Garmin Foreruner 305

As an avid runner and cyclist, my lovely wife gave me the Garmin Forerunner 305 for Christmas.

Now it is March and I've had time to fully use the watch/gps/heart rate monitor functions. I've logged about 25 runs and 5 bike rides with the watch.

The great thing about the watch is it downloads to your computer and you can use the Garmin provided software to keep track of your history. Also, as in my case, I'm keeping my records on www.mapmyrun.com where they have a link that will allow you to upload directly to their website and training history.

The features on the watch are fantastic. Heart Rate, Distance, Speed, Average Speed, heck it even tells the time of day! The GPS is very accurate when you have a strong signal and I would recommend this watch to any runner.

However, I have found some weaknesses with the watch. The GPS aspect of the watch suffers from common GPS problems. It takes a few minutes to calibrate at the beginning of a run and if you are impatient like me, it will not record the first quarter of a mile or so of your run. Not a big deal, but the missing data makes your first mile look really slow, and sets your pace markers off.

If you are hiking or mountain biking with heavy tree cover, you may not get a solid signal causing your coordinates to be off. On a recent bike ride, the bicycle computer registered 11.28 miles where the GPS only picked up 9.8. When I imported the map and overlaid it on the Google Maps with the Satellite images, you could see where the GPS was cutting corners. Personally, I always keep a computer on the bike, so the Garmin was more for heart rate than distance and speed.

The only other problem I have had was user error, when I would forget to turn off the watch and later when I would be going for a run it was not charged.

All in all, it is a great product, hopefully I'll be using it for years.

Brilliant Sales Idea

I just had a brilliant sales idea. What if you lived in some coastal Alaskan town where the cruise ships came to port? How funny would it be to open a Snow Cone Shack right there by the port? You really have to picture it. Think of the funny pictures people would take just to have a snow cone. Of course to complete the experience you would have to dress up as an Innuit (Eskimo).

Then people would say, "That person can sell a snow cone to an Eskimo."

Just a thought.

Isle du Bois State Park

Saturday we made the trek to try out a trail called Isle du Bois State Park in North Texas. For an indepth trail description, check out the DORBA link. This is just my personal review of the trail.

Overall there were a few scenic spots, and two memorable spots. The rest of the ride was drugery. Over 11 miles of trails that consist of hard pack, loose sand, rock gardens, and gravel. There were a lot of decent short climbs, but not many great downhills. This place is probably a great place for cross country racers to come out and hammer, but for trail riders and all mountain guys this isn't for us.

Dan just put together his new Yeti 575 and it was his first shakedown ride. Unfortuantely nothing in the entire park was enough to even come close to bottoming out his or my 5" travel bike.

Hopefully I can coerce Dan into writing a review about his new ride for you guys.

Here are the pics:


Dan on his new Yeti 575

Me and the TrailFox

BMC Trail Fox 01

A couple of weeks ago I acquired my first full suspension mountain bike. It is a BMC Trail Fox 01, a 2007 Frame. The 2007 and 2008 Frames are the same, the Trail Fox 01 became the Trail Fox 03 as they up dated the bikes.

It’s outfitted with SRAM x-9 Sifters and Derailleurs. Avid Juicy 7 Brakes, Race Face Deus XC Cranks, Mavic Cross Ride Wheels, Thompson Seatpost, Race Face Stem, Race Face Carbon Bars, DT Swiss Rear Shock and Fox Vanilla RL Fork. I upgraded the tires to a Maxxis Larson in the front and Kenda Small Block rear.

With 120mm of rear travel and 140mm travel up front it is a bit of overkill for North Texas, but I plan on taking the bike on trips to Western North Carolina and Moab in the near future. On those trips the full suspension will come in handy.

So far I’ve put about 40 miles on the bike. I’ve only bottomed out the suspension once. After an initial shake down, I love the ride. Previously I’ve only owned hard tail bikes and it has taken a little bit of adjustment getting used to the ride. The difference is night and day. Of course now that I’m in my 30’s I can appreciate the plush ride and don’t mind the energy lost riding a full squishy ride.

The reviews on this bike compare it to a cross country bike with 5 inches of travel. I agree completely. When carving turns, it feel every bit as quick as my old hard tails, and also eats up any bumpy sections of trail.

So far this is an A++ ride.

A note about shops. I purchased the bike from Mad Duck Adventure sports in Grape Vine, Texas. The guys at the shop are super helpful and they have very reasonable prices. If you are in DFW and in the market for a high end road or mountain bike, give them a call.

http://madducksports.com/
later

New to this blogging

I'd like to start by saying that I'm not a gear weenie. I love gear, but I also am a minimalist at heart. I believe that if isn't broken and it works well, don't upgrade it unless you can show a significant increase in performance.

The stuff that will be discussed will range from mountain bikes, climbing, white water paddling, camping and other related outdoor pursuits.

However I'm also a fan of automobiles and motorcycles. American Muscle, Trucks, Turbo Engines, Sport Bikes, and pretty much anything with an engine that can make your adrenaline start pumping like a shot of nitrous oxide. So don't be surprised if you get a random blog about some sweet environmentally unfriendly piece of machinery.

Now that I think about it, this blog will be dedicated to all things awesome. Stay tuned!