How easy is the Nav III to remove? I'm going to be doing some traveling (I hope) and if I stop overnight, etc. I'd like to be able to just take it off ....if it will just pop off easily. I finally got a manual for the unit but I see nothing about removing it from the bike and I don't want to force it.

Thanks

Assuming you mean remove it from the OEM cradle i.e. has extra buttons down the side then dead easy.
Need to get hold of a T-10 ( IIRC ) security bit. Has a little extra hole in the end to allow it to sit over the screw. Undo and then lift the tab to release the unit.
You may be able to still buy the OEM tool. Very easy.
HTH

Thanks Hilton. I'll look at it again. I may have the bit, not sure.

I never took my Nav III off when riding, either locally or cross country, and keep it in the garage at home and have never had any problems over my 21,000 miles of ownership. On trips, it wears a full bike cover overnight and I try to park in front of my hotel/motel room.

Same here. Only a moron would steal a GPS of the NAV III's vintage. I keep hoping someone will steal mine so that I have no choice but to buy a newer unit!

Thanks all. Voyager may have a point, leave it out and someone may steal it!

I did find the little tool/bit so I have that. The PO never explained what the tool was for so another mystery is solved about the bike!

I actually removed my Nav III about a 1,000 miles ago and replaced it with a 590LM, and plan to contribute the heirloom for the CCR silent auction. It was/is a good unit, but I couldn't update the maps and got tired of not being able to find newer housing tracts, hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, etc. in my travels to new or distant places. However, even the new units with the latest maps may not have 100% accurate info - last month, I couldn't find a Super 8 Motel in Ft. Bragg, CA, as it had changed into a Motel 6 over a year ago...

Oh well, now I have to remember to remove the 590 whenever I stop, but can put up with that minor inconvenience...

I will have to do the same soon. If only the III had an SD slot. I can't put enough states into mine now for a trip of any length and I am not carrying a laptop just to load the GPS.

I have to decide between the NAV V and the 590. I was leaning towards the 590 to gain TPS capability, but it seems this feature is troublesome on a bike the size and mass of the LT. The folks at Max BMW checked with BMW for me and they claim the audio output from the V is compatible with my VOICE II intercom, just need to adapt the physical connector. I should be able to cannibalize that from my III. I suspect the 590 can work also, but it would be just like BMW to have specified different audio output signals as compared to Garmin's standard.

I just don't want to invest in BT headsets when I have perfectly good wired units and don't have to mess with charging them every night.

Ok I can remove the Nav. III pretty easy obviously now that I know what the little silver tool thingy was for. It sounds like you folks consider the III dated but I haven't used GPS in my car or elsewhere before and I figure it might be better than nothing...maybe not, I've lived without it all these years.

So I thought I would bring it in the house and try to update it. Well one more thing I discovered the PO didn't give me or couldn't find was the cables for it. I did find one of my USB cables I can connect to the computer but I guess I also need a power cable. Can anyone enlighten me on updating or powering this up? Thanks.

in my opinion, don't bother trying to update the Nav III. It still works pretty well for navigating around the country. It will be out of date for finding some businesses.

Yes, you need a separate power cable that has the goofy proprietary connector on it. The Nav III has no battery and draws too much power to run through USB as with the newer units.

The III is still a perfectly fine GPS, but these limitations (no battery, need for separate charger) combined with no SD card, make it nearly useless with the current maps. And the new Express program won't talk to the III, so you have to use the old program (I forget the name) to load maps. And last time I updated mine, I could not fit even the eastern US, but could load only Canada and the border states. This is OK for most of my riding since I live in northern PA, but any long trip is now problematic.

I bought a power cable for the Nav III last January through eBay. The item description was "Garmin 010-10477-02 AC Power Adapter Cable".