelmed with the Garmin.

Right, so that means when they change DST *again* it'll need a firmware update, right? (That's why I like being able to override it on GPS devices.) Oh well.