product reviews
knog:gator 605 bike light
MSRP: $399.00
www.Knog.com.au
Hip, Quick and Light The Gator 605 combines an innovative lithium-ion battery stick with a light and controller system that mounts in seconds to any bike using a no-nonsense silicon strap system. The mounting system is well cushioned to preserve your paint, carbon fiber or metal finishes and provides for easy adjustment on the fly. For the lighting unit, Knog places a pair of three-watt, high-powered LEDs in an over-and-under configuration next to a tiny LED blinker to create a nice, bright oval of white light at the highest setting. Each flood has high and low settings, while the tiny LED has a blink or non-blink option. The clever, subtly illuminated control box makes it easy to see which buttons you’re manipulating, a feature I greatly appreciated. Really, for trail riding, you’ll want to use the high-power feature for all lights, which gives you somewhere around four hours of burn time on a full battery charge. The lower settings are probably adequate for road riding or navigating smooth singletrack during the height of the Harvest Moon. While the Gator 605’s tight light pattern means plenty of brightness straight ahead, the lack of photon spillover meant that anything on the periphery was as dark as a tomb. This proved to be hair-raising and troublesome around long curves and in zigzags on the trail and made me wish the light had a helmet-mount option. A slight drawback of Knog’s ultra-hip engineering design is the fact that disconnecting the cables is extremely difficult with sweaty fingers, or even dry fingers—giving the owner the urge to grab the wires and yank them apart, possibly destroying the light in the process. But the Gator 605’s ability to fully recharge in about an hour or less and its just-over-a-pound feather weight make it extremely attractive. —J. Rickman
garmin:edge 705
MSRP: $499
www.Garmin.com
Everything but a Missile Guidance System Helmet…check. Sunglasses…check. Energy food and water…check. On-board GPS satellite-guided, programmable, multifunctional, personal navigation and training data retrieval unit…check. Go! Whoa, wait, what was that? The Garmin Edge series of cycling-specific navigation devices can give you, in a downloadable form, every singe piece of data imaginable, including your mileage, speed, distance, heart rate, cadence, power meter reading, altitude and of course GPS coordinates and a map of the route. Power meter readings can come from any compatible third-party, ANT+Sport™-enabled power meter. You can program common workout courses and compete against previous workouts. The Edge 705 is also compatible with optional programmable data cards so you can download topo or street maps of just about anywhere you may want to go. A major downfall to having all these features packed into one unit is the size. Although it only weighs 3.7 ounces, at 2 by 4.3 inches the Edge 705 is compact considering all of its features but in my opinion still much too large to mount on my handlebars. I like a clean cockpit. I’d like to see some sort of two-piece unit with basic number information on a small handlebar unit while the bulk of the GPS unit rests in my pocket. The size may be acceptable on a touring bike but not my mountain bike or lightweight road bike. The only other weak point in the Edge 705’s design is the stiff, plastic heart rate monitor sensor strap. Garmin is a bit behind the curve compared with Polar’s newer soft and flexible sensor strap. Out on the trail with the Edge 705, I will admit I enjoyed having so much data easily accessible in front of me. The controls were reasonably intuitive and I didn’t have any trouble customizing it to my needs. After the first ride, I downloaded all the data to my computer and, using Gramin Training Center Software, which is available as a free download, I checked out the route map and analyzed the data with all the charts and graphs you could ever need. The Edge 705 is truly a one-stop shop for your ride data. Having the capability to track, compare and even compete against past workouts makes it a very useful training tool for the tech-oriented training junkie. –O. Mattox 85