Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS

There are some products that come along and you wonder how you got along without them and then there are those gadgets that are just really cool to have. The Garmin Forerunner 305 fits into both categories.
You you could get the same benefit from using a Heartrate Monitor, Cycle Computer, altimeter, tectonic maps, and a compass but that wouldn't leave much time for riding. This relatively small device (it is big for a watch) Packs a lot of features Including the above mentioned HR, Speed, Distance, ride time, Optional Cadence, Elevation gain and decent. When you get back from your ride you can upload it to Motionbased to overlay the ride over a variety of maps. You can also play back your ride and watch a real-time chart of your statistics. The lite (free) version allows you to view your last 10 rides, whereas the pay version allows you to store and view unlimited rides and provides some additional reporting and filtering features. You can even download yours or other riders previous rides to the Device and then virtually ride against them. This has been a great training tool as well as a way to share and remember the rides you have done. If you perform other activities i.e. Run, Hike, Kyak, etc. the forerunner is for you. If you plan to use it just for cycling you may want to check out the Edge which has some more on device features and mounts directly to the bike.
The Forerunner is around $300 and the Edge is around $375