Garmin Forerunner 245 (Read 110 times)

After my Garmin FR 15 started losing data and operating very strangely, I decided to get a new FR.  I chose the 245 (no music).  After having used the FR 15 for maybe 6 years and used the FR 305 for the previous 5 or 6 years to that.......well, WOW!  Technology has come a long way and I am loving this new FR 245 after 6 or 7 runs now.  I am not affiliated with Garmin or anything and I cannot compare to any other brands out there as Garmin is all that I have used for my running GPS units.  Just thought I would put out there a recommendation on what seems to me to be a comfortable and pretty full feature GPS watch.  Love that I get pulse and pulse-ox without having to wear my old chest strap.......and the boat-load of data I get is amazing.  Probably not amazing to those who have had these higher-end units before, but for just having had the most bare-bones FR305 and 15, this is light years ahead.

If you are shopping for a middle-of-the-road GPS with solid feature set, give the FR 245 a look.

I agree -- the 245 is a great balance of features and a good progression in the 2xx lineage.

 

There is a 'gotcha' I experience in the user experience, and it's surprising that Garmin let it happen:

 

> You are in a running activity

>You stop (let's say to re-tire your shoe, or admire the view, or whatever) and your heart rate falls into what the 245 calls "recovery zone"

>the 245 then puts up a screen which you have to acknowledge with a push of the main button to clear the message...BUT...but...right up until this recovery-zone-heart-rate-reached message came up, the main button was to RESUME the run.

>So...you restart your run, push the start/stop button -- and all you've done is said "OK" to the recovery-zone-heart-rate-reached message -- you have NOT resumed the data logging for your run.

 

This you will discover way on down the road when you look down and see nothing updating and say 'crap!'.

 

Having written this out, now I wonder if the solution is to turn of alerts...hmmm, I'll check.

Yep, this exactly, and I've said worse than "crap".  (I've got a Vivoactive 3.)  Let me know if you find a way to turn that off.

Alternate solution is to have auto pause turned on and don't manually pause the watch. It may give you some whacked out numbers if you are wandering around taking pictures (for example), but prevents the recovery message from coming up.

Thanks. I've used auto pause for biking. If there's not so much delay starting and stopping on a run, it might be okay.

Chopper Sean - do you actually pilot a chopper? Because that would be cool.

It would be even cooler if he has one of those retro Chopper bicycles from the 70’s.

milktruck, thanks for the great tip!  I'll keep that in mind.

JMac11, no I do not pilot a chopper......yes, that would be very cool.  Instead, that has been my screen name for more than 15 years from a time when I got into motorcycles and built my own "chopper".....

So that’s a Schwinn Stingray? I prefer the classic UK chopper which had the cool 3 speed gear lever on the cross bar.    My first proper bike (without stabilisers) was the Raleigh Grifter which was the must have Xmas present back in the day!

Choppersean - Very nice looking bike!. Glad you like your new watch, I originally started out with a basic stopwatch with no GPS, then briefly had a 205 before moving onto the classic 305. I upgraded to a 235 a few years ago and it’s been perfect. 👍

I just ordered the FR 245 too. I really hope it doesn't disappoint me.