Has anyone used one of the garmin forerunner gps/hr monitor watches? The new ones are still bulky but definitely smaller than the previous ones. Any thoughts? suggestions?

http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner305/

A lot of people like their Garmins. They are a touch bulky but nice units. They are not super accurate--think 5% or less deviance, but if you're looking for 100% accuracy, you won't get it. If there is a lot of tree cover they may be a problem. If you're in a city with skyscrapers, that WILL be a problem. The unit will lose signal frequently.

If u have a strong signal, you're good, but if it starts to lose out, then it will utterly bugger your distance, especially if you're going around curves and things.

I've no inclination to buy one because my $32 Timex Ironman does absolutely everything I need and I have driven all my running routes anyway, so I know the distance accurately. I rarely run away from the house on roads but if I did, I can pace a mile within about 10 seconds anyway, so that would be just as good as the garmin, or better :)

I have a Garmin 301, the handheld, non-HR monitor version.

We marked the property corners for our campsite with it just to generally find the plot of land we owned before the surveyors located it for us. When the surveyors came out, our closest point was 17-ft off where it was supposed to be. The worst was more than twenty feet off. But... out there, we're miles and miles from anything, so it may get a better fix on satellites. It acquires as many satellites as it can fit on the screen (usually it never shows more than four in town) and all of them have extremely strong signal bars. I think it's pretty accurate for a very basic GPS that's as small as most flip phones today.

It's gotten us home from many a trip on the ATVs when we got a little off the beaten path. I always carry it with me when off road.

-R

It's gotten us home from many a trip on the ATVs when we got a little off the beaten path. I always carry it with me when off road.

-RI hope you bring spare batteries!:)

Check this out: http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12075

I hope you bring spare batteries!:)
:lol: For those rare times when the batteries die, I have a power cable that plugs into the aux power outlet on my ATV. One way or another, we always find our way home!

-R