Shelton:
You make some good points, however, just for the benefit of others who may read your post, there are some "caveats" to consider before buying one of the old "StreetPilots".
The biggest issue nowadays with automotive GPSR's (and I include motorcycle GPSR's in this category) is how much memory the GPSR has to store downloaded map data. All of the "StreetPilot" form factor GPS units from Garmin (original black and white StreetPilot, StreetPilot ColorMap, and StreetPilot III) use removable data chips to hold map data. However, the two older units - the StreetPilot and StreetPilot ColorMap - can only address (read) a maximum of 32 megs of map data, even if there is a 128 meg chip installed. Also, these two units are limited to reading a maximum of 50 map segments.
None of this matters if you plan to use the unit outside Western Europe or outside North America. In such locations, WorldMap is the only cartography product available, it does not take up much space, and 50 WorldMap segments would cover all of Africa plus half of Europe as well.
But, if you have ANY plans to use one of these older units in Europe or North America, forget it. The current crop of map products are very, very detailed, which means they are also very, very large datafiles. I have the very latest Garmin GPS - a SP 2650 - mounted on my bike, and I have a 1 gigabyte data card in it. That's big enough to hold most but not all of Europe.
To sum up - for African use only (excluding South Africa, where detailed street maps are available), these old StreetPilots are just great for a moto. Tough, waterproof, and cheap. But they are totally useless for navigation in Europe or North America, unless you want to use 6 or 8 year old map data in them - which is kind of pointless, why bother with a GPS if your maps are out of date?
PanEuropean
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