Garmin Montana

CHIA,

If you don't use Tracks, then why wouldn't you just keep your zumo 550? Why the interest in the Montana?

By the way, tracks aren't just for off-road riders. There are may places around the world where the routable maps are poor at best. Tracks will get you there and back.

Cheers,

The only time I use a track, is when the Zumo saves it in that native format, and I convert it to a turn-by-turrn route, within the unit.

I also use the tracks to sometimes extract for nothing more than posting to google maps, using GPSVisualizer, to share with buds.....pretty much no other purpose.

I also have a 60CSx, which I use a fair bit, because I love the fact that it runs self-contained, on batteries, and has a great screen in the bright sun.

This new Montana, *looked*, like it may be the best of both worlds, and I could sell both units and buy it instead.

I love the touchscreen, the long life battery, the depth of the menus/features, and screen of that Montana, and the only feature I might not like to compromise was this save-to-route thing.

I don't use it all the time, but really find it a slick function....hmmmmmm???

Don't get me wrong, I think it is handy in the right conditions. I lobbied for two years to get the zumo 660 to Import Tracks and I use the Track-to-Route import feature a lot. If all of Garmin's GPS units used the same Track-to-Route conversion code as the zumo 66x, there would be a lot of people much happier.

I'm currently lobbying the BaseCamp Dev Team to use the same approach for their "Create Route from Track" feature.

Good luck in your search for the Garmin "uber-swiss-army-knife".

Cheers,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWG3Cu1nHxI

Video some of you might find interesting showing the glare and mounting.

Thanks for that.

You're welcome. I'm just one opinion, often times loader than maybe I should be, but the more people who communicate with these Dev Team's the more likely we are to get what we ask for.

Cheers,

Do we know yet if the internal battery(s) are charged from the hard wired mount?

Hmmm, I just can't imagine having a rechargeable battery in the unit and not having the powered mount charge it. But hey, I suppose we'll have to wait on that one since the Manual does not explicitly say the mount charges the rechargeable battery; only that it provides power to the unit.

Cheers,

If you guys click the gray "cc" button (to the left of wear it says 360p in the lower right hand side of the video player) it will show the English subtitles.

Do you have some pull in this respect? If this feature was available, I think I would stand in line to get one immediately.

You could always get a zumo 660/665.

Cheers,

It would not really be a worthy upgrade over my 550 IMO.

2 of the things I like about the Montana, the 60CSx similarities, in the customizable screens, and the LONGGGGG battery life, with no need to hardwire to my bike......so simple & clean.

I may just keep my trusty 60CSx and 550, they are solid performers, just get in the mood for new toys sometimes, and this one caught my eye

Received an email from Garmin this morning, as expected

Well, had my fingers crossed, but wasn't overly optimistic.....oh well, quick reply, which reflects well for Garmin's service.

Need help in deciding between the 650t and the 600.
lowest price fluctates aroung 510 shipped for the 600 and 610 shipped for the 650t.
Question will the US topo autoroute? or only city nav. Not much interested in the camera but if topo does autoroute, then its worth the extra for memory storage and software that usually cost around 80.00
and also i believe units should be shipping anytime now....so before i pull the trigger on "happy father's day from me to me ..better make the right decision.

I think it makes more sense to buy the Topo maps separate so you can re-use them on more than 1 of your GPS unit.
I have them for my 60csx, now I can re-use them for the new Montana.

At least you have the options, if you buy the unit with maps, you are stuck to only that unit.

Christian:
so does it auto-route with Topo or is it just Garmin's "only with optional navigator"............

Topo24k does Auto-route.

Still a mood point for topo100k, the older ones didn't - but now garmin website shows it does - I haven't tried or checked if it's a garmin website mistake or if they released a new version of the 100k with auto-route.

DRTBYK posted somewhere.... I thought it was in this thread but cannot find it. Also that could have been on another forum???


Anyway he has the latest retail 100K TOPO maps installed and they do autoroute.

He also pointed out that Garmin sometimes preinstalls special versions that might not have the autorouting information.

thanks for your help. 600 it is.......

So who is selling it the cheapest?