Garmin Edge 205 GPS Review

I recently purchased the Garmin Edge 205 GPS unit to use for my mountain biking adventures. The Edge 205 GPS unit is specifically built for cyclists and is currently the cheapest GPS unit built specifically for cyclists. It is at the bottom of the Garmin line of cycling units but still has a considerable amount of features that make it more enticing than a regular cyclocomputer. I could not find many reviews of the Garmin Edge 205 when I was deciding if I wanted to purchase it or not so I decided that I would write one based on my own experience with it.

The Garmin Edge 205 is a GPS-enabled personal trainer and cycle computer. It is designed to give cyclists detailed information about their ride and record their ride data for later review and comparison to previous rides. It does this by letting the user download their ride data to their computer using the included USB cable and Garmin Training Center software. A recorded ride can later be used to race yourself to see if you can beat your previous time on that ride. This can be a great training tool to encourage you to ride a little harder and set a new record for yourself. Also, using Garmin's MotionBased website you can share specific rides with your friends or family where the data from the ride is provided in a nice webpage.

Ride Data

The Garmin Edge 205 does an excellent job recording your ride data. Even in dense tree-cover or canyons it can acquire a decent GPS signal. Using GPS data the Edge 205 is able to keep track of the following data points during your ride:

• speed
• distance
• time
• calories burned
• altitude

Each of these data points is updated every second so you can see near real-time data throughout your ride. This data is then recorded to the device's internal memory either every second or less depending on how you have configured the unit's settings. If you choose to have it record data every second you will get the most accurate recording of your ride but you can only record up to 3.5 hours of data. If you choose the Smart Recording option the unit will only record data points when you make a significant change in direction or speed which allows you to record much more data but at a lower accuracy. I find the Smart Recording option to be sufficient for most of the riding I do.

I have found the accuracy of the data to be very good. I have overlaid the tracks that the GPS unit records onto maps in Google Earth and the track seems to match up well to the imagery in Google Earth. The Calories Burned data is more accurate than many cycle computers because it takes into account your gender, age, weight, bike weight, speed, distance, and elevation gain/loss. Many other units just use a standard calculation for all people for Calories Burned data.

Transferring to your PC

Installing the included Garming Training Center software was very easy and painless and I was able to download my first rides in minutes. The Training Center software includes, by default, a basemap that is not very detailed at all that it overlays your rides on top of. This basemap only shows major highways and cities. The software does project some nice graphs, however, that can show you your ride profile with elevation, speed, pace, and grade information. You can click on different points of the graph to see the actual value at that point in the graph. The Garmin Training Center software also shows you weekly, daily, ride, and lap totals for distance, avg pace, avg speed, max speed, total calories, total ascent, total descent. You can also write notes about each week, day, ride, or lap. Navigating in the Training Software is easy and intuitive.

You can also transfer your ride data to MotionBased.com which is a website owned by Garmin. The website gives you similar functionality but also shows your ride in Google Maps and has a link to show your ride in Google Earth. MotionBased.com also gives you a Player that literally allows you to play your ride back at different speeds and lets you see many different data points as it plays. To see an example activity on MotionBased you can check out this Mud Springs Downhill ride that I rode in June. If you make your rides public like I did with the one I just showed you then you can email the URL to all your friends so they can see the ride too. This is one of my favorite things to do with my Garmin Edge 205.

Garmin is currently working on a new web application called Garmin Connect that will eventually replace MotionBased.com. Garmin's website says in many places that Garmin Connect would be finished in May 2008 but that is not currently the case. Garmin Connect is currently available to people who have one of Garmin's 4 newest fitness-based GPS units but it is still not available for the Edge 205. Support for all Garmin fitness devices is promised for late August or early September 2008 so look for it soon.

Where to Buy

I searched for the best price when I got mine and when I wrote this review and Amazon.com consistently has the best prices on this unit. Use the link on the right to get the lowest price possible.

Summary

I have used this unit for about 4 months now and I love it. It has made my riding more exciting because I get to see all my ride data when I get home, compare the ride to past rides, and share the ride with my friends/family that went with me. It is a very durable unit and I have not had any problems with it when I ride in the rain except for one ride where it was raining really hard and the trail was very muddy because I was in the mountains. I think some small pieces of dirt got under the edges of the Reset button so for a while I really had to push hard in order to use that button. It has gotten better though since then and is almost back to normal. My suggestion would be to not use the Garmin Edge 205 in extremely wet and muddy conditions for this reason.

Overall, you get a lot more with the Edge 205 than you would with an ordinary cycle computer. So if you find your cycle computer lacking then it is time to upgrade to a GPS-enabled unit like the Garmin Edge 205.