Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor

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Added: November 10, 2009

Buy cheap Garmin Forerunner 305 gps receiver with heart rate monitor reviews online

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Added: May 6, 2009

Garmin Forerunner 305 - Software Review

Author: Beastt17
Keywords: Garmin Forerunner 305 Garmin GPS MotionBased GarminConnect Cycling GPS watch heart rate monitor
Added: April 28, 2009

GARMIN 010 10644 00 Speed Cadence Sensor

A good companion for Garmin’s Edge 305 and 305CAD cycle computers and the Garmin Forerunner 305 personal trainer, the GSC 10 monitors your cycling rhythm for up-to-the-minute results and later analysis. The self-calibrating, wireless unit measures both speed (in pedaling strokes per minute) and cadence , then provides feedback to the user for optimal performance. You can later feed the results to Garmin’s Training Center software, which helps you tailor your workouts to meet specific goals and objectives.

Like the Garmin heart rate monitor, the GSC 10 attaches easily to your bike, where its sensors detect signals from your wheels and send the information wirelessly to your personal trainer/cycle computer. It’s also backed by a one-year warranty.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Exelent Product
I bought a Garmin Edge 750 and it works fine. The Edge 750 mesure velocity through the GPS but when you are riding and don’t receive the satelite signal, you can use the Garmin 010 to do it. Also you can check the cadence.

5 Stars cadence matters
Being able to track speed and cadence has helped with my training and performance. A wise purchase!

5 Stars Easy to install, works fine
I ordered this product with the FR305 and the quick release kit : it just works and gives me the speed cadence in both Garmin training center and Sport tracks. Just wondering how long the battery lasts…

4 Stars Works well with Garmin Oregon
I picked this up just the other day to use with my new Garmin Oregon. It worked great and the Oregon unit picked up the sensor right away. To make sure the Oregon receives the information from the Cadence sensor, go to Setup then fitness then turn on the cadence sensor. I was able to pace myself very nicely using the cadence display right from the map screen.

Mount on the bike was only OK. I have a very big touring bike and the crank arm magnet had to be mounted almost on top of the back of the pedal spindle to have it be close enough to the chain stay. Regardless, it worked and after using pliers to make sure the tie-wraps were as snug as possible, the sensor stayed put even on a very rough jarring road. However if I needed to mount it again, I would use a little bit of double stick tape in addition to the tie-wraps. Just make sure the tape will not pull the paint off when you decide to remove the monitor!

4 Stars Very nice addition to the 305
I am a newbie to electronic fitness products. I am old school when it came to working out. I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor to keep track of my after work jogs and since I had a bike I decided to get the cadence sensor as well. They work very well together (Pair easy). It mounts to your bike with cable ties so it’s very easy to install, it transmits to the 305 wirelessly. The only problem was that the magnet that goes on the peddle crank did not come close enough to the sensor to register. So I had to place a spacer between the magnet and crank to get it closer. Other than that it works great for me. The price was high also.

[[ASIN:B000CSWCQA ]]

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Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor

Just when you thought Garmin had cornered the market on powerful, affordable, and effective wrist-mounted GPS devices, here comes the Forerunner 305. The release of this device is a major achievement from a design and technology perspective. This isn’t just marketing-speak; the Forerunner 305 is the most accurate, most reliable wrist-mounted performance and GPS tracking tool we’ve ever tested. Yes, it’s that good. While no device this compact can do everything (yet), the 305 pushes the boundaries of what is possible from something strapped around your wrist. The 305 model includes wireless heartrate monitoring and it can also be connected to Garmin’s wireless bicycle speed and cadence sensor. If you don’t need these features, consider the lower-priced Forerunner 205.

View Garmin’s Forerunner demonstration video.

Choose from 12 data fields to display on the 305’s screen. View larger.

The design cleverly integrates the GPS antenna and aims it towards the sky when you’re running or walking. View larger.

The Virtual Partner function makes your workouts more competitive. View larger.

Choose from three workout modes that help you target your training goals. View larger.

The 305 features rudimentary mapping and location marking functions. View larger.

Design
The 305’s design is a radical departure from Garmin’s previous generation of wrist mounted GPS devices, which reached a pinnacle with the Garmin Forerunner 301. While the 301 delivered accurate heart rate monitoring, good performance tracking, and decent GPS reception, it didn’t quite deliver in the design department. The form factor was bulky and wearing it wasn’t much different than duct taping a full-sized GPS device to your wrist.

Not so with the 305. Garmin’s engineers obviously burned the midnight oil and have come up with a waterproof design that, while certainly not as small as a sports watch, feels just as comfortable. The curved casing allows the unit’s antenna to face the sky when you’re running, while the widescreen display is perfectly positioned for viewing when you need it. And the display certainly deserves a few kudos. While it’s smaller than the display found on previous Forerunners, its resolution is far higher, offering incredible clarity and crispness.

Garmin has smartly given the 305 a simple button layout and the buttons have a nice tactile feel with good pressure response. The right side houses the menu selection and enter buttons, while the left houses a power/backlight button and a mode button. This simple and elegant solution is a big improvement over the sometimes confusing button functionality of previous Forerunners. View button layout.

The underside of the 305 is pretty nondescript, except for a row of contacts that interface with the included charging and data cradle. The cradle is small and unobtrusive and its single mini-USB port connects to either an included AC adapter, or a USB cable that connects to your PC. In addition to data transfer with the USB cable, you can also charge the 305’s embedded lithium-ion battery via a powered USB connection from your computer.

GPS Performance
The big news about the Forerunner 305 is that it features an integrated, high-sensitivity SiRFstar III GPS receiver. What does this mean? It means that the 305’s ability to both track, and maintain a lock on, your position is better than anything before it. After an intial battery charge, the tester had the 305 on his wrist and was tracking speed and distance with GPS satellites within 3 minutes. The next time we used the 305, satellite acquisition was nearly instantaneous. A run through dense trees didn’t faze the unit either; tracking remained true and steady. Performance on a bike was equally impressive. Whatever witchcraft has been cooked up by the designers of the SiRF technology, we like it!

The simple docking cradle makes charging and data connectivity a snap.

While the Forerunner 305 isn’t billed as a GPS navigation device, it does have some rudimentary mapping, waypoint marking, and routing capabilities. In addition to marking locations along your journey, you can zoom in or out of a simple map that displays your current direction and path. There’s also a “go to location” feature that routes you back to your starting location, or to any location you have defined. Once you have defined several locations, you can save this information as a route, allowing you to travel the same path in the future. As you’ll see below, the 305’s new “Courses” feature gives you new levels of control over how you define your favorite runs and rides.

Training Functions
The 305 is first and foremost a training tool, and its ability to organize a ton of data types into a user experience that is intuitive and simple is no small feat. Whiz-bang technology aside, if you can’t use it and make it a natural part of your exercise routine, it’s worthless. When it comes to these factors — and here’s the take home message on the 305 — this device is successful where many other devices fail.

The heart and soul of the 305 can be found on the data screens, which give you real-time information about all aspects of your workout. In fact, the 305 can display a dizzying array of data, such as calories burned, distance, elevation, grade, and heading, as well as multiple lap and pace modes. The 305 adds the ability to track heartrate, lap heartrate, average heartrate, and heartrate zones via the included coded heartrate chest strap. With the purchase of a separate wireless cadence and speed meter, you can also track bike performance data.

Thankfully, the device makes it easy to define how much or how little data you want to view during a workout. You can arrange the data that’s most important to you and then make that data appear front and center on the device. Indeed, within a few minutes of skimming the manual and fiddling with the device setup, you’ll have your most important data displaying just the way you like it. The ability to display heartrate is a big plus, too, as it’s a fairly good indicator of excercise output, fatigue, and fitness level. The 305 has all the heartrate functions you’d expect from a full-function monitor, including the ability to set target zones and alerts to maximize the effectiveness of your workouts.

Garmin’s Virtual Partner function was cool feature of previous Forerunners and they’ve decided to keep a good thing going with the 305. If you’re the type that performs best when you’ve got a competitor egging you on, you’ll love this function, as it allows you to set up virtual running or biking companions that compete against you.

If you’re looking for an complicated workout with a variety of intervals and intensity levels, or just a quick three-mile jog against your best time last week, the 305 has you covered. Navigating to the Workouts menu on the device yields three options: Quick Workouts, Interval, and Advanced Workout. A quick workout is just that; set the distance and time, distance and pace, or time and pace of your planned workout and off you go. Interval workouts are just the same, but they allow you to add repetitions and rest between them. When you really want to get fancy with your exercise, you can step up to advanced workouts, which include goals for each workout step, as well as varied distances, times, and rest periods. You can use the Garmin Training Center software to set up these workouts and then upload them to the device.

PC Connectivity and Software
Garmin has been outfitting their devices with USB connectivity for some time now — a welcome move for those who struggled with serial port connections in the days of yore. Thanks to USB, the 305 integrates seamlessly with the Training Center software and we quickly had workout history uploaded and stored on the PC (Sadly, Training Center is not Mac-compatible). Not only does Training Center make it easy to track your performance, you can graph data such as heartrate alongside your speed and distance. Over time, this is a great way to view your fitness levels increase, and it also helps you see what types of workouts are necessary to strengthen your weaknesses. For instance, if you see your heartrate begin to spike after a certain distance, you know you need to increase your endurance workouts to train that area of fitness.

In a first for the Forerunner series, the Training Center software also lets you define courses on your PC that you can upload to the device. When course information is combined with uploaded workout information, the Forerunner becomes a complete guide, telling you where to go, when to make a turn, and what kind of workout to do when you’re on the road or path. Back on the PC, the software’s ability to overlay workout data on maps of the course makes it easy to see where the course offers up the tough hills and the easy recovery spots. Plus, the ability to track historical performance on a given course is a great way to measure your improvement.

The 305 is also fully compatible with Garmin’s MotionBased service, which takes your training to another level by connecting your data with the Internet. While we weren’t able to use the service, the promise of sharing courses, maps, workouts, and performance data with other users is intriguing. And if you’re a serious endurance athlete, you’ll be glad to know that the 305 is also compatible with TrainingPeaks.com, an easy-to-use web based training system designed to help athletes train for any event.

Pros

• Radically new design is better in every way
• Amazing accuracy and fast satellite acquisition time
• So simple to set up and use, you will actually use it

Cons

• No Mac OS compatibility
• Okay, it’s bigger than a sport’s watch — but so much more powerful

What’s in the Box
Forerunner 305, Garmin Training Center CD-ROM, heart rate monitor, docking cradle, expander strap, A/C charger, USB cable, owner’s manual, quick start guide.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great Training Tool
For runners that love lots of data this is the watch. Yes, the face is big but it’s necessary to see all the info. Plus while you run you get in a little weight training. I first bought the 205 but returned it because I also wanted to monitor heart rate. Now I get data on pace, time, distance, HR, and elevation! Fantastic! The GPS signal sometimes takes awhile to pick up but once I get going I have never had a problem (fingers crossed). I did have to return the first 305 I bought because it would turn off randomly. The one I have now has worked flawlessly. I highly recommend for serious runners.

I am only giving 4 stars because the first one I ordered had issues.

4 Stars Good running mate
This is an awesome tool. There are tons of options that you can display on this watch. The screen I run with have my pace, distance, HR, and stopwatch. When I’m done I switch to another screen with average pace, average HR, distance, and time. I have an alarm set so it goes off each mile. You can set alarms to keep a certain pace or HR also. I’ve only used it while running but since it’s getting warmer I’ll give it a try cycling. The HR monitor is comfortable but I have trouble with it sliding down my back until I get a lite sweet going. Then it sticks in place and I forget it’s there. The watch is bulky but only takes a little getting used to. Overall a good product and I’ll continue to use it for my training.

2 Stars Not what I expected it to be…
I confess I may not understand how this thing completely works. But, the reasons I’m not happy with this product are: the watch doesn’t seem to stay charged very long. And, I bought this to use on extended hiking trips (overnights)… and wanted the GPS for my own safety. Secondly,if you are a woman with small wrists… this watch is HUGE. Very clunky. But, in it’s defense… most of the GPS watches are too big for small wrists. If I had seen this watch at the store… I would not have bought it.

5 Stars very good
The gps watch is very light weight and user frindly.

I use it on all my runs and i am very pleased with the product.

5 Stars Great Watch! Highly Recomended!
Wow! What a product! This is an amazing GPS watch for those of you out there looking for a a good running watch to give you accurate results while training.

I had the Garmin Forerunner 301 and after accidentally dropping it and damaging it, I was looking for a new GPS watch. My 2 options were the 405 and the 305. After reading a lot about these, I chose the latter and I am very content. It is a very convenient watch, synchronizes quickly with the satellites and has option for the data display.

Too bad it doesn’t have a built in MP3 player…

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