Has anybody had experience with the new Garmin Zumo? It seems like it has lots of features that would be great on the bike, but it looks like they only have maps of North America and Europe available for it. What I find appealing includes the big screen with glove-friendly buttons, waterproof case, MP3 player, XM traffic and weather and Bluetooth compatability.

So I hate to admit this, but I have never had a GPS before. It's not that I'm afraid of technology, it just that I know as soon as I cross that threshold I suddenly won't be able to function without it (like fuel guages and XM radio). Now I'm planning a lot more traveling in other countries, and it's time to make the leap.

Any input from those more experienced with GPS? Does the Zumo look like it has good potential for international travel? Are maps usually available from other sources for other countries? How does the GPS function if you don't have a corresponding map module loaded, or does it work at all? Is there another model that you think would be better suited to international travel? Are there other models that have the same features I like that has more maps available? I've also been looking at the Street Pilot 2820.

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated!

Don't think the Zumo will be available until October, so it'll probably be a while before we get any feed back. I purchased a Nuvi 350 earlier this year for my trip to TDF. It will translate lanquages and do currency exchange, and has mp3. It's small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and has battery back up. The downside, it's not waterproof, the Zumo is.

Harold

Ahhh, yes. On further investigation, it seems that all the websites do, in fact, say "Coming Soon". So easy to overlook in all the excitement.

OK, so I won't expect too many first-hand reviews, but does anybody have any thoughts on what I should be looking for? I don't want to drop a thousand bucks and find that it's lacking in some critical area - especially if someone else has already lived & learned!

The garmin quest is a good water proof option for bikes. I like mine (quest1). It's nice and small and has very good battery life. I've yet to get the cable to power it from the bike but it will happily direct you for 6-8 hours on a charge and recharge within an hour or so.

Down sides are the buttons aren't very easy with big gloves on and the way you key in addresses is a bit fiddly (not the fancy touch screen system the zumo and nuvi have).

The european version comes with complete maps of the uk and western europe. I've heard people say you can get a quest 1 for £150. I've never seen them at that price. Paid £299 for mine about 4 or 5 months ago.

The Quest 2 is newer has more memory and postcode searching within the same basic shell. You'll have to add costs for a bike mount and power cables to what you pay for either quest.

Zumo is clearly Garmin's response to the TomTom rider. I have heard pretty poor reports on the Rider though, saying the quality of the bike mount, bluetooth system and headset is poor.

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KTM supermoto
BMW R1100GS
"tourer in waiting"

Great! That gives me some good info to work with.

One more thing - I keep reading posts from people who are disappointed at the lack of memory. I know the definition of a "good" amount of memory changes from day to day (my computer had great memory just a year ago) but what should I reasonably be looking for?

Isn't XM Radio a North American thing only? Perhaps Europe too? Different satellites, and while GPS satellites cover the globe, XM radio has limited coverage?

Same for weather radio. While there is weather everywhere - what weather radio signal does this unit pull in? And is the forecast in a language you can understand?

So, if my assumptions are correct, its a great device for the North American/European market, but it might have a bunch of useless features outside those areas.

So I'm just asking - not familiar enough with the technology to know if I'm posting dumb comments.

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Yes, XM only works in North America. The primary reason I like those features is for my Iron Butt runs in the US and Canada - anything that can help me re-route around bad weather or traffic without having to pull over and yank out the maps is a real plus. So I don't mind that those features don't work out of this continent, but if nothing functions well anywhere else it's a whole different story.

Not really sure but by way of example with the quest 1 i don't think you can get all the maps of Europe and the UK on it at once, but you can with the quest 2.

but in most cases it wouldn't matter as you can simply select the maps you're likely to need and transfer them from your PC onto the GPS. So if you were going south through Europe you could deselect all of north UK, north europe, etc so they don't take up memory.

Unless you were going on a long long trip covering every corner of europe or further afield chances are the quest 1 has enough memory to hold the maps you'll need.

The zumo like some other models has a SD card slot so you can expand the memory/carry extra maps on spare cards.

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KTM supermoto
BMW R1100GS
"tourer in waiting"

I got a response from Garmin UK regarding the Zumo:

Obviously, US street prices will be cheaper than the converted UK price, so that is quoted only for UK-based readers.

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Ben

SmugMug gallery

Must admit they lookgood and with the added POI Announcement feature it means that I'd be able to add in the safety camera sites database in and get a visible / audible warning.

Well, then you've answered your own question about it's suitability outside the U.S.

As to maps, you can put all kinds of different maps on Garmin GPS, such as the World Map. However, except for US/Canada and Europe, there's no "autorouting" software which means you lose some additional functionality that this GPS (and others) has built in to it. Which is why many posters recommend simpler (cheaper) GPSs for international travel.

The other downside I see to this GPS is in order to get XM and Weather, you pay a monthly fee which I've heard is more like in the neighborhood of your cell or cable bill. Standard XM/Sirius monthly fees are more in the neighborhood of dial-up internet fees. Many of the folks on this forum try to save money (minimize monthly expenses) in order to actually travel, so you'll have to decide if those fees are worth paying.

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Autorouting software is also available for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Non autorouting software is available from a variety of third partys for many other area of the world, some free and some commecial.
Quality and coverage varies.

The zumo appears to have a few more technical features, including 10,000 point tracklog and compass screen which may make it a true onroad/offroad navigator.

As of yet, nobody has seen one in the flesh except visitors to Garmins stand at the Laguna Seca GP.

XM radio/weather coverage is not available outside of North America so if you are a world traveller then the answer is simple; this feature is not available in the areas that you need it so ignore it.

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Burnie M

I guess I was a little unclear on the XM issue - I travel outside of the US and Canada, but I don't care about having the XM function outside of North America. What I care about is having decent enough maps the navigate outside of this continent. While I'm here in the US, though, the XM features would be a nice bonus but not a requirement.

Last time I checked, non-GPS XM service was only about $12 a month. Don't quote me on that, though - we get XM service free because my husband places their products on TV shows and movies and whatnot. Not a bad little perk of the job. That's another reason why I'm willing to pay a little more for a unit with that creature comfort, since it won't cost me any upkeep.

Thanks for the tips on the third-party maps, too. I got an email from Garmin that said they will be releasing maps of Mexico, Brazil, and Singapore for the Zumo, but they couldn't say if any other maps would be released any time soon. I got the impression that nothing else is immediatly in the works.

Luckily I still have some time to compare other models before the Zumo comes out!

I've been through at least half a dozen Garmin units since the 12XL. I like the 2610 for the motorcycle because it uses compact flash cards and you can load all North America maps on a 2 GB card. Europe, and maybe more, are also available. Flash cards can handle much more vibration than a hard drive.

I tried using a C330 on the bike a year ago and it has a few problems. It isn't water resistant and it has a hard drive that won't start up in cold weather -- instead giving you a warning that it's cold.

I just bought a C550 for the car last week. Very fast. It has your position a few seconds after booting. It also has bluetooth for pairing with a cellphone, athough I wonder if you can pair it with a cellphone at the same time as a Scala Rider or other helmet bluetooth device.

I looked into the XM Weather option that's available on some Gamin units and it's very expensive at $99 a month and $100 activation charge. I'll pass and get the weather off the Treo.

One thing about the Quest 2 -- it's a current model, but is very slow to recalculate routes. The screen is bright, but too small for my aging eyes.

Excellent! That gives me a lot of good information to think about as I try to narrow down the field. I'm perfectly happy to let you go through half a dozen units and pass the savings on to me! Thanks!