| Author | Message | ||
     Karlsbad |
I have been thinking about buying GPS unit from Buell. Any input? Pros or Cons | ||
| Old_mil |
Why not get a Garmin 2730, Zumo or 376c? If you like the Buell unit, it's a Garmin Quest 2 ... | ||
| Backroad_hog |
The Buell unit look identical to my Garmin Quest but more expensive. I just removed the mount from my R80G/S and remounted it on my Uly | ||
| Cyclonedon |
actually the Buell GPS is the Garmin Quest 1 which is what I have. You would be better off purchasing the Garmin Quest 2 and the mounting hardware from Buell like I did. The Garmin Quest 2 comes with all the usa maps preloaded and has more storage. But if I was purchasing a new GPS today, I would buy the Zumo 550 which has more features such as a weather channel and you can add satalite radio also. | ||
| Old_mil |
...if you get the quest, make sure you get the Quest 2 as it has the entire US database built in...The original quest has a fixed amount of base ram that you can't load the entire US database into. | ||
| Jammin_joules |
Buell/H-D unit is Quest 1, requires loading area mapping, and is limited in memory, can not load entire US, not even half of it. Quest 2 has entire US. Other units out there, with TourATech or other mounting hardware are bigger screen, touch screen (Quest units have very small buttons for gloved hands, small text for reading while driving) and are also Blue Tooth so you can get voice turn instructions in traffic. Quest unit is hard wired to your ears. Of course Quest unit hardware mounts optimally out of viewing line of site with instrument cluster on front brake master cylinder clamp and has wire harness for plug & play into your bike. It is interchangeable with a Harley mount and also is a very small, 10 hour active hand held unit for hiking or bicycling. I bought the Harley car adapter too, which comes with a nice speaker for those instructions when you are in a cage, remote antenna makes for nice hidden use too.  | ||
| Treadmarks |
Don't know bout thew quest, but the garmin 276C with mem upgrades will hold the entire country, and all of our favorite scuba sites. The tall ram mount on the left side works good for me.  | ||
| Jackbequick |
The Quest II is available as a refurbished unit for around $400 on the Internet and eBay. For another $50-$75 you can get a new zumo 450 so I'd probably spend the extra money. The zumo 450 and 550 are hard to beat for on a motorcycle and work just as well in a car. You can check the boxes and compare the features on the zumos and the quests here: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=135 Jack | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Is a GPS worth the $$. I keep looking at them, and I would LOVE to have one. BUT... my Rand McNally road atlas works pretty good. Is there any cost effective models out there? | ||
| Backroad_hog |
My question to rest of the Uly crowd is, GPS durability. I am on my 4th GPS unit. the first two were cheap Magellen units, both died of what I belive were excessive vibration, one after 6months, the second after a couple of years,they were both mounted on a homemade mount to my KLR on the handle bar mounts. I went to a Garmin etrex on my BMW, with a factory mount on the handlbar cross member. The Etrex was begining to failofter about 3 years of service,(cutting out in the middle of a trek)I even had to duct tape the batteies in place. I switched to a Garmin Quest a year ago, and I have had no problems yet. Has any one else had problems with vibration failures on MC mounted GPS units | ||
| Froggy |
Don't bother with the Buell Quest, its old, lacks cool features, can't hold more than a few states of data without having to reupload, and the screen is small. At least its durable and weatherproof. Getting a Zumo 550 for the next bike. Wolf, GPS changes everything. Not sure what a Rand McNally road atlas is, but it sounds primitive and opinionated by some guy.  | ||
| Froggy |
Backroad_hog, my Quest has been on my bike during every wreck, every wheelie, every hail storm, every off road excursion i encountered in my 17k miles with my Uly and it survived fine. | ||
| Jflaig |
A GPS is a nice tool to have. It can offer a reroute for delays (construction, accident), or that new road spotted. Are they worth the money, IMO yes, but get what you think you need/want now and might want in a year. After you get used to it, you will expect it to do more, so plan ahead. If you go with the Quest, get the Q2. Since it holds the entire US, it means less pre-trip "planning" with the computer. Choose what works for you. The Quest models have small buttons, and a relatively small screen. | ||
| Bearly |
Yea I second that! The Zumo 550 advertises that it's vibration resistant. I've had mind on my Uly for 10000 miles with no worries. I't been in Snow and heavy rain. I travel for a living so I'm always taking it with me for rental cars when I'm on the road. So it moved around and bumped around all the time. Garmond says that it's even resistant to fuel. I've found some really fun roads near me just by having it. I recently bought another one for my Wife's Lightning. | ||
| Hooliken |
Magellan Merdian Color. Pros: Can be had for a song. Waterproof as a frogs a$$. Cons: Smallish screen. Software and connectivity can be a PITA. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I have heard that with the new updated maps, the quest II slows to a crawl. It has the storage room, but the little CPU just gets overwhelmed. I think you can disable maps and perhaps speed it back up, but it's a bother. The Quest 1 can store from 1 to 3 whole states at a time. If you are going on a road trip, you can automatically select all the blocks around your plotted trip, and those will be loaded to the unit. This would let you store all of NY, all of LA, and detailed maps for your entire route between them (say 50 miles in either direction of your planned route). If the detailed maps are not there, the base maps *are*, so anything from a state route on up will be there regardless. So I am not saying the quest II isn't better, it is, just that it might not be usefully better, and has some tradeoffs. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
What about the Garmin 60CSx ?? No one has mentioned them as yet. I need one as well, and I know absolutely nothing about the different GPS units, or their features, but there seem to be more than a few guys using these. Wally*world has 'em for $350.  . (Message edited by johnboy777 on December 06, 2007) | ||
| Gotj |
I have an old Garmin model, the StreetPilot 2610. I put almost as much money into it as it would have cost to get a Zumo 450. However, I would get another one instead of the Zumo for one feature: it offers custom road preferences for three road categories on the unit itself. You can choose an option that almost routes you down subdivision streets to keep you off of a bigger road. A Zumo does not; just the "Fastest" and "Shortest" options. The biggest drawback now is that the supply of refurbished 2610s is much smaller now than when I bought mine. Second, you have buy individual pieces and parts for a motorcycle while the Zumo offers the completer package. If you are choosing between the Zumo 450 and 550, be sure to study the specs of each, including the hardware. For example, I believe the auto mount is not included with the 450 but is with the 550. | ||
| Rotorhead |
I love my Garmin 276c. Mounted for 30,000 miles I have had no vibration induced problems. I would recomend a GPS to any Adventure riding type. I have found myself riding along and see a cool road and take it without thinking twice becuase of the rerouting features many GPS units have. Another reason to have a GPS with a good base map is to see whats is coming up on your road ahead. Back roads poorly marked have a way of sneaking cross roads on blind turns and after small hills. A glance at the map of the road ahead and your a little bit prepared for a cager pulling out in front of you or crossing into your lane or maybe getting set for a great corner coming up. If i was to lose my GPS I would replace it with a Zumo 550 or the 476. The available XM weather overlay is a bonus for when you ride rain or shine for the heads up to gearup before you get wet. | ||
| Chrisgrant |
I need to read up on the 550. I understood that it would allow you the fastest option or backraod option. This would make or break the 550 for me. | ||
| Rotorhead |
I love my Garmin 276c. Mounted for 30,000 miles I have had no vibration induced problems. I would recomend a GPS to any Adventure riding type. I have found myself riding along and see a cool road and take it without thinking twice becuase of the rerouting features many GPS units have. Another reason to have a GPS with a good base map is to see whats is coming up on your road ahead. Back roads poorly marked have a way of sneaking cross roads on blind turns and after small hills. A glance at the map of the road ahead and your a little bit prepared for a cager pulling out in front of you or crossing into your lane or maybe getting set for a great corner coming up. If i was to lose my GPS I would replace it with a Zumo 550 or the 378. The available XM weather overlay is a bonus for when you ride rain or shine for the heads up to gearup before you get wet. | ||
| Gotj |
Chrisgrant, If you can, find a Zumo to play with. I found out about the roads issue when trying to orient a friend to his Zumo 550. I was going to show him how to change the road preferences and found I couldn't. Just the shortest and fastest. I hope someone can prove me wrong. I like the ergos of the Zumo especially now that it's winter. | ||
| Jackbequick |
Johnboy, Check out this post for a longish explanation of why the 60CSx is the world's most versatile GPS receiver and also why it is also a good choice for highway navigation on a bike or in a car if used right: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show .cgi?tpc=4062&post=1018744#POST1018744 I have the 76Cx which is nearly identical to the 60CSx, lacking only the compass and barometer. The 76CSx and 76Cx are just a different shape and the buttons are over the display instead of under. If I were going to put a unit on a bike and leave it there, I'd buy a zumo. If I wanted to also be able to use it in cars, boats, on foot, in the woods, etc., the 60 or 76 Cx or CSx would get the nod. Jack | ||
| Jackbequick |
Gotj, Not to prove you wrong but discuss the point, I have a 2610 and 2620 that I use on a motorcycle and in the car. I also use a 76Cx at times in the same places. The 76Cx, like the zumos, offers only the choice of Quickest or Shortest and I have not found that to be a hindrance or limitation. I generally plan routes in advance, place waypoints, and build a route to control routing when I want to follow a particular set or series of roads. That is "multiple destination routing" and it is really the only way to take full control of road choices from the software. And it works the same on both the 26xx models and the 76Cx as far controlling routing. It also works on the zumos too. I've looked at and played with the road type preferences on the 2610 and left them at defaults as it usually takes the routes I would take. When it does not, changing the road type settings will not normally fix it for me. Instead I add a via point or points to get myself onto the road(s) I want to take. I don't have a zumo yet but think I will eventually. Last I knew, about the only thing that looked like it "needed fixing" on the zumo was that you could not choose to turn off the automatic route recalculation feature and I've read that some users found that to be an annoyance. Jack | ||
| Atoms |
wah! if we wanted the shortest and fastest we wouldn't be riding ULYs! I could not bring myself to decide so I just ordered a refurbed Garmin 2610 recently more or less just because it was several hundred dollars less than the Zumos. Unfortunately the place I ordered it from RAN OUT of refurbs before they got around to shipping mine, so I am back to square one. I was resigned to getting a Zumo, but if this is true, this shortest and fastest only business I will have to reconsider. Backroads baby! | ||
| Chrisgrant |
found this info on the garmin site about the 550 https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?compare=com pare&compareProduct=414&cID=135 Auto sort multiple destinations (provides most direct route): yes Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation): yes Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road): yes Route avoidance (avoid highways, tolls etc.): yes Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest): yes | ||
| Chrisgrant |
Just got off of the phone with product support about this backroad issue. They said that you can plan your route or let the unit do it foy you with or without highways, toll roads, etc. from the unit or the computer. | ||
| Gotj |
Jack, I had the opposite experience on the effect of changing road preferences on the 2610. It's not worth the details here but I found the changed preferences changed the route. The unit was sending me down gravel roads which my fellow Road King riders really didn't like. I changed the preferences and stayed on paved roads. Chris, I know you can do it from the computer. MapSource has a sliding scale for road preferences from Highways to Minor Roads. I will have to check that "Avoidences" feature. That may be what I was looking for. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I went a different route. I wanted the cheapest, most disposable unit I could get in the event of an ugly get off or theft. I LOVE the Zumo, but I would just hate to have something go wrong with it. I rarely need the GPS on the bike (2-4 trips per year). I rarely need route mapping. When I am using it, I am usually operating from a fixed base of operations, so I simply run the roads as I see them and then route back to my FBO. I bought a Magellan 4040 from Costco for $270. It is really good for what I need it to do, it is touch screen (works even with gloves on), updates easily and frequently, and generally is as simple as you could want. I didn't need weather radar. I don't listen to music while traveling. I didn't need to download tracks to the computer. I wasn't planning on loading any tracks from anyone else. It's just stone ax simple. The only real bother is that it isn't water proof. I would plan on sticking it in the bags if it rained. I presume most of you guy stow your "waterproof" GPS units when it rains as well. The best thing is that if I bust it, I'll feel bad. I won't want to throw up. I'd puke if I trashed a Zumo.  | ||
| Irelage |
I have a Magellan Explorist 500 with standard two 2A batteries that would only last a hour to two hours. The software is an absolute PITA. I bought the 60CSx and it is a dream on the KLR or Uly. Lasts all day on a set of 2A batteries. Small enough to carry anywhere and large enough screen for comfortable viewing. Stays connected to Satellites under heavy cover. Truly and adventure tool. Love it! |
