GPS Options

[bramfrank]

FWIW, the Garmin line started in the mid-90's largely for use by military and general aviation and boating. This means the culture of reliability was probably built into Garmin production, and maybe some of that expertise has carried over to their current products. Tom Toms been around for about 5 or 6 years, built for automotive market. Not to say they arent as tough, but I would guess you could cut some corners in that market.

Good point.

Garmin's current product is *in no way* as reliable as it was 'back then' - from my vantage point there is little, if any of the company's quality heritage included in the present day automotive navigators.. Even their tech support has devolved to the point of sheer denial and knee-jerk product replacement, rather than on actually resolving issues with equipment and the fixing of software.

With the advent of the Nuvi series, Garmin moved to a 'value engineering' model and everything became cost-based, with the emphasis on adding features (which theoretically cost nothing to deploy), but also throttled back on product testing.

With the Nuvi XX5 series and beyond, they went with sub-standard Bluetooth chips, offbrand Chinese GPS receivers and such, delivering product in greater numbers with a shorter product life cycle to a mass market for which they are in fierce competition and that is built as cheaply as possible in China, catering to mass market demand for the more cosmetic benefits of sucxh things as a glass screen (the 3700 series) made popular by Apple.

 

[aroostook]

I bought a Nuvi780, I use it on the bike and in autos. Has Bluetooth, MP3 player, all in one package. Costs 1/3 of a Zumo, and does far more. Bought mounts (Tech Mount etc) that work great on the bike. No issues.
Good luck in your quest.

Your Nuvi780 interests me but a couple questions (is this considered hijacking the thread? ), how did you mount it on your bike, is it waterproof, and how do you power it. Please be specific about the mounting because I think I'm confused about how the rams work and how they attach to the unit. Thanks

 

[Maximus721]

I just bought a Garmin GPSMap60Cx this year. I have a friend that has been using one on a bike for the past 5 years with great performance. I'm extremely pleased with it. It's an old, proven design with lots of field history. It's a trail GPS, not a road GPS, so you have to purchase the road maps software to use it on the road. The unit, software, mounts, etc. was about $400. It packages very well on bikes because it's tall and narrow. It also has a power connector that is very weather resistant. It's a bit old school in that it doesn't have bluetooth, widescreen, a toaster, etc., but to me it has what I need and not much more.

 

[iboldguy]

I just bought a Garmin GPSMap60Cx this year. ........................................................................... It's a bit old school in that it doesn't have bluetooth, widescreen, a toaster, etc., but to me it has what I need and not much more.

I too use the 60Cx - very robust, works for trekking type applications, works for the road after buying the maps. It's easy to download your custom routes and waypoints etc. from the 'puter. It will calculate a route - for example "take me back to ???" The downside is smallish buttons, not touch screen, scrolling is cumbersome, not easy to put a custom route in (as opposed to unit calculated route) without a 'puter. Now if I could buy a unlimited map update card like I have for my nuvi 260W (unit not good for bike) I would be really happy.

 

[Crash Cash]

I have a TomTom 540 XXL with the lifetime maps from NewEgg. I got tired of Garmin's expensive maps that don't know about 18-year-old subdivisions. This is the first TomTom I've had.

Pros:

* Huge screen

* Lifetime free maps

* Maps are far more accurate and complete (at least in Florida) than my Garmins. The east side of Orlando is no longer a big blank area marked "here there be dragons"

* Decent GUI

* No money went to Garmin

* You can add soft buttons to main display, like "switch views"

* TomTom distributes updates from other users, so you can get "beta level" map updates from other people via TomTom before they go through years of vetting. Stuff like "this street is one-way, but it goes the other way" and "this street name is wrong" You can choose to download and trust them or not.

* Only $180 at NewEgg

* Nice "you need to be in this turn lane" indications.

* Reroutes really quickly on the fly.

Cons:

* Crap useless 3-page pamphlet manual meant it took 3 weeks to figure out routes. Once I figured them out, they're far easier to use than Garmin routing.

* No Bluetooth means no sound and no turn-by-turn directions.

* Busy 3D display means sometimes I switch to flat map-style view and had to spend time turning off 40 or 50 categories of POIs that I didn't want cluttering up the display.

* Not really readable in the sun, but then none of the color displays are.

* Stupid wording of prompts "Do you not want to skip expressways?" means you answer wrong if you're in a hurry, then you're stuck having to start your route from scratch.

* Crap Windows software. For example, you'd think the desktop s/w would have route&download, so you weren't stuck clicking on the device all the time, but no, it's just for downloading new voices, maps and updates from TomTom and that's it.

* No Linux software yet (so I have to run Windows in VMware, but apparently it can access USB ok)

* Non-user-replaceable battery. This Apple-style sealed battery trend is ******** and needs to stop. I wouldn't have bought it if I'd know that, no matter how good a GPS it is.

* My battery has never exceeded about 85% full despite being on the charger a week.

* Charger jack is USB, but due to the way the jack is recessed, only the slimline TomTom cable will fit.

 

[Yambone]

FWIW, the Garmin line started in the mid-90's largely for use by military and general aviation and boating. This means the culture of reliability was probably built into Garmin production, and maybe some of that expertise has carried over to their current products. Tom Toms been around for about 5 or 6 years, built for automotive market. Not to say they arent as tough, but I would guess you could cut some corners in that market.

Good point.

Garmin's current product is *in no way* as reliable as it was 'back then' - from my vantage point there is little, if any of the company's quality heritage included in the present day automotive navigators.. Even their tech support has devolved to the point of sheer denial and knee-jerk product replacement, rather than on actually resolving issues with equipment and the fixing of software.

With the advent of the Nuvi series, Garmin moved to a 'value engineering' model and everything became cost-based, with the emphasis on adding features (which theoretically cost nothing to deploy), but also throttled back on product testing.

With the Nuvi XX5 series and beyond, they went with sub-standard Bluetooth chips, offbrand Chinese GPS receivers and such, delivering product in greater numbers with a shorter product life cycle to a mass market for which they are in fierce competition and that is built as cheaply as possible in China, catering to mass market demand for the more cosmetic benefits of sucxh things as a glass screen (the 3700 series) made popular by Apple.

Whoa, touched a nerve there--sorry! You seem knowledgeable about the industry, I only flew in a variety of airplanes with Garmin GPS for about 15 years, and as an end user, appreciated their quality. Obviously, the industry will short cut any which way they can for the mass market to be competitive. Any thoughts on Tom Tom vs. Garmin reliabity on the lower end products as relates to motos? Which I believe what Scrib is after, along with a lot of the rest of us. :blink: .

I've just started using GPS on the road (moto and car) this year, so don't know much except it is GREAT! Still a lot to learn...

!

 

[vandy]

Trying to stay within the thread intent here but not totally sure..

The fact that the garmin zumo can upload maps is good but I'm not sure if the other garmins or the Tomtoms can.

I have a garmin 1490t nuvi. and was wondering it you can transfer map routs from your computer like you can with the garmin zumo. I know that zumo has special software that comes with it and I might have went with Zumo if it is a case of Zumo can do it and Nuvi can not.

 

[ice_station_zebra]

I have read alot about the Garmin and the issues with spending so much dough on the motorcycle specific GPS. Anyone have long term reports on using a TomTom? I have had them in the past in my cars, but wanted to get some opinions. I have no issues bagging the GPS in rain. Overall, I simply don't see myself spending all that dough for a motorcycle specific GPS when you can get one that has similar features for tons less. The way I look at it is I can buy 5-6 cheapers ones (in case they fail) before I get the spending the same money on the real expensive motorcycle GPS.
Thoughts? Experiences?

I agree...I bought a Garmin 265W and bag it in the rain. Does everything a Zumo does and cost 1/5th as much. If it craps out, I'll buy another one.