Personal Injury Law

I Mounted a Portable Garmin GPS on my Motorcycle and in my Car; Here is a review!

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.

Well I have managed to ride my motorcycle and drive my car for many years all over the nation using old fashion maps, printing out directions on Mapquest, and/or otherwise winging it; well no more, I have entered the 21st Century; I now use a GPS unit.

I decided to buy a portable GPS system a few months ago and all I can saw is “why did I wait so long!”

First off this article is not going to discuss all of the options and things that a GPS system on your motorcycle and car will do. If you want to learn about GPS systems, I am sure a quick Google search will bring you up to speed on GPS systems and their features. The purpose of this article is to discuss what I wanted in a GPS, what I looked at, what I purchased, how I mounted it on my motorcycle, and what I think.

When I went about searching for a GPS system, I wanted a unit that I could use on my motorcycle, car, or any other motor vehicle that I wanted to ride in; a unit that was portable and not permanently installed.

I went to a bunch of motorcycle and GPS forums to see what others were saying. I also looked at professional reviews on sites such as ZDNet, and purchaser reviews from sites that allow their customers to review the units they purchased. On top of everything else a bunch of new manufacturers have recently entered the GPS market.

My initial impression at least from what I learned in my search was that the leading GPS brands were Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom. I could not find anything really good about the new manufacturers in the GPS market game. Guys from electronic stores who were in the know such as Fry’s Electronics told me point blank on the phone and in person to stick with Garmin because they were in industry leader, and they have less returns of Garmin units. I was also told that Magellan and TomTom were good, but that Garmin would be my best bet.

On the internet I found a site which discussed the mapping software that Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom GPS units use, and I found that the software used in the Garmin and Magellan units was supposed to be better for North America than the TomTom units. It is said that the TomTom software is supposed to be better for Europe. Since I do 99.99% of my riding in North America I wanted the best mapping software for North America.

The next issue I considered was whether to buy a waterproof unit to use on the motorcycle and in the car, or should I just buy a regular unit to use for both. By regular, I mean one that is not waterproof. I looked at the Garmin Zumo 550 GPS which is specifically designed for motorcycles, is waterproof, and comes with a motorcycle mount. There is even a Zumo forum for users of the product. The cheapest price I could find on the unit was around 500 bucks plus shipping from online shopping sites. When doing research on this unit on the Zumo forum, I found that many purchasers were having major problems with the unit which were causing them to have to do reboot’s of the unit, or which were causing the units to die on the road. Apparently there is some kind of bug with the unit and many guys on a particular thread were reporting that they got units with the bug. There were many other guys that said their units were ok. In my mind I am not going to pay 500 dollars for a GPS unit that has a known bug, or that would be a hit and miss. I wanted a unit that was free of bugs or problems and would work. I don’t care if the GPS unit is designed for motorcycles or not at that price. Bottom line, I am not going to dish out 500 dollars plus for something that may be buggy.

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Full post as published by Biker Law Blog on December 09, 2007 (boomark / email).