Garmin zumo - the ultimate Bike SatNav?

Any u guys bought this yet? Seems to be the dogs bolox of sat nav for bikes. Am on the edge of buying something - but thort I'd wait for some feedback from users. Its only just released - may not actually be available in the UK yet...
Billy
http://www.garmin.com/products/zumo/

I think you'll find the Zumo to be the unit to get. I currently use the Nuvi in my car which the Zumo is based off of. Having used just about every system out I have found the interface of these units to be the easiest to use. They walk the line between giving you the right amount of info without cluttering up the screen, while keeping it ina compact package. There are more expensive units, and units with bigger displays, but I think you'll find this Zumo will leave you wanting for nothing. I have not had a chance to play with the Bluetooth features of these yet, but if you have the right equipment it can give you audible turn commands through your helmet audio system, and play music. Garmin hit a homerun with the Nuvi, I think the case will be the same with the Zumo.

Jim, I see you are a Garmin dealer. You might be able to get a ton of sales if do a group buy for the AdvRider forum. I for one would be in if the price was right.

10-4 on that. It is a very touchy thing being an authorized garmin dealer. Garmin has some strange pricing policies. The Zumo falls into their MRP pricing policy which stands for Minimum Resale Price. Not to be confused with their other price policy which is MAP - Minimum advertised price. With MRP dealers are not allowed to sell the unit below that price in any way shape or form. We can't give extended warrantiers to make it more desirable, can't throw in a free t-shirt, can't give any discounts at all. It would not only prevent us from selling Garmin products in the future but the user might have issues if they send their unit back to Garmin and the receipt shows anything other than the MRP price. With MAP pricing we can sell the units for whatever we want, but we have to only use the MAP price in our advertising. With that said, I would be happy to work with a forum member that owns like a motorcycle shop or something that I could sell a bunch of units to at wholesale I'm sure something could be worked out. As soon as you broadcast a price on this forum less than the MRP price Garmin would squash it, plus the receipt from the shop owner to you would show a less than MRP price which might cause future problems for you. Garmin uses a lot of teeth in describing MRP pricing, so its not something really to mess with, if you can buy a unit for less than MRP I would put in a call to Garmin to make sure it is a legit unit from a legit dealer to make sure you are covered if it breaks.

Wow - sounds like hard work buying a Garmin. The tom tom and others are always cheaper online eg. Amazon etc. But everything points to buying the Garmin. Not sure if I can wait till Christmas in the UK cos am off to Africa in November (1st). Seeing as you seem to know the score on these - which Garmin would you buy - apart from the Zumo?

cheers

Hi Bill, it depends on what you want to use it for. If it is for explring new cities a unit like the Zumo would be good as the features like POI are easily accessed. If it is for crossing a desert you would probably want a more robust unit with buttons instead of the touch screen. There must be a ton of searchable info on this site of first hand feedback on different units for the type of riding you plan on doing. I have never been to africa, so if you can desribe the type of riding you'll be doing I might be able to point you in the right direction. We sell TomTom too, but Garmin is the benchmark.

That is not true. They can't tell you what to sell it for. It is called price fixing.
I bought Garmin Edge 305 on EBAY and had a problem with it. Garmin replaced the unit under warranty w/o any problems.

If you buy a unit on Ebay then Garmin will only warrant it if the seller is a Garmin authorised reseller and you have a receipt from them.

If it is anybody else, such as one of a number of private individuals who purchase in bulk and then resell on Ebay, then you have no warranty.

Not true! They never asked me for the reciept. They sent me a box to mail it to them and when thy got it I got a new one. it only tood 10 days.

Then this is an oversight, not their normal policy

Should I forward a forum link to Garmin ?

And do what? Have them ask me for the unit back? I was very happy with their service and would recommend Garmin to all my friends. In fact 5 of my friends ride with GPS now because of me. Plus I use their monthly service for almost 2 years now.
I think that if the OEM stands behind their product and not hide behind some stupid rules they stand to gain a lot of customers.
So go and tell them on me...I'm scarred
I think that you are looking to sell the units at MSRP and you don't like my answer. I will buy my Zumo on EBAY and save $200.

MSRP on the Zumo is north of $1000.00 but dealers will sell it from $750.00 on up which I can only guess is what Garmin is saying is the minimum that they are willing to let the dealer sell this unit for. Just go to Froogle.com and type in zumo 550 and see what these dealers will be selling them for. The lowest I saw was $749.99 with several less than $800.00.

Froogle is data-feed driven. Garmin's whole MAP and MRP price thing screws up datafeeds like that so a lot of times the pricing is incorrect. Garmin is definitely not allowed to price fix, but they are certainly allowed to not offer their products to us to sell if we break their pricing policies. Their rules are crazy and put legit dealers at a disadvantage to the fly-by-nights that don't care if they get caught or not, they will just change their name and start selling again.

Whether or not Froogles prices are correct, I have already have one AUTHORIZED dealer willing to sell it to me for $775.00 US. I'm just holding off until I know when it will actually be release. (I move back to the USA at the beginning of January and if's not released until the end of December then it will be playing catch up in the mail system.)

Who says a receipt has to reflect the actual amount charged?

Hey - I only asked :)

Anyway, I'll be hanging on for the Zumo and will do what I can to get the right price - whether its ebay or a direct sale site like digi-uk.co.uk etc.

Thanks for the entertainment - one and all...

I also purchased my unit on Ebay..broke down during Hurricane Katrina...Garmin sent me a brand new one in a new box with all the goodies as well..I just sent them the unit..Took less than a week

and it'll be even more affordable for an old geezer like me!