compare joule 2 vs garmin 500

[terrywawest]

Does anyone have knowledge of the ant+ joule 2 vs the Garmin 500 computers? Displays, information, printouts, etc.

 

[Jonathonc]

Garmin 500

Hi. I don't know the Joule but have had a Garmin 500 for a week now. I am delighted with it. I don't use the cadence and power but do use the computer functions and the HR monitor. Have to say it works brilliantly. I'm no computer geek but have managed to set the thing up perfectly so far. You can customise up to three pages of data (with up to 8 lines of data on each) made up of a variety of speed, cadence, HR, power, individual lap and geographical fields. Additionally, you can set time, distance and HR alerts, set specific training parameters and/or goals and even race yourself over courses you have ridden previously. Oh, yes and you can upload all this info. via garminconnect.com and/or set your own training zones and resting/max HR if you know them. I have customised 3 data fields as follows:

Page 1: Elapsed time, %MHR, Elevation, Gradient, Distance and Speed
Page 2: Time of day, Temperature, Calories, Total ascent, Total descent, AHR%, Ave. speed
Page 3: Current lap time, HR graph, HR Zone, HR BPM, Lap AHR, Lap Ave. Speed

In addition, I also use a 15 minute time alert to remind me to eat and drink!

You can set the computer to auto scroll through your data pages (I know riding buddies who use a Power page, a HR page and a Speed/Geography page) at either a fast, medium or slow scroll speed. I personally just click through when I'm doing a HR training lap for example, or to see how hot it is, how many calories I've burned or how much climbing I've done.

You don't get a mapping function on the Garmin 500 but you do get a mapped route once you upload to garminconnect.com. The positive side of this is that the Garmin 500 unit itself is practically no bigger than a standard cycling computer.

With all this information you can then geberate your own reports, set goals and monitor progress via garminconnect.com. As a number of us riding buddies now have garmins, we can all look at the miles we're logging and decide whether we really are riding or hiding!

 

[Feldy82]

Hi. I don't know the Joule but have had a Garmin 500 for a week now. I am delighted with it. I don't use the cadence and power but do use the computer functions and the HR monitor. Have to say it works brilliantly. I'm no computer geek but have managed to set the thing up perfectly so far. You can customise up to three pages of data (with up to 8 lines of data on each) made up of a variety of speed, cadence, HR, power, individual lap and geographical fields. Additionally, you can set time, distance and HR alerts, set specific training parameters and/or goals and even race yourself over courses you have ridden previously. Oh, yes and you can upload all this info. via garminconnect.com and/or set your own training zones and resting/max HR if you know them. I have customised 3 data fields as follows:

Page 1: Elapsed time, %MHR, Elevation, Gradient, Distance and Speed
Page 2: Time of day, Temperature, Calories, Total ascent, Total descent, AHR%, Ave. speed
Page 3: Current lap time, HR graph, HR Zone, HR BPM, Lap AHR, Lap Ave. Speed

In addition, I also use a 15 minute time alert to remind me to eat and drink!

You can set the computer to auto scroll through your data pages (I know riding buddies who use a Power page, a HR page and a Speed/Geography page) at either a fast, medium or slow scroll speed. I personally just click through when I'm doing a HR training lap for example, or to see how hot it is, how many calories I've burned or how much climbing I've done.

You don't get a mapping function on the Garmin 500 but you do get a mapped route once you upload to garminconnect.com. The positive side of this is that the Garmin 500 unit itself is practically no bigger than a standard cycling computer.

With all this information you can then geberate your own reports, set goals and monitor progress via garminconnect.com. As a number of us riding buddies now have garmins, we can all look at the miles we're logging and decide whether we really are riding or hiding!

I too have an Edge 500. I've had it for about 5 months now and love it. The only thing I don't use is cadence. I really like the fact that I can save the data to garmins training center and input course information and upload it back to the unit. This allows me to do my normal group rides, but also race against my previous data. I don't mind that the 500 doesn't have a map, because you are able to download additional courses that have the map if you want.

Sorry I can't comment on the Joule 2 but it can't be better than the garmin.