| Author | Message | ||
     Weecorey |
Seen one of these for sale locally, has anyone any experience with them? Are they a bit dated now? Guy wants $80 for it, no mount/box/instructions, just an ac charger. | ||
| Froggy |
Garbage. Great GPS about 10 years ago, but you are getting ripped off at $80 without mount. Also the antenna WILL break. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Without the mount that may be a bit high. The maps will be out of date (2007 I think is the latest you can get) and you may have some headaches getting the licensing activation key you need to actually us the thing (you can probably do it, but it may take a few weeks and a few conversations with Garmin). So there is a lot of headache down that road waiting for you. You should also order some spare external antennas because the one on there is either already broken or about to break. ($30 for two shipped). That being said, I am still using quests over the other "cheap" garmins... because they are still better. They are weather proof, they can be operated with gloves, and most importantly they support honest to God point to point routing... you control every last bit of the route. Other cheaper garmins just let you set start and end points, and you are subject to the GPS decisions in between (which generally miss the best roads because they are also the least direct). Learning how to set up the routes and tweak the Quest to really work right for routing is a lot of work, but myself and others have worked it out and can help you. At the end of the day you will be able to set a detailed route up on your laptop, download it to your Quest, and have it follow it with a really nice summary screen of how far until you have to do the "next thing", and what that "next thing" is (i.e. right on foo road). It doesn't sound like much, but getting that working right lets you plot some bizarre routes down the most forsaken goat trails and link them all together into some killer rides. Ask Jim Bantz and Jim Atterberry about the ride through Kentucky to go see Hillbilly Ed. I think we found roads the locals didnt even know about. So your choices today are either a cheap quest (with all its hard work and limitations) or a Zumo (with a $400 price tag, and fewer limitations, but it is still a bit technically duanting to plot and follow a route). The other option is just a $79 cheap car Garmin. That won't let you plot routes to follow, but it will let you set destinations, so you can set one up for where you know you have to end up, then start meandering a particular direction, and always know how far you are from "home base" and how to get there when things start going sideways (for example you are on a KLR-250 on the Cherohola Skyway at 4 pm, with no tools, and night approaching, and there is a thunderstorm approaching, and you are suddenly down on power and overheating. DAMHIK).  (Message edited by reepicheep on August 08, 2012) | ||
| Uly_man |
"Garbage." Yep I had one with the 06 bike. I have a Zumo 550 now but only because I got it for next to nothing. It is a quality item, works well, Garmin back up and service is good. I still use a map though. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Zumo's rock... How cheap are the cheap ones getting now? One that will allow you to create and download an arbitrary and specific route, that you can protect from having "fixed" by the GPS unit after download? That's my litmus test. My last Quest I got on ebay was $40, and that was probably 2+ years ago. Again though, getting power to them without the factory motorcycle adapter is a headache, and understanding how to set them up and use them takes some investment. But the Zumo is no walk in the park either. The touch screens die (easy to fix, but so is the Quest antenna). And it is STILL really complicated to go from "a Zumo just showed up from the UPS truck" to "I have a detailed route specifically planned and loaded on the Zumo and understand how to use it to navigate while doing the ride without it getting fouled up by rerouting". I agree $80 is a bit pricey though, particularly without the license keys and power adapter. | ||
| Uly_man |
My Quest was very slow to use. It would take forever to locate the sats. The Zumo is real fast for this and to re-cal a wrong turn. A used Zumo 550 still commands a big price even now. The basic functions of a 550 are easy enough to use and it has all the gizzmos like MP3, Bluetooth, SD card and the like. It just costs a lot. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The Quest 2 can get slow redrawing sometimes... but with a good antenna (either internal or external) it should get a re-lock within 60 seconds of power up (often closer to 20 seconds). If you put the poor thing to sleep, move it several hundred miles, then tell it to find itself, it can take a few minutes (maybe 5). | ||
| Weecorey |
thanks for the advice folks, think I'll pass on it. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I'd put a fair price at closer to $40. The mount is probably more valuable than the actual unit at this point in time... You can work around the lack of a mount, but its a hassle. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I have no complaints at all about my Quest. It's compact size makes it usable for hiking and bicycling as well as motorcycling. The point to point routing is a great feature, as is the track-back option when exploring old mining roads. Two things that you don't get on newer sat-nav systems. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
OK. One complaint. No maps beyond 2009. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Weird, I still get new maps for my Q2...maybe that's the difference, Quest versus Quest2? | ||
| Reepicheep |
It is Rat, Q2 uses the NT map set, Q1 uses non NT maps. The NT maps carried on much longer. The Q2 feels slower to me though. | ||
| Ratbuell |
yeah, but my Q2 flat refuses to die. I have lost some pixels on the screen from heat, so if anyone has a parts unit I'm interested in a good screen...but other than that, I haven't had any issues with it. It can be slow when recalculating...but that's half the fun of riding and getting lost! | ||
| Prior |
I had a Quest, got rid of it, ran another car GPS for a bit and good friend hooked me back up with a Quest- I'm happy to have one back. Yeah, old technology, but it's just enough GPS for me to route a great track that you'd not get with most other models, or just get lost, follow the front wheel and hit the home button to get me back for dinner. That's what I'd prefer anyway. I do have a friend that uses the HD map planning tool and dumps routes to his Zumo 660 which seems to work quite well (took me on some crazy routes through WV and OH to my bachelor party), but the price tag for a 660 can buy a set of tires and a LOT of gas. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I'm with Prior - I don't need a ton of gadgets. "Route Home" when it gets dark or a wall of water is coming my way, and that's about it. I'll also use it to find addresses once in a while, and I have a car cradle for it, but if I don't know where I'm going, I'm not going all that fast anyway so the slower re-routes don't bother me. | ||
| Reepicheep |
If you are also carrying a smart phone anyway, the limitations of the Quest are a little less limiting. I have been meaning to do another write up on Quest route planning and GPS setup that we can all contribute too... I finally found the magic setting that puts up a big navigation box to the right of the map while you are following a route... it shows you the next thing you have to do (i.e picture of a right hairpin or gentle left) with a "distance till you do it" count down. If you get off route, the arrow points... um... I'm not sure. Either back towards the nearest part of your route, or to the ultimate destination. I have to play with it. And of course you turn off auto-recalculate when you are trying to follow a route. Inevitably you end up off route (construction detour, out of date maps, whatever). If you let it recalculate, it's actually smart for the first two recalculations (getting you back to your previous route) but on the third it goes back to a boring direct route (I think). | ||
| Harleywern |
It was not even great when Harley/ Buell started to sell them. Piece of trash. Just got it because I wanted genuine HD stuff. Now I have the Zumo 660 and love it. Not cheap but well worse the money. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
All of you with POS Quest and Quest IIs can send them to me. They seem to work just fine in central Arizona. That way I'll have a spare or two. Maybe just have one dedicated for hiking and one for bicycling. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Agreed mark, I have 3 working ones and 1 parts one stashed away that I collected cheap over the years. They work great for me. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
they are certainly NOT a Zumo 550, but they get the job done for a fraction of the price. I like mine. | ||
| Harleywern |
@ Mark, I had a Harley Conquest and a Quest2. They were European versions, but the Quest had US maps loaded as well. When I was in the States in February, I used it in Arizona and it did not work as it should. Both of them I sold at ebay. For the Quest I got back what I paid. But that was just for the US maps. (Message edited by harleywern on August 11, 2012) | ||
| Weecorey |
Any idea as to where I would get the mounting bracket ect if I did buy the unit? | ||
| Ratbuell |
ebay. They're everywhere. Search "garmin quest". If you don't find any, let me know and I'll search. I check every couple of weeks, trying to find a parts unit for a screen for mine, but all I get are dozens and dozens of mounts. | ||
| Weecorey |
Cant see the original Buell mount on ebay.  | ||
| Ratbuell |
The original Buell mount is going to be nigh impossible to find. You'll need to go with a RAM mount or comparable. Anything for a 7/8" handlebar will work. | ||
| Reepicheep |
There are two questions in mounting... first how do you securely mount the GPS to the bike. That's easy, the RAM plastic bracket mount with the RAM arm and ball hardware for whatever you want works great. That doesn't power the quest though. To power it, you can take the cable off your Quest AC charger (came with the Quest, not with the Quest II, go figure). You need a 5v regulated converter, and the RAM mount *does* have the right setup to allow you to use a small screw and put that cable in the right place. It gets flaky over time on a motorcycle though. Garmin has a true motorcycle mount, which replaces that RAM bracket that actually holds the GPS, and includes its own power adapter with a regulator built in and gold plated fingers for the power leads that are much nicer and more durable. This is the really nice setup, and they were always $70 or so, I never saw them cheaper. The Buell factory mount used that Garmin motorcycle mount (great) with an oddly over engineered and inflexible mounting setup. If you can find it for a fair price relative to the factory garmin mount, get it for sure. But I would consider using it with a RAM ball setup instead of the stamped steel plate it comes with (pictured above). | ||
| Ratbuell |
I have Garmin cradles (the plastic piece the GPS snaps into) in 2 jeeps, a diesel truck, on the S1W, S2, Uly and CR. Every one is on a different bracket: Uly and S1W: Buell bracket (nice because it puts the buttons within a fingers' reach) S2: HD microphone mount bracket for an '89 FLH CB radio CR: completely homemade, mounted to the handlebar clamp The bracket is the least important; the cradle is the big one. | ||
| Tjmacf |
you can still get q2 on amazon. new, used or refurbished with or without mount. just make sure you get the correct version for your region, dont think you can reformat only update. | ||
| Weecorey |
The unit that I was offered for £50 ($80) is now at almost £70 ($110) on ebay! Still has 1 day to go. |
