RIP one Garmin 605?

George · Post by **George** » 04 Oct 2012 10:52

Just had a message from the StaNav Repair Centre. My Garmin needs a new thumstick (which I had already concluded myself) and a "chipset rework to main board" (a rather vague-sounding operation for unknown purpose). Cost: £69.95, plus £14.95 to send it back to me. Not sure what to do for the best now ... this is a rather in-betweeny sum, which is not so little that I think 'Yes, repair it' and not so much that I think 'phwoah - might as well buy a new one'.

In hindsight, I'm suspicious that my Garmin was faulty right from the start. It has always been prone to aberrations, but because they were so intermittent and so inconsistent, I was always slightly suspicious that I'd done something silly myself, and repeatedly said to myself, 'I'll keep an eye on it, and if it keeps doing that, I'll send it back.' But it would then function normally for a month or two before doing something else weird, when I would think the same again. And so the warranty period slipped by.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 04 Oct 2012 11:44

Personally, I think that I would opt for updating it to a newer, faster version.

Grogz · Post by **Grogz** » 04 Oct 2012 12:09

AlanW wrote:Personally, I think that I would opt for updating it to a newer, faster version.

Just be careful how you put it to Mrs B.

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 04 Oct 2012 13:40

£1.99 for a cut up Road Atlas. A lot cheaper.

George · Post by **George** » 04 Oct 2012 16:00

Philip Whiteman wrote:£1.99 for a cut up Road Atlas. A lot cheaper.

Phil, it's probably hard for a randonneur to appreciate, but we athletes need our in-ride data.

George · Post by **George** » 04 Oct 2012 16:11

AlanW wrote:Personally, I think that I would opt for updating it to a newer, faster version.

Alan, I think you're right. I was impressed by the set-up you had at Phil's audax, and am inclined to go for something similar.

Most of the time, I ride on familiar roads and use my Garmin simply to record/display straightforward ride data (speed, distance, etc). I value the mapping features, but only really use them when on holiday or making forays into unknown territory (a handful of rides per year). I don't have (or want) an HRM and make almost no use of the advanced training features.

I've therefore decided to immediately replace my old Garmin with a Garmin 200, which will be fine for >90% of my riding. When I am next planning a trip away, I'll see whether I can afford to add something like an eTrex, on which I can install OS maps. (Which unfortunately cost as much as the device ... any suggestions, anyone?)

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 04 Oct 2012 17:40

George wrote:
AlanW wrote:Personally, I think that I would opt for updating it to a newer, faster version.
Alan, I think you're right. I was impressed by the set-up you had at Phil's audax, and am inclined to go for something similar.

Most of the time, I ride on familiar roads and use my Garmin simply to record/display straightforward ride data (speed, distance, etc). I value the mapping features, but only really use them when on holiday or making forays into unknown territory (a handful of rides per year). I don't have (or want) an HRM and make almost no use of the advanced training features.

I've therefore decided to immediately replace my old Garmin with a Garmin 200, which will be fine for >90% of my riding. When I am next planning a trip away, I'll see whether I can afford to add something like an eTrex, on which I can install OS maps. (Which unfortunately cost as much as the device ... any suggestions, anyone?)

George,

If its not to late, look at the 500 as opposed to the 200. You may not utilize all the functions on the 500, but it has some subtle differences that make it much better.

Like you I was set on the 200, until I started looking at them both in more detail. Such as a customisable screen on the 500, which you may not seem like a big deal, but the screen format is set on the 200 and I found it difficult to read. With the 500 you can add or take away what data you want to view and the less data you have, the larger the font.

Plus and another relatively minor detail but its still worth mentioning, the clock on the 200 is very tiny and I could not read see it without my specs. This is one of the fields that you can add to the 500 screen format.

You may find these two reviews useful:

Garmin 200

Garmin 500

George · Post by **George** » 04 Oct 2012 23:03

Alan, thanks for your advice. Although I hadn't read the DC Rainmaker reviews, I had read some others. I was attracted by the idea of the customisable screen on the 500; the way the 500's screen works is essentially the same as what I have been used to on my dead 605. However, that is really the only thing which the 500 has, which the 200 doesn't have, and which I care about. And it seems like quite a small advantage to pay an extra £60-70 for ... particularly since, of the 5 things I used to have displayed on my 605, 4 of them are/can be part of the 3/4-fixed display on the 200. The only thing that's missing is time of day. And, (I know this is very silly, but) I think the plain black of the 200 is more elegant than the 500, which is a bit boy-racerish with its bright colours and carbon-effect plastic.

laurence_cooley · Post by **laurence_cooley** » 04 Oct 2012 23:24

The difference in price between the 200 and 500 is smaller than £60-70, I think (have been researching this myself of late). The 500 is £139 here.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 05 Oct 2012 06:15

laurence_cooley wrote:The difference in price between the 200 and 500 is smaller than £60-70, I think (have been researching this myself of late). The 500 is £139 here.

Agreed, if you shop around the difference is no where near that. I seem to recall I bought mine from Handtec, and there was a on line offer on at the time and I paid even less than that.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 05 Oct 2012 06:24

George wrote:However, that is really the only thing which the 500 has, which the 200 doesn't have, and which I care about.

You may be lucky and not need to use reading glasses, in which case the customisable screen may not be of such interest.

But even so the screen is still not very clear to view once you are on the move on both units. I have also found that if I have more than three data fields on view on one screen on my 500 at any one time, then the font is to small for me to read. So I will add another screen to spread the data over two (or more) screens. You can then just scroll across on the move to view whatever you want to.

The 200 screen is quite busy, and the font data is small and what you see is what you get.

George · Post by **George** » 05 Oct 2012 09:34

Thanks, both.

Alan, I completely accept your point: although I don't currently need reading glasses, I do find small figures harder to read 'at a glance' on a moving bike, and for that reason I used to do exactly as you describe on my 605, toggling between two screens, each with a different 'big' number. All along, I have thought that the 500 was better, I just didn't think it was £60-70 better. However, now that Laurence has pointed out that I haven't done enough research, I'll have to ask myself whether it's £25-30 better. And whether I can live with the go-faster colour scheme.

Could you answer me one small practical question: does the fitting kit include one mount or two? The blurb seems to suggest one, but the promo pictures appear to include two. Or am I interpreting separate bits of the same fixing as two fixings? I know that the bracket is much easier to swap from one bike to another than the 605, but I would nevertheless prefer to have more than one mount, and am unsure whether to get a second fixing kit.

George · Post by **George** » 05 Oct 2012 12:25

Answer to previous question found, courtesy of a similarly confused buyer:

"I have just purchased a 500 and it has arrived with two bike mounts included in the box. Because your previous answer to qusetions as to how many bike mounts are included in the box stated one, I purchased an additional mount when ordering. I now have excessive bike mounts, i.e. three!"

And I've decided to go for it; Alan and Laurence have talked me into the 500. I eventually concluded that if I'd been working all the time I was chewing over the extra cost, I'd have earned it several times over. Therefore purchase made along with resolution to put it out of my mind and get on with some work.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 05 Oct 2012 16:57

George wrote: Could you answer me one small practical question: does the fitting kit include one mount or two? The blurb seems to suggest one, but the promo pictures appear to include two. Or am I interpreting separate bits of the same fixing as two fixings? I know that the bracket is much easier to swap from one bike to another than the 605, but I would nevertheless prefer to have more than one mount, and am unsure whether to get a second fixing kit.

It comes with two mounts, which are quite stable and secure. However, you may care to look at either the BarFly mount or the K-Edge mount as an alternative.

BarFly

K-Edge

Both these mounts hold the unit in a much better line of view than the OE mount, with the K-Edge mount holding it lower than the BarFly. The downside is the price of either one of them, they are expensive for what they are. You also need to check your cable routing with the K-Edge one as the lower part of the bracket is quite bulky and can foul on the brake cable. I have one of each of them and would recommend either to be honest, but prefer the K-Edge as it holds the Garmin that much lower that suits my eye sight.

George · Post by **George** » 09 Oct 2012 15:09

I fell out with the virtual training partner on my 605. He was a bit irritating at the best of times, and quite insufferable in victory. So I eliminated him. (If only the real world were equally straightforward!)

Anyway, one of the first things I thought I'd do on my new 500 was send my old enemy's reincarnation to meet his predecessor. But I can't find a way of doing it. Am I missing something?

The best solution I've discovered so far is to set the target speed to something very low before starting on a course, thus ensuring that I win and don't have to suffer his mocking nah-nah-nana-naaaah 2km before I get to the café. But this seems like a bit of a fag.

Any ideas?

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 10 Oct 2012 14:42

Its not a problem that I have ever come across, mainly due to the fact that I never follow courses. But its a bit poor if you cannot turn the function off isnt it?

George · Post by **George** » 10 Oct 2012 21:31

AlanW wrote:Its not a problem that I have ever come across, mainly due to the fact that I never follow courses. But its a bit poor if you cannot turn the function off isnt it?

I have since found confirmation on Ride with GPS that you can't disable it. Also, I note that in that DC Thingummy review you posted the link to, he says that the 500 doesn't have a VTP. I'm guessing he reviewed an early model and they added the VTP later ... but maybe a less resource-hungry version than was on my 605. To be strictly accurate, I don't actually mind the VTP, what I mind is the associated noises, but you can't selectively disable those.