| Garmin Edge 500 GPS Bicycle Unit | 
| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
Department: Computers / GPS / Electronics
List Price: $262.48
Buy New: $229.99
as of 9/4/2010 17:41 PDT details
You Save: $32.49 (12%)
In Stock
New (21) from $229.99
Seller: American Sports Equipment
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 3,943
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries: 1
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 6.4 x 6.4 x 3.3
Legal Disclaimer: Disclaimer: This Heart Rate Monitor Watch is not a medical device, or intended for use in any medical, or patient monitoring application. This Heart Rate Monitor Watch is not intended of use in any commercial application. Always consult a physician before starting any physical activity.
MPN: 010-00829-00
Model: 010-00829-00
UPC: 753759096694
EAN: 0753759096694
ASIN: B002O0QBE8
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Add an ANT+ compatible heart rate monitor, speed / cadence sensor or compatible power meter for a finely-tuned analysis of your ride. | | • | High-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix | | • | Easy-to-read display | | • | Advanced heart rate-based calorie computation | | • | ANT+ power meter compatible |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Garmin Edge 500 Cycling Computers. Sharpen your cycling performance with Edge 500, a lightweight GPS-based cycling computer for performance-driven cyclists. Loaded with data, Edge 500 tracks your distance, speed, locatio
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
A new level of bike computer August 27, 2010
Thomas E. Tweedel (Austin, TX United States)
I got this unit to upgrade the tracking of my workouts and to start using a heart rate monitor to get more out of the time I was spending exercising.
I was wary of plunking out the bucks for this because there are plenty of stories of the unit not working very well. It seemed from reviews it was great or it was worthless depending on the luck of the draw. So I made sure to buy it from a place with a very liberal return policy.
Overview
This is the first GPS enabled unit that I've seen that was small enough for me to mount on my bike and not have it mistaken for a PDA or Smart Phone. It is optimized for biking.
The overall construction seems pretty good. The unit seems well sealed, has a large screen and a nice backlight.
There are 4 control buttons, two on each side. The buttons on the left generally activate or conform menu items, the buttons on the right are used for navigation. The buttons require a firm press and have a muted click, you won't be hitting them accidentally. Actually trying to hit them while riding is a tad difficult.
Underneath at the bottom of the unit there is a rubber stopper that plugs a mini-usb port. This port is used for data transfer as well as charging.
The mount is simple and awesome. There is a base piece with a formed rubber pad that goes beneath it. There are four hooks on the mount and you get a bag full of elastomeric gasket seal like rubber bands. You simply put the base piece where you want it and hook the band to one hook, stretch it around your bar/stem and hook it to the hook on the other side. Two bands and your done. Clicking the unit in is easy, press it in and rotate 90 degrees. The mount is secure, flexible and easy. If only all mounts were this good. The unit comes with two complete mounts standard.
The battery is an integral Li-ion unit that is not user accessible or replaceable. Its supposedly good for up to 18 hours and has a charge % listed. I ran it for 2.5 hours with occasional backlight use and it went from 100% to 87%. The battery can be charged with the included adaptor or from a computer USB port.
Some people criticize the unit for not having a replaceable battery. I don't think that's such a big deal, the life is long, the battery will last for years before needing replacement. When you consider how much power these units usually use if ran on CR-2032's or other similar batteries you'd rack up quite a battery bill over the life of the unit and it wouldn't be nearly as well sealed. The size of the unit would rule out AA or AAA's without making it much bigger.
Features
The unit has a lot of features, it records more data than you know what to do with. It has support for external heart monitor and cadence sensor. You can read the specs to see all the stuff it records.
What is really nice is that you have three possible screens to look at. Each screen can be configured with whatever information you want. You can select to display anywhere between 1 and 8 pieces of information. 5 seems to be optimal in that you can get a large amount of screen space for your single most important info and then 4 smaller bits in other boxes. Each time you switch screens the backlight comes on which is great at night (this can be turned off).
The process for choosing info is not exactly intuitive or friendly but it works after you figure it out (hint>Bike settings>Data fields).
To get more accurate calorie count you will need to enter some data about yourself (height, weight, age etc). Don't forget your bike information, the weight of your bike probably affects it as well.
Use
Using the unit on the ride is easy enough. Turn it on, it boots up in a few seconds and has your satellites locked shortly thereafter. Usually less than 10 seconds. Being GPS based you don't need to program in wheel size or mess with sensors. Its easy to transfer from bike to bike and can hold 3 bike profiles.
I have the auto pause turned on so I hit start and then ride without worry. At the end of the ride I hit stop. You won't "accidentally" clear your data because you have to press and hold the clear button for 3 seconds and it shows you a countdown.
Computer Interface
One of the big features of a unit like this is the ability to download and examine your exercise data. The unit doesn't ship with any software but Garmin provides two utilities for free. There is the Garmin Training Center Software free to download from their website. It serves as a basic organizer downloader/uploader. It doesn't have all the analysis tools and its Maps are pretty anemic at best. The nice part however is you can transfer your data to Google Earth (if installed) which displays your data on a Google earth map. You can "play" your animation as well as look at each of your data points. If you right click on the path and choose Elevation Profile you get additional options for examining elevation and grade.
There is also the Garmin Connect Website that lets you upload your data to Garmins website. They have better graph and analysis tools. In addition to having your data stored online you can also send the link to others to share your data which is nice.
Accuracy & Reliability
Horror stories about the accuracy (or lack their off) and the unit freezing up or flaking out were pretty scary. One thing that I did before I ever used the device was fully charge the battery and then get the latest firmware update from the Garmin Website. There were a LOT of issues that we fixed. If you look at the revision history its wonder they let the thing out the door with that many issues. Installing the firmware involves downloading a program which then loads info into the unit. After that when you turn the unit on it compiles the new firmware into it over the period of a few minutes and then is ready to go.
I'm happy with the results. It's as accurate as most consumer grade GPS units. Accuracy of course varies with time and location. If I look at my track on Google Maps sometimes I can see what side of the road I was going down and how I zigged and zagged going up a large hill. Other times it has me biking through everyone's front yard. I'd say its off by 20 feet in one direction at worst which is not bad when your riding miles.
Elevation is a bit spotier, largely because the variance is much less. Plus or minus 20 feet on 20 miles is nothing, plus or minus 20 feet on 200 ft elevation is a lot. I've seen elevation swings as much as 50 feet at any one point but it averages out of a lot of data points. If you want to know what the exact elevation is at any one point you may be disappointed until you take multiple samples. But if you are looking for a pretty good record of the changes in your overall miles long ride it is sufficient. Also in my experience this varience in elevation is not unique to this unit. Every GPS unit I've used has had similar issues.
Temperature is another area of questionable accuracy. If you hold the unit for any length of time over 30 seconds its going to heat up. Same if exposed to direct sunlight. It doesn't seem to refresh the temperature that often. Seems to heat up fast, cool off slow.
Other Uses
While this is technically a Bike Computer with its ability to sync with Heart Rate Monitors there really isn't a reason you couldn't use it for other outdoor sports as well. You'd just have to make sure you have a place to hold it that it can receive signal.
To Recap
Pro's
Excellent Mount
Very Flexible in utility
Long Battery life
Very configurable
Lots of information
Cons
Not Very Friendly Interface
Buttons Hard to Push
Doesn't seem to have a indicator if you are going below, at or above average.
Associated Software is lacking
Conclusion-
An excellent device that takes the concept of a bike computer to a new level. Provides all sorts of information before and after the ride that you can find useful. If you've got the cash I'd recommend it.
 Love the Garmin Edge 500 August 15, 2010
Jon K. Peck (Chicago)
On my new bike, I switched from a Shimano Flight Deck to the Garmin Edge 500. I bought the cadence add-on, too. Very pleased with it. It is very configurable in what information is displayed - took me a few tries to arrange all the information as I wanted it, but it is very easy to set up. You can rotate around three screens each of which can display up to six data fields! While it doesn't do maps, you can upload rides to the Garmin web site and see a map of the route along with various performance graphs.
It's very compact and easy to install, although the cadence unit takes some fiddling as it has to be close to two moving magnets, and the shape isn't idea for my wide carbon stays.
The one thing it lacks is a gear ration display. With the wheel and cadence magnets (part of the cadence add-on), it should have enough information to calculate this. Also, the export capabilities on the web site need improvement.
But this seems to have become the device of choice in my cycling group.
 DON'T BUY THIS!!!! August 9, 2010
pwsev (Washington, DC)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've had an EDGE 500 for 6 months. I bicycle at least 200 miles per week, with at least half of that on longer rides on the weekends.
When the Edge works it's great: it provides lots of data. The problem is that the EDGE 500 usually doesn't work.
I've lost track of the number of times where I had to re-download the same version of Garmin's Web Updater software that I had previously downloaded in order to get my computer to recognize the Edge. On three of those occasions, re-downloading the same old software didn't work, so I had to contact Garmin support. They told me I had to press this and that button simultaneously while the unit was off, plug in the USB cable while still holding the buttons in, wait for the magic word to appear on the screen, click my heels three times and say I want to go home ... you get the drill.
Garmin support's fixes worked at first. But then, like the town drunk who swears up and down that he's gonna quit drinking and turn over a new leaf but only holds out a couple of days before someone discovers him curled up in an alley in a drunken stupor, there goes the Edge.
The latest example: a 72 mile bike ride I went on today that was seemingly fully recorded by the Edge (that is, the timer recorded & displayed speed, mileage, elevation and heart rate for the entire ride). When I got home from the ride, I turned off the Edge, left it on my bike, took a shower and a short nap and went out with some friends. I came home eager to see the data on my ride. But, lo and behold, I discovered that, after the annoyingly familiar ritual of having to re-download the same version of Web Updater software to my computer that I had downloaded 3 days ago to get my computer to recognize the Edge, today's ride had vanished, with not even a poof of smoke. This despite there being 75% of battery life left per the Edge. And I swear to G*d, I didn't touch the Edge except to turn it off after my ride.
To make it worse, this is Sunday. That being the case, I can't speak with Garmin support, because Garmin support isn't open on weekends or holidays when the vast majority of people actually travel, ride their bikes, hike, run, etc... and need their Garmins.
So, I just sent Garmin an e-mail (which they say they'll answer within 3 days) demanding my $250 back. I'll let you know how that goes....
 Good, but Poor LCD Contrast- hard to read except in direct sunlight August 7, 2010
L. Read
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If I could , I would give this 3.5 stars. For a $250 bike computer, you would think they could put a higher quality /high contrast lcd in this thing. It works overall very well especially with the recent firmware upgrade, many things are customizable, and can give you all the data you could ever need.
But the cons are there:
Poor screen contrast- very difficult to read if you are not in direct sunlight. Wearing sunglasses and riding under some tree shadows or just cloudy days make seeing the screen a challenge. Using a screen protector or the built in light doesn't help much. Contrast settings also gave minimal improvement.
The unit has also locked up on me a few times and had to be reset.
If it is possible for a new firmware to improve screen contrast, or make the fonts thicker/denser, this would be a real winner.
Edge 500 July 16, 2010
Abram R Glazer
This device fixed all of the nagging problems that the 205/305 models had including
1) Not enough memory ( Now stores 180 hours of ride data)
2) Battery life (Device easily runs 20-25 hours without charge)
3) Support for ANT (If I could only afford a power meter)
4) Crummy mount tab (New mount lock is much better, no tabs breaking off)
In addition, they shrunk it and it now looks like a standard bike computer
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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