It’s been three years since I did Cape Epic and BC Bike Race – two amazing endurance events on mountain bikes – after which my Garmin Edge 305 that I bought just prior to these races started acting up. Whenever I’d hit a bump the whole thing would shutoff. That year I went to Interbike and I recall asking a Garmin rep at the Outdoor demo about the problem to which he said to upgrade my firmware. Huh? But I took his advice, went home and tried it despite knowing it wasn’t likely the solution. And obviously it didn’t work. I decided it was something I could live with as I’m mostly a road biker and would be avoiding the offroad jarring that was causing the shutoffs. But progressively it got worse to the point where even the slightest crack in the pavement would shut it off. It was super annoying having to turn the unit back on every few miles (or every bump) and finish rides with significantly fragmented data recorded (if any at all). The following year I spoke to another Garmin rep again at Interbike and she offer no economical solution for repair or replacement. I was so mad I sold my Garmin shares and even took a short position! (although to be clear, it wasn’t the only reason.) It wasn’t until recently did I decide to research deeper using this the internets and something called “Google” where I found a few or should I say a lot of people with the same problem along with a couple DIY solutions. (btw, I’m being sarcastic)
The core problem apparently lies in a not very well thought out design. The unit has two halves – the bottom half holds the battery and mini USB input, and the top half the screen and everything else – of which don’t snap tight but are merely held together by glue (rubber cement?) and loosen and separate over time (or in my case after 14 days of mtb racing).
Just a few months ago, with the thing way out of warranty and a bit of spare time I had nothing to lose but to try these solutions. I won’t go into detail with DIY instructions as it has already been well documented here and here. The later solution was more relevant to my unit and what I more closely followed as I didn’t need to replace the battery. My surgery was simple – separate the two halves, loosen two screws, insert a rubber spacer, re-tighten screws, and glue back together. I didn’t have rubber cement so I used locktight which might not be the best long term adhesive. I also used scotch tape tightly wrapped around to hold the two halves firmly together (instead of using phone books) while the glue cured.
- Taped it. (yep kinda ghetto but works)
After a couple weeks of rides I found the fix to work beautifully without experiencing any shutoffs. Then I hit a big bump and the top half went flying on a decent. Miraculously, I was able to collect all the pieces without any cars running over them and put humpty dumpty back together. I’ve since added tape to secure the to halves. The only problem that remains is I have over an sensitive lap button that laps on its own sometimes. I haven’t been able to solve this problem. Some say its time to give up on the old 305 but I have a hard time tossing things that were expensive and I can still get to work.
Garmin has obviously improved the design in their current versions (Garmin Edge 500
