So I take the plunge and buy the Garmin for my Mountain Bike over t’internet. It duly arrives in the usual fuss free 48 hour period. I’m a good boy and immediately plug it into the mains. Then I settle down to read the installation notes etc.
Once battery is charged, I plug it into my laptop and sit back. And um, err, nowt happens. Now in this day and age, you plug something in press no more than 4 buttons and you are up and running. Not with the Garmin though. Bugger. It’s a throw back to badly written 12 year old software. Not at all user friendly. Was I doing the right thing? Well, I muddled through, got frustrated, made a brew. Got even more frustrated. Had brew No 2. Soddin hell, just why so complicated? No user prompts like you would normally expect.
I did as much as I could, switched off and went to bed.
The maps are not installed on the computer or the gadget. You need to customise what maps you want. That’s a good option. I chose all the UK as I now had a 2GB memory card installed – I had to buy this separately of course. The down load time was projected at 1hr 15 mins. After 3hrs 30 mins it finished. Then the reading software on the Garmin had to be enabled. Projected time was again 1hr 15 mins. I don’t know how long it took as I went out for the afternoon…….
But it now works. I would have gladly paid an extra £30 for a preloaded memory card to save the faffing about!!
And now I put it into practice. Only used it twice so far and there are two flaws:
Calorie count
A 45 min steady walk consumes more calories than an hour long cycle ride up and down dale. I think not!!
Elevation
Well, the satellites must move around a bit. My house is anywhere between 280 feet and 305 feet above sea level.
But I must say the mapping of trips is very accurate. Will I ever get lost? Well, I like a challenge!!
Garmin Edge 605
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