UKC

Hi folks,
A group of us want to buy GPS's for our bikes as part of a deal and also as part of a small training club.

Need the usual stuff like distance, HRM, speed, elevation, time etc and we are also looking for something with a GPS to be able to plot our routes and we would need to be able to download all the info and share onto a Facebook group.

The GPS doesn't need to be exciting, a basic breadcrumb type system so with all this in mind, we were thinking of a Garmin Edge 200. Can we do all the above with this? Looked at some reviews but I haven't seen anything definitive that says "you can download and share this info via this app to FB etc" I may have mis googled, wouldn't be the first time

Price wise, if we could get something for £120 discounted, like an Edge 500 or something then that would be great. (Edge 200 is about £80).

Thanks in advance, Den

EDIT, a long battery life essential also

In reply to Denni:
Edge 200 doesnt do heartrate.
You can download the files though although I would suggest looking at Strava or similar for sharing the results.

In reply to Denni:
Edge 500 does all of the above. You can download your data in a .fit file but presumably you'd need software to read the file in order to make any sense out of it, rather than just uploading the file itself to a facebook group? You can upload data directly from the Edge 500 to e.g. Strava or similar either using the manual file upload (i.e. when you plug it into a computer, it gets recognised as a flash drive and you can pull your data off it) or using some Garmin software that automates the process for you (though I'm using linux and stuck with the manual upload, which is no big hassle). Presumably you can do this with the Edge 200 as well except it doesn't do heart rate.

Battery life is great, I ran mine continuously for about 12 hours over the weekend and no worries. Might run down faster if you have the backlight on though.

In reply to Denni:

Surprised Cadence isn't one of your "must haves" - It's probably more useful than Speed in terms of training etc.

You might find a supplier with a load of Edge 800's the can't shift now the newer models are out - Mine is 4 years old and still going stong (14h + battery life if settings are right), and has good mapping features (and can take cheapo open maps) so might be worth considering.

In reply to Denni:

Another alternative is the smartphone and an app. Some of these include ANT+ receiver function for collecting heartrate and cadence sensor information.

OruxMaps on Android, for instance, will talk to ANT+ and Bluetooth devices. You'll need a smartphone with matching comms ports...

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4644/what-android-phones-are-ant...

Long battery life might be a problem...

In reply to Denni:

Wiggle are doing Edge 500s for £136. However, you'll also need the HRM strap which costs extra, and if you want the cadence option (more useful than heart rate I reckon), that'll also cost extra.

And I've just found that Amazon are doing the full HR/cadence package for £150, but they're showing only 10 in stock, so you might need to be quick.

In reply to Denni:

The virtue of the 200 is its simplicity. If you want to measure cadence, "Foxy Lady" is 90 bpm. People have had problems with the 500.

May I also recommend Veloviewer as a great tool with which to analyse your Strava data once it's ("they're", if you're being picky) uploaded via the Garmin site?

In reply to felt:


People ? Care to elaborate or is that something you have read on the internet ?

My Edge 500 and around 10 other riding friends have not had a single issue, or do you mean the 510 ?

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Hi all,
Many thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
Someone more in the know about these things within our group has gone ahead and made a decision.

She has managed to get 30 Edge 500's with cadence and HRM's for a bulk buy at £125 each which looking around the net, is a bargain.
Direct from Garmin, refurbished and with a year warranty so a good result all round I reckon.

Thanks again for the advice folks,
Den

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

People, yes. Men and women.

In reply to felt:

Thanks, insightful, I presume from that reply that your research was purely internet based rather than from personal experience then.......