Hi Folks

Has anyone used one of these or an equivalent kiting?

http://www.timexironman.com/Products/Global_Trainer_GPS.htm

I am interested in the novelty of mapping the route, distance, altitude etc afterwards

Cheers

I wear my Garmin sometimes. It's quite fun to see how far you have ridden and how far upwind you get on a run.

Normally I am in too much of a rush to stuff around with the GPS but I have been cycling to work and use it as my speedo so I now have it with me all the time. It's just a big watch so it's no hassle to deal with.

Last time I did it I did a 4 km upwind run with heaps of wave play on the way back.

Total distance 53.69 km
Total time 2:17
Max speed 41.4 kph
Average speed 23.4 kph
Average upwind leg: 500 m
Average upwind ground: 250 m
Best upwind gain 450m

I can't see the jumps in 3D but I didn't do much jumping that day.

This is just the upwind run. The later runs were too squiggley to be of much interest. You can see at leg 7 where I ran back downwind to wait for my mate.

Forerunnner 305

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=349

It was the top of the range when I bought it and fairly cheap on ebay. I think I paid about $150 from the US.

The form factor of the new models are more "watchie" and less GPS.

The Garmin comes with a program called Training Centre. It automatically downloads the data and plots it on a map and collects some basic statistics from it. It's a crap program but it works ok.

I like to know that I have done 1500km on my new road bike since I got it. Not so pleased that my average speed is only 1km higher than on my mountain bike.

A GPS is a GPS. They all do pretty much the same thing. The Garmin is robust and reliable so I am happy with it. I like that I can configure the display on it to show the data I want when riding or flying my paraglider.

... thanks Gorgo!

I have the 310xt and it is unbelievable value for money, does more than you will ever use. Battery life is awesome. Definately waterproof I have mainly used it for training/racing (triathlons and ironman). Have not had a problem yet, also the garmin connect site it uses is simple and provides every bit of info u could want, including live playback of your session, analysing all the parameters as it is playing back.

Even has one of the modes set up automatically to load as kitesurfing and automatically downloads to computer when usb stick is plugged in and watch is within 10ft of computer.

Only thing to keep an eye on is the band on the watch as the pins start to bend after a while of abuse, and it would suck to lose it in the water.

just my opinion anyway......