The colours of the argyle armada, Team Garmin-Transitions, will be available in Garmin’s Edge 500 bike and limited edition nüvi 1200 and 1300 dashboard mounted GPS devices.
The new models will be launched during the 2010 Tour of California, 16-23 May.
The team edition Edge 500 will enter Garmin’s model line and continue to be available after the race, but the limited edition argyle nüvi models will only sell during the Tour of California.
“If we sell everything we have in the first day, then I think we’re going to come back here and say, ’let’s do this again,’ for the Tour de France or Tour of Missouri,” Jake Jacobson, Garmin’s senior media relations specialist told BikeRadar. “We’re going to leave the option open, we never rule out back by popular demand.”
In addition to the team inspired products, Garmin announced it that will offer a stealthy black and white coloured Edge 500 for those riders who don’t want to sport someone else’s kit.
Stealth Edge 500, for kits that don't match orange and blue argyle.
The Edge 500 is Garmin’s latest handlebar mounted model with a budget-friendly price and weight of 2 ounces (57g). Its features include a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, requires no calibration and connects wirelessly with ANT+ compatible third-party power meters. Edge 500 tracks speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, climb and descent. For extra-precise climb and descent data, the Edge 500 uses a barometric altimeter to pinpoint changes in elevation. It even changes time zones automatically and alerts riders if they’re moving but the timer is not running. Garmin claims up to 18 hours of battery life for the new unit and a low-profile, quarter-turn mount that fits easily on the stem or handlebars.
The argyle Edge 500 is packaged with Garmin’s premium soft-strap heart rate monitor, speed/cadence sensor, bike mount, AC charger, USB cable and costs US$369.99/ £279/ €299. It will be available at the Tour of California for $389.99 with a Garmin-Transitions replica jersey. The black and white Edge 500 comes with the bike mount, AC charger and USB cable for a price of $249.99/ £199/ €229. It can be paired with the other optional accessories when purchased separately to best suit each specific cyclist’s needs.
All of the data collected by the Edge 500 can be displayed, shared and analyzed on maps and charts at Garmin Connect. A recent software update to the program is available as a free download at www.garmin.com, and allows owners of any Edge 500 to design workouts with multiple steps based on time, distance, calories, power output or heart rate. This feature also allows them to establish workout targets based on speed, calories, cadence, power output and heart rate.
Garmin’s limited availability argyle nüvis feature either a 3.5 inch (1200 model) or 4.3 inch (1300 model) touch screen and cost US$130 and $150, respectively. The units showcase the brand’s intuitive interface, turn-by-turn directions with spoken street names, and the expansive database of more than six million preloaded points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations and coffee shops. Travel is simplified through nüvi’s ecoRoute fuel-efficient navigation, enhanced pedestrian options and ultra-thin design for easy portability.
For more details about Garmin’s limited edition products see Garmin and Slipstream Sports.
