UKH

So my ancient but oh so reliable Garmin 310xt has bitten the dust. It'll still work but the sealing has gone and water ingress is inevitable now. 

So... 

I'll be heading off into Google land to search out options but what is out there? 

Main criteria:

- Had the 310xt on a Garmin back plate which meant I could interchange between bicycle or wrist strap with just a twist. This is a biggy for me. Don't really want two devices. 

- Long battery life. The ancient 310xt was still good for 14hrs. 

- Press button rather than touch screen (not a deal breaker). 

- Bluetooth upload rather than Ant+ (310xt was Ant+ but I've heard Bluetooth is better at transfer). 

- Plenty of optional data fields. Preferred set up for riding was Speed/Avg Speed/Distance/Total Ascent. Running was the same but swap Avg Speed for Pace. 

- As cheap as possible and I'm not tied to Garmin of another brand offers what I require. 

Cheers. 

Stuart. 

Do you have any sensors it needs to link to? 

Heart rate important to you? Chest strap? 

As it's is in the bike Forum in guessing bike, but what other things? Run, pool swim, open water swim, triathlon? Other sports?

Polar vantage M? 

Id  forget suunto.

Coros pace

Garmin... Probably the 935... But that's £100 more.

Other people? 

My standard reply to these sort of things is always Garmin Fenix 5 or upwards in whatever model you can afford/justify

No. Gave up on cadence sensors years ago. I can feel better just off perceived effort. 

No. Again I've got pacing dialed in now. 

Just running. This seems to be the potential sticking point in that apparently the firmware for just cycling computers is naff when it comes to running (arm action/swing). 

Cheers. Food for thought. 

Do I need to sit down when I look at the price? 

Probably, but we are on the Garmin 6 range now, there was the 5 plus and 5 before that so a 5 should be cheaper and is still a pretty good unit, i'm more than happy with my 5, don't see any reason to upgrade.

Quite a few running/biking friends using the Garmin 735XT and rate it.

About £200 on Amazon, but been as low as £175.

The 745XT is meant to be coming soon.

Thanks all. Means I've got a starting point rather than going straight to Google! 

You can have my old 310xt if you want to rekindle that flame?

Thanks for the offer. I might be able to weatherproof mine enough until September - my birthday. The family have been informed! 

Garmin do a good discount (30%?) when your old device dies. If you e-mail their customer support they can point you to the process. I did it recently. You select the device you want from their website, they send you the form with the discounted price and a reference number. You send in your old device, pay for the new one and they send to you. I forget at which point you pay but its basically the process.

The f6 base (no maps or WiFi) is now £370 on amazon. Presumably to hit the gritx market. The 945 is now low expensive than a f6, albeit that that has maps from my understanding

Thought I'd reply and complete the circle. 

Firstly thanks for all the pointers. Good food for thought. As it was I managed to resurrect the 310xt and bodged something that might keep out a small amount of moisture. Under a rain jacket it'll probably be OK. On a bicycle? Nah. So it's sidelined for running only. 

For the cycling I opted for a Garmin 130 which for the dozen or so rides I've been on, seems like it does everything I need. The nav system is basic (as I knew it would be) but easy to follow.

The data fields are plentiful and easy to arrange.

Did a couple of back to back five hour rides without recharging and the battery had a little bit of juice left.

Got BC discount plus Quidco at Halfords and ran it through one of those money saving apps too, so about £20 off ticket price.

So far, so happy. The suggestion about a discounted replacement through Garmin will be something I look into as I'll very likely end up having to get a dedicated running watch soon. 

Thanks all.