Garmin GPS - Opinions

Author

Opinions

Chuck

2007-02-21, 7:33 am

Any body have an opinion on what gps to buy for use on a Motorcycle?

Thanks

Seth

2007-02-21, 7:33 am

Michael

2007-02-21, 7:33 am

I'm running the 276C, upgraded from the Emap. Much better!

--

Mike

"Yank It, Crank It, Spank It On the Bing-Bong"

Jack Erbes

2007-02-21, 12:33 pm

Chuck wrote:
> Any body have an opinion on what gps to buy for use on a Motorcycle?
>

The zumo 550 is getting pretty popular with bikers. It is lighter, has
a better display and comes with a good RAM mount and a bunch of newer
"brain candy" features (MP3 player, XM capable, Bluetooth phone, etc.).
Street prices have the zumo 550 around $700 or $900-$1,000 with the
optional GXM 30 smart antenna (i.e., plug in receiver) for XM radio.

The zumo has some minor issues or annoyances in use (I don't have one
but some of the bike forums have a lot of info on it). But I've not
heard anyone express anything but an overall positive opinion on it.
Here is a good forum for reading about the zumo:

http://razorbiker.com/zumo/index.php

I have a 2610 and agree with Seth, it is a great piece of equipment.

If you don't want all the "brain candy" bells and whistles, just good
solid navigation features and all of them, you can get a refurbished
2610 for around $320-$350, put that on a good RAM mount for another $50
or so and have an excellent setup.

Don't buy the 2620 or 2660, those have hard drives that don't do well
with the vibration on bikes. They have not even done that well in cars,
the hard drive models were quickly discontinued and replaced with models
using flash memory for map storage. The 2610's use CF cards (up to 2
GB) and are pretty bulletproof in use.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

emmbeedee

2007-02-21, 12:33 pm

On Feb 21, 8:50 am, Jack Erbes <jacker...@adelphia.net> wrote:
> Chuck wrote:
>
> The zumo 550 is getting pretty popular with bikers. It is lighter, has
> a better display and comes with a good RAM mount and a bunch of newer
> "brain candy" features (MP3 player, XM capable, Bluetooth phone, etc.).
> Street prices have the zumo 550 around $700 or $900-$1,000 with the
> optional GXM 30 smart antenna (i.e., plug in receiver) for XM radio.

As if motorcyclists needed another distraction...

GPS is a great idea on a bike but MP3? XM? Phone?

Nah, I wanna live.

Besides, part of the reason many people ride is to get away from the
phone and everything else. I know I do.

Emm

emmbeedee

2007-02-21, 12:33 pm

On Feb 21, 9:12 am, "emmbeedee" <emmbee...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 21, 8:50 am, Jack Erbes <jacker...@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> As if motorcyclists needed another distraction...
>
> GPS is a great idea on a bike but MP3? XM? Phone?
>
> Nah, I wanna live.
>
> Besides, part of the reason many people ride is to get away from the
> phone and everything else. I know I do.
>
> Emm

Almost forgot - my choice would still be the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx for
motorcycle use. That's what I use on my R1150GS.

Emm

Jim Beachy

2007-02-25, 3:33 pm

"Chuck" < chasjohnston@sympati
co.ca> wrote in message
news:45dbb257$0$7450
$9a6e19ea@news.newshosting.com...
> Any body have an opinion on what gps to buy for use on a Motorcycle?
<snip>

I have a 2720 for my Gold Wing and am extraordinarily happy with it. The
2820 has MP3, Bluetooth, and XM Radio built in but my 1500 Gold Wing audio
system doesn't easily support all those extra inputs so I opted for the
2720. The touch screen is very convenient and the control areas are
generally sized ok for operation with gloves, but a little tricky with
winter gloves (summer gloves are ok for me) when trying to select a specific
point on the screen.

As Jack noted in this thread, the zumo is made especially for motorcycles:
The control buttons are on the left rather than the right side so you don't
have to move your throttle hand to operate it, and the touch-screen control
areas are larger (which means some additional drill-down menus) to
facilitate operation while wearing gloves. Were I to buy a unit today, I
think I'd go for a zumo.

In terms of mounting your GPS unit to a motorcycle, there are a number of
options including some Garmin mounts. RAM mounts are quite popular and very
well built (www.ram-mount.com). You will be able to find mounts to mate any
unit to any motorcycle or other vehicle

Key points for me, whatever the unit:
- Pre-loaded maps of the entire US and Canada, because on any given week of
riding I might be in Virginia one day and three days later find myself in
California or Nova Scotia or Alberta or New Mexico or....
- Touch screen (zumo, 26xx, 27xx, 28xx, and nuvi all have touch-screen
features)
- Voice guidance capable of being routed into my headset and well-integrated
with the motorcycle's audio system so that, for example, a voice prompt
mutes whatever audio source is playing in my headset at the moment.
(Kennedy Cellset Technologies offers a lot of great options -
www.cellset.com.)
- Downloadable tracks so that when I'm too old I can sit on my rocking
chair with my laptop and relive the routes I traveled :-)
- Rapid calculation ability (compared to my old StreetPilot III, the 2720
seems light-years faster)
- Portability so I can use the same unit in my SUV or a rental car when
traveling for business.

YMMV

Jim Beachy

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