DaveDragon
Nov 3rd, 2005, 9:55 am
This past weekends ride from Holiday Florida to Western North Carolina provided the opportunity to test the Garmin 376C and put it through it's paces.
I had been using it daily during my commute and really like the additional features of this model.
I pulled the 256Meg memory stick from the Navigator/SPIII that had the entire SouthEast Maps loaded as well as downloaded the waypoints from the Navigator and installed the same in the 376C.
When I had the unit plot the route from Home to the IronHorse it took all of 12 seconds.
The Voice Prompts are preceded by a soft Bell tone then Bitching Betty's sister Gabby Gerdie gives the turn/route info in a very clear female voice.
Side Note here: Every time I hear the alert tone/bell prior to voice prompts I immediately remember the Monty Python skit where Michael Palin expounds "Aah, I see you have the machine that goes BING!"
The 376C is a lot faster all around than the SPIII series Garmin systems with a much better screen.
The unit tracks and turns immediately with the bikes orientation, I even did a series of U-Turns in a parking lot to see if I could wind it up and confuse it while routing but it had no problems at all.
The internal XM Radio works very well in this unit and supports Favorites and scanning. The Weather info works great as well and really provides the extra info I was looking for when I purchased it.
The Puck antenna for the XM Radio and Weather functionality presents some mounting challenges as it was intended as a Marine unit and provided with a pole/mast mount. I mounted it on a short right hand wing attachment for the BMR Co-Pilot.
In this position it works very well however like all XM antennas when under heavy tree cover or the line-of-site is blocked by structures the signal drops out.
The unit worked well below freezing Saturday morning as well.
The Tourateck locking mount works flawlessly as well on the BMR Co-Pilot with the crossbar attachment.
So far I'm very pleased with the Garmin 376C.
I will be installing the direct Aux Input Cable for the Radio to feed the XM directly and do away with the FM Modulator, although it does work quite well.
I had been using it daily during my commute and really like the additional features of this model.
I pulled the 256Meg memory stick from the Navigator/SPIII that had the entire SouthEast Maps loaded as well as downloaded the waypoints from the Navigator and installed the same in the 376C.
When I had the unit plot the route from Home to the IronHorse it took all of 12 seconds.
The Voice Prompts are preceded by a soft Bell tone then Bitching Betty's sister Gabby Gerdie gives the turn/route info in a very clear female voice.
Side Note here: Every time I hear the alert tone/bell prior to voice prompts I immediately remember the Monty Python skit where Michael Palin expounds "Aah, I see you have the machine that goes BING!"
The 376C is a lot faster all around than the SPIII series Garmin systems with a much better screen.
The unit tracks and turns immediately with the bikes orientation, I even did a series of U-Turns in a parking lot to see if I could wind it up and confuse it while routing but it had no problems at all.
The internal XM Radio works very well in this unit and supports Favorites and scanning. The Weather info works great as well and really provides the extra info I was looking for when I purchased it.
The Puck antenna for the XM Radio and Weather functionality presents some mounting challenges as it was intended as a Marine unit and provided with a pole/mast mount. I mounted it on a short right hand wing attachment for the BMR Co-Pilot.
In this position it works very well however like all XM antennas when under heavy tree cover or the line-of-site is blocked by structures the signal drops out.
The unit worked well below freezing Saturday morning as well.
The Tourateck locking mount works flawlessly as well on the BMR Co-Pilot with the crossbar attachment.
So far I'm very pleased with the Garmin 376C.
I will be installing the direct Aux Input Cable for the Radio to feed the XM directly and do away with the FM Modulator, although it does work quite well.