Bike Rides in Indiana
and surrounding areas
| Product Review: Garmin Edge 705 |
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| Written by Kathy Boling |
 This year I purchased a Garmin GPS unit for my bicycle. I did some research and decided on the Edge 705 fully loaded (w/cadence, maps and heartrate monitor). I have never been happier with a bike computer. As you may know from doing the club rides, I like making color maps and putting as much data on them as possible. Well getting the Edge 705 with color maps has a lot of the information I like. You can view eight different fields at once, with a choice of forty-six to choose from. For years I have ridden many of the same routes but have wanted to try some roads less traveled. See, that is a bit scary for me since I am directionally challenged. With the Edge 705 on my handlebars that is now a thing of the past. After a little bit of set up, I decided to take my Edge 705 out for a test ride. Wow! All the street names show up and the gravel roads are marked in light grey dashed lines. I can see the direction I am going, distance to the next turn and even where the next convenience store is. For most of the summer I tried to add a different road to my route. I had so much fun that I decided to plan a vacation using the Gramin as my guide. Well sort of, I also used MapMyRide.com and downloaded the maps to my Edge705. By doing this you see a pink overlay of the routes. Some of my favorite area to hang out is in Michigan; I ask my friends Cindy and Rob Nolot to join me. I went to the MapMyRide website and looked up routes in Traverse City, Leelanau, and along on the western shoreline, chose the ones that fit my criteria and loaded them to my Garmin…we were set. I studied the routes just in case but was very pleased with the Edge 705. I never lost a signal and the road names matched. A few times we detoured to go into a town and the Edge would get us back to the route. Fantastic! If you are new to an area or looking for a computer that has numerous possibilities, I would really recommend this unit. As a matter of fact, I am writing this because my friends are tired of me telling them how cool this is. If you have any questions just ask. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  |