So you’ve got a Garmin Zumo GPS navigator. What about accessories?

We’ve talked a little about the Garmin Zumo 550 Motorcycle GPS system, an excellent world class GPS navigation unit for motorcyclists. Well there are also some hot accessories for the entire Garmin Zumo GPS range, because there are more Zumo’s than just the 550. You can get the 400 and 450 series, and the 500 as well, it’s just that the Zumo 550 is the latest and has the most options.

So lets have a look at some accessories that are available for the Zumo range of GPS units that you may find useful. Some of these may already come with some of the units as standard, but not others. Note that some of these Zumo accessories may not be available in all areas, sometimes being area specific to North America, Europe and so on.

Number 1 is the auto mount with speakers. This is the mount that you use to mount your GPS in your car. Because of course most motorcycle riders drive as well, and you don’t want to buy 2 GPS systems, one for your bike and one for your car. So you can mount the Zumo on your bike or in your car. Essential for anyone who rides and drives, and it comes with it’s own speaker, because of course unlike on a bike, you can hear your GPS voice commands just fine when you’re in your car, you don’t need any delivery system to deliver voice to your ear so you can hear.

Note that the 450 does not come with this mount, if you buy the Zumo 550 you won’t need to buy it, it’s included. And it has suction mounting so you can mount it onto the inside of your windshield. If you have the Sumo 450 you’ll also need to buy the cigarette lighter adapter as well, for power.

Next, consider a second SD card for extra storage. It won’t be long before you’ve navigated all over the place, filled your card up and need more storage. Always worth having one extra.

A carry case. As it’s a portable unit you’re going to be taking it off and putting it on. So you’ll need to carry it around, and there will be plenty of times when you’ll find a carry case for your Zumo very handy, both to carry it and protect it. You can get a good carry case for $15 or so. Strong and sturdy and will protect your GPS navigator well. Fits your cigarette lighter adaptor as well.

The Garmin Zumo AC/DC power adaptor, taking any Garmin 12V adaptor to power so you can charge your Garmin navigator anywhere.

Custom caps to match the color scheme of your Garmin Zumo to your bike. Make it all look the part.

The Garmin RAM motorcycle GPS mounting kit. Now you normally get one with your Garmin GPS navigator, but who has just one bike? If you’ve got 2 (or more) bikes then you need 2 (or more) mounting kits.

An FM traffic receiver. One of the most useful things about a Garmin Zumo is the ability to get real time traffic information so you can avoid all those annoying traffic jams. Get yourself an FM traffic receiver so you can get real time updates and reroute yourself around them, and save fuel sitting stationary.

A vehicle power adaptor so you can charge your GPS navigator in your car, because you’ll probably use it there a lot too.

Replacement battery pack. The Zumo battery lasts around 3 or 4 hours, 5 tops. Carry a second one all charged up to slip in a make your total navigating time between charges 6 to10 hours, so you can ride all day.

A USB cable to connect your Zumo direct to your computer. You’ll need to do that.

So there’s a few ideas for you if you’ve got a Garmin Zumo mounted on your bike. Buy yourself a few extras for it. Or if someone close to you has a Zumo an accessory or 3 makes a good gift idea.

You might have a Zumo 550 on your motorbike, and it’s one of the best motorcycle GPS navigators on the planet. But there’s always something more to get to make it even better isn’t there?

Motorcycle GPS is a very effective motorcycle navigation system, but what is GPS?

We’ve talked quite a bit on our website about different motorcycle gps systems, but lets look at exactly how GPS works for a minute, so you understand the technicals.

GPS is a satellite based navigation system and positioning system. GPS stands for Global Positioning System, and that’s what it is. It’s a technology that allows you to locate your position on the globe with extraordinary accuracy.

It was originally developed by the US department of defence for military purposes, and is officially called the NAVSTAR system. NAVSTAR stands for Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging and consists of 3 essential elements.

1. A range of available satellites to send signals.

2. Earth based monitoring stations to receive the satellite signals.

3. Your GPS receiver.

There are 24 satellites that send continual radio signals to earth that are used by the GPS network. Your GPS navigation unit needs signals from at least 4 satellites at any time, so it is essential that there be a number of avialable satellites available so that signals are constant.

There are 5 monitoring stations, the main one in Colorado springs and 4 others spread around the globe. The signals from the 4 are sent to the main station which “corrects” it and sends it back to the satellites, which then allow your GPS receiver to use it.

As we said, it is satellite based, but how exactly does the GPS signal arrive?

It comes by low power radio signals which can pass through clouds, glass and plastic and other soft objects, but not through solid things like buildings. It must be a “line of sight” from the satellite transmitter to the GPS receiver, so if you’re somewhere where you can’t see the sky chances are pretty limited that you’ll get much reception.

The signals are cross referenced to produce a reading that gives you a precise location on the globe by latitude and longitude.

That’s the basics of GPS. It has advanced a long way from the basics now, and with the advent of modern sophisticated software and mapping solutions GPS navigation has become the most successful navigation technique ever invented for the mass market.

GPS navigation systems are now available for private use, rather than just military. It is used on land and at sea, by people from all walks of life. From cars to planes to motorbikes to handheld to boats and more, GPS is the future of navigation systems to allow us an easy and effective method of determining exactly where we are, and where we want to go, and much much more.

How to save the cost of buying a motorcycle GPS unit if you don’t need to.

I’ve been asked quite a bit how to mount a car GPS unit onto a motorcycle.

It’s a good question. There’s plenty of people who have car GPS units and who want to be able to use that on their bike without the need to go out and buy a dedicated motorcycle GPS unit.

Here’s a video we found that tells you how one rider mounted his car GPS onto his bike. It’s well done and we thought it might offer you some good idea if you’re a do it yourself person who wants to save a little money.

Enjoy.

Did that give you any good ideas? We hope so. Read the rest of this entry