Wow April that site is great! Does the Forerunner 305 come with a belt large enough for a horse or do we have to rig it? Does it monitor the heart rate during the ride? Doesn't the heart rate monitor get knocked out of place by the girth?
The best wrist unit is the Forerunner 305 and runs about $275. It has much better GPS reception than any previous unit, and that's important if you're going to use it anywhere other than very open terrain (meaning no buildings, no trees, no nothing). This unit also has a heart rate monitor and you can get an optional cadence unit for bikes and a foot pod is soon to be released.
The Forerunner 205 has the same GPS chip as the 305, but doesn't have any support for cadence or heart rate. Cost: $200.
Stay away from any of the 101 units! They have NO capability for connecting to a computer, which means there is no chance of getting the data back off the unit. Also, the GPS chip technology is very old and not as good. In GPS technology, newer IS better.
The Garmin Forerunner 301 is a good little unit. It has much better GPS reception than the 201 but not nearly as good as the newer 205/305 units (Illustration: http://endurancerider.blogspot.com/2006/11/305-vs-301-reception.html). Cost runs about $150. It has a heart rate monitor that one can use for a person or alter to use for a horse. The trackpoint management on this unit is much better than the 201 (but again, not as good as the 205/305), which is very important if you want to do any sort of post-use analysis. If you just can't afford a 305, then this is a decent compromise.
For Christmas my husband wants a wristband GPS to use. I would like a basic model with elevation, MPH and distance. It needs to be user friendly. I need to order one ASAP but don't have the foggiest idea what model to buy or where to buy it. Any ideas?
