GPS Choice

[ballast]

Has anyone gone for the TomTom? Or are y'all pretty much Garmin Groupies. Tried dads TomTom on a road trip in the truck the other day and it was kind of cool. They have a couple of models specifically for bikes. Comes with a ram mount and a Cardo scala-rider wireless headset for about $550. Or I could just go on reading street signs and maps.

[cheriann]

Sorry, I can't help you with that personally. I have a friend that has always been a Garmin kind of man, and recently tried going to TomTom for the lower price. He said it didn't have all the features he was used to with Garmin, so he took it back and bought a Garmin. However, I stress that he had always been a Garmin man before, so he may have had higher expectations.

Hubby uses the Garmin Zumo and it also works with our Scala Q2 headsets for blue tooth

[caddman11]

I've got two that I can mount on my bike, a Magellian and a Tom Tom. I didn't get the ones made for the bike because there were just too expensive and I had other needs. I found a TomTom 920 at a site called tigergps.com and they sell refurbished units and their extended warranties are pretty cheap. This is one of their top line units. I just got back from Italy 2 day ago, that's why I bought the 920--European maps along with US, Mexico, Canada. The 920 talks to you and you can talk to it; instead of having to input locations by keyboard, you tell it where you want to go, works amazingly well. The unit usually sell for $550+ but the refurbished ones are $225. They are very fast recalculating and do give lots of info, they are also blue tooth.

The Magellian was refurbished and about $100 but only US and Canada. The RAM mounts were cheap once I got the first one setup. I'd buy either one for my bike again. You can see my Magellian mounted in my sig pictures below.

[nomad561]

I looked at all brands of GPS units and,at the time,the Garmin was more bang for the buck for me.With that said,that was 1 1/2 years ago and features/prices have changed alot since then.
Here are a couple of websites that I use for research purposes although I would be willing to by from them if I couldn't get price matching from a retailer.
http://www.megagps.com/
www.thegpsstore.com

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by CheriAnn

Sorry, I can't help you with that personally. I have a friend that has always been a Garmin kind of man, and recently tried going to TomTom for the lower price. He said it didn't have all the features he was used to with Garmin, so he took it back and bought a Garmin. However, I stress that he had always been a Garmin man before, so he may have had higher expectations.

Hubby uses the Garmin Zumo and it also works with our Scala Q2 headsets for blue tooth

CheriAnn, couple of questions.
When your husband has the Zumo connected can you hear the directions also or just his speakers pick it up?
When he is running the GPS does it keep your headsets connected all the time or do they shut down normally when you guys are not talking?
May be odd questions but I am buying a Zumo this year and want to know what to expect.

[strobe]

I agree with Garmin having more bang for the buck. I looked at both and decided on Garmin for that reason plus the number of options (mounts, etc) that are available for them. They seen to have more things available than TomTom IMHO.

[moenko]

Whatever you get, a Garmin will beat most others in quality and support/map updates. I have an older GPSMAP 76C which I originally bought for boating. It's waterproof (actually floats on water), I can load lots of maps in it, Geocaching, etc. etc. The Zumo's are very expensive, look into the Nüvi which is almost the same (just don't use it in pouring rain). Also very popular are the "Quest" models. Paired with a RAM mount - you can't beat them.

[borto1990]

I have a garmin quest II. it's a bit out dated as for the use of functions but it's totally waterproof and you can get em factory refurbed on ebay now for about 115 bucks with a one year garmin warranty. I decided to try the nuvi 750 just for some of the more updated functions, ease of putting in names, bigger screen ect. it's not waterproof but maybe I'll get a aquabox if I like it, or if I really go high tech, I'll keep a good ol ziplock freezer bag in my gear. For bang for the buck though, for a totally waterproof GPS that will do anything that I need, the quest 2 is going to be dahm hard to beat for the buck IMO

[dogdoc]

Garmin is THE only brand!!! Thats all they make is gps items and related crap. The best. I just bought a 755T for my vehicles. It could double duty on the bike in dry weather. Not paying Zumo's price for sure.

[Top Cat]

Come on Doc. Anybody with the title Doc should not be worried about the price of anything.
I'm retired and on a fixed income and I',m going to spring for the Zumo.

[lasse]

I have a Tomtom rider and are totally satisfied with it.
It doesn´t have a Mp3 player, but i didn´t buy a GPS
to listen to music.

[b2]

I have a 2.5 yr old TomTom, got it for the car when we arrived here in California from Australia and could NOT live without it..

I've just purchased a RAM mount to start using it on the bike. The mount cost me about $35 on AMAZON. I've actually used it once or twice on the bike using the suction mount in the windscreen of the 'mad, and that worked OK but not really a reliable / safe solution (I did have it tethered..)

I'm totally happy with the functionality, screen, maps, updates etc.. its been totally reliable, but not yet tested on the bike with additional vibration that may bring.. I hope it doesn't shake to bits. I can't see the value in the bike-specific units compared to about $100-150 for a base unit these days.

... althought water-proofing certainly could have its advantages...

My TomTom is a 710, paid heaps for it 2.5 yrs ago.. about $600 I think.. and that was one sale ! I'll use it until it falls apart and then buy a cheaper TomTom.

I've used Garmins plenty of times with a friend and in rental cars.. I like the TT better but I just think that's probably because I started with TT and an used to the menus / interface etc.

Brian

[watchman]

I went with the refurbished Garmin Quest II. The main reason was I wasn't sure that I wanted one but thought I might need one on our big trip last year and the Quest II is waterproof and was a decent price. So now I have one but it doesn't get used much except as a speed indicator and second trip odometer.

[glwilson]

I have a Magellan Maestro 4250. Wouldn't buy it again. Was top of the line "then" and expensive. Have had a lot of troubles with it; and it still has its quirks despite Magellan's effort to correct the software.

In addition; you have to use ONLY the Magellan powercord with this unit (as with most all of their units) as the company changes the "pin" setup for the USB cord to match their units. This presents a problem when trying to buy other cords and mounting systems such as the Powerlet products.

Again... avoid the Magellan... at least my model.

[jonsamson]

I have used about 6 different kinds of GPS over the past 10 years or so. I had a Garmin Nuvi 200, with a handle bar mount for a bicycle that I got off the internet for about $25.00. That worked great for about 2.5 years. Than it came time to update the maps, Garmin wanted $80.00 for the updates, well a brand new Garmin Nuvi 205 is $129.00. I thought I would just keep the one I had. I tried to hard wire it. By the way that lighter plug thing, also reduces the voltage. You can't cut off the end and than connect it to a 12 volt battery and expect it to work, the GPS smoked.
So Wally World has a sale, I bought a Tom Tom one for $98.00. Then I bought from Megagps a mount for the handle bars. Works great. It is different than Germin. But it is $30.00 cheaper and the maps update are FREE for life of the unit. I couldn't drive without them. I think the Tom Tom is as good, but different.
They are all water resistant. Just put some duck tape over the speaker on the back, along the edges of the case, and over the card slot and it won't get ruined. I had mine a down pour one day when I was inside a bar. Fired up and got me back home and keep going.
-Jon