When you think of the Garmin Forerunner 405, or any forerunner watch for that matter, you immediately think of running as its main physical activity. This line of thinking is perhaps further supported by the name in which the runner is already mentioned. While you would not be wrong in thinking this way, the Garmin Forerunner is actually a very capable GPS powered watch even in other activities.

One of the activities other running where using the Garmin Forerunner 405 is ideal is cycling. You can connect the Garmin Forerunner 405 and its sensors to your bicycle and you could track your training progress just as if you were running.

Here are some of the things that you can notice or expect from the Garmin Forerunner 405 while you are cycling:

A very intuitive menu:

When it comes to running watches, or in this case, cycling watches, having an easy to use and intuitive menu is critical. After all, you want to be able to focus on your cycling and not be distracted by your running watch.

In this regard, the Garmin Forerunner 405 performs well. It has a very interesting method for selecting menus. There are two hard buttons on the right and four places on the bezel for menu selection. You then perform circular motion on the bezel to be able to select items from the menu. This intuitive method is like the one used for the popular music player called the iPod.

This is quite incredible because I just need a few gestures to be able to see the data that I need or change the functionality of the watch.

Difference with other cycling computers:

A difference that the Garmin Forerunner 405 has with other cycling computers is in the way that they would track your data.

Most cycling computers would usually rely on getting the circumference of your wheel to be able to get the distance travelled between two points. On the other hand, this Forerunner uses GPS technology to be able to compute your distance.

There is no trouble with either method since the difference is usually just around 1-2%. This is not bad at all when it comes to tracking data.

Virtual Partner:

One thing that you can find very nice with the Garmin Forerunner 405 is the virtual partner feature. The virtual partner screen shows an imaginary cycling buddy that can help keep you company or pace you while you do your activity.

The virtual partner can help give cyclists a visual representation of how you are progressing on your target times or distances. This is great when you are doing your solo runs, or do not have a “training buddy” to do your activities with.

As you can see from these features, the Garmin Forerunner 405 can perform quite well when you use them for cycling purposes. This just shows how varied the situations or activities wherein this GPS enabled running watch can help your training.

As mentioned before, despite the Garmin forerunner being a very durable and good line of running watches; it would still be quite normal for it to have some issues after you use them. After all, there are plenty of situations that you may encounter which could add to the wear and tear that caused these issues.

These situations may be environment related, simple wear and tear and use, or even caused by the misuse of the owner. Whatever the cause however, one of the more important things to understand regarding them would be what kind of issues they are.

By being able to understand the type of problem that you have with the Garmin Forerunner, It would become much easier for you to fix it so that you would be able to go back to focusing on your running or training.

When it comes to issues regarding the Garmin Forerunner they are usually divided into three:

Software issues:

A software issue is related to the program inside the Garmin Forerunner running watch. It could be some menus not appearing on the display, some illegible fonts, difficulty in transferring your workout data to and from the running watch, or even problems with your training log and training history.

When software issues happen it is usually caused by a glitch or a bug in the system of the running watch. Usually, one would be able to fix this by doing a firmware upgrade by connecting the Garmin Forerunner to a computer.

The great thing with a Garmin Forerunner is that Garmin is continuously providing firmware updates to fix the known issues regarding their line of running watches. Also, Garmin Forerunner’s are very easy to connect to computers. This makes the task of updating firmware much easier to do.

Hardware Issues:

As the name implies, hardware issues are those that are related to the hardware. These are usually problems with the buttons, the wiring, the GPS receiver, and the LCD of the running watch (probably the most common issue).

Now, fixing hardware issues is not as easy as that of software issues. After all, upgrading firmware is easy, but replacing the Forerunner’s parts is not. When this happens, your best bet would be to take it back to the shop that you purchased it in, and go for servicing.

You could also contact Garmin so that they would advise you on what to do with it. More often than not, a hardware issue would be resolved by asking you to send the watch to them so that they would be able to fix or replace it for a fee (except for those that are still under warranty).

User issue:

Lastly, an issue could also arise if the user does not know how to properly operate the Garmin Forerunner. The best way to solve this would be to read the manual so that you would be able to fully utilize the excellent features and high end capabilities of your Garmin Forerunner!

If you would need additional help, then you can go online so that you would be able to ask experts about your running watch in the official Garmin running watch forums.