My new Garmin Edge 705 (Heart Rate and Cadence bundle) arrived today, and here are a few pictures that may help provide some answers. I’m going to add to this posting and eventually re-title it ‘review’ once it’s complete.
The Garmin Edge was ordered yesterday afternoon from Handtec and it arrived this morning for only an additional £5.95 for overnight shipping, not bad! I chose the model with Heart and Cadence monitoring.
What surprised me was the inclusion of a spare handlebar bracket, I’ve had 2 Garmin Edge 305(s) and neither of them included a second bracket, I’m glad I didn’t order a spare now! There are also more than enough zip-ties in the box.
The Garmin Edge 705 comes with a mains charger, but from experience with my 305, it’s unlikely I’ll ever use it unless I’m travelling. I tend to charge mine from the USB socket on the computer, which you have to do anyway to transfer your end of ride workout. Notice the inclusion of UK and US adapters.
The new Edge 705 is appreciably bigger than the old 305, approximately 30% all things considered.
After some limited playtime, I’ve established that you need the latest version of Garmin’s Training Centre, this application not only updates your Training Centre, it also carries the required USB drivers, too.
I downloaded the “Training Center For Windows Ver. 3.3.4 as of Feb 29, 2008″ on this page (I’m a Windows user but Mac versions are also available).
You can also download the Garmin Communicator plugin here, this will help you to more conveniently upload training efforts from your new 605 or 705 to the Garmin Connect site (updated version of Motionbased).
Maps
There seems to be a good deal of confusion over which maps to choose for this device, there’s almost no guidance anywhere that I’ve seen. Sure a shop will sell you a map, but which do you choose? It’s pretty straight forward I think.
Garmin Topo GB v2
This is Garmin’s topographical map, it does do autorouting on the pc, but the autorouting on the Edge is rudimentary. It will suggest a route such as “take the A540″ but won’t tell you how to get onto and off arterial roads that lead to and from the A540. Topo GB includes contour lines, but doesn’t include anywhere near the detail that a UK OS map does – don’t buy this map if you’re expecting OS levels of detail, you will be disappointed. There is a good amount of POIs (Points of Interest) so you can see if there is a nearby café, ATM, station etc.
Garmin City Navigator NT 2008
This is Garmin’s street level detail map, it has autorouting information on the PC and on the Edge. You can navigate to an address to house number level, it also has a good amount of POIs. It costs less than Topo GB v2, too.
So which do you choose? It’s up to you, but my advice would be Navigator every time, it’s cheaper (by at least half) and has all the detail you need. I’m not really sure who Topo is marketed at, anyone that is after topgraphical mapping is probably better off with a Satmap and if you’re a mountain biker, the screen on an Edge is totally inappropriate for trying to view whilst taking on dropoffs and other trail obstacles 
Important note, there are 2 versions of City Navigator, one comes preloaded on a Micro SD card and the other is on installation media (DVD). The preloaded Micro SD card version doesn’t allow you to use it on your PC, but the other does. Make sure you know what you’re buying before you commit. I have the PC version which allows me to ‘send’ maps to my Garmin Edge 705, in my opinion, this is the version that offers the most flexibility and is the map to buy if you plan your routes ahead of time on the PC.
Update – read new information about using SD based mapping data on your PC here – http://www.velorider.co.uk/wp02/?p=68
Map / routes / waypoint management
This is best achieved using Garmin’s MapSource. I’ve created a few routes in MapSource and successfully loaded them into the Edge 705. It’s also useful to create waypoints in MapSource such as your favourite cafés, quet roads etc and transer them to the Edge. Waypoints show up in the Edge in the favourites section, so if you decide you’re tired on a ride, you can divert to your usual favourite detour/café.
Bugs
Not too many, fortunately, but I’ve spotted a few.
- If you have more than one map type (topo and navigator for example) loaded onto the Edge, then you can’t search on addresses – even if you deselect one of the map types. The workaround is to install City Navigator on the Micro SD card and install Topo onto the Garmin Edge’s memory. There’s plenty of room on the Edge’s internal memory, but I just selected only the areas of the country I regularly ride in. You also need to deselect the City Navigator map in map options if you want to see the contours from the Topo map.
- If you try to search a street before a district, the unit crashes – easily avoidable – don’t do it! It looks like if you follow the steps in point 1 above, then this is no longer an issue.
- Not really a bug, but this one happens when you use ‘find address’ and allow the Edge 705 to autoroute you there. If on the ride you spot a cycle path or something else cycle friendly that doesn’t appear on the map you’re using, something strange happens. You’ll notice that when you get home and upload your route, that the ‘breadcrumb’ trail you’ve left doesn’t faithfully follow your actual route. The Garmin will attempt to ‘snap’ your trail onto nearby roads. This is a strange one, the Garmin Edge’s primary function is to record your training and travels, not to try and interpret it. I’ve raised the issue with Garmin via their Motionbased forum. There is an answer to this, simply turn off ‘lock on roads’ in map settings, I’ve tested it and this setting sorts it!
If I spot anymore I’ll add them here!
), with the zip slightly open you can follow podcasts and talk shows on the radio easy enough, but I’m on the lookout for an unobtrusive and tiny external speaker to attach to my arm or something.
