GPS/Geoladders...what is your setup?

[silkworm]

I'm getting pretty serious about my training, and would like to incorporate geoladders to track cycling history.

I currently use a Cateye Microwireless to track rolling time, speed, and distance. And I use a Sunnto wrist watch heart monitor to track heart rate, training zones, and even elevation with the built in barometer.

I do other outdoor activities as well (hiking, ocean kayak, and trail running), and would like something more multipurpose than the Edge (although they are pretty bad ass little machines). Does anyone have any experience with any of the other Garmin products? Possibly the Foretrex? Or is the Edge just the hands down best thing out there?

Thanks in advance!

[granny ring]

I use the edge for other outdoor activities ie running. Just put it in your pocket and away you go. The kayaking part may be tough, I guess you could just put it in a baggy.

[kanga]

Edge is the best for cycling-specific use, and I have used mine in a river kayak inside a small pelican case. It did OK in the kayak, but lost signal during the swim portion. That was an adventure race with kayaking, swimming, running and mountain biking.

[silkworm]

Originally Posted by kanga

Edge is the best for cycling-specific use, and I have used mine in a river kayak inside a small pelican case. It did OK in the kayak, but lost signal during the swim portion. That was an adventure race with kayaking, swimming, running and mountain biking.

count me in on the next adventure race, haha - love it!



secondly, for hiking/trail running - do you think the garmin edge would get signal in an outside pocket of a small camelbak or backpack? also what is your experience with battery life? also, even for biking - with the thing mounted to handlebars i'd be afraid it would shatter into a million pieces if you took a hit (not that i do very often...but you know, shit happens). how durable is it?

[kanga]

The edge works inside a pocket or camelback with only a slight degradation of signal... so if you're in a marginal area (deep canyon, lots of thick tree cover, etc) there may be slightly more signal loss than you'd have bar-mounted.

I've crashed all over the place, and am on my fourth unit (replaced under warranty each time). Ironically, one of the warranty repairs was a simple dropping of the bike to the ground. The gps never hit anything, but the top flew off and the guts (battery, circuit board) were spread out on the ground. That's a pretty rare occurance. I've seen people go down much harder and have done so myself, but anything is possible. If you're particularly worried about it, mount it in a small padded camera case for the technical stuff.

[silkworm]

Originally Posted by kanga

I've crashed all over the place, and am on my fourth unit (replaced under warranty each time). Ironically, one of the warranty repairs was a simple dropping of the bike to the ground. The gps never hit anything, but the top flew off and the guts (battery, circuit board) were spread out on the ground. That's a pretty rare occurance. I've seen people go down much harder and have done so myself, but anything is possible. If you're particularly worried about it, mount it in a small padded camera case for the technical stuff.

The warranty covers you bashing the thing in a wreck? Or it didn't work for other reasons?

[kanga]

Originally Posted by silkworm

The warranty covers you bashing the thing in a wreck? Or it didn't work for other reasons?

It was a refurb unit and it was pretty obvious the case hadn't been glued together properly. When the handlebar hits the ground (as one does with a four-year-old bike) the GPS shouldn't fall apart. They fixed it under warranty.

Pics and RR of that particular ride: RR: 2008-03-22 - Strawberry Peak Backwards..(vid and pics)

[Zippy]

I've been using a Forerunner 305 for the last 18 months or so. Works fairly well and looks like a big watch; you get used to the size quickly.

It has HR zones for cycling and running since your threshold HR is different for both; though you can display your HR instead of the "zone" and run with it that way.
Battery life is about 8 hours at the extreme, but data can get corrupted when the batt gets low.

Downsides:
-Garmin's Training Center software sucks
-Discrepancies between elevation and distance from Garmin TC, Training Peaks and Geoladders
-Sometimes it takes a while to get a signal at startup

A pretty good little unit; I recommend buying one on sale. I think some of the Polar units are more accurate, PM Lukewiens and see what he says about his.

I actually quit using GeoLadders and now I use Training Peaks to track my fitness, Doug (Abui) likes motion based as do many other people I know.

Good luck.

Eric

[Abui]

Originally Posted by silkworm

I'm getting pretty serious about my training, and would like to incorporate geoladders to track cycling history.

I currently use a Cateye Microwireless to track rolling time, speed, and distance. And I use a Sunnto wrist watch heart monitor to track heart rate, training zones, and even elevation with the built in barometer.

I do other outdoor activities as well (hiking, ocean kayak, and trail running), and would like something more multipurpose than the Edge (although they are pretty bad ass little machines). Does anyone have any experience with any of the other Garmin products? Possibly the Foretrex? Or is the Edge just the hands down best thing out there?

Thanks in advance!

Geoladders doesn't have any ability to track your stats or make reports like MotionBased or Training Peaks, etc. It's limited to keeping score of your points for rides.
Use GL for fun or learning new routes but other software is a must for training.

MotionBased's advanage is that the data is stored on the net so you can upload from any computer and share with anyone anytime. You can use an RSS link to get updates from anyone (who has shared the rides).

[silkworm]

Okay, so I found a good deal on the Garmin 305 Edge w/ heart rate monitor - Walmart online had it for $194 and change. So its on the way to me!

Motion Based is pretty cool and so does Training Peaks. For those of you that have used both of them which do you like better? It looks like you have to pay a few bones a month for Training Peaks, is it worth the cash? Motion Based is nice, but it is a little antiquated looking and not the most user friendly - although it gives you a hell of a lot of options. I think I'm going to wait for the Garmin to arrive, and maybe give the Training Peaks subscription trial an option.