Garmin 590

kendoo

kendoo

Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
877
Age
60
Location
Wallkill, NY
Bike
2016 FJR
Just pulled the trigger on of of these. I must be friggin nuts to spend $800 on a GPS, hell, my bike isn't worth that, LOL. I've been using a couple Nuvi 550's for rallying and one of them will not hold maps of the entire country and the other has older maps. I considered the 66x series, but they are no longer supported by Garmin and I heard the new 590 is quite a bit faster not to mention the traffic and weather feature. There are some downfalls to the 590 as well, but for the most part I think it will work well. Anybody else have one of these for the BMW Nav 5? Opinions?
 
Gettin' ready for your 50CC? ;) The traffic and weather features ought to be very helpful for that.
 
Wish I had known ahead of time Ken. I have an in with Garmin....
 
Last edited:
I spent close to $700 on my Zumo 550 back in '07, and don't regret that now. It's been a workhorse and reliable, had to replace digitizer (myself). Many have spent more on several GPS units..... so I'd say spend the bucks for a good one. Some with 550's that died (also no longer supported with Garmin repair services), have been given 20% discount towards a 590 and did not have to send their 550 in....... so if you have a 550 that dies, that's an option. Not sure about the 66x series, you'd have to ask. I've been looking for a deal on a 590 for a long time, they're C$1100 here.
 
I'm still running a 450. Last trip I took I had it set on home and on a ramp interchange it just froze up, I was able to perform the master reset and shut the unit down and turn it back on and then it worked fine again. The 660LM is now down to a reasonable $300, I've been considering getting one of them and then keeping the 450 as a back up. I'd hate for my 450 to go down in a middle of a rally, if it did with no backup and just have to phone it in and ride to the finish.
 
RaYzerman said:
I spent close to $700 on my Zumo 550 back in '07, and don't regret that now. It's been a workhorse and reliable, had to replace digitizer (myself). Many have spent more on several GPS units..... so I'd say spend the bucks for a good one. Some with 550's that died (also no longer supported with Garmin repair services), have been given 20% discount towards a 590 and did not have to send their 550 in....... so if you have a 550 that dies, that's an option. Not sure about the 66x series, you'd have to ask. I've been looking for a deal on a 590 for a long time, they're C$1100 here.
Click to expand...

I was using a couple of the old Nuvi 550's, they are waterproof, but not in the same league as the Zumos. I doubt these were included in the 20% discount. I agree, I think I will really like the 590 once I learn the ins and outs and the sting of paying that much for it wears off.
 
Like Ray, I've had my eye on the 590 for some time. Really kicking myself I didn't buy it a couple of years back, it was much cheaper then!
 
RaYzerman said:
I've been looking for a deal on a 590 for a long time, they're C$1100 here.
Click to expand...

At first I was going to suggest you pick one up when you come to an STOC event in the US, then I remembered the exchange rate. Until the $Ca goes up in relation to the USD, you are screwed.
 
Gizmo said:
Good memory! It hasn't met my expectations as I cannot load a route onto it. Very frustrating!
Click to expand...

What sort of problems are you having with routes? Unless the USB port on the GPS is hosed or you are doing it from a MAC, it should be easy to fix (I know very little about Macs). Let me know how I can help. It's pretty easy if you have the unit set up as using the USB and not ACTIVE sync. It looks like a disk drive (the second one), and you drag and drop the .KML files into the <main route>\CONTENT\USERDATA\ROUTE folder. I've done it from both XP and WIN 7 Pro with no problems a bunch of times. You do need to use the USB cable that came with the unit. It has a longer snout and is just like the one that most Garmins use (slightly different USB spec). BTW, did I miss somewhere that you were having a problem? I can email you one of my routes that I can download and you can email me one of yours that doesn't work and we can see if it's the route format or not.
 
Last edited:
jonjonboo said:
Having the waterproof nuvi 500 for a few years with no problems I was in the market for an upgrade. The 660lm had dropped in price to under $350 so I got one. I thought the bluetooth features would be better (big reason I bought it) I find the 590 does what I actually wanted in music and phone control. Waiting for the 590 to drop in price perhaps 3 years.
Click to expand...

The Nuvi 500/550 are some great GPS's. I mainly wanted to upgrade from my 550 to get a larger/brighter screen, bluetooth and MP3 player. I still plan to use it as a 2nd GPS during rallies and also on my 2 other bikes so I don't have to constantly swap them around.
 
OK, so I got the new 590 all wired up. I also have my old Nuvi 550 plugged into the USB port (built into the 590 cable). I've ridden close to 150K with my old setup, which was a non-BT GPS, a Sena SMH5 with my iPhone paired to it. It was very simple with only 2 BT devices (helmet and phone) paired. Yesterday I started out listening to tunes coming from the 590's SD card via media player. I got a phone call and started hitting buttons on the GPS. I was finally able to answer the phone, but lost my tunes. Never could get my tunes to come back on. So my question is, what do I pair with what? Do I use the GPS as a hub and pair the phone and helmet to it (and don't pair the phone directly to the helmet like I used to)? I don't really care if I get GPS directions into my helmet, I'm already used to looking at the unit. I liked the way I could just hit a single button on my sena to make calls or send texts etc. I plan to use the garmin weather, traffic, and pandora apps via my phone. And I plan to use the GPS SD card for tunes as well. Anybody have a clue as to the best way to link these devices to accomplish what I'm looking for?
 
The launch price of the 590 was U$700, then they upped it to $900. Now they've launched the new Zumo 395 and 595....... dropped the price of the 590 to $800. OK........ still waiting.... exchange rate sucks.
 
RaYzerman said:
The launch price of the 590 was U$700, then they upped it to $900. Now they've launched the new Zumo 395 and 595....... dropped the price of the 590 to $800. OK........ still waiting.... exchange rate sucks.
Click to expand...

Didn't hear about those new launches. I bet we are talking $1K.
 
Great gps thread... thanks!

Are there any motorcycle-approved and ST forum-recommended Nuvis that are really good values on the used market? I don't need bluetooth or mp3 or phone control... just basic weatherproof gps and a really bright screen.

thanks ! dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom