That was a factory problem and was fixed with all faulty models swapped out under warranty. Mine sits on my bike all day and has never had an issue like it.

That's indeed good news. Now I may consider trying one.

When it comes to Topo Maps, I found that the Lowrance installed base map was the exact maps as the "high end" topo map Delorme offers. Both were made by Info USA. My question is which topo map company does Garmin offer?

Has anyone tried the Birdseye satellite images on the Montana? I'm downloading some for Mongolia now, but wanted to see if anyone had used them and found them useful (or not)?

In a nutshell- no I haven't as I create my own using GE.

Useful? moderate to little use for me, the main issue being one of map sizes created and you will need many especially if you want a high level of detail and of many places.
I use my GE created img's as an overlay, they can be of some use but the above re:space remains- 'maps' will appear as you reach the coords automatically.

Bertrand,

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that GE images could be used like this, or that they would scroll as you move down the road. Is there any secret to being able to use the images like this, or is it pretty self-explanatory?

I thought it would be helpful to have sat images in Mongolia, given the trails which seem to go all over the place. And you're right about the number of images--I've probably already got over 100 and probably have several hundred to go. Luckily these should fit easily on the Montana's SD card, but it is very tedious to download them all. One of my concerns is that as the number of images increses, they will load slower and slower, which could make the whole exercise pointless.

For anyone who is interested, below I've posted images of the same area from both Birdseye highest detail level (top) and Google Maps (bottom). As you can see, at least in this area, Google's image has higher resolution:

http://www.vervecom.net/Birdseye.bmp
http://www.vervecom.net/google.bmp

Downloading a GE image at the altitude you require is the first step.
The data then needs to be worked on to make it useable in your montana.
It is worth reminding readers that GE images are made by a very clever bit of software which
'stitches' pictures, scans, drawings etc to make a 'map'.
Timelines, data and details cannot be accurately determined so remember that what your display
shows you is not necessarily what you will see 'on the ground'.
Then, at times, you'll be amazed how good it can be!
All very time consuming to put together but useful if you don't have any other mapping.
For Mongolia (and anywhere you do not have good maps) IMHO, it would be best to create a datase of as
accurate as possible waypoints, switch your Montana to the compass page (CDI layout), edit the fields and learn/know how to navigate in 'off road' mode.

Thanks, this sounds like good advice, I will check this out.

Guys, I need help with something else on my Montana: shortly after I bought, the internal battery died for some reason. I recently bought a replacement battery, but when I put it in, it didn't work either... So I look closer at the battery compartment and realized that there seem to be only two battery contacts in the battery compartment, even though there seem to be four spaces for contacts, and the battery itself has four contacts. See pic below: on the green plate circled in red, there are two contacts on the left, but not on the right. Before I trudge out to the Motorola service place to have it fixed, could someone else look at their Montana to see how many contacts it has?

http://www.vervecom.net/ADVRider/Montana.bmp

Thanks Bertand.

This is really poor quality from Garmin, I have used the Montana for maybe a couple of thousand of on-road kilometers and two contacts break?? really unimpressive.

IIRC, the Montana will run from a wired cradle even without the battery, correct? And I can always run it off of AAs I guess, but still this is really disappointing.

Take it back for warranty.

It will run from the rugged mount, no battery needed and will run from the AAs

Talk to Garmin, all you can get is nothing if you don't, but you may get something if you do

Good lcuk
TS

Of course the warranty expired about a month ago... doh

I'll see if they can fix it, but am concerned about turn-around time. Not very happy at the moment.

Call them, they can be very understanding, just be nice to them and explain.

The worst they will do is offer a $180 tun around, if in the US, they will even send one to you, then you send the faulty one back

You never know your luck in a big city

Cheers
TS

Yes- the montana will take its power from the cradle and work fine even without a battery inside- BUT see note below:

Vibration is what kills/damages gps a lot of the time hence why I've opted to mount the bespoke garmin powermount into the TT mount as well- Walter feels it is overkill- I very much disagree and I've also added a home made sun shield to it. (not needed in UK!!!) some 11,000 miles aboard my thumper and no problems (to date- darn... did I just invoke Murphy?doh)

NOTE:
The main drawback of not having a battery inside is that the gps will lose its compass calibration- something rather important if you ride using the compass page set display to CDI as I do.

Bertrand,

Thanks for the info. The problem is that I live in Moscow, and customer service here generally kinda sucks.

Thanks for the compass calibration info, I didn't even know you had to calibrate it, so that's good to know. If I can't fix it quickly, I will usually be using it in the cradle with some AAs, so I should be OK as long as the AAs aren't drawn down while it is in the cradle.