Garmin Edge 305 Review:
The Garmin Edge 305 has been a great training partner. I can really easily correlate perceived effort on a day’s ride with my actual performance in terms of speed, heart rate, and cadence.

Setting up all of the sensors on the bike was relatively straighforward (though the combined wheelspeed and cadence sensor setup was somewhat novel), and the directions were clear. You charge the Garmin Edge 305 through its USB port. It comes with a separate power supply so that you can either charge it from a wall outlet, or from the USB cable connected to your computer.

On the bike, the display is large and clear. I’ve found it readable in any of the lighting conditions in which I’d be willing to ride the bike. The interface is relatively easy to navigate, though a bit puzzling to set up. Garmin’s origins in navigation show in a couple of funny places. One of them is the default data fields displayed on the device: your heading is shown by default in the five data field configuration that I prefer, but your heart rate isn’t. I was able to reconfigure it to display the fields that I watned to see, but I found the choice surprising in a product that is ostensibly aimed at athletes.

In use, I found that the Garmin Edge 305 reception was generally good even in tree-shaded areas, but the startup process can sometimes be irritatingly slow. Data reception for the heart rate and cadence sensors has been glitch free.

In terms of durability, I’ve banged the Edge 305 around quite a bit and ridden it in conditions that left other electronics begging for mercy (don’t ride in the driving rain without putting your mobile phone in a plastic bag). The Edge 305 still performs like a champ thousands of miles later.

As a Mac user, I found the Mac support lame at first, but it has been steadily improving with Garmin’s release of their Training Center software for the Mac, a Mac version of their Web Updater tool, and improvements they’ve made to Mac support [...]. It’s still not perfect, but it’s very useful.

The Garmin Edge 305 has a Virtual Training partner that will make you a stronger, faster rider. It also includes interval training and which is a blast to use and for the real tweaks, an advanced training feature where you can set up your own grueling workouts.

One thing to note is that there are mounts for two bicycles in the box, so there is no need to order an additional bike mount if you intend to make the Edge 305 a duel use computer for your road and mountain bike. This kind of mitigates the relatively high price the computer goes for in that you can have one computer for two different bikes.

The system is relatively easy to set up if you’re technologically savvy at all. The display has been easy to read in many different lighting conditions and you can adjust the contrast to your likings. It’s about the size and weight of a typical cell phone, so you are adding a few ounces to your bike compared to most cyclocomputers.

You can compare your performance on the same course over time and see if you’re improving and also see the areas that are causing problems. For a more detailed analysis with better maps, you can use the Motion Based web service. Although it is subscription for the advanced features, you can review your last ten rides in detail for free. Motion Based is also a good source of previously recorded courses uploaded by other users if you are looking for new routes.

A workout feature allows you to define a workout and the Garmin Edge 305 will alert you at predetermined times to change your effort to meet the plan. Simple workouts can be programmed directly into the Garmin Edge 305. More complicated workout structures can be created using the included software and downloaded to the unit for use. I haven’t tried the `virtual partner’ feature that simulates riding against another person by showing how far ahead or behind you are at any given time.

Other Garmin Edge 305 features:
- User configurable data fields for the main screens allow you to arrange the layout the way that makes sense for the way you train and ride.
- Auto pause can be set for a dead stop or for a user-defined speed. When paused, time and distance `paused’ is recorded providing both riding time and total time for any workout without the need to use a stopwatch.
- Good backlight for night/low light use.
- Can be configured to display heart rate as beats per minute or per cent of max.
- The speed/cadence sensor backs up the GPS for speed computation when there is no satellite signal (such as indoors on the trainer). Since it uses the GPS to establish speed and distance, there is no need to configure the wheel size–even for the magnetic sensor. When the Garmin Edge 305 is working, it auto calibrates the wheel size so it is set when the GPS signal drops.
- Auto lap on distance or when passing a specified point on the route.

Edge 305 Pros:
- The included software does not provide for creating courses (routes) from scratch, and its ability to edit a previously recorded course is limited.
- No persistent odometer.
- Although it is possible to program up to 8 data fields on each of the two `bike’ data screens, once you go above four fields the field sizes shrink making them more difficult to read.
- [Update] No indicator of whether the current speed (on the speed display) is ahead or behind the average pace–a common feature on most cycle computers.

Edge 305 Cons:
- Built-in battery is not user replaceable, and may not last long enough for endurance rides.
- The GPS `map’ is simply a track of your route–no actual map is provided. If you get off course, it’s better than nothing, but not by much.

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