Garmin Zumo vs Nuvi?

[Larry Fine]

You obviously haven't ridden in the rain much.

Correct, and I said as much before. I carry a rain suit, but I never ride in the rain intentionally. I'd rather ride on gravel.

 

[ST Gui]

but I never ride in the rain intentionally. I'd rather ride on gravel.

That reminds me of the old Jack Benny radio bit where he's being mugged:

Mugger: Your money or your life!
Jack: I'm thinking it over!

I never ride in the rain intentionally and rather not ride on gravel either.

 

[Daboo]

Obviously you don't live (or ride) in the Pacific NorthWet.

Chris

 

[dduelin]

Everybody rides their own ride and knows their own needs. I know a guy with a 1980 something Chevy Cavalier and he'll tell you it's all he needs in a car and he's absolutely right.

 

[rjs987]

I never intentionally intend to ride in the rain. It sometimes is just happening when I intend to go for a ride!
I don't let a little water stop me so off I go... sometimes.
I will say not as often now that I'm retired as when I was working. But still...

 

[corky51]

Ive used a Nuvi for years.... wondering why upgrading to a zumo ......

I’ve been running nuvis on my ST for 11 years now, I just put sandwich bag over it during downpour. I refuse to pay zumo prices. My screen stays on mph speedometer while in US, so I don’t have to look down. It’s right in my line of sight on my raised dash.

 

[drbuzzard]

my first GPS was made by Magellan and was water resistant, when it got too wet it would shut off but start up when it dried out, the hair drier at the hotel worked great for that job. on one trip in the rain it was soo windy the baggie got ripped off !! i ended up buying two refurb zumo 660lm units, one for the wing and one for the Mighty ST 1300. i found a mount kit and harness for a good price and put it aside, soon it will be going on the ST1100. my GSA had the nav 4 cradle, i used the zumo 660 in it for awhile then found the unit for a very good price

 

[Mikedo]

Zumo's are waterproof and more robust than Nuvi's. That said, I did what you are doing and ran a Nuvi for a year or two with no problems. The Zumo will allow you to download routes made on Basecamp and call up either the route for turn by turn guidance or as a track which simply shows the route and allows you to go astray. In other words, the Zumo gives an advanced user more options. It will also lighten your wallet significantly and that translates to less weight on the bike and faster acceleration.

Does this mean that my Nuvi 2597, that I was hoping to use for a STOC event this year, will not allow me to put routes in it and then follow it? Does that explain why It re-routes me to the shortest route to the end versus following the drawn out loop I created?

 

[SMSW]

Does this mean that my Nuvi 2597, that I was hoping to use for a STOC event this year, will not allow me to put routes in it and then follow it? Does that explain why It re-routes me to the shortest route to the end versus following the drawn out loop I created?

I am not sure. But if under preferences, you have the Nuvi finding routes that are "shortest distance" that might be why. I do not know how to disable all of those so it follows your route. We had the same problem on our MABDR run and we discovered if you disabled recalculate feature on Zumos, we were ok. Don't know about Nuvi's.

 

[paulcb]

Does this mean that my Nuvi 2597, that I was hoping to use for a STOC event this year, will not allow me to put routes in it and then follow it? Does that explain why It re-routes me to the shortest route to the end versus following the drawn out loop I created?

According to this, the 2597 (2507 series) is compatible with Basecamp. Make sure you put enough waypoints in your Basecamp route so your 2597 will route the way you want.

 

[Larry Fine]

According to this, the 2597 (2507 series) is compatible with Basecamp.

Mine isn't on either list. 2460LMT

 

[paulcb]

Mine isn't on either list. 2460LMT

Does Basecamp recognize it? I did a little searching and it "seems" some are using it with Basecamp, but that was 10 years ago. Being that old, it may not connect to the latest version of BC.

But, if it works for you, and you don't need to use BC, no reason to upgrade.

 

[Gizmo]

Does this mean that my Nuvi 2597, that I was hoping to use for a STOC event this year, will not allow me to put routes in it and then follow it? Does that explain why It re-routes me to the shortest route to the end versus following the drawn out loop I created?

Sounds like it might be set up perfectly for you...that will ensure you are back to the starting location sooner than me and you won't have to look at my taillight

 

[Mikedo]

Some Nuvis do and some don't use custom routing. If 2597 does, than you shouldn't have problems following your route. As said before, set more via (also known as "way" or "shaping") points, not just start and end, so they'll be connected by Nuvi as you wanted the route to be. Your "shortest distance" option only tells Garmin how to lay out your route between the points. Garmin does not loads your route. It loads your points and then decides how to connect them together into a route. For example it there are many different roads between your points, it will calculate with the shortest distance (or any other option), and it may not be what you had in mind when creating the route. However, if there are more via's, then you're forcing Garmin to connecting them as you want since there aren't other roads around. In this case a shortest distance or fastest time is not relevant. I don't know if basecamp and Garmin are in sync (what you see in Basecamp is what you'll see in Garmin) cas to me Basecamp is too tedious and not user friendly. I use 3rd party software (Furkot.com is one) to make custom routings.
I use "fastest time" as an option in case if I want to use highway and not to bother putting the via points on it.
Hope it helps.

I have no issue with creating the route (I think), perhaps the way I'm doing it may be the problem. I do not have waypoints added in which it seems may force the route. I am new to Basecamp and might be going about this the wrong way as I create the route. I'll have to watch some more videos I guess.

I've loaded a bunch of other routes for the STOC event but don't have access to the roads to test them (4-hour ride to get to), so I'm trying to rec-create the situation locally.

I have to use one of these route modes, I cannot turn them all off.

 

[paulcb]

I have no issue with creating the route (I think), perhaps the way I'm doing it may be the problem. I do not have waypoints added in which it seems may force the route. I am new to Basecamp and might be going about this the wrong way as I create the route. I'll have to watch some more videos I guess.

Try this...

• Create a start/finish in BC and let it determine the route. Now, 'drag' points on that route to modify it, then import into your GPS. On your GPS, I think it will look like your original BC route before modifying.
• Now create the same route in BC, except, instead of dragging, add waypoints to modify it. Then import into your GPS. I think your GPS route will then look like your modified BC route.

BC is not very user friendly and I've spent a fair amount of time to become only half-way proficient at it. I've found videos can be somewhat helpful, but nothing like using it to really learn it... experience is always the best teacher.

 

[Daboo]

Does this mean that my Nuvi 2597, that I was hoping to use for a STOC event this year, will not allow me to put routes in it and then follow it? Does that explain why It re-routes me to the shortest route to the end versus following the drawn out loop I created?

Here's another consideration in using a Nuvi vs the Zumo. Bluetooth.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the Nuvi GPS have BT that will transmit directions to a headset. They'll connect to the BT headset for hands-free calling, but the directions for your turns come from the speaker. If you're in a car, that's fine. But if you're in traffic on a motorcycle and can't hear the directions and have to take your eyes off the road to see where you're going...that could cost far more than the difference in cost of a Nuvi vs a Zumo.

Chris

 

[James Arnold]

I have been using a Nuvi 2797 (7" screen) for several years mounted on a dash shelf. I converted it for motorcycle use per Greg Rice, who is an ultra long distance rider. I spliced into the speaker wires so that I could use it with my Autocom, installed a RAM case over the GPS, put silicone around the screen edges, and used duct tape over the openings in the RAM box. No problems so far.

 

[JRman]

Just back from the last full day ride before winter hits here in Southwestern British Columbia. We did the best loop ride out of Vancouver known as the Duffy Lake Road (or DLR more commonly) which has some serious elevation and found us just below snow line. It's one of the best rides for any of you passing near Vancouver BC...but that's not my point.

I am new to the ST1300 world having recently purchased a 14 year old bike with 14,000km on the clock...happy to report that within 8 weeks of ownership I've already turned it into over 17,000km. For this day trip I wanted to have GPS and having sold my Zumo with my Africa Twin as part of the deal (also hardwired and really didn't want to take the tupperware off that bike.....worse than the ST by far) - so had to come up with a quick solution.

I've used Nuvi's on motos in the past so dug out my old unit (I believe a 2797), found the ram holder and mount, and placed it on the 1" ball that was already resident between the bars, but didn't have time to figure out power before departure. On a whim, I plugged it into a 10,000mAh USB power brick and immediately it fired up just as if I had it hardwired. I unplugged it, and it acted the same, indicating lack of power and would shut down in 15 seconds...et, Voila - I have GPS again!

Placed the power brick in the left had side pocket (nice and toasty warm even at 3 degrees celsius during parts of the ride). Now, I did turn the unit on and off all day since I wanted to preserve the battery - so powered it up when I wished to check something and did leave it running a good portion of the day but not the entire time.

When I pressed the power button, the screen immediately would go black. When I pressed the power button again, the screen would come back immediately - like it was in sleep mode - didn't go through the Garmin logo boot up, and only took a few moments to find satellites again, while also remembering the route I selected at departure. Using this method, I was shocked to find the power brick showed a full 4 bars power (4 of 4) on my return home!

It's not a long term solution, but was so pleased to know the draw from these little units cannot be much. Frankly, someone could easily operate this way forever should they choose. Though I always travel with multiple power bricks these days, I am adding USB with built in voltmeter to the right hand glove box just as added insurance for various charging / power duties.

I bought this Nuvi for $125 CAD or so (minus 25% to get to USD...LOL) maybe 7 years ago or more.

It also has a feature I greatly missed on the Zumo - called "look ahead" or something like that.
Once a route is keyed in, you can click on fuel or food or lodging ahead on your route and it will list options off by distance.

For random road trips without prior plans for breaks of where to overnight, this feature is fantastic and one of my number one uses for the Nuvi.
No idea why the Zumo I had did not have this option.

I'll throw it in the glove box if I'm in the rain - but won't be going back to a Zumo any time soon. Could probably by 5 or 6 Nuvi's for the price of the latest Zumo.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

When I pressed the power button, the screen immediately would go black. When I pressed the power button again, the screen would come back immediately - like it was in sleep mode - didn't go through the Garmin logo boot up, and only took a few moments to find satellites again, while also remembering the route I selected at departure. Using this method, I was shocked to find the power brick showed a full 4 bars power (4 of 4) on my return home!

When they have constant exterior power they go in to sleep mode, essentially just turning the screen off. They consume negligible power in this mode, and this is why they use so little power.

It also has a feature I greatly missed on the Zumo - called "look ahead" or something like that.
Once a route is keyed in, you can click on fuel or food or lodging ahead on your route and it will list options off by distance.

Every Zumo that I have owned as well as every one that I have ever used has this feature.
When you do a search, you need to select the option to tell it to search along your current route to have it display only what is coming up.

 

[JRman]

When they have constant exterior power they go in to sleep mode, essentially just turning the screen off. They consume negligible power in this mode, and this is why they use so little power.

Every Zumo that I have owned as well as every one that I have ever used has this feature.
When you do a search, you need to select the option to tell it to search along your current route to have it display only what is coming up.

Well, I know I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I spent a considerable time working with my Zumo to find the same "look ahead" feature offered by the Nuvi and to no positive result. I'm sure you are correct, and it's available - but not without a considerable amount of work to find it...which is not the case in the Nuvi.