Garmin Review

Patriotic Babe Magnet

I adore my Garmin Edge 305 but I'm noticing issues with it of late that I wanted to share with those of you considering such a device. Anyone who hangs with me at the gym knows I drag the little thing everywhere.

Issue 1: It comes with a cadence sensor that you attach to the bike which I did with those plastic tie thingies that come with it. It worked well until I banged it with my heel, knocking it loose. I was out of those straps to put it back on but I think I need to take it into a bike shop to have it seriously strapped down. They have a tool for that don't they?

Issue 2: It's probably the angle of my bike stem but I simply can NOT see the display in any meaningful manner. In bright sunlight it's washed completely out. MY only issue with that is that I thought I had started the thing on my bike ride this morning but hadn't so I find that irksome. I don't need to really check the monitor when riding, I use it more as a data recording device and check it when I download the data to my computer. I use my simple bike computer for how fast I'm going etc, it has a display I can adjust so that I can see it. I also have way too much data on the thing and need to reduce the number of fields displayed to something more useful. Again this isn't a big deal for me, more of an annoyance and I think things will get better when I reduce the number of fields on the display.

I bring this up because I returned a movie to the local supermarket today. It was Jim Carrey's Yes Man which I think I liked better than my wife did. It's PG-13 and was probably a bit much for my eleven year old or at least my comfort level. We skipped a scene.

MY plan was to toss the DVD in my bike trunk pedal over there, deposit the flick and ride home.

MY WIFE'S plan was to do that AND pick up bananas, cookies, ice cream, hamburger buns, bagels, a bag of charcoal (only a free 3.6 pounder) and a twelve pack of diet mountain dew.

Out came the panniers. So I'm strolling around the supermarket attired in the picture above trying not to collide with anyone. The place was a zoo and even though I thought I stuck out like s sore thumb people were just not seeing me. Mr. Cellophane came to mind.

I went through the self checkout and there it was interesting because I was trying to pile the stuff up on the scale but not put it in the bags. Not too hard, then came the somewhat 'art' of loading the panniers but I managed. The bike handled the load fine, but it's built for that.

Anyway that's what was on my mind for today's physical activity. Weigh in tomorrow.