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Court
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 07:47 am: | 
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Got a very cool Garmin Nuvi 660 for my birthday.
QUESTION: (I've never touched a GPS before) Do I keep it or go back in at 10:00AM and swap it for the Zumo 550?
It's about a push price wise. How car friendly is the Zumo? |
Lost_in_ohio
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 08:04 am: |
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Used my zumo in the family truckster going to Myrtle Beach last week. Did great. Messed around with feeding the sound thru my mp3 cassette adaptor into my car stereo, I didn't like that it sounded muffled. The MP3 quality was good but the navigation voice sounded funny hard to understand. Just unplugged it and listened to the radio and let her guide me thru the speakers built into the mount.
By the way Happy Birthday Court! |
Rich
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 08:06 am: |
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Court, the 550 comes with a car mount. |
Buellinachinashop
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 08:52 am: |
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I paid alot less than Garmin's web page advertises, that's for sure. The Zumo doesn't have the Dopplar radar like my 378. I'm paying alot less than $100.00 a month too. |
Borrowedbike
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 11:39 am: |
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Court,
Happy Birthday!
The Zumo has a few features the Nuvi doesn't but they are very similar devices:
The Zumo has a Fuel tank Gage. You simply put the number of miles you get on a tank in the config, and it tracks it for you. When you reach a point it's time to get gas the Zumo pops up an icon. Touch the Icon and it tells yu where you can get gas.
The Zumo has Left hand controls. Small but Nice.
The Zumo is Water resistant. A ride in the rain will not hurt it a bit. NOt so with the Nuvi.
The Zumo has glove friendly input. It automaticly switches to large buttons (Takes more "keystrokes" but can be done with a glove on) whne it's in the motercycle mount.
Garmin offers a car mount kit with a light weight mount for the windshield, but it's $$$. I just modified a suction cup mount to accept the very heavy and durable motercycle mount (Metal and waterproof, Vis-a-vi the car plastic one) and made a 12 V power cable for th cigarette lighter. (If the 550 Comes with it, obviouslky a saved step. Amazon had good prices, well under list)
Hope this helps! |
Buellshyter
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 08:09 pm: |
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I didn't like that it sounded muffled. The MP3 quality was good but the navigation voice sounded funny hard to understand
I ran a patch cable from the stereo head unit to the mount on the 550 and the sound quality of the XM is crystal clear. Plus, pair your phone with Bluetooth and you can have hands free talk through your car's speakers. |
Hdbobwithabuell
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 10:46 pm: |
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I dunno, I got a crappy old Magellan  |
Jackbequick
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 11:15 pm: |
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Court,
I think that most bikers would prefer the zumo for one reason. It will do multiple destination routing and the nuvi will not. If you want to set up routes to take particular roads the zumo will let you do that.
On the nuvi you can pick a destination and add one intermediate stop and that is the limit of control you have over routing.
The zumo does some other good things too, like records tracks (trip records) for later use/review/analysis, the nuvi does nothing for you in that area.
You can preplan routes on a PC and upload them to the zumo. You cannot do that for the nuvi. You can send a number of destinations (Favorites) to the nuvi.
The nuvi is really aimed at a market that is not really "into" serious or thoughtful navigation. But it will get you there reliably and with a minimum of fuss if you just do like it says.
If you don't think you want the XM satellite radio stuff, look at the zumo 450, it is cheaper. You can compare the features from this page:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=135
There will be simpler and cheaper zumo 400 available soon, not sure what that will be like. The zumo 500 is the European model.
I don't have a navigation unit that calls out the street names with the turning prompts (the zumo 550 will, the zumo 450 won't). But many people are finding that feature to be of dubious value. It seems like mispronunciations are a problem and also it often pronounces a name that is not commonly known or used in cases where streets have multiple names (i.e., one road can be US 50, The Veterans Hiway, and Main Street in a certain town).
I'd swap the nuvi out for the zumo. The 550 comes with both auto and bike mounts and the bike mount is of very good quality (it is a RAM mount). The zumo will work equally as well in a car, there is probably nothing else as versatile and good for use on a bike.
Jack
(Message edited by jackbequick on August 21, 2007) |
Daveymac
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 05:15 am: |
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Garmin 2610 hook together with, Autocomm
On both My RT & Uly
Old reliable. |
Mr_grumpy
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 06:27 am: |
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Got a mk1 brain & a road atlas, works for me.  |
Buellinachinashop
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 08:46 am: |
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"Garmin 2610 hook together with, Autocomm
On both My RT & Uly
Old reliable."
I was thinking of strapping on my old 12XL, nobody would steal it, that's for sure. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 11:01 am: |
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I'd agree with Jack. My quest will let me fully control the route (multiple destination routing) and I use that feature all the time on the motorcycle... but never in the car.
On the bike, it would drive me nuts if it was second guessing and changing the routes I originally told it to take...
So I would step up to a Zumo, or down to a nice solid used Quest I (with an external antenna). |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 01:29 pm: |
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Well. . . I've decided to go with the Nuvi 660 for the car and Zumo 550 for the bikes. . . let them each shine in the arena they were designed for.
I've been using this Nuvi for a day now, never touched a GPS before, and it's simply amazing. Music, phone, live traffic updates and a slideshow of my very of pics to boot!
Thanks to all for the help and advise! |
Borrowedbike
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 06:07 pm: |
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Congrats Court! When you get the Zumo check out MyGarmin.com. It has a "Zumo Connect" that allows you to upload and download tracks and routes. Say you take a great ride, you can share it with everyone who has a zumo! OR if you come to Oregon, you tan take my favorite rides! |
Lost_in_ohio
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 09:46 pm: |
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According to the garmin site the 550 will do xm weather with the gxm30 xm antenna. Not sure about the subscription or the price for the antenna. That is really extreme. |
Court
| | Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 06:17 am: |
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I've gotta tell ya . . .I am amazed with this thing having never used a GPS before.
It's kinda cool. Now when I get hopelessly lost in the Bronx I can blame a high tech electronic device.
How are you guys with Zumo's getting the sound to your helmet. I confess I'd be interested in being able to hear voice prompts, music, phone and the whole shabang.
I've bought enough Ulysses stuff that I'm ultimately going to be forced to pop for a bike!
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Lost_in_ohio
| | Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 07:48 am: |
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Bluetooth head set. hooked right up pretty painless. I have also experimented with mp3 earbuds...corded type.
The weather portion for the xm is 99 bucks a months. Wow. |
Bake
| | Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 09:28 am: |
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Go to a phone store and get a blue tooth mic and a set of earbuds. Music will not be in stereo!!! |
Buellshyter
| | Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 09:25 pm: |
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Not sure about the subscription or the price for the antenna.
The XM antenna/receiver is about $160
The weather portion for the xm is 99 bucks a months
Nah, that's for the weather that displays the Doppler which the 550 can't display. For the basic weather multi-day forecast it's only a few bucks a month with XM radio. Plus, you get traffic, too. |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 09:23 am: |
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Anybody up on how to upload routes from something like Google Maps or Google Earth to the Zumo 550? |
Id073897
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 04:19 pm: |
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http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32 3236 |
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