Where to buy a Garmin Edge 305

[WrxAnt]

Hi Guys,

I'm pretty keen on buying a Garmin Edge 305.
But living in Melbourne I've yet to see any stores stock these and very few Australian online retailers selling them.

Does anyone know where I could source one?

If I can't find one I might go with a Polar CS200CAD instead.

Cheers
Ant

 

[peterlip]

Hi Guys,

I'm pretty keen on buying a Garmin Edge 305.
But living in Melbourne I've yet to see any stores stock these and very few Australian online retailers selling them.

Does anyone know where I could source one?

If I can't find one I might go with a Polar CS200CAD instead.

Cheers
Ant

Ant,
Been looking at getting the Garmin Edge 305. Searching the forums found me this post. You can get them at Johnny Appleseed in St Kilda (www.ja-gsp.com.au), seems to do everything you could possibly want. I'm going to pop into St Kilda in the next week or two to have a look.
Did you get one?

Peter.

 

[WrxAnt]

Hi Peter,

No I didn't end up buying one. Not because there weren't any good... rather because the sticker price didn't go down too well with the finance controller

Also had a nasty injury that has kept me off the bike for a few months and only got back on the bike this week.

So its something I'm hopefully going to be able to afford with my 'pocket money' in a few months so I'm prepared for the Around The Bay ride

Cheers
Ant

 

[peterlip]

Hi Peter,

No I didn't end up buying one. Not because there weren't any good... rather because the sticker price didn't go down too well with the finance controller

Also had a nasty injury that has kept me off the bike for a few months and only got back on the bike this week.

So its something I'm hopefully going to be able to afford with my 'pocket money' in a few months so I'm prepared for the Around The Bay ride

Cheers
Ant

Funny you mention ATB. That's one of the reasons to get it. For that, plus training for it.
If I manage to get one, I'll be sure to let everyone know how good/bad it is.

 

[joelireland]

Hi,

I'm from Melbourne (presently living in Taswegia) but I looked at johnny appleseed and almost bought one from him - great unit - but i held off because i wanted to be able to use it not only for cycling (its main purpose) but for navigation also (i.e. get coordintes off the unit) and with the firmware that came on it you couldn't do this. But i kept looking into it and found that the upgraded firmware you could do this.

I think Johnny Appleseed was asking around $570 AUD but i decided to get it from Geo.Man in america. Around $430 AUD and it arrived exactly 1 week after i bought it - no duty import taxes or anything. It did come with an american plug for the charger however, but as i plug it into the usb cable of the computer it charges from there anyway. The plug is also 100-240V input so all it needs is an adapter (i.e. no transformer required).

So all good.

 

[WrxAnt]

Hi Joe,

Would you recommend the unit?

Peter, did you end up purchasing one?

Cheers
Ant

 

[joelireland]

Hi Joe,


Would you recommend the unit?

Peter, did you end up purchasing one?

Cheers
Ant

Definitely - greatest thing since sliced bread. Brilliant.

Joel

 

[WrxAnt]

Hahaha all I need to do now is convince the wife I can survive on sliced bread for a few months to be able to finance this aquisition!!!

Fingers crossed!!!

Have you tried any of the altitude functions on the Garmin yet?

I've started to get into riding Mt dandenong and I'd love to see the altitude changes!

Cheers
Ant

 

[peterlip]

Hi Joe,

Would you recommend the unit?

Peter, did you end up purchasing one?

Cheers
Ant

Yes, got it last week. So far, so good.
Many good points, a couple of questions about it still.
However, I need to sleep, but I'll post more once I have played with it a bit more.

 

[matagi]

Have you tried any of the altitude functions on the Garmin yet?

I've started to get into riding Mt dandenong and I'd love to see the altitude changes!

Cheers
Ant

A word of warning here ... GPSs are not all that good at measuring altitude, it has something to do with limited accuracy in the vertical plane. If all you want to do is measure altitude, a barometric altimeter is the way to go and there are electronic versions around.

PS. Does the WRX mean you drive a Subie? I've got an STi.

 

[ozbiker2]

A word of warning here ... GPSs are not all that good at measuring altitude, it has something to do with limited accuracy in the vertical plane. If all you want to do is measure altitude, a barometric altimeter is the way to go and there are electronic versions around.

PS. Does the WRX mean you drive a Subie? I've got an STi.

The Garmin 305 has a barometric altimeter. No calibration is required so I expect that it regularly corrects for SL pressure using gps data - this would be a very accurate solution if the firmware is smart, which I expect it is.

I have just ordered mine from Aussiedeals Garmin Edge 305 w HR Monitor & Cadence. This is the best price I can find in Oz - even got free shipping if I did a direct bank transfer.

The advantage of buying in Oz is the warranty backup. It's a real hassle if you buy from o'seas. OK for a crank or whatever, but for something with 50 squillion things in it to go wrong!!!!!!

 

[matagi]

The Garmin 305 has a barometric altimeter. No calibration is required so I expect that it regularly corrects for SL pressure using gps data - this would be a very accurate solution if the firmware is smart, which I expect it is.

Wow! I didn't realise that - makes it a very interesting proposition then.

 

[Jono L]

Hi Guys,

I'm pretty keen on buying a Garmin Edge 305.
But living in Melbourne I've yet to see any stores stock these and very few Australian online retailers selling them.

Does anyone know where I could source one?

If I can't find one I might go with a Polar CS200CAD instead.

Cheers
Ant

BikeNow(Kings Way and Park St, Sth Melb) have them.

 

[peterlip]

The Garmin 305 has a barometric altimeter. No calibration is required so I expect that it regularly corrects for SL pressure using gps data - this would be a very accurate solution if the firmware is smart, which I expect it is.

I have just ordered mine from Aussiedeals Garmin Edge 305 w HR Monitor & Cadence. This is the best price I can find in Oz - even got free shipping if I did a direct bank transfer.

The advantage of buying in Oz is the warranty backup. It's a real hassle if you buy from o'seas. OK for a crank or whatever, but for something with 50 squillion things in it to go wrong!!!!!!

Got it in one, that's exactly how the altitude is calculated. Riding to work the other day, the altitude matched google earth's value pretty well spot on, 25m. The unit was off all day, and when switching it on, it read 75m below sea level. I assume that means a high pressure system came in during the day. I think it didn't help that I turned it on indoors, and as soon as it was outside searching for satellites, I was off and riding. It took half the ride, 45 min, before it was back on track. I suspect that if I had turned it on outside, and was stationary for a few minutes, it would've calibrated much quicker. More experimentation required.
I got mine from Johnny Appleseed, who are on St Kilda Rd in Melbourne (St Kilda actually). A bit more expensive than Aussiedeals, but GPS is what they do, so could answer any question I had. And if I have any problems, they're not far away. They also cut me a bit of a deal with map software, which is not for the unit, but is useful for downloading rides onto the computer, and uploading waypoints & courses to the unit.

 

[Wattsy Rules]

PS. Does the WRX mean you drive a Subie? I've got an STi.

I'm telling ya Matagi...With my current situation and the fact that you can gap valves AND drive an STI, Mr Matagi may very well have some competition from me...

 

[scotty72]

Does this unit let you download course data into something like google maps or google earth to produce a course that others can follow (with profiles)?

Got it in one, that's exactly how the altitude is calculated. Riding to work the other day, the altitude matched google earth's value pretty well spot on, 25m. The unit was off all day, and when switching it on, it read 75m below sea level. I assume that means a high pressure system came in during the day. I think it didn't help that I turned it on indoors, and as soon as it was outside searching for satellites, I was off and riding. It took half the ride, 45 min, before it was back on track. I suspect that if I had turned it on outside, and was stationary for a few minutes, it would've calibrated much quicker. More experimentation required.
I got mine from Johnny Appleseed, who are on St Kilda Rd in Melbourne (St Kilda actually). A bit more expensive than Aussiedeals, but GPS is what they do, so could answer any question I had. And if I have any problems, they're not far away. They also cut me a bit of a deal with map software, which is not for the unit, but is useful for downloading rides onto the computer, and uploading waypoints & courses to the unit.

 

[peterlip]

Does this unit let you download course data into something like google maps or google earth to produce a course that others can follow (with profiles)?

It was a bit of fiddling, but I've done it.
When I bought the unit, I also bought "MapSource", a map of Australia which links into the training software. Using this, I exported a .gpx file, which Google Earth can read.
I've attempted to attach it to this message...

 

[peterlip]

Can't believe that worked!!
Anyway, the .gpx file seems to be an XML file that contains almost 1000 points, each with the latitude, longitude, elevation and time I was at that point. From this, you could (or what ever software you're using) should be able to work out speed, gradient, etc.
The training software that the unit comes with it doesn't seem to be able to export the course to another format, so you'll need MapSource or some other piece of software to do it. I read somewhere that someone has created some freeware software for this unit. I'm not sure if it focuses on the training aspect or the mapping aspect, but what it does mean is that people are out there writing software for this unit.

 

[scotty72]

Worked

Thanks for that, that looks really cool

Thanks

Can't believe that worked!!
Anyway, the .gpx file seems to be an XML file that contains almost 1000 points, each with the latitude, longitude, elevation and time I was at that point. From this, you could (or what ever software you're using) should be able to work out speed, gradient, etc.
The training software that the unit comes with it doesn't seem to be able to export the course to another format, so you'll need MapSource or some other piece of software to do it. I read somewhere that someone has created some freeware software for this unit. I'm not sure if it focuses on the training aspect or the mapping aspect, but what it does mean is that people are out there writing software for this unit.

 

[scotty72]

Joe,

Is that the Geo.Man on Ebay

he claims to only ship to the USA, or will he if you ask nicely?

Scotty

Hi,

I'm from Melbourne (presently living in Taswegia) but I looked at johnny appleseed and almost bought one from him - great unit - but i held off because i wanted to be able to use it not only for cycling (its main purpose) but for navigation also (i.e. get coordintes off the unit) and with the firmware that came on it you couldn't do this. But i kept looking into it and found that the upgraded firmware you could do this.

I think Johnny Appleseed was asking around $570 AUD but i decided to get it from Geo.Man in america. Around $430 AUD and it arrived exactly 1 week after i bought it - no duty import taxes or anything. It did come with an american plug for the charger however, but as i plug it into the usb cable of the computer it charges from there anyway. The plug is also 100-240V input so all it needs is an adapter (i.e. no transformer required).

So all good.