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Garmin Edge 705

Just to update:
To answer my own question, I went back to Tokyu Hands and with my broken Japanese asked again if the local version supported English (can display English menus). The Tokyu Hands staff was very very very helpful, he even phoned someone. To cut to the chase. Yes the Japan local version does support English menus.

My original question:
I'm trying to get myself the Edge 705 too. It seems that tka is out of stock of the English version. I found a couple 705 at Tokyu Hands. These are the local (expensive) Japanese versions.

Does anyone know if the Japanese version can display English menus? My Japanese is not really good.

TIA
 
Wiggle for Garmin

Just to update:
To answer my own question, I went back to Tokyu Hands and with my broken Japanese asked again if the local version supported English (can display English menus). The Tokyu Hands staff was very very very helpful, he even phoned someone. To cut to the chase. Yes the Japan local version does support English menus.

My original question:
I'm trying to get myself the Edge 705 too. It seems that tka is out of stock of the English version. I found a couple 705 at Tokyu Hands. These are the local (expensive) Japanese versions.

Does anyone know if the Japanese version can display English menus? My Japanese is not really good.

TIA

The best prices I have found are at wiggle.co.uk. They will ship for free to Japan. I was not charged any duty fee as well.

For the Japanese map in English go to http://uud.info/.

Hope this helps.

Danny
 
First Ride . . .

My wife bought me an Edge 705 for my birthday and I was able to try it out for the first time yesterday.

I found the initial set-up straight forward. You can divide the screen into a maximum of 8 data fields or less. I chose six. Gradient (how steep is the hill you are climbing) and speed which are strongly correlated. Heart rate and cadence which are strongly correlated. Distance traveled and current elevation. You can choose from 49 different types of data :) Setting up the cadence and speed sensor was also simple and everything about the Edge 705 feels well designed and robust.

I am used to knowing my speed, cadence and heart rate on a ride so it was no big deal to have the information. However, whilst I am used to the car navi system, it was novelty on the ride to be able to see a color map of your location, what surrounds you, and the names of all the small villages and toge you pass through.

The real benefit comes at the end of the ride. Plug the Garmin into your computer and immediately have a full record of your ride information. The Garmin Connect software (for Mac) is very limited. For example you cannot set the axis values on graphs which makes reading simple KPH difficult when the tick marks are set at 26KPH and 39KPH. I was reading Tom's blog and noticed he was using the online version of Garmin Connect. This is much better and more in line with 3rd party GPS software. The player function is especially good.

So here is my first ride :D

One thing I need to understand is how to get the Edge to stop recording when I stop at traffic lights or combini because my average speed, heart rate and cadence data look horrible. Any ideas???

Cheers,

Philip
 
My wife bought me an Edge 705 for my birthday and I was able to try it out for the first time yesterday.

I found the initial set-up straight forward. You can divide the screen into a maximum of 8 data fields or less. I chose six. Gradient (how steep is the hill you are climbing) and speed which are strongly correlated. Heart rate and cadence which are strongly correlated. Distance traveled and current elevation. You can choose from 49 different types of data :) Setting up the cadence and speed sensor was also simple and everything about the Edge 705 feels well designed and robust.

I am used to knowing my speed, cadence and heart rate on a ride so it was no big deal to have the information. However, whilst I am used to the car navi system, it was novelty on the ride to be able to see a color map of your location, what surrounds you, and the names of all the small villages and toge you pass through.

The real benefit comes at the end of the ride. Plug the Garmin into your computer and immediately have a full record of your ride information. The Garmin Connect software (for Mac) is very limited. For example you cannot set the axis values on graphs which makes reading simple KPH difficult when the tick marks are set at 26KPH and 39KPH. I was reading Tom's blog and noticed he was using the online version of Garmin Connect. This is much better and more in line with 3rd party GPS software. The player function is especially good.

So here is my first ride :D

One thing I need to understand is how to get the Edge to stop recording when I stop at traffic lights or combini because my average speed, heart rate and cadence data look horrible. Any ideas???

Cheers,

Philip

Nice wife there.... the only way for it to stop recording that I know of is for you to press the STOP (pause) button. I often stop when I have a long break at a konbini etc but it took me a long time to get used to switching it back on now.

I have taken my Polar and Cateye off my main bike now and just using the Garmin only. It took me ages to get used to it as I didn't use it often enough.
More than a year now and I'm still discovering little things on it that I didn't know how to do before.

Garmin Connect is great. I hope they never lose all my data as I've stopped recording my rides on the software that came with the unit.
 
Auto Pause - it was in the owners manual :eek:

"You can set the Edge to pause the timer automatically during your ride . . . this setting is helpful if your course includes stop lights . . . " Page 15

Cheers,

Philip

Nice wife there.... the only way for it to stop recording that I know of is for you to press the STOP (pause) button. I often stop when I have a long break at a konbini etc but it took me a long time to get used to switching it back on now.

I have taken my Polar and Cateye off my main bike now and just using the Garmin only. It took me ages to get used to it as I didn't use it often enough.
More than a year now and I'm still discovering little things on it that I didn't know how to do before.
 
Auto Pause - it was in the owners manual :eek:

"You can set the Edge to pause the timer automatically during your ride . . . this setting is helpful if your course includes stop lights . . . " Page 15

Cheers,

Philip

Now that you mention it, I used to have it set to auto pause but when I was training for the Tokyo Marathon, I run so slow the auto pause was going off all the time.
 
Firmware update from 2.8 to 2.9

Garmin Edge 705 has a firmware update fron version 2.8 to 2.9.
 
Edge 705 firmware update

Just read that there's a v2.50 firmware update for the Japanese version of the Garmin Edge 705, if anyone has one. Download here.

Apparently the update fixes a display problem at operating temperatures above 60ºC. :eek:

--HF Mike--
 
To actually answer the question.....

Go to "Menu" -> "Training" -> "Auto Pause/Lap"

You are then able to select either "when stopped" or enter a custom speed.

As for googles offering..... would be very good but theres isn't even 100% coverage in Japan let alone the world!
 
Perhaps not really a part of this thread, but I've just picked up an Edge 500. It seems to be a tracker rather than a navigator (that's a hedged comment since I'm not very expert at these units), so you get pretty much the same data after a ride as the 705, but you don't get any navi hints during your ride, as you do with the 705.

Whether you pause the unit or not, when your ride is uploaded to garmin, you can see both your moving time or your overall time (including stops), which seems kind of useful, to me.
 
Yes you can but you will need to use either MAPSOURCE (For PC users) or HOMEBASE (??? for MAC????) to plot out the course you want to ride and then upload to the EDGE 500.

It will give you prompts on turns and the likes but no map.
 
Hi,

First post. I've just bought a Garmin Edge 705 from the UK. Could someone answer a, probably simple, questions.

I believe that I can charge it using my computer USB port and a regular cable and this is what I intend to do most of the time. If I go somewhere over night I will have to use the charger designed for UK use. Can someone tell me exactly what I need to be able to use this charger in Japan? Basically what kind of convertor am I looking for?

Thanks
 
Nope.....your Garmin should have come with several plug socket adapters that just clip in and out.

IMG_5092_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg


Failing that if you have a smartphone like an iphone you can just use that adapter and the USB cable:

iphone-ac-plug.jpg


Or the super cheap and small Japanese market version:

O5ys.jpg
 
I tried my Garmin last Sunday. Have to say I'm pretty disappointed with the UUD maps and feel I have probably wasted money on them.

I'm in Niigata and quite rural but still. I went about 40 km from home then tested the GPS to get home. The problems I had are:

1. On the way down the mountain I was up it kept zig-zagging me off the main route and into little hamlets. The straight main road has been here all of my 16 years here.

2. On the long, narrow straight road home it would constantly tell me to turn left, go behind a house or two (literally) and then turn right and then right again back onto the main road.

3. Again on the straight road home it took me on a massive detour, adding at least 16k to my run. OK locally but not when I'm somewhere I don't know.

I bought this as I wanted to hit the montains and onsens of Nagano and Gumma. The places I wanted to visit I can't find on the GPS. Their postcodes and names bring up nothing. My own business which has been going for over 10 years is not on the map at all (I mean the actual building) while a chiropractor who rents a room 60 meters away and has only been opened for 3 or 4 years has his location and phone number listed.

I need a better map as I don't trust this one. Despite having just bought the Garmin I might just bin it if someone can suggest a better GPS. Although I would have preferred an English GPS my Japanese is decent enough to use a Japanese one. Yupiteru has been suggested any other suggestions?
 
Routing on the 705 seems to be a bit hit-and-miss. There's a noticable improvement in sensible routing between the 705 and my newer Dakota 20, even when using the same map. I assume the 800 also uses the newer routing algorythms and the latest firmware might update the 705; although I'm not sure about that last point.
There are some options in the Garmin routing that can cause the type of behaviour you describe. Check it's set for "Bicycle", check for avoid unpaved roads (unless MTBing), check for "by distance", "by time" etc. Any of these setting can quite drastically affect the way it calculates routes.
I find the best use of the Garmin and UUD maps is to do general route planning on the computer which you can send to the unit. Pick a reasonable number of points on the map in Mapsource so you can see the route generated. I've seen pretty good correlation between the routes generated on Mapsource and the routes generate by the unit, using the same waypoints.
Navigating to a particular distant waypoint I regard as an emergency option in case I have to bail out early from the ride.

I believe Half-Fast Mike uses the 'proper' Japanese Garmin map (which also needs a Japanese Garmin at double the normal price) and might be able to comment on that map's accuracy.
 
I've written about this already a couple of times on this site, so you might want to check out my earlier posts.

Routing with the combination of Edge 705 and the UUD maps certainly doesn't work too well. I generally don't use the routing function, but simply follow a track that I draw in mapmyride and then upload to the device. This works very well - you just don't get prompts for turns and have to figure out the turns yourself by looking at the screen. Mostly quite easy.

Routing can be improved by switching the settings to car mode - that way you won't be taken onto small paths. But you may also miss legitimate rindos...

The Edge 705 does a very good job in routing with other maps. E.g. in Europe I use freeware maps and the routing in England and Germany has been really marvelous, taking me onto side roads or bicycle paths some of which are impossible to find on google maps/mapmyride.

I find the UUD maps have quite a lot of detail - actually so much that when you choose to display the highest level of detail (settings - you may not have chosen the right seeting), the redrawing of the map on the screen can be somewhat slow. There are a few things that may get missed occasionally. But overall there is a surprising amount of detail, including even convenience stores, which can be quite, well, convenient.

I used to think I could rely entirely on printed maps, but I have become a fast convert to my Garmin Edge 705 after I bought it last year. Once you know how to use it, it is almost always helpful - especially because I never ride exactly the same course and always try to discover something new. (I still carry printed maps with me, just in case, and also because it sometimes helps to make bigger decisions when you can see the full picture, which is hard on such a small screen.)
 
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