Garmin zumo - the ultimate Bike SatNav?

[Be Rad The Fish]

My name's Brad and I'm a Garmin junkie. (All: "Hi Brad")

Here's my two Pfennig's worth for the 2820 and Zumo. I like to be able to pull the unit from my bike/car, sit on a picnic bench at a rest stop/park or wherever to plan or see what's around. Can't do that with a 2820, it's a drag. Also, I had it wired to the accessory. Every time I'd shut the bike off, or started it, I'd have to wait for the re-boot (about 20 seconds). I could have changed that, but I don't like to wire stuff right to the battery. I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned the sunlight issue. If the sun is shining directly or semi-directly on the 2820's screen, it's a whitewash even if I fool with the angle (on my moving bike). The Zumo claims to be more sunlight readable, we'll see. I was able to successfully input text on the 2820 in small letter mode with about 90% accuracy even when moving (OK, I know, unsafe, yadda yadda). I tentatively don't think I like the Zumo's "moveable window" text entry thing; it seems that you'd have to move it for just about every letter you enter. Also: The on/off switch is easy to accidentally throw. Another rubber button on the front would have been better. I personally feel that the 2820 was outstanding in the cage despite all this claptrap. OK OK, one more thing: I hope the display field configuration is easier on the Zumo than the 2820: I tried to create custom fields with what I wanted to see, but I'd often end up with duplicate information, i.e. speed would be listed twice among others. Switch the display back to a preset and I lost my custom stuff!

I aim to configure the Zumo (when it arrives) the same as my 2820 was: Cell connected to unit via Bluetooth. 2820 connected to Autocom via cell-phone (mic) cable AND audio cable. I can make/answer calls; the Autocom lowers the music volume while I'm doing so, at least when there's conversation. SO, in my helmet, I get GPS navigation cues, XM music (not over Bluetooth) and can make/receive calls.

Misc: For a great riding experience, change the voice to the Australian Female. Directions are easier to listen to with that accent. Roar. Laughing smiley face.

Garmin III Plus, III Pilot, 76C, eTrex Vista, V Deluxe, Rino 130, 2820, (Zumo?).

KLR 650, Road King Classic.

[DeSoto]

Hey Lowflyer,

Can you "drag" the screen across to see what's down the road like I can with the 2610.

[BurnieM]

Originally Posted by Emoto

I am not a sophisticated GPS user; I mostly just plan routes and follow them. Can someone please explain the "breadcrumbs" vs tracking back or whatever? If you can put it in terms of how or why one would use those different things, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

Terminology;

Waypoint (also called Favorite on some units);
a marked spot
Created either by going to a location and marking it or
looking up an address and saving it or
getting a grid based position from someone else, entering it and saving it.

Route;
In the old days you could only create a 'manual route' which was a series of waypoints strung together. You would tell the GPS to follow the route and it would direct you straight to the first waypoint, then as you got close it would start directing you straight to the second waypoint and so on.
Now we also have 'auto-routes'.
To create an auto-route you need an intelligent mapping product loaded such as City Navigator or City Select. The GPS knows where you are and you tell it to take you to a particular address or waypoint.
The GPS generates an onroad auto-route based on the maps.
'Faster' and 'shorter' are auto-routes. 'Offroad' is a manual route.

Tracklog (also called bread crumb trail or snail trail);
This is a recording of where you have been
An essential feature in a unit for offroad use but many incar units do not have it.

Trackback;
You need to have recorded a tracklog before your unit can perform trackback.
The unit will reverse the track you have just come along and direct you back along it.
Directions are similar to an auto-route but it is actually a manual route with lots of waypoints.
Very useful if you are travelling offroad along unmarked trails and need to find your way out of an area.

POI (Point of Interest);
Similar to a waypoint but normally loaded as part of your mapping data.
Items such as Hotels, Hospitals, Restaurants, Post Offices are generally included as POI.
Garmin also has a POI loader that lets you load your own.
Once loaded they cannot be modified on the GPS

[BurnieM]

Originally Posted by Be Rad The Fish

My name's Brad and I'm a Garmin junkie.
...
Misc: For a great riding experience, change the voice to the Australian Female. Directions are easier to listen to with that accent. Roar. Laughing smiley face.

Hi Brad

Leave Karen alone !

[walrond]

Originally Posted by lowflyer

Quote:


You are not alone.

Lowflyer,

Do you know if we will be able to apply software upgrades to the zumo as Garmin improves on it or will we just have to buy another improved model?

I'm one of the people who bought the iQue 3600 when it debuted and Garmin released several software upgrades which really improved functionality. Looking out for the iQue people really made a good impression on me. Garmin did the right thing (as usual).

[DeSoto]

Originally Posted by lowflyer

Yes, from the 'Where to' menu, there is a 'Browse Map' option. Selecting that will allow you to drag the map. It does not do it from the navigation map page like I think you can on a 2610. I assume this is because they don't want you to be scrolling the map in flight.

Good thinking. But it will take more time from scanning the road to clicking the extra buttons.

I usually use that feature when stopped anyway.:uhhuh

[frewhl]

Breadcrumbs.
When you start fresh with most gps you leave an electronic breadcrump on the map page.
If you are going to colorado and back on a different road,you want to use very few because memory gets full and either stops making them or erases thr old ones.
If you are riding trails with lots of switch backs,you want to lay down lots of crumbs.
the set up on most allow you to choose time or distance for intervals.
After a highway trip,I turn a corner in town,my posistion does not get updated for a mile or so and I am near ready to turn again.
drive around town like this and at the end of the day you would just have a couple of lines.
for most detail,choose every couple of seconds or tenths of a mile.

[SteveAZ]

Originally Posted by Be Rad The Fish

Misc: For a great riding experience, change the voice to the Australian Female. Directions are easier to listen to with that accent.

When I had Garmin on the phone, one thing I had to ask. "What were you guys thinking? The thing's got a female voice... How many men wanna hear or will pay attention to a woman giving them directions while driving???"

[walrond]

Originally Posted by Be Rad The Fish

Misc: For a great riding experience, change the voice to the Australian Female. Directions are easier to listen to with that accent. Roar. Laughing smiley face.

Seems to me you are joking but I have the British voice on my current GPS and I think that it is much easier to understand than the American voice.

[DeSoto]

I remember reading about voices that get your attention in the modern warplanes. They said with all the things going on in a dogfight, (a million of them), they used a female voice for messages of impending doom. Such as a rocket being fired upon you or comimg to close to the floor. The male pilot was able to pick out a female voice over all the other voices and noises coming at him.

Maybe that's why???

[Hotspice]

Originally Posted by frewhl

the set up on most allow you to choose time or distance for intervals.
After a highway trip,I turn a corner in town,my posistion does not get updated for a mile or so and I am near ready to turn again.
drive around town like this and at the end of the day you would just have a couple of lines.
for most detail,choose every couple of seconds or tenths of a mile.

In Colorado I looked like Evil Knievel. My settings were at something like 100 ft and with all the twists in the road it looked like I was jumping from apex to apex

[DeSoto]

You probably don't know this one, but the big upgrade I would like to see available is the Zumo being able to utilize the nexrad overlay. Do you think this would be a software issue or new hardware needed? You would already have the XM antenna and radio.

The best way to sell stuff is the Harley way. Sell you the basics, then really charge you for the accessories.

[SteveAZ]

Well all this Zumo banter has been interesting to say the least. And I have given the unit a passing thought, but after all this, I'm completely convinced it's not a unit for me.

Now this is just me, I'm going to have my own wants and needs. It may be a perfect unit for others.

If it was inexpensive enough to simply leave on the moto all the time - it might be ok for that. OTOH, if that were the case, there would prolly be others inexpensive enough that would be better for me.


To each his own, but for dusty moto duty (typical out here in AZ), I'm very against touch screens in the first place and it's one thing that turned me off right away.

If I'm going to go XM, I want Nexrad *and* traffic.

I don't want GPS-lite; I really want a full featured unit. Even more so if it's going to serve other duties besides the moto. Since this is an expensive unit [in my book], it needs to do so. When I saw that screen shot that gave a selection for position format that didn't include UTM - that was enough to seal the fate *for me*.

While QVGA (320 X 240) is realistically "enough", more is better except that the smaller pixels in the higher resolution displays don't do as well outdoors. The touch screen (did I mention I don't like 'em? ) likely makes it comparable though. But the more resolution they have, the more they help reduce the need to refer to paper maps.


My background is very strong in navigation in general (land, air and sea) and GPS in particular (I am a product manager for a GPS company) and this likely taints my view - especially in regards to not preferring a GPS-lite; at least not an expensive one.


So I feel good now. I can stop thinking about the Zumo at all and wait and see what's next on the horizon. Although if the 378/478 or the 496 included traffic - I would just possibly pull the trigger....

[karmatourer]

Originally Posted by Taint

You probably don't know this one, but the big upgrade I would like to see available is the Zumo being able to utilize the nexrad overlay. Do you think this would be a software issue or new hardware needed? You would already have the XM antenna and radio.

The best way to sell stuff is the Harley way. Sell you the basics, then really charge you for the accessories.

w/o XM,Greentooth,ect.
Let me upgrade when/if I want.

[walrond]

SteveAZ, You say you want a Feature Heavy unit, but I have to ask why? Will you actually use those features, or do you want them just in case? I realize that by being a product manager for a GPS company, you might actually use some feature that the average person might not even want to touch, but how realistic is it?

I am getting excited about the Zumo. I was leaning towards a 376 but didn't want the bulk and I knew I wouldn't use half the features. When I heard about the zumo, it peaked my interest.

From what has been described, the Zumo has a lot of features but the ease of navigation of the "GPS-lite" units. I can't describe the Zumo as a "GPS-lite" unit simply because it can do so much. So many of it's users, including me, want an easy to operate unit that has the capability to do more that we would are probably going to use anyway. I think the majority of users are going to want:

• To be able to plan a route on the computer and upload to the device.
• To be able to download routes to the computer from a device.
• A unit that speaks the street names.
• A unit that is easy to take on and off their motorcycle without the hassle of a lot of wires.
• A unit that supports traffic warnings and redirects as such.
• A unit that does not require you to take off your gloves to operate.

Bonuses are:

• Bluetooth and the ablility to tie into a BT product in the future. For me this is big. Although I won't talk on my phone while riding, at least I would know that a call came through and who is was from. That way I an determine if I want to stop and call them back or keep riding.
• The ability to upload topo maps for the occasions when I might need one.
• Entering my own POI.
• The ability to play MP3 music format. I love listening to music when I ride.

I know I have missed some as I did this list from the top of my head. But really what percentage of people change the format for latitude and longitude? It has got to be low.