The Garmin 705 GPS Heart Rate Monitor is one superb piece of kit. I bought mine around 9 months ago along with a Polar FT80 Heart Rate Monitor which I have reviewed on another page. The Garmin 705 is fully featured with more gadgets than you could ever need. It is also waterproof which makes it ideal for cycling,
The unit itself comes with a sturdy fitting system which works very well even on my mtb when i am on the fire routes and off road. The heart rate monitor itself is a master piece of kit. It allows you to add up to 8 different screens on 2 different profiles, and switch between them if you so wish. I have set both of mine up slightly differently so that it incorporates one or two of the same modules, and a number of different ones on the 2nd screen. This I have found works very well. I like the top 3 screens on both profiles to be the same so that i can see the speed, time and distance all in the same place.
Picking up the satellites seems to be pretty quick. If I take my bike outside and leave it next to the car, by the time I have put my shoes on it has found the satellites and is ready for use. I use the heart rate monitor strap with it so that I get the best use from it, and can see what I am doing whilst out. The best thing about the 8 boxes are that they can be changed to what ever you want to put in them. Garmin offers around 30 choices to fill the boxes. This makes it idea to set it up to exactly how you want it.
You can use the Garmin straight away by just riding your own routes. it will record this for you along with your heart rate and the distance travelled. It will also give you the amount of climbing that you have done. This is superb to then upload to the software of your choice for you to look at and see what you have done. However the best thing about the Garmin 705 is the fact that you can write your own routes and upload them to the monitor yourself.
Building my own routes is exactly what I bought it for. my plans over the next few years are to travel around Europe in my motor home climbing as many mountains as possible and recording the routes on my Garmin. Combines with a Go pro head cam i will then enter a route and a video of everything I do. This should be invaluable for others who would like to see the route before they ride it.
I use a couple of websites to build my routes.
2 Ride with GPS – This is a superb site with great fully useable maps.
I have registered with Garmin so that my Garmin 705 HRM has a record with them. I use a piece of their software to upload my routes onto the Garmin. I cannot find a page from Garmin that helps you to do this with them. They seem more intent on you buying their expensive maps and using them rather than you use currently free maps to build your routes.
So far I have only built routes around the area that I live. This alone has been invaluable as I can combine on road and off road routes that allow you to miss the major roads altogether. I live in Switzerland, and am there for lucky that we have some of the best signed routes in Europe for cycling. Combined with the software mentioned above I can build great road and offroad routes on tracks that I have not used before, and then upload the route to my Garmin ready for use.
So far I have tried out 2 routes that I have uploaded. The route finder was excellent, as was the Garmin in getting me from A to B. The record is then uploaded to my mapping software where I can see what I have achieved on that ride. Overall I am well pleased with the way the Garmin 705 has performed. I would definitely recommend it.
I bought mine from Amazon.co.uk and would recommend you buy it from a reputable dealer..
Garmin Edge 705 with HRM, Speed/Cadence Sensor and Street Maps
Garmin Edge 705 and HRM
Garmin Edge 705 with HRM and Speed/Cadence Sensor
rowing machines
