Review of the Garmin Forerunner 305
Garmin Forerunner 305
Can’t live without it; can’t live with it
This little watch-like GPS is invaluable for when you want to know speed or pace, mileage, heart rate and time elapsed—especially because few tools do this for running and hiking. Another plus: The Forerunner is simple to use.
Theoretically, it should provide useful after-exercise data that shows speed, heart rate, mileage, grade, elevation and route information all overlayed each other. That would be exceptionally valuable. Remember mile 4.7 up Mount Lemmon when you felt like it was you versus the world? No wonder. The grade there was 11 percent.
But the post-data view doesn’t work that way. You can look at two items on a graph together (speed and mileage, or speed and heart rate, for instance) and not while getting a good view of the route. And you never get grade information unless you look at the elevation chart and do the math yourself.
For biking? Not an ideal choice. The unit retails for $225-$250. Add the bike mount and cadence meter and you’ve shelled out another $24 + $50. It’s bulky when compared to true bicycle computers. One other possible drawback: Its flimsy pins (like on a watch) are a poor design for sports. (One of my friends had the computer fly off her mountain bike sometime during a bumpy descent during a race. We never did find it.)
That said, I’ll probably keep it and use it for hiking, running and the occasional ride when I really want to know grade badly enough to do the math myself.