New Garmin Zumo 550

[birdman]

I've just read about the new Garmin Zumo made especially for motorcycles. Has anyone out there installed one yet. I see it comes with an MP3 player built in, bluetooth and a host of other good stuff. Need a second opinion before I get one.

[Frisky]

Allen, I have one fitted to my 1200RT, it seams like a great bit of kit. I have used it more on 4 wheels than the RT but I am impressed.
I had the street Pilot III before and it is years ahead.
I would buy another!
Dave

[dhendy]

User review and 1st impressions -- after three days and about ten miles.

Love it. Easy to use intuitive buttons.

Installed easy. Garmin provides everything needed...until guys at this sight make it harder. Wired mine to battery and mounted with the garmin/RAM mounting hardware and a mirror boss mount from motogear4u.

Bluetooth with phone. I think it will only work with the phone, but does great. Address book, last called info, etc, all visible and user friendly. even has a special big "call home" button. It is great, and easy. It will even tell you the secret connection PIN code if you enter the wrong one.
I have had never used bluetooth before. Too easy. Garmin has a list of bluetooth compatible phones which includes none of the three I have used -- no problems. But they won't give you customer support except for those listed.


MP3. I may have some issues with this.

1. Its volume seems to low. At 100% it is quiet listening. I will no tomorrow if it is loud enough for highway speeds. Assuming it is not loud enough on the highway, I will call garmin. By the way, I have to shut of my k1200 radio, or I here both -- which makes sense.

2. Storage. I expected to be able to put about 20-50 gigs of stuff on the garmin itself. With the standard software load from the factory, there is only a few hundred megs of storage left. No problem since it has the SD card slot and they go up to 8 gig and will bigger. Right? Wrong. The Zumo can use the standard SD card, and b/c it uses a FAT 32 file system, you can go 4 gigs, but no bigger. Though they look the same and fit in the same slot, the SD cards bigger than 4 gigs, and many 1 and 2 gig SD cards are actually SD HD (high density) cards and use a different format than the SD cards. The SD HD cards won't work in the Zumo.

I use it with the Beahr K1200LT intercom system. It seems that both Beahr and Autocomm were caught off guard and are getting the cables. The Zumo has a 2.5 mm for voice (from my cell phone) and a standard 3.5 mm cable for audio (from my MP3 player). I just have the three cables (including power) and it works fine. All currently come out of the front of the seat with my headset cable and are draped across the tank. I will make it pretty during my next service.

[donscoin]

I used the provided mount and it worked great. I also just plugged the power cables two soldered ends into the BMW power cable. It may not be the best connection but for now it works great. I am in the process of ordering a Nolan N-Com with bluetooth. Can't wait to see how that works out. I did take the bike out last night and went down a small state hwy. The Zumo did not display the hwy but I may have missed something. This was straight out of the box.

[messenger13]

Someone was telling me that they couldn't force their Zumo to avoid the superslab. Could someone here verify this as true or false? My 2720 has road and area avoidances. I can't imagine that the Zumo wouldn't have this.

[dhendy]

It does have an avoid hwy setting and the super slab can usually be avoided...unless you are trying to cross some big ditch that only the interstate, trains, and planes can get across -- like the Mississippi River or part of the Snake River Valley. Then it assumes you are not on a train track or driving an airplane and forces you to take hwy route, even with avoid highway on.

There are other times it ignores avoid HWY too but I haven't figured out why YET!

[Texas42]

I have been on the phone with Garmin several times, the bottom line is I have not been able to and it is not possible to turn off the auto-routing. And the auto-routing setting to avoid highways avoids all roads classified as a highway, that includes most FM roads here in Texas. So if you want to be able to do routing like the 2610, and not wipe out your whole route when you stop for gas don't get the Zumo, or wait for "The software update". If you want a simple to use no options GPS, good hardware, good battery then get the Zumo. It is going to route you to the interstate no choice. I bought it and extra mounts for both bikes etc. but I still haven't decided whether to keep it or not. If I use the bluetooth, then everything is in mono, so I'm waiting for cables for my Starcom 1, and an update from Garmin to be able to only route you back to the original route, not to recalculate everything for routes that you upload.

[dhendy]

Volume on MP3, phone, and direction lady is good enough -- easy to hear at full volume, but not too loud. I would like a little more volume range...in case I put in billy idol. But for James Taylor, it is fine.

[messenger13]

Volume on MP3, phone, and direction lady is good enough -- easy to hear at full volume, but not too loud. I would like a little more volume range...in case I put in billy idol. But for James Taylor, it is fine.Then there's no way that the thing is loud enough for Metallica!!! :yeah: :D


I have also heard that the Zumo does not have the GPS information screen, displaying the satellite locations and strengths, along with your current location (i.e. lat/long and altitude). Is this true?! :confused: I've always loved that screen.

[Handlebar]

I'm glad you guys are talkin about the zumo..Now I been thinking about the 2730 or 2820.. hmm

[dhendy]

:) Zumo has battery power. Means does not have to draw bike's battery power when stopped, or parked for a week. Also, automatically switches to internal battery power when bike power is cut or removed from bike. Plus, I can use it hiking.

:) Size smaller for when I carry it hiking

:sleep: All have MP3 Player, XM capable, etc -- I assume all are the same, including audio loudness being "good enough" at HWY speeds, vice deafening like I sometimes like it.

:) Zumo and 2820 have bluetooth, thus also an audio input for using the bluetooth with my cell phone, and voice dialing. Deal breaker for me and and the 2720.

:D And the big thing over the 2720 is the cell phone integration. All the info on my cell phone -- address book, last calls, incoming caller ID, etc -- all on the touch screen. Again, deal breaker for the 2720.

:confused: I was concerned about the smaller screen size but has not been an issue.

Meantime, I am going to continue to play. :rotf:

[Texas42]

How will you use it hiking? I thought I would be able to do that also but I can't figure out how it would be of any use. No compass, no topo maps, no GPS display that I can find.

[dhendy]

Hiking may have been too strong of word. Actually hashing -- more like running in circles in the woods (or suburbs, or city) without knowing where you are going. All one needs is a general sense of direction and to know where you have been. The battery on the Zumo is an advantage for me over the 2820.

It does have compass—On the Map page, you can go to the compass page, which shows a compass and the direction you are heading. I just set the map as "track North" and North stays on top.

You are right that topo maps don't work on the "road" GPSs. I asked Garmin if one could just put one of Garmin's Micro SD cards in an SD adepter. Not recommended. Won't get the topo details wanted.

But all I need where I am, it will give me that. I will assume that if I am going up, there is a hill. If I keep going up, there is a mountain. And with my Zumo, if I get tired I can get back to my bike. So for me, the battery was important.

[Texas42]

I found it; you have to be navigating a route in off-road mode before it will display the Compass Page.