which gps do I want

[krotchrocketgrampa]

which gps do I want, thought about a tomtom rider 2, but my riding buddy dosent like his and told me to buy a garmin nuvi for motorcycles,which one is that ?

lets hear some opinions guys :clapping:

 

[johnny80s]

It really depends on what you want to do. Go to Garmin's website and you can pick the gps for you according to what you want to do with it.

Or you could just by a Zumo. They are made for bikes. I have a Zumo 550 because it is waterproof, has bluetooth. You can also hook up XM radio to it.

 

[spyderbret]

It really depends on what you want to do. Go to Garmin's website and you can pick the gps for you according to what you want to do with it.
Or you could just by a Zumo. They are made for bikes. I have a Zumo 550 because it is waterproof, has bluetooth. You can also hook up XM radio to it.

+1... I really like the Zumo, especially with the XM. That's what sold me on the Zumo. I like using the mapping software that it comes with too. It took a little getting used to but now I like it.

 

[johnny80s]

The first two things you need to do is figure out what you want a gps to do for you and how much do you want to spend.

That might narrow down your selection fast. So tell us what you want to do and we can better advice.

 

[TruWrecks]

I have a Zumo 550 and I really like it. I'm waiting to see it there will be another Zumo after the 660 that is actually an upgrade the the 550. The 660 seems to be a downgrade in overall.

 

[obelix]

I have the Tomtom Rider 1 which is not that different. For me it's still the best unit as for it's ease of handling and performance. I'm somewhat of a GPS freak as I have a Garmin on a PDA, an Route66 on the phone, a Tomtom920 in my main car and 2 others in the other cars. Plus some others lying around and collecting dust.

I noticed the TT routing routine which is what it calculates as best route is way superior to Garmin. And this doesn't depend on maps as by coincidence on one unit is the same map as on a Tomtom. Have lots of examples on this to the point I trow the Garmin out of the window but wife dove for it so it's still there.https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//style_images/1/folder_post_icons/icon7.gif

What's annoying is their service or lack of it and the high prices for map updates after the first year.

Just me 2 Cents and this applies for Europe only for sure although I doubt there's a change in the US software.

 

[bramfrank]

As those that posted ahead of me have said, in order to decide what it is that is best for you, you need to decide what specific features you need.

For example; Do you want the unit to be able to deliver XM (satellite) radio? What about displaying weather maps? Traffic status reports in urban areas? Is a Bluetooth connection to your phone important to you? What about the connection between the navigator and your helmet? Do you even need such a connection? Is screen display quality the major definer? Does it have to have a touchscreen? Perhaps you prefer something *tiny*. Maybe you also want to use it on your boat - or maybe it should be a handheld device because you like to hike?

Most people lose sight of the fact that the manufacturers (with emphasis on Garmin) have a number of units that are 'motorcycle friendly' beyond those that are 'motorcycle-specific' and that sometimes the newest model is not always the best. That does tend to complicate the selection process, but in the end you will probably be more satisfied if you get something that does what you need it to.

The acknowledged market leader in North America is Garmin. As the previous poster said, TomTom has issues; And he is in Europe, which is where TomTom is located; Their local service and mapping isn't quite 'up there', though they do have some extremely interesting features (such as the ability for the client base to update map details on the fly without having to actually buy a new map). There is potential there, but today, in North America I'd be looking at Garmin.

Of late Garmin has been putting more emphasis on 'flash and features' over raw navigation abilities and has been reducing the flexibility and display detail of their navigators.

Some things that they've done include reducing the amount of street detail that you can display on the screen - for bikers who may like to explore this means that you are limited in how much secondary road you can display - so checking that squiggly road on the screen to see where it goes becomes a nuisance - in fact you can easily put yourself in a situation where you see no roads at all on your screen (even the one your are riding on) because you are zoomed too far out! I know that seems counter-intuitive, but that, along with a number of other recent changes make navigators just that much less useful than they used to be.

And no one is safe - the Zumo 550 (for example) used to have good street-level display, but recent updates (and I don't know if it was the operating firmware or whether it was the map data) have retro-fitted those lacks into what was an almost ideal package for bikers except for the less than ideal screen resolution and sensitivity to being washed out in bright direct sunlight.

Having said that;

Garmin makes two models these days that are specifically aimed at the Motorcycle market and are delivered with the bits and pieces to mount the unit on your ride and in your car. They are 'all dressed' in that they both have extensive Bluetooth capabilities and can operate as MP3 players. Those are the Zumo 660 and Zumo 550. As Truwrecks says, the 660 is actually a downgrade in terms of it's basic feature set from the 550, though it does have offer widescreen format. The 660 is also one of the buggiest products that Garmin has ever released.

But there are other current and not-so current devices in their product line-up that you can consider using without modification; Then there are many riders who have chosen to use regular automotive or handheld units even though they may not be built to withstand the rigors of the bike environment;

A cheap navigator can be replaced (and for the two you will pay less than you might for a single motorcycle-specific device) if you you don't get out the baggie to cover it quickly enough when it rains or if it shakes itself to death; However the problem is that the failure almost always occurs at the worst possible time - do you really want to carry a spare unit in your saddlebags for such an eventuality?

In Garmin's current product line-up, there are two motorcycle-specific models, as mentioned;

Zumo 550

Zumo 660

Then there are a couple of 'Motorcycle-friendly units;

Nuvi 500 (US street maps and US Topo maps)

Nuvi 550 (North American street maps - no Topo)

Marine/Automotive dual mode units are also rated as Motorcycle-friendly (and have the BEST screens out there);

GPSMAP 276c

GPSMAP 378c

GPSMAP 478c

GPSMAP 640

Handhelds are waterproof and can take a beating (I'm not going to get model-specific. There are just too many applicable models);

Dakota

Oregon

Colorado

GPSMAP

And then there's the extremely interesting Rino handheld series - a way too small screen, but the unique ability on some models to track other Rino users while providing a short range portable radio interface

There are the very appropriate, but discontinued models that can often be found as factory refurbished (which is as good as new) for a fraction of the price of the latest technology, yet do exactly the same thing in terms of naviation, often with better street displays and such;

2610

2720

2730 (comes with XM receiver)

2820

376c (comes with XM receiver)

Quest

Quest-2

Zumo 450

And I haven't mentioned the multimode Automotive/Aircraft models, though they tend to push pricing way beyond what anyone realistically wants to spend.

Hope this helps as a starting point - you can research the specific models and price them out from here;

 

[MCML]

Just to muddy the waters further. One of the riders up at CFR this year was running one of the marine units. He had a subscription to four-color real-time weather radar which would display on the GPS screen. Pretty cool. Is that service only available on the marine units?

 

[Fred W]

Yeah, man. Having a weather overlay capability does sure seem like it would be an desireable feature on a motorcycle specific GPS...

C'mon Garmin... get your sh*t together!!

 

[HaulinAshe]

I have a Zumo 550 and I really like it. I'm waiting to see it there will be another Zumo after the 660 that is actually an upgrade the the 550. The 660 seems to be a downgrade in overall.

As of last week, not anymore. The 660 firmware has finally caught up to, and slightly surpassed the 550 level of functionality.

Now when I had the 660 in View Map mode and powered off, it restarts in the View Map mode automatically.

Woooohoooo!!!

 

[bramfrank]

Just to muddy the waters further. One of the riders up at CFR this year was running one of the marine units. He had a subscription to four-color real-time weather radar which would display on the GPS screen. Pretty cool. Is that service only available on the marine units?

You can get Nexrad displays in the most marine chartplotters, but it is relevant to us riders in the dual-mode marine/automotive units - the 378c, 478c and GPSMAP 640. You need the XM pod and the appropriate subscription - the feature is also available on the 376c, but the model is not current and you need to hunt around to find one of those. You can't get the feature on the 276c.

Note that the 'nextgen' (my term) Nuvis can have weathermap displays (not official Nexrad stuff as far as I know) as a function of the advanced MSN Direct release, but the problem is that MSN Direct is an FM SCA service and is only available in select markets and, the Zumo 550 doesn't support the mapping and the 660 doesn't support either XM (at all) or MSN Direct (in the bike mount).

However, there is a limitation with the GPSMAP 640, which is otherwise an absolutely lovely device in that you have to switch it to marine mode to see the weather map display - as well, the tracklog is limited in automotive mode. There's more, but this isn't about the 640.

 

[bramfrank]

As of last week, not anymore. The 660 firmware has finally caught up to, and slightly surpassed the 550 level of functionality.Now when I had the 660 in View Map mode and powered off, it restarts in the View Map mode automatically.

Woooohoooo!!!

What version of software did you get last week?

Aside from what I've called 'the fluff', what have they done to the Zumo 660 to make it 'surpass' the 550? All they 'fixed' in 3.10 was a part of the recalc bug and they allowed access to the browse map directly when in the powered motorcycle mount. And those fixes were not documented.

The present software release is 3.20 and that has been out for exactly a month. NOTHING was corrected by that except for something with the Croatian language and the fact that they managed to break the update module so that the webupdater now wants to re-update the firmware to 3.20 each and every time you connect.

Can you see the secondary roads when zoomed out to a half-mile or more?

Does it display upcoming cross street names on regular roads? Or does it still stay ''driving on jhgcdbhjb' (where 'jhgcdbhjb' would be replaced by the name of the current road), which is as useful as a paperweight?

Does the Bluetooth work properly?

Does the built-in microphone shut itself off when you have the external microphone connected while using the motorcycle mount?

What about the fact that it spontaneously shuts itself off under very repeatable circumstances?

What about the remaining recalc and route import bugs?

What about that the tracks don't properly display or log?

What of the fact that the screen drawing freezes, usually at critical times?

Have they corrected ANY of the literally dozens of outstanding bugs in the unit?

. . . . and the rest.

As to your comment about how it powers up, you probably are not switching it off, but rather are putting it in suspend mode by pressing the power button with the power connected . . . . . look closely at the display when it is in this mode and it will say something like 'charging battery' with the backlighting down at about 5%.

When you cold start a Zumo (any model, or any Nuvi I've ever played with) it boots to and sits at the agreement screen for a while and then goes to the 'what do you want to do?' screen that displays the 'where to' and 'view map' buttons. If you wait around long enough and are in motion some models will eventually switch to show the map.

 

[salan10]

I've used a Nuvi 350 and currently have a Nuvi 750 that I use on the FJR. They both work fine on the bike. You will need to get a Control Mount and the craddle for the particular model you buy. I haven't had the pleasure yet of riding in the rain with it but I carry a plastic bag just in case.

https://estore.websitepros.com/817592/Detail.bok?no=3

 

[HaulinAshe]

What version of software did you get last week?
Aside from what I've called 'the fluff', what have they done to the Zumo 660 to make it 'surpass' the 550? All they 'fixed' in 3.10 was a part of the recalc bug and they allowed access to the browse map directly when in the powered motorcycle mount. And those fixes were not documented.

(...)As to your comment about how it powers up, you probably are not switching it off, but rather are putting it in suspend mode by pressing the power button with the power connected . . . . . look closely at the display when it is in this mode and it will say something like 'charging battery' with the backlighting down at about 5%.

When you cold start a Zumo (any model, or any Nuvi I've ever played with) it boots to and sits at the agreement screen for a while and then goes to the 'what do you want to do?' screen that displays the 'where to' and 'view map' buttons. If you wait around long enough and are in motion some models will eventually switch to show the map.

Easy there bramfrank...

I loaded 3.20 last week, maybe it was two weeks ago. It fixed WAY more than the documentation claimed.

I own both the 550 and 660. I have over 75,000 miles on the 550 and know it pretty well. The best way I know to characterize my current experience with the 660 is to simply say, "It now works as well for me as the 550 did, and in some ways is superior."

Does the Bluetooth work properly? Yes, as well with my Motorola-Q smartphone as the 550. Remaining issues are definitely the phone. The-Q hates Bluetooth and always has locked up after repeated phone calls. Garmin has apparently changed the 660 firmware to cause it to simply give up on Bluetooth, rather than lockup when communication cannot be resolved. The GPS continues to work fine and simple reset of my phone restores BT.

Does the built-in microphone shut itself off when you have the external microphone connected while using the motorcycle mount? Yes, at least cell phone conversations thus far have been good.

What about the fact that it spontaneously shuts itself off under very repeatable circumstances? Not anymore.

What about the remaining recalc and route import bugs? Much improved by my perspective.

What about that the tracks don't properly display or log? Better, but not perfect.

What of the fact that the screen drawing freezes, usually at critical times? Much better.

Have they corrected ANY of the literally dozens of outstanding bugs in the unit? I worry about the ones that bug me. They've come a long way, but until Garmin pays me to test, I'm not going deeper than I need to.

My motorcycle base is ignition switch triggered. I use the Cig Lighter Socket circuit to power it and the RD. I turn off the ign switch with the 660 in the View Map mode and walk away. When I come back to the bike, turn the ign switch on, the 660 power cycles, flashes briefly at the What Do You Want To Do menu screen, then moves immediately into the View Map screen/mode. It's one of the best improvements I've seen.

 

[v65]

I've used a Nuvi 350

Yup, cheap and easy.

 

[bramfrank]

Easy there bramfrank...
I loaded 3.20 last week, maybe it was two weeks ago. It fixed WAY more than the documentation claimed.

I own both the 550 and 660. I have over 75,000 miles on the 550 and know it pretty well. The best way I know to characterize my current experience with the 660 is to simply say, "It now works as well for me as the 550 did, and in some ways is superior."

FYI 3.20 was released July 10. 3.20 did nothing useful relative to 3.10.

I'm not going to address the specific issues, but rather I suggest you might want to go to www.zumoforums.com and have a wander about. They're a pretty anal group, highly defensive of the product. But even they have no notion that the 660 is anywhere close to what it has to be.

 

[HaulinAshe]

FYI 3.20 was released July 10. 3.20 did nothing useful relative to 3.10.
I'm not going to address the specific issues, but rather I suggest you might want to go to www.zumoforums.com and have a wander about. They're a pretty anal group, highly defensive of the product. But even they have no notion that the 660 is anywhere close to what it has to be.

It was one of the first places I visited after buying the 660. Some good info there.

I care most about the features I use often. I would gladly get on the bike with the 660 mounted, and go across country running complex routes each day, just like I did with the 550 in mid-June. I own them both, I'm using them both, I like them both, and I'm feeling much better now about the money I spent on the new 660. I stand by that assessment.

 

[johnny80s]

krotchy never did post up what he was looking for in a GPS. Well...

 

[Fred W]

krotchy never did post up what he was looking for in a GPS. Well...

He wants global positioning in a system, silly!