Heart Rate Monitor Watch- Run, Bike and More With GPS Accuracy
The Garmin 405CX heart rate monitor is a great choice as a GPS watch for those that like very accurate distance and speed data speed, but it does so much more than that.
Similar in styling to the Garmin 405 watch, the 405CX includes a much more sophisticated heart rate based calorie computation, along with a second quick-release band that is great for triathletes even though it is a bit surly to install. Garmin thankfully has some good directions on second band installation and a video on its website that does shorten the band change learning curve.
This GPS heart rate monitor syncs up with speed and cadence sensors to deliver super accurate speed, distance and cadence information, but we recommend adding a bike mount for the handlebars if you are going to use it as a cycling computer to increase your safety - no hands off the bars now.
For runners this watch is a dream. No need for a foot pod with GPS and you get a much more accurate level of speed and distance. Having the Virtual Partner feature to race against a pace is really nice too.
If we were to give this watch some black marks it would be the touch sensitive bezel, but only if you forget to lock it. If you don't lock it and bump into somebody in a running race you can lose your data or get your settings cleared, so always remember to lock it at the start of a race or training and you'll be good to go. The other is the length of time the internal re-chargeable lithium battery holds a charge. While Garmin claims eight hour in training mode our experience was more like 6 hours.
Don't take us wrong, that is good battery life. It will get you through a marathon or a 100 mile bike race but if you are going to do a repeat performance the next day then bring along your charger.
The high sensitivity GPS receiver is a vast improvement over older models with much greater reception and sensitivity around tall buildings or in the deep woods. On a long mountain bike ride on a wooded trail here in the Rockies we never lost reception once.
Uploading your workout data to a computer for later analysis on Garmin Connect or training Peaks software is a breeze. Just stick the wireless USB stick into your computer and as long as you are within 15 feet it grabs all the data for your workouts off your watch and it can store up to 1,000 waypoints for future reference which is great for trail runners and mountain bikers, heck even for road biking.
What we really like best about today's GPS watches is that many of them all but eliminate the need for a seperate cycling computer for all but the most serious cyclists. If you need power related statistics like watts and only workout on your bike than you are an ideal candidate for a bike computer but for everyone else who cross trains the GPS watch is a wonderful solution.
All in all the Garmin 405CX offers a huge amount of technology in a sleek and easy to use package. The fact that it requires no external GPS sensors is a real plus. If they could bring the battery life up to the 14 hours on the Forerunner 310XT it would be just like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.
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