Buying a GPS

[Bigwolf]

I want to buy a new GPS system but do not know which would be the best for the money.  Would like to have the free lifetime maps and traffic.  What is dependable and easy to use?

TIA,
Bigwolf

[scooperhsd]

I've been using Garmin units,  but the Zumo series (the motorcycle units) are sky-high price. I have an Arkon GPS holder that puts the GPS in a weather resistant. In order to use the traffic, you'll need to hookup the 12V power cord. They do come in different sizes (4.3 and 5 inch for the Arkon).

[PAVALKER]

It all depends on what you want in a GPS unit.....  Find one, new or used even, and you can buy lifetime maps.  I have a Garmin NUVI 660 that I got new, years ago, and paid a steep price for it.  The features it has; GPS, MP3 Player, blue tooth, FM Modulator to play wirelessly to your FM tuner, SD expansion etc etc is more than plenty for me.  These units were some of the best when they first came out, and still function great....but the prices have dropped in the used Ebay market.

Oh the Nuvi 660 does have a traffic receiver built-in, in the OEM power plug, but I rarely use that on the bike.....

[Toledo Mark]

I have a Garmin Montana and Monterra.  Geocaching is a hobby of mine and these two Garmins work great on the bike.  PLus they work as a hand held unit.  Never got lost with them. 

[MarkT]

Interesting that you posted this right now.  I was about to make a new thread recommending the Zumo665LM. (LM stands for Lifetime Maps) It's the only reasonably priced one with NavWeather, which has DOPPLER RADAR and it really works!  I was waiting to upgrade my Zumo550 until Doppler radar was available.  Then my 550 died again, and they have EOL'd it - you can't buy a "factory refurb" 550 for $150 anymore - they stopped that in Oct, they told me.  I said BUMMER, and I paid for lifetime updates too.  So they offered me a good discount on the 665, when I told them I want doppler on my new one.  I pushed for an even better price, and got the unit for $480.  MSRP is $800.  It comes with the XM antennae, and all the attachment parts you could possibly need.  Except the antenna mount, and I need another GPS mount for my wing.

It is better set up than the 550 was.  Clearly, they have Zumo users on the development team. You can config the screens.  The processor is faster. Onboard memory is bigger.  Supports up to 32GB mini-SD card. It's easier to get to the battery if it locks up & you need to power-cycle it - no tools needed (had to have an allen wrench on the 550).  Also you can reset it just by holding the power button down, if you get a glitch in the firmware, need to reboot. I read it's buggy but I haven't experienced that yet in a month's use. The "magic number" coded into the firmware limiting the MP3 count has been doubled from 1,000 to 2,000. same for the number of waypoints "favorites" supported.  It also is less sensitive to audio output impedence - that was a problem with the 550.  So you can get WAY more volume out of it.  I have mine set up to feed a mixer/preamp, and from there a 400watt Class D Blupunkt amp into 4 Alpine coaxials.  Plays much louder, love it.

BTW, the purchase includes lifetime updates - they are supposed to do it 4 times a year, but they have written some outs for themselves into the "contract".  Be sure to go to the zumoforum, great resource.  http://www.zumoforums.com/index.php?action=forum  BTW you can get aircraft and boat GPS's that also have radar - the subscription for them is about $100 a month, while the units are MUCH more expensive than the Zumo665.

This Zumo665 is my 6th Garmin model.  My only complaint is, the screen is not as bright as the 550.  I bought a shade for it on ebay.  It's also immersible to a govt standard, built to resist vibration / impacts.  Operation is by touch screen - works OK for me even with gloves.  The buttons are gone. They have also gone to a QWERTY keyboard instead of the stupid one they had before. Another cool feature - if there's weather or a traffic problem in the area - it pops up a screen and rings a chime alerting you of it, and the option to go to the weather or traffic maps.  Those maps are zoomable and are 2D style, N up.  Personally, I don't care for the 3D view, so I set mine up with 2D view, track (not North) up.  Oh, also they made the zoom function selectable - on the 550 it was auto-zoom and no choice on it.  Hated that. Now I have that crap TURNED OFF.  Also you can choose on recalculate mode - that was on the 550 too.  This new one has Trac-back, not available on the 550. Has other new functions, too. Overall it's a much better unit than the 550, IMHO. I'd bet it's achille's heel, is they don't survive solar storms all that well.  My 550's were ruined twice by solar storm EMP's.


The XM subscription is $25 / mo for me, since I took their best one to include Howard - that's $18.  The Navtraffic/Navweather is bundled at $7.  You need to set up the XM antenna to have a clear view of the sky.  I mounted mine on a Ball mount off the left reservoir bolts.  It comes with a magnetic disc for mounting on steel - I made a steel plate, glued it to a ball mount to make an adapter - which allows me to move the antenna to a car by sticking it on the roof and running the wire in through the weather strip, on the sunroof or driver's door.  This matters because the XM/Sirius subscription is linked to the antenna - and on a cage trip I want to have the Navweather/traffic as well as satellite radio w/o paying for another subscription for the car.  I'm pretty sure the antenna won't work just sitting on the dash looking through the windshield - based on it not working stuck on the tank of Deerslayer, where only my body was blocking it's view.  They say on their help/install info, it needs to be on the roof.  It has mini-stereo, audio out plug on the side of the Zumo, as well as the antenna wire loom has 4 wires - antenna, ministereo out, microphone in, and power.  In the cage, it takes 3 wires to connect it - power, audio out, and antenna.  I'd prefer one wire, or at least the power and audio wires being loomed. Maybe I'll just loom them myself. The Zumo supports BlueTooth - haven't done anything with that yet.  Don't have my helmets wired either.

I can include pics if you want.

LOVE the radar - it really works!  Today I skirted a small rain cell, and caught some sprinkles off it - the radar was dead on!

BTW the 660 & 665 are the same GPS.  The difference is, the 665 includes the XM antenna.  

Garmin Zumo 660 & 665 Motorcycle GPS Unit Overview	powered by Aeva

Garmin Zumo 660LM - Cool Features	powered by Aeva

Garmin Zumo 660LM Motorcycle GPS Review	powered by Aeva

[James III]

Did my homework over the last several months and ordered the Garmin 660LM. Also studied the Zumo 590 but couldn't justify the added price. Seems all have some bugs and glitches as in the past units, none perfect. Also adding SENA R10 Bluetooth hub and midland CB radio 75-822. Hopefully will all get shoved into my G9 Scala headset.....it's been done...we'll see!
Great info MarkT, the 550 was a pretty good unit.

James

[BnB Tom]

Also adding SENA R10 Bluetooth hub and midland CB radio 75-822. Hopefully will all get shoved into my G9 Scala headset.....it's been done...we'll see!
James

... Sena, GOOD CHOICE!!
You're gonna love the integration of all your "com" goodies. 

[DarkSideR]

They also make these new fangled things called "Smart Phones" that do all that and more. 

[dreamaker]

Something I would like to share, reading MarkT reply, reminded me of my Zumo550 issues. bought one and loved it, don't recall how long the warranty was, but about 3/4 into it my 550 took a crap. Garmin covered it, but it took a month to get it back. Down the road, just shortly after the 550 warranty ran out it died again, I contacted Garmin and the covered it free of charge, but again it took almost 30 days to get it.   Again down the road, it again malfunctioned, this time I had to pay the $150 to get a referb, and again took awhile to get it. Shortly after that, it whacked out again, I didn't want to be without the GPS on the road, so I decided to tinker with it. I don't exactly recall how I determined there was a problem with the touch screen, I went on EBay and bought a new touchscreen, I installed it and it worked fine. Now when I tried to reassemble it, the 550 started whacking out on me, and showed similar symptoms of my previous 550 issues.  I finally realized in my 550 the malfunctions where due to the touch screen, but that was not the problem.  The problem was the gasket that seals and makes it water proof touches the touchscreen and makes it malfunction.  What I noticed was uneven torque in the screws that hold the assembly causes pressure on the screen and makes the 550 malfunction. I still use that 550 because it has paid for it self. You can still buy the touchscreen on Ebay, odd thing I found out that Garmin was getting  their screen for the same people I bought mine from.  So if you are the creative type, you may be able to save some cash. Kind of in the back of my head I thought, I wonder how many people like myself paid $150 exchanged for a GPS that was basically nothing wrong with it. Just wanted to share my experience.

[MarkT]

They also make these new fangled things called "Smart Phones" that do all that and more.  

The Zumos are not internet connected - tracking you is impossible. That alone sells it to me. Screens are bigger (than some phones), brighter, and they are waterproof. Access is faster, maps more detailed, and utility is way beyond that of a phone. Routes can be planned offline and loaded.  Tracks are saved, which are handy in so many ways including in court if you need to prove speeds, timing etc. Connectivity is not an issue even in remote mountain valleys - info comes in by satellite, GPS & XM/Sirius. I don't have a satellite phone, so can't talk about their cost or if they have connectivity issues, but I understand they are pretty spendy.  Other utility, at least on the Zumos, makes them motorcycle-specific. Not to mention, they come with all the mounting and connection hardware. Works much better for me, than trying to make-do with a phone.  That's enough for me, without going into all the details.

I edited my post above with more info, if you care.

[Daniel Meyer]

Great thread. I'm needing to replace mine soon...the backlight is getting dimmer...

[dreamaker]

They also make these new fangled things called "Smart Phones" that do all that and more.  

The Zumos are not internet connected - tracking you is impossible. That alone sells it to me. Screens are bigger (than some phones), brighter, and they are waterproof. Access is faster, maps more detailed, and utility is way beyond that of a phone. Routes can be planned offline and loaded.  Tracks are saved, which are handy in so many ways including in court if you need to prove speeds, timing etc. Connectivity is not an issue even in remote mountain valleys - info comes in by satellite, GPS & XM/Sirius. I don't have a satellite phone, so can't talk about their cost or if they have connectivity issues, but I understand they are pretty spendy.  Other utility, at least on the Zumos, makes them motorcycle-specific. Not to mention, they come with all the mounting and connection hardware. Works much better for me, than trying to make-do with a phone.  That's enough for me, without going into all the details.

Another thing is, if you don't want the XM/Sirius, which myself I don't use, all the other GPS advantages are FREE. Not like a cell phone, no matter what you have, you still have to pay!!!

[cookiedough]

good thread, but I'll stick with my free road maps and my basic flip phone (no smartphone for me, too smart for me I guess?).

I am a young dinosaur I guess? 

If I traveled longer distances more frequently than at most once per year, I can see the need for one though. 

[Bigwolf]

Thanks to everyone who replied here.  Special thanks to MarkT for the great and detailed info.

Bigwolf

[hubcapsc]

Android devices can do great gps offline (no cell)...

Open Street Map data + Osmand (or possibly other apps)...

-Mike

[Wizzard]

I have a zumo 550 like new in box for sale. I don't need 2 of them.

[Wizzard]

They also make these new fangled things called "Smart Phones" that do all that and more.  

The Zumos are not internet connected - tracking you is impossible. That alone sells it to me. Screens are bigger (than some phones), brighter, and they are waterproof. Access is faster, maps more detailed, and utility is way beyond that of a phone. Routes can be planned offline and loaded.  Tracks are saved, which are handy in so many ways including in court if you need to prove speeds, timing etc. Connectivity is not an issue even in remote mountain valleys - info comes in by satellite, GPS & XM/Sirius. I don't have a satellite phone, so can't talk about their cost or if they have connectivity issues, but I understand they are pretty spendy.  Other utility, at least on the Zumos, makes them motorcycle-specific. Not to mention, they come with all the mounting and connection hardware. Works much better for me, than trying to make-do with a phone.  That's enough for me, without going into all the details.

Another thing is, if you don't want the XM/Sirius, which myself I don't use, all the other GPS advantages are FREE. Not like a cell phone, no matter what you have, you still have to pay!!!

Agreed 100%  love my Zumo

[BnB Tom]

I like the redundancy of both! 

Each has its strengths and weaknesses. 

[blastedbugler]

When I bought the Valkyrie it came with a Garmin.
Most modern motorcycle GPS provide more information than you need.
All I need is to be given directions when in a town.
I can get from one town to the next without any help.
Then in direct sunlight you cant see the screen anyway and you shouldn't be trying to do that.
I reverted back to a old TomTom One V3
Modified with a earphone jack to connect by cable to ear plugs that have mic's build in.
Now Jane just talks to me, gives plenty of advance notice, and politely tells me where to go.
I am not distracted by extraneous information so my attention is on the road ahead.
Blasted bugler
Big day in Australia today.
Celebration of 100 years since Australia joined the first world war at Gallipoli

[jimmytee]

I have a zumo 550 like new in box for sale. I don't need 2 of them.

PM me with details please