Looking to get a Garmin - which one? (Read 1095 times)

Marcus: So you can lock it so it stays on one screen? Because that bezel, as cool as it is, was the one thing I wondered about. If it can be locked, no problem. I only use one screen anyway.

I say 305. Take the $150 you "save" and buy say, perhaps two pair of shoes, or shoes and other gear. Or shoes and beer. Or just beer. That's like 5 or 6 cases of decent beer. Or like a bazillion cases of swill JakeKnight drinks.

The only complaint about the 305 is that I would like some kind of backlight feature for when running in the dark. That feature may be on there but I havent found it yet. Save the bucks and get the 305...if you can still find them. Bob

Once your 305 is on, just hit the power button once...don't hold it down...and the backlight function becomes available. It goes off after 15 seconds (can be changed from the settings menu), but every time you press a button, it comes back to light. Also, if you use the auto lap feature, every lap it will light up. (I got mine from REI last Thursday...)

I say 305. Take the $150 you "save" and buy say, perhaps two pair of shoes, or shoes and other gear. Or shoes and beer. Or just beer. That's like 5 or 6 cases of decent beer. Or like a bazillion cases of swill JakeKnight drinks.

Dude! Great call so I'm off to buy some Chimay with my savings. Its a well known fact that Gorillas prefer swill - I saw it on National Geographic channel

I had an old ironman gps watch with an arm pad. That sucked, never worked and was REALLY bulky. After a year I upgraded to the Garmin 105(?) --the green/grey one that was rectangular and much larger than the 305. It did not have a heart rate monitor and it took a long time to find satelites and lost them under any tree cover. Then I got, for a birthday present :-) the garmin 305. It's awesome. Smaller than the previous one, faster to find and hold onto satelites, but it is a bit bulky (though much less than the previous model). I think I'll eventually upgrade again but I'm happy with the watch for now and would recommend it. My only real problem is that if it does lose sat reception while on a run, it takes forever (or never) to pick it up again. During my last 2 maratons & my last ultra, I lost reception part of the way into the race (for no reason I could figure out) and never got it back... then again I use the watch in hundreds of days of training and racing each year so I guess statistically it loses signal pretty rarely. Anyone know if there is a way to prod it to look for the signal again if it loses it on run, without stopping and turining it off/on?

Just an FYI, a lot of stores, (I know EMS at least) will match prices. Print off the price from the website you see it for less, and bring it into the store. They should honor it. If not, then yeah, buy it online :-)

I like my 305. I only use 2 data items, though.

Curious which one's? Isn't that like having a 60 function Swiss army knife and oly using the corkscrew and the toothpick. Just sayin....

Elapsed Time and Distance. I had it displaying four. And I even varied it through the different screens. Found it too distracting. I plan on maybe using lap pace for a race. But recently, I've been eschewing any watch during a race, and it's working out better than I thought.

There's no school like old school. I just started using my 305 and the four split screen can be distracting. Hell it took me ten minutes to figure out how to tell time with the thing. I do like the data. Makes me feel like the 6 Million Dollar Man without the robotic arm, legs and hearing....