This, is a Garmin 510 and I have to say it is a pretty clever bit of kit.
Now as some people who have read bits of this site before may know, I have been pretty outspoken in the past about using my Garmin 910XT as both a running and bike computer. I may have, in the past, wondered why anyone would do anything else. Well, I am a big enough man to be able to admit when I may have been less than correct. I can see the point, this thing is cool.
So what prompted me to make the change. To be honest it was training with a powermeter. Using a powermeter I suddenly needed to display a lot more data fields on my bike computer. To be able to do this with a Garmin 910XT meant I had to have it scroll between screens. This meant I could never have all my data in one place at one time. I might want to check my power output, but if that screen wasn't up it meant either waiting for it to scroll up, or manually changing the screen. Sounds like a little thing I know, but after doing it for a few months it was really starting to annoy me. Hence the new Garmin. Amongst its many cool features, this is big enough for me to be able to put all my data fields on one screen. Very cool.
What else can it do? Quite a bit of stuff is the answer. It is all touch screeny goodness, which isn't unusual these days, but still lots of fun. Very pretty colour display as well, quite a big improvement over the very digital looking 910. One of the coolest things it can do though (in my opinion) is talk to my phone via Bluetooth (as long as I have my phone on me, which I usually do when I train). This lets it do a few nifty things. It can download my ride direct to GarminConnect via a GarminConnect app as soon as I have finished the session. No more needing a PC with my ANT stick to transfer data. This is convenient at any time, but particularly for travel, where I don't usually have a PC or laptop with me. But one of my favourite things is the LiveTracker feature. Using this you can invite somebody else (via email or social media) to keep track of your ride in real time. I have read other reviews which dismissed this as a bit of a gimmick. I am going to presume that those reviewers aren't married. When I told my wife about this feature she thought it was great. No more having to worry when I am still not home after 5 hours, when she expected me home after 4 and a half. She can just jump on the computer and see where I am and check that I am still moving. That is very cool. Not too useful for racing unfortunately, since you can't have a phone on you during a race, but letting loved ones know where you are during training is benefit enough in my mind.
I have only been for one ride with it so far. But so far so good. I am very happy with it.
Oh yeah big thanks to Churchill Cycles as well for getting it in for me, great service as usual.
Also, just in case some of you are wondering why I didn't go for the Garmin 810, I did think about it, but decided against it for a couple of reasons. One, I think it is too big for my TT bike (it is a bit bigger than the 510). But the main reason I didn't is that the only real advantage it has over the 510 is that it can be used for navigation. I generally don't need that feature when I ride, since I am usually training in areas that I know, so I figured I wouldn't pay for a feature I wasn't going to use. If I did need navigation though, then I would certainly have gone down the 810 route.
Other than getting to play with nifty new toys, the rest of my ride was good as well. With each of my rides this week I have gradually been putting my body under more pressure. Today I gave it a decent push and so far I seem to have pulled up okay from it. So that was a real positive. Lovely morning to be out as well.
I did get a little bit of a surprise though when I came around a corner and nearly rode straight into this.
My first reaction was that somebody had put an aid station on the cycleway, and I guess in a way I wasn't to far wrong (although no aid station I have seen serves bacon and eggs). This week is Bikeweek in Perth, and all week different city councils have been putting on Bike to Work breakfasts for those commuting. Very cool idea. Anyway this one was the City of Melville one. I hadn't registered and wasn't exactly commuting, so I didn't take part, but plenty certainly where, which was great to see. I am probably going to go to the City of Subiaco one tomorrow morning instead, should be a perfect post swim recovery.
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