Garmin 60CSx OR Garmin nüvi 500

I am keen to buy my first GPS device.

My main uses will be on a motorbike for some adventure style rides and in the car to ease the navigation burden sometimes.

$500 is what I want to spend.

So, I have come down to a choice between Garmin 60CSx OR Garmin nüvi 500.

A bonus for the nüvi 500 is the voice directions and higher resolution screen with touch screen. A bonus for the 60CSx is it's proven track record for being a robust, reliable piece of equipment.

When purchased, the unit will be mounted to a postie bike but in the future will probably end up on a DR650, XT660 or something along those lines.

I am leaning towards the 60CSx just on the weight of happy reports.

Have I missed looking at any models that compare? Any advice or opinions?

Also, are there any BAD mounting systems I need to avoid?

Regards,

Colin,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si3IoK8oLTI

Hi Colin.
I don't know much about the nuvi, but it's worth checking how functional the tracks are compared to the 60 series. The 60's do tracks very well, which is what you tend to use offroad the most.
$500 will get you a 60CSx, and for offroad there are freely available products for download, shonkymaps being a popular choice.
If you want voice guidance/directions (only available on the nuvi with voice) you will need some autorouting map software, and here you will have to fork out more money, unfortunately. City navigator, around $200, does autorouting, and the new Garmin topo for Australia also does autorouting, although I haven't tried it. The next version of OZTopo (3.x) should also do autorouting.

My own personal take on these things, voice and touchscreen sound neat, but that means you have a touch screen and a speaker to go wrong, in addition to everything else. I tend to keep it simple (KISS principle) and use a GPS as just that, no mp3 or photo's or bluetooth stuff. The 60CSx is great for a handheld, and a 4Gb microSD card is less than $20 and you won't fill it in a years riding, not even close. I also use a Touratech locking mount (approx $160) on RAM fittings, it has shock isolation built-in and I don't ever expect to lose my GPS on rough ground.

I'm also in Canberra, you're welcome to have a look at mine if you like.

Hope this helps.

Colin,

I was torn between the same two GPS units. I ended up with the Nuvi 500. From the start, I got the Nuvi from a store chain going out of business for $210. However, you can buy them new on the internet for $260-$270 several places.

The GS60csx in about $350, new. It has a "real" compass. You don't have to be moving to get direction. You also have a "real" altimeter too. The batteries, unplugged from a charging source, last several times longer than a Nuvi or a Zumo, for that matter. The screen is a skosh smaller than the Nuvi, and I have read some rider complaints about reading the GS60csx while it was mounted on the handle bar and the rider was bombing down the road.

Both units are rated, by Garmin, as motorcycle friendly. I confirmed this with a phone call to Garmin. Both are waterproof to the IPX7 standard. There is a you tube video out there showing the Nuvi 500 in an aquarium full of water and the unit works past the one hour submerged mark.

The downer for me on the 60csx was that it came with no preloaded maps. It has a very basic and almost useless set inside, not the map sets available in any Nuvi. So you have to buy your maps. The city streets cost $100 (I have seen $85 on the net). The topo maps are also $100 (again possibly $85 on the net). So you start out with $350 for the unit and spend $200 more for the map sets. You are only $200 away from a Zumo!

I suppose if you are a hunter, fisherman, hiker, bicyclist or otherwise spend lots of time out of doors, in the woods, then maybe the extra price of the 60csx is worth it. If I was a hunter I would buy the 60csx hands down.

Hope this helps some. Good luck

Hi Kevin, just noticed the prices you quote are for the US and are in US$. The Aussie dollar (south pacific peso) is worth around 72c US, and prices here are generally higher anyway due to less volume. Also the maps here are priced at double what you guys pay for them. You lucky bastards eh.

Hi GodSilla,

Thanks for your advice and offer to look at yours.

I have 95% decided on the Garmin 60CSx. Apparently, they will be in stock from tomorrow so will place an order early.

Kind Regards,

Colin,

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your advice.

Your comments have just about finalised my choice for me.

I am into just about all of the above and with the weight of opinions and happy owners on the side of 60CSx, I am going with it.

Kind Regards,

Colin,

Good choice on the 60CSx. I have one of the first ones brought into Australia (I had to wait for it to be released) and it has been very robust.

It's about the only bit of tech gear that I took on a trip in the Himalaya last year on a Royal Enfield that still works!

On mounts, steer clear of the Garmin mounts. I have a RAM mount and various brackets that have been great. I swap the mounts between car, bicycle and my Multistrada, and also use the unit handheld.

Get yourself some rechargable NiMH AA batteries and charger as the unit doen't charge itself. Also get an external power source. The screen is brighter when powered externally. I wired a "cigarete lighter" style power socket direct to my bike battery (above the instruments). The cheapest way to power it is a 12V socket to USB adaper from Jaycar (about $5) and a USB cable, although I think the proper power lead might offer some weather protection.

Interesting, I just queried using 12v power in the USB socket in another thread here.
The 12 volt round plug does indeed offer weather protection, whereas I don't recall the USB having weather seals, that would be a show-stopper for me using the usb outdoors. Looking at the connections, the round plug would seem to be inherently more stable in the device as well and should resist shock and vibration better, whereas the usb looks like over time it may suffer from shock and vibration, it just looks like it isn't meant to take that sort of punishment. Have you been using the USB for long on the bike?

As I have said in the other thread I don't really regard the round socket as all that weather proof - the pins will show corrosion.

I agree with this to a point. Especially the way the cable runs from the USB port. That said the cable vibrates loose from the round one aswell.

I don't actually use the USB on the bike any more, although I did a few times. I was a little worried about the weather proof too, although you don't want to get the instruments on a Ducati wet either!

The USB was a cheap and expedient option at the time. The genuine Garmin adapter is $$$$$$, and I wanted something until my next trip to Melbourne where I could buy a good aftermarket one.

I have a "proper" power cable set up on the Multistrada, and another in the car. They are both semi-permanant installations, each with it's own RAM mount.

I use the USB adaper and the Garmin mount I bought when I got the 60CSx when I travel by plane to use in the hire car at the other end.

And remember USB isn't 12 volts, don't just connect a USB plug to 12 volts, you need the proper adapter that steps down the voltage (5V I think)

GPSOz has plugs available for $7.50ea that you can use to make your own leads.

Hot damn, I learn something new every day.
Thanks for that snippet, I could use a couple more plugs and the last one from TT cost me more than I care to say here. I needed it quick though.

You can buy a molded 4 pin round plug with bare wires for $25

Not sure that it has the additional molded ridge for the TouraTech mount tho
.

Hi Burie, how are they hangin'?

Thanks for that info. I know GWilli uses one of yours in his TT mount and doesn't seem to have any problems, but I bought the right one anyway from TT as I didn't have the time to do the research, we were heading out to Speedweek and needed it yesterday.

BTW, the GPS was invaluable on that trip, and we would have been truly f*cked without it on one leg where we had to carry extra fuel for the 640 Adventures. Paper maps just wouldn't have cut it in any way.

When you down this way again?

Colin,

I own both of those models. I've hadthe 60csx for about 3 years. I purchased the Nuvi 500 about six months ago.

First, the 60csx is much easier to read on the bike even though it has a smaller screen. This is because the map display is much less busy than the Nuvi. Especially because of the Nuvi's 3D-like shading and contour lines. Also, I think the contrast of the 60csx screen makes it easier to use.

Second, the 60csx has a much more configurable data display that makes it much better. For instance, you cna fully configure the display to show you time to next turn, distance to next turn, time to destination, distance to destination, current speed, average speed, etc, etc. The Nuvi's data fields are not configurable.

For those two reasons, the Nuvi has been relagated to car duty for me.

However. . . The Nuvi is much easier to use with a gloved hand. It has a larger display. It comes with topograsphic maps and road maps for the purchase price. ALL maps cost extra for the 60csx.

Hope that helps,

Dan K.
Black Hawk, Colorado, USA

I am on my 4th Garmin,started with a Nuvi300(Car duties only),then bought a Quest2,which was good on the bike with size and H2O proof,but if you had your gloves on and had not entered the screen you wanted well you just didn'y use it,and now I have the Nuvi500,the only thing I have to gripe about and I have to Sensis is they have dumbed down the maps,on the 300 it would advise you of the upcoming road/intersection,the 500 only tells you what road you are on,and you have to look hard at the map for the upcoming road,even the Quest gave you the road prior to flying past it!And I also find the screen galre is a PITA,even with a sreensaver thingo on it.
Would I buy another Garmin........................probably not!since the quality and mapping is not what it used to be,I think the TomTom is my next aquisition.
Phil

Hi All,

Thanks for your input.

I ended up going for the Garmin 60CSx.

I have got city navigator on it + Shonky Topo maps. These are.....ok. Not as good as I expected though. Next purchase will be Oztopo maps. Hopefully these are better.

So far, it is easy to read, ok to navigate around and works well.

Bad points - Very hard with gloves on.

I made a custom fabricated bracket and used the Garmin bike mounting kit. Came up rock solid and looking great! It's wired in to permanent power too.

Cheers,

Colin,

This is not the Sensis mapping but Garmin responding to (car) customer demands to simplify the interface.

PS Tomtom uses the same Sensis maps
.

I had the 60C up until recently (lost it off the bike in the woods) and now have the 60Cx. I have the RAM mount for the 60C/Cx and when riding in the woods will supplement the mount with some sort of extra traction (i.e. elastic, velcro strap or some such) so that I don't get the unit ripped off the bike again after whipping against a tree branch on the trail.

I like both units and I like the fact that Cx is colour display and has more potential for storage.

I downloaded icbyus canada topo maps and while not bad, they're not great - having contours is fine, but there's a whole lot of missing information (side roads, trails, buildings, etc) in the tiles that I have tried to use.

I dumped the 256M microSD card and put in a 2GB so that I could load in the Canada Topo (East) Maps from Garmin.

However - it's been a tough go trying to download the freakin' file from the Garmin site. I'm on ultra high speed and after 15 hours, the file was apparently only 50% downloaded. I suspected that since the GPS was "ON" on the 60Cx this might have been slowing down the process. Trying again as we speak with GPS turned "OFF". Currently at 20% of the 1.5GB file after 40 minutes. We'll see how that goes.

Anyone else seeing this (issues with D/L speed)? I didn't expect downloads to take so long, esp. when attached right to the garmin server.

Can't wait to get this baby fired up.

Does anyone have any experience on how the 500 handles vibration? I'm looking at one for the KLR and obviously vibes are an issue.

Thanks in advance