Opinion on Garmin Nuvi 50 GPS?

[russperry]

One thing I dont have for my bike is a GPS. Ive always used my phone, but it can be a little tedious.

WalMart has the Garmin Nuvi 50 for $69 for black friday...so far all my reading tells me this is a great deal. How does it look to you guys?

I'm not sure if this would work for you, but any reasonable smart phone can be a brilliant GPS unit. I'm only familiar with the iPhone, but I'm sure Android phones are similar. I've got 3 different nav packages installed, only 1 of them cost me more than $1. There's no single GPS unit that does everything (at least that I've heard of), but with the ability to run multiple apps you can get everything covered.

So this is what I do with my iPhone and Sena headset:

1) Music via bluetooth

2) Bike to bike comm (either Sena Bluetooth or GMRS)

3) For simple commuting - run Waze - real time traffic and LEO activity - only works in cell coverage

4) Longer range - run these 2 simultaneously

a) MotionX GPS for route tracking and storage - includes speed and elevation profiles - better resolution than SPOT but cannot send out your position or messages so I use both

B) Navigon (the paid package - $30 for Western US)

5) Oh yeah - use it as a phone

Add a waterproof case (I use LifeProof - highly recommneded) and you have a very robust all around unit with very little additional cost (presuming you don't buy the phone just for this).

 

[Linc]

One thing I dont have for my bike is a GPS. Ive always used my phone, but it can be a little tedious.

WalMart has the Garmin Nuvi 50 for $69 for black friday...so far all my reading tells me this is a great deal. How does it look to you guys?

I'm not sure if this would work for you, but any reasonable smart phone can be a brilliant GPS unit. I'm only familiar with the iPhone, but I'm sure Android phones are similar. I've got 3 different nav packages installed, only 1 of them cost me more than $1. There's no single GPS unit that does everything (at least that I've heard of), but with the ability to run multiple apps you can get everything covered.

So this is what I do with my iPhone and Sena headset:

1) Music via bluetooth

2) Bike to bike comm (either Sena Bluetooth or GMRS)

3) For simple commuting - run Waze - real time traffic and LEO activity - only works in cell coverage

4) Longer range - run these 2 simultaneously

a) MotionX GPS for route tracking and storage - includes speed and elevation profiles - better resolution than SPOT but cannot send out your position or messages so I use both

B) Navigon (the paid package - $30 for Western US)

5) Oh yeah - use it as a phone

Add a waterproof case (I use LifeProof - highly recommneded) and you have a very robust all around unit with very little additional cost (presuming you don't buy the phone just for this).

Agree completely, I headed out on my 3,000 miles trip (just posted the R/R last night) planning on using my Garmin Nuvi 1450 as my main navigator. Major issue with the screen brightness being very hard and unsafe to read at interstate speeds in daylight. Also was definitely not water resistant and it rained 6/10 days! The 1450 has no Bluetooth connectivity, nor an earbud jack. Ended up searching GPS apps on ADVRider forum and went with MotionX GPS for my iPhone 5. Worked awesome, very accurate and displayed all the info I wanted. Easy and extensive database of POIs, and spoken street names are only $10 per year, good deal!

Can't preprogram routes, but it still worked much better than my auto-targeted Garmin. Give the smartphone a try, it'll surprise you and for a lot less than a Zumo! I kinda still lust after a Zumo though.... Is that wrong?

Abe in Michigan