I’m trying to decide between a Garmin 305 and a Garmin 50 including a foot pod and cadence sensor.
The prices are about the same these days.
Which would you choose?
305 + cadence + quick release kit hands down for me. I wouldn’t waste my time calibrating the stupid FR50 and always wondering if it’s accurate, etc, etc. Friends has one, it’s always needing calibration and eats batteries, no thanks.
305 all the way.
I had the 50, and while it did everything I needed it to do as far as measuring performance, it sucks for triathlon’s because of limited memory and too many button presses to switch modes. If you’re only looking between these 2 than the 305 is the easy choice.
I had the 50, and while it did everything I needed it to do as far as measuring performance, it sucks for triathlon’s because of limited memory and too many button presses to switch modes. If you’re only looking between these 2 than the 305 is the easy choice.
Does the 305 even have enough battery life for an ironman? Garmin claims 10 hours of “typical” battery life.
I’m leaning towards the 50 because of the size, because that combo will give me cadence measurements, and I understand that the foot pod does a much better job of instantaneous speed readings vs. the GPS models.
As for the 305, I really don’t want to carry around a clunker. I also prefer not having to recharge it every night.
The biggest disadvantage I see is that the 50 shows only 2 rows of data. That sucks! But once I already have the foot pod and the cadence sensor, I might upgrade to the new 60 after the price comes down a bit.
Hmmm…
that’s what I did, started with the 50, then upgraded to the FR60. The 50 only holds 7 hours of lap data, or 100 laps, so I’m not sure it’s going to help much with an Ironman. The FR60 holds up to 20 hours of data, so no problem there. But the FR60 plus all the sensors gets expensive.
What I did was, get the FR50 + foot pod (found it somewhere for $50) and use the pod for the 305 too. In other words, get both! The foot pod separately was as much as the FR50 + foot pod, so it was like a free watch. But if I could only have one, it would be the 305, no question.
305
.
What exactly is so great about the 305?
Is it the GPS? Is it the ability to show more data on the screen? Something else?
I’d say yes, it’s all of those. The GPS is awesome for mapping out the ride/run and using programs like Sporttracks, and it’s more accurate than just the foot pod. Being able to show up to 4 data items on each screen is a must too.