Garmin Edge vs Shimano FlightDeck



Hot Rocks

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Jan 1, 2007
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I just got a Garmin Edge 205 and used it for the first time this weekend. I also used my Shimano FlightDeck. I found that the Edge responded quicker to speed change, but that the Edge was usually equal to or less than 1.5 mph compared to the FlightDeck.

I read a review that said the altimeter is not at all reliable on the Edge. How are others finding the reliability of the altimeter and speed?

The FlightDeck shows my gears on my Giant OCR 1W and cadance. Thus, I think I might use both computers together. Do others use more than one computer?
 
Does the Garmin read speed off a speed sensor or from GPS?

Only GPS I use is with my laptop and MS Streets and Trips 2007.
 
The Garmin Edge gauges speed from GPS, and will provide speed, average speed, distance, altimeter, digital map with direction, % grade, etc. Thus, it is a nice computer to have especially if your in unfamiliar territory. However, I don't want to rely to much on it if the accuracy is poor. But it definately provides much more information then the Shimano FlightDeck.

The GPS did really well through a wooded areas on the trail. I was impressed:)


JTE83 said:
Does the Garmin read speed off a speed sensor or from GPS?

Only GPS I use is with my laptop and MS Streets and Trips 2007.
 
The GPS I used with MS Streets and trips gives speed in 1 mph increments. If you want GPS for driving guidance, don't get the 07 MS / Pharos GPS because it has a breakable dongle. Get a Holux GR213 from ebay way better!

The only bike GPS I'm gonna get is one that will provide a map. Because if I visit or move to a new city I need something better than a map to guide me around.

I'm thinking about something like this --

http://electronics.search.ebay.com/...ZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

Does that Garmin have a good enough map to guide you around a strange city? What's the speed resolution of the Garmin - e.g., .1 mph?
 
Nice GPS unit. Go for it.

Being a geologist, I am so into mapping and knowing where I am.

With the limited use I have with the Garmin Edge, 1) it gives you a line map of your path and not specific streets and 2) you create a route before you start cycling and then you can navigate by this preset route. I don't think you can just show a street map and use that to navigate. Speed is within 0.1 intervals.

What is really cool, is when your done with a course, you go back and dock it with your computer, and it downloads automatically all your course information (i.e., speed, average, distance, etc.), graphs your course with time vs. altimeter, and time vs. speed, and provides a street map depicting your exact route. This is all saved as a file with the date of the course.



JTE83 said:
The GPS I used with MS Streets and trips gives speed in 1 mph increments. If you want GPS for driving guidance, don't get the 07 MS / Pharos GPS because it has a breakable dongle. Get a Holux GR213 from ebay way better!

The only bike GPS I'm gonna get is one that will provide a map. Because if I visit or move to a new city I need something better than a map to guide me around.

I'm thinking about something like this --

http://electronics.search.ebay.com/MIO-DIGIWALKER-C310X_Automotive-GPS-Devices_W0QQa10244ZQ2d24QQa14ZQ2d24QQa31245ZQ2d24QQa6ZQ2d24QQalistZa6Q2ca14Q2ca31245Q2ca10244QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQfclZ3QQfgtpZQQfposZ60622QQfromZR2QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ2QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQgcsZ1830QQlopgZQQpf_queryZMIOQ20DIGIWALKERQ20C310XQ20QQpfidZ2598QQpfmodeZ1QQreqtypeZ2QQsacatZ84074QQsadisZ200QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

Does that Garmin have a good enough map to guide you around a strange city? What's the speed resolution of the Garmin - e.g., .1 mph?
 
Hot Rocks said:
I just got a Garmin Edge 205 and used it for the first time this weekend. I also used my Shimano FlightDeck. I found that the Edge responded quicker to speed change, but that the Edge was usually equal to or less than 1.5 mph compared to the FlightDeck.

I read a review that said the altimeter is not at all reliable on the Edge. How are others finding the reliability of the altimeter and speed?

The FlightDeck shows my gears on my Giant OCR 1W and cadance. Thus, I think I might use both computers together. Do others use more than one computer?
I have been thinking of getting the 205 as well. Can you post up pics of your setup to see how it looks on a bike.
Also is there a fixed or adjustable odo?
 
Just a heads up to all of you GPS users. The GPS Signals that you receive on your units are a little off on purpose. It would not be a good thing for just anybody to be able to get super accurate coordinates and rates of speed, etc. Therefore, the satellites transmit a slightly skewed signal. U.S. Military receivers are made to compensate for this but civilian receivers are not. Don't put too much stock into the absolute accuracy of your GPS over your on the bike sensor computers.
 
kdelong said:
Just a heads up to all of you GPS users. The GPS Signals that you receive on your units are a little off on purpose. It would not be a good thing for just anybody to be able to get super accurate coordinates and rates of speed, etc. Therefore, the satellites transmit a slightly skewed signal. U.S. Military receivers are made to compensate for this but civilian receivers are not. Don't put too much stock into the absolute accuracy of your GPS over your on the bike sensor computers.
Quoting from my Garmin manual, what you're talking about is called "Selective Availability", which can be imposed by the military when and where required. Normal GPS units are accurate to within 15 meters, but if the US DOD choses, they can degrade that accuracy by up to +/- 100 meters. speed readings are accurate to within +/- 0.1 knots.
 
My understanding is that each sat's accuracy has been downgraded since 9/11 to make a kamikaze style attack more difficult.
 
kdelong said:
Just a heads up to all of you GPS users. The GPS Signals that you receive on your units are a little off on purpose. It would not be a good thing for just anybody to be able to get super accurate coordinates and rates of speed, etc. Therefore, the satellites transmit a slightly skewed signal. U.S. Military receivers are made to compensate for this but civilian receivers are not. Don't put too much stock into the absolute accuracy of your GPS over your on the bike sensor computers.
All that has been removed since US Military's GPS is now potentially trying to compete with Euro's Gallileo system. They can still wipe out service to any region through jammers and what have you, but they don't degrade the accuracy of those signals or civilian aircrafts and other services would have major problems.

Going back to the OP's observation. Please bear in mind a number of issues,

1) Flight deck measures speed through tyre rotation and tyre's external circumference. So if the initial setting is not accurate or the tyre pressure is off from the initial calibration or there's wear in the tyre, then it will over or under estimate.

2) GPS measures straight line speed based on location plots taken at regular intervals. So it does not pick up any wavy movements of the front wheel or minor pot hole swerves.

So overall, I would trust the GPS data more as long as the signal is good and the sampling frequency is sufficiently great.

As for the altimeter accuracy. I am not sure what's the built-in altimeter design is in the 205. For the case of 305, it's a barometric meter with continuous additional calibration using GPS data. This method is the most accurate for regular use as it has the higher resolution of a barometric meter with GPS calibration to correct for atmospheric pressure changes during long rides (talking about high/low pressure cell movements). If 205 only has a GPS based altimeter, then yes, it won't have the higher resolution of a barometric based sensor, but would be good enough for significant hills more a few metres in height.
 
Hot Rocks said:
I just got a Garmin Edge 205 and used it for the first time this weekend. I also used my Shimano FlightDeck. I found that the Edge responded quicker to speed change, but that the Edge was usually equal to or less than 1.5 mph compared to the FlightDeck.

I read a review that said the altimeter is not at all reliable on the Edge. How are others finding the reliability of the altimeter and speed?

The FlightDeck shows my gears on my Giant OCR 1W and cadance. Thus, I think I might use both computers together. Do others use more than one computer?
I have the Edge 305 and here is what I think: It's great! It's accurate enough to return me to my place of origin and tracks all sorts of things I'll probably never use, but... It's speed and cadence are right on with my other computer on my other bike. I don't have issues with that. I also discovered a neat trick. When my son wrecked a tire last week on a route, I recorded his location on the Edge. When I got back to the car, I was able to navigate back to where we agreed to meet at another parking lot (he walked). This was useful, because I didn't know where we were in relation to a bike trail we were on.

Overall the Edge is a slick device. Using Ascent software, http://www.montebellosoftware.com/index.html, you can track your route, and training on Google Earth and look at surrounding areas you might want to ride next time. Or just impress your wife:D. Just be careful about multi-day rides as you'll only get about 6-7hrs out of the battery before it needs a recharge.
 
At least 80% in my group now have the Edge 305.
One of the nice features for our group is routing a course, emailing it to the group a day or two before the ride and this allow each of us to follow a routed course without the pressure of getting dropped from the pack. If someone gets dropped the 305 will keep them on course to the next scheduled waiting point or at worse case follow it back to the starting point. Though the unit does not show streets, the unit will beep and show a dialog box stating "off course" if you make a wrong turn from the course file. In the training center software you can add waypoints for left or right turn, for hill summits and rest stops, which have also proven to be helpful.

For the first 6 months I kept my Cateye wireless on the bike to compare accuracy for speed and distance and the numbers were close. On one particular route that is heavily shaded the GPS numbers were a bit lower, but overall I have been very pleased with the 305. Typically we compare data within the group like today and all the 305 users were within a 10th of each other while the others had slightly varying numbers probably from calibration differences.