GPS Sports Device Reviews

Garmin Edge 205 GPS Personal Trainer and Bike Computer

The Garmin Edge 205 is a personal training system for cyclists.

The product page at the company's website contains a considerable amount of detail:

The Edge 205 measures speed, distance, time, calories burned, altitude, plus much more. 205 features include:

- Easy-to-install—no calibration required. Just snap it in the included bike mount and go.
 
- High-sensitivity GPS receiver—knows your position even in tree cover and canyons, making it extremely reliable for navigation.

- Customizable cycle computer—shows up to eight different data fields for continuous feedback.

- Virtual Partner—lets you "race" a virtual competitor, making training fun.
 
- Courses—lets you "race" against a recorded course to try to match previously set speeds at every point along the way.

- Auto Pause—pauses the training timer when you slow down below a specified speed and resumes when you speed up again so you can focus on your ride.

- Auto Lap—automatically triggers a lap every time you pass a specified location or travel a preset distance.
 
- Garmin Training Center software—gives you the ability to create workouts, manage and download courses, and create a detailed post-ride analysis that charts your performance.

You can read more at this company press release.
 

A detailed review at the Global Positioning Systems website concluded:

It's a neat little unit that looks superb. I especially like the sleek styling: Garmin's designs really come on a great deal in the past few years from their chunky origins. The virtual partner is a good feature to have, but not everyone will find it as useful as I did. Still, if you have no training partner it's better than nothing, and I liked it.

If you are looking for a budget, bike-based training assistant, the Edge 205 has a great deal going for it, especially when used with additional mapping data and the Training Centre. Its good battery life and resilient yet stylish build quality are winners on all counts.
 

The PC Coach website did a "one-minute review" of the Edge 205 and 305 devices. It said:

Getting cycling speed and distance via GPS is easy. No entering your wheel size - just wait 20 seconds or so while it finds the satellites and off you go. When you are done, turn off the unit (it runs 10 hours on a single charge, and can be charged via the USB cable) and the workout is saved and ready to download to the PC.

At the computer, things happen pretty automatically and you get a graph of your workout, including speed, altitude, pace and grade....

Obviously there are less expensive ways to get speed and distance on a bike, but Garmin has packed a lot of features in a small and light package, and it all seems to work pretty trouble-free. The ability to see your route graphically after the fact is the main draw.

According to the Mustache.com Product Blog:

Who needs training partners when you’ve got a Garmin Edge 205? This GPS-enabled cycling computer has so many incredible features that cannot be found on a normal cycling computer, including a Virtual Partner that you can race against. If you’re like me and get lost riding the same route you’ve ridden hundreds of times before, then The Garmin Edge 205 is just what you’ll need.

The GPS feature of this computer tells you how far you’ve gone as well as the route you’ve taken. There’s nothing worse than going for a bike ride, getting lost, running out of water and food and having no idea how to get back. I’ve done it plenty of times before, but never will again with this great device. This computer contains all the regular features of a cycling computer, but also adds elevation, ascent/descent and calories burned. When you’re done with your ride, you can upload the data from your workout to your PC and analyze your training.
 

* Get the Latest Price on the Garmin Edge 205 GPS Personal Trainer and Bike Computer.

June 13^th, 2006