I've decided on a GPS system

[PanAmerican]

I have been reading up on all the GPS posts here with a keen interest. I want to get one myself. Garmin seems to be the logical choice by popularity and features. So I looked at their four motorcycle offerings. Being an engineer I always try to do an analysis first.

The Garmin Zumo 665: Read a lot of bad Juju on many different sites and on Youtube. It seems to not be fully developed yet. Plus you need to mount the antenna off like some sort of afterthough doo-dad. I am not sure I want to use my telephone or listen to XM when I ride. I wear ear plugs and want my full attention to the idiots I share the road with.

The Garmin Zumo 660: The junior Zumo 665. All the problems with less features.

So that left me to campare the Zumo 550 and Zumo 220. After reading all the product review on the global interweb I though it would be a slam-dunk decision. I was wrong.

The best choice, for me was the Zumo 220. It cost less. It had enough battery to run a full day. And it had more features.

 

[builderwill]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

 

[diablo456]

If weatherproofing isn't an issue for you, then yes, the non-weather-proofed Garmins are a much better deal. In my case, riding in the rain means I need the Zumo series. Also, don't forget that the screens tend to wash out on the non-Zumo Garmins in direct sunlight. Make sure to check the unit you're considering under these conditions. I've got the 665, and have been thrilled with it. The weather radar is awesome, I do use XM, and the integration with the FJR and my J&M JMCB2003 was relatively painless. Works great. XM Antenna mounting on the FJR is easy, several places to put it, and it looks pretty classy. Just have to take a bit of time with the install.

I had a Zumo 550 on my older Goldwing, and it worked like a champ as well.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack.

Ditto.

 

[exskibum]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

 

[graler]

I got my 550 for about $550 from www,imarineusa.com. Just checked and they don't have them listed anymore.

Joe

 

[kamal]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

Am I not reading the specs right? Can't you listen to the 220's voice prompts via Bluetooth?

Thanks.

Al

 

[PanAmerican]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

Am I not reading the specs right? Can't you listen to the 220's voice prompts via Bluetooth?

Thanks.

Al

Yes you can.

 

[PanAmerican]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

 

[Geezer]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

Well, if you have used a GPS on a motorcycle before then I guess you know what works for you, but I tried it without listening to the voice and it was much more distracting to keep looking at the GPS that any voice commands. I also missed a lot of turns because I didn't look down at the GPS often enough.

 

[garyahouse]

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

I would agree here. I've got my tunes crankin' and I don't want Miss Loudmouth interrupting. I've got eyes and I know when I gotta turn.
-Also, concerning waterproofing: I have a 130 dollar Garmin. It works fine. I gets to wear a zip lock baggie in the rain. It works just fine in it's little baggie. I don't ride the rain that often and I'm not gonna spend hundreds extra for this feature. --Just my humble opinion.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[PanAmerican]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

Well, if you have used a GPS on a motorcycle before then I guess you know what works for you, but I tried it without listening to the voice and it was much more distracting to keep looking at the GPS that any voice commands. I also missed a lot of turns because I didn't look down at the GPS often enough.

For 42 years I have navigated my way around America with a paper map just fine. I've also got a Casio Pathfinder watch which can give me atomically accurate time, a compass, altitutde, barametric temperature and the temperature. I've got a GPS built into my car and I've muted that SOB too. When I'm traveling up WI Hyw 67 snd and looking for County Road F I don't need a voice telling me it's 2 miles, 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 100 ft, here. Seriously, maybe I'm old school about it. Just give me an arrow which way to turn.

What I want is to travel, see an interesting road, take it and know that the damn GPS will get me back home. I'm not frickin' Ferdinand Magellan tacking around the Cape of Good Hope. I can figure it out. Sometimes, I might even stop and ask directions. Meeting interesting people is part of a good ride experience too.

I'm not in that big of a hurry. I don't want people calling me on my cell phone when I'm riding. If I have to make a call, I'll pull over, park the bike and make a call. I don't want to listen to Howard Stern. NPR, FoxNews, CNN, the ball game, religious talk shows, that same rock and roll I've listened to for the last 50 years. I want solitude. It's me and the road. And this little device which can help get my tired ass home for dinner.

That's all.

 

[mferriter]

I've got the 550 and it works great aside from teh touchscreen being alittle squirrely at times when I'm tring to enter information.

I am NOT a fan of the scrolling alphabet keyboard input feature and mine ocasionally selects random letters that arent even on the screen at the time.

 

[SouthernCruizer]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

Well, if you have used a GPS on a motorcycle before then I guess you know what works for you, but I tried it without listening to the voice and it was much more distracting to keep looking at the GPS that any voice commands. I also missed a lot of turns because I didn't look down at the GPS often enough.

For 42 years I have navigated my way around America with a paper map just fine. I've also got a Casio Pathfinder watch which can give me atomically accurate time, a compass, altitutde, barametric temperature and the temperature. I've got a GPS built into my car and I've muted that SOB too. When I'm traveling up WI Hyw 67 snd and looking for County Road F I don't need a voice telling me it's 2 miles, 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 100 ft, here. Seriously, maybe I'm old school about it. Just give me an arrow which way to turn.

What I want is to travel, see an interesting road, take it and know that the damn GPS will get me back home. I'm not frickin' Ferdinand Magellan tacking around the Cape of Good Hope. I can figure it out. Sometimes, I might even stop and ask directions. Meeting interesting people is part of a good ride experience too.

I'm not in that big of a hurry. I don't want people calling me on my cell phone when I'm riding. If I have to make a call, I'll pull over, park the bike and make a call. I don't want to listen to Howard Stern. NPR, FoxNews, CNN, the ball game, religious talk shows, that same rock and roll I've listened to for the last 50 years. I want solitude. It's me and the road. And this little device which can help get my tired ass home for dinner.

That's all.

Sounds to me like you could save yourself $399.99 and cancel the order. Keep using the paper maps and the locals-pointing-the-way procedure.

That is all.

 

[PanAmerican]

Sounds to me like you could save yourself $399.99 and cancel the order. Keep using the paper maps and the locals-pointing-the-way procedure.

That is all.

There is a fine line between riding a motorcycle and riding a rolling webserver. If you can't figure out which way to go because of a service outage or a software glitch it's time to unplug from the cloud and go native.

 

[mferriter]

For 42 years I have navigated my way around America with a paper map just fine. I've also got a Casio Pathfinder watch which can give me atomically accurate time, a compass, altitutde, barametric temperature and the temperature. I've got a GPS built into my car and I've muted that SOB too. When I'm traveling up WI Hyw 67 snd and looking for County Road F I don't need a voice telling me it's 2 miles, 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 100 ft, here. Seriously, maybe I'm old school about it. Just give me an arrow which way to turn.

What I want is to travel, see an interesting road, take it and know that the damn GPS will get me back home. I'm not frickin' Ferdinand Magellan tacking around the Cape of Good Hope. I can figure it out. Sometimes, I might even stop and ask directions. Meeting interesting people is part of a good ride experience too.

I'm not in that big of a hurry. I don't want people calling me on my cell phone when I'm riding. If I have to make a call, I'll pull over, park the bike and make a call. I don't want to listen to Howard Stern. NPR, FoxNews, CNN, the ball game, religious talk shows, that same rock and roll I've listened to for the last 50 years. I want solitude. It's me and the road. And this little device which can help get my tired ass home for dinner.

That's all.

Chill, grandpa, you sound like the old geezers in the balcony seats from the old Muppet Show.

 

[RPrice]

The deal breaker for me would be no headphone jack. I could never hear voice prompts from the unit itself and taking my eyes off the road in an unfamiliar place where I need GPSdirections equates to bad things happening!

+10

The coolest and most essential thing about a GPS on a touring bike is, having carefully plotted in the route, and being far far away from home in unfamiliar territory, that the lovely GPS bitch tells you when and where to turn. Even when it's dark and raining. No audio jack out would immediately remove a unit from consideration for me, no matter what else it might do.

To me it is the last thing I want a GPS to do. I can follow the visual queues thank you very much. Besides when I'm riding - I'm listening to what's going on around me. I don't want to hear a voice telling me which way to go.

To each his/her/its own.

Well, if you have used a GPS on a motorcycle before then I guess you know what works for you, but I tried it without listening to the voice and it was much more distracting to keep looking at the GPS that any voice commands. I also missed a lot of turns because I didn't look down at the GPS often enough.

For 42 years I have navigated my way around America with a paper map just fine. I've also got a Casio Pathfinder watch which can give me atomically accurate time, a compass, altitutde, barametric temperature and the temperature. I've got a GPS built into my car and I've muted that SOB too. When I'm traveling up WI Hyw 67 snd and looking for County Road F I don't need a voice telling me it's 2 miles, 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 100 ft, here. Seriously, maybe I'm old school about it. Just give me an arrow which way to turn.

What I want is to travel, see an interesting road, take it and know that the damn GPS will get me back home. I'm not frickin' Ferdinand Magellan tacking around the Cape of Good Hope. I can figure it out. Sometimes, I might even stop and ask directions. Meeting interesting people is part of a good ride experience too.

I'm not in that big of a hurry. I don't want people calling me on my cell phone when I'm riding. If I have to make a call, I'll pull over, park the bike and make a call. I don't want to listen to Howard Stern. NPR, FoxNews, CNN, the ball game, religious talk shows, that same rock and roll I've listened to for the last 50 years. I want solitude. It's me and the road. And this little device which can help get my tired ass home for dinner.

That's all.

I'm not sure why you even asked for advice re: a GPS unit. Sounds like you, even stating you are an engineer, have it all figured out, and have actively rejected any advice from several seasoned riders.

Good for you!!

Personally, after many thousands of miles I really appreciate the nav prompts that are fed into my helmet by my Garmin 550 which is "hardwired" via an ampli-rider, into my skull candy ear buds. These noise cancelling ear buds offer stereo music, the aforementioned nav prompts and RD warnings. I read about this system on this forum, heeded the advice of members, purchased the hardware, and WOW does it work well!

I guess that's why I belong to this forum, and appreciate the advice so much!!

Good luck with your decision.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Well, being one of the old muppets from the balcony, I'm with Pan on this one. Then again...I rode to Kali last year with paper maps, no tunes, and not even a working throttle lock....so maybe I'm just a tad outside the bell curve.

 

[PanAmerican]

I'm not sure why you even asked for advice re: a GPS unit. Sounds like you, even stating you are an engineer, have it all figured out, and have actively rejected any advice from several seasoned riders.

Good for you!!

Personally, after many thousands of miles I really appreciate the nav prompts that are fed into my helmet by my Garmin 550 which is "hardwired" via an ampli-rider, into my skull candy ear buds. These noise cancelling ear buds offer stereo music, the aforementioned nav prompts and RD warnings. I read about this system on this forum, heeded the advice of members, purchased the hardware, and WOW does it work well!

I guess that's why I belong to this forum, and appreciate the advice so much!!

Good luck with your decision.

I didn't ask for advice. I stated my decision making process and why I chose what I did.

I am happy you like your decision. It's not one I would make. We have different priorities.

Life is like that.