Here’s a great video preview of the Garmin Zumo 450 GPS.

The Garmin Zumo 450 GPS is a fine GPS unit. It doesn’t pack quite all the features of the Zumo 550, but then it doesn’t come with quite the same price tag.

Of course it all depends on what you want your GPS unit to do. Modern technology can design just about anything into a GPS, it’s all done by computer chips. But you’ve always got to ask yourself if there are some features of the top of the range model, in this case the Zumo 550, that you just don’t need?

Because of course less features means less cost, and if there’s something you don’t need why pay for it right?

So lets check out a direct comparison between the Garmin Zumo 450 GPS and the Zumo 550 GPS, and see what comes out.

The first thing you notice doing a direct comparison is that almost everything on the Zumo 550 GPS is available on the 450. Note I said “almost”. There are still some big differences, so lets see what they are.

Firstly the Zumo 450 doesn’t recognise and speak street names, whereas the 550 does. So the 450 will tell you to turn left in 500 feet, but the 550 will tell you to turn left in 500 feet to 1st Street. You get extra information from the 550 that may just make all the difference in particular situations. But how often will this matter? How often when you’re navigating will the street name matter? That’s up to you to decide.

Difference number 2. Do you require Bluetooth capability for hands free phone calls? If so the Zumo 550 motorcycle GPS gives it to you and the 450 doesn’t.

And the 550 has XM Navtraffic, the 450 doesn’t. This is a weather and radio service that is a subscription service that gives you details about accidents, road construction and weather-related traffic delays, and offers alternative routes. All useful, but at a cost.

But with the Garmin Zumo 450 you still get features like preloaded maps, ability to add maps as you wish, mp3 player, audio book player, picture viewer and much more.

And the Zumo 450 is somewhere around $200 cheaper than the Sumo 550, depending where you buy it.

So before you grab a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS navigator consider the alternatives, like the 450, and compare the features. You may well find that the differences between the 2 are not great, that you don’t need those extra features of the 550, and that you can save yourself $200 or so. It’s all up to you and your needs and wants. But do your homework on exactly what you want from your GPS navigator.

Then, once you’ve made some decisions on exactly which motorcycle GPS unit is best for you jump onto our website and buy one at the best prices around.

And while you’re here check out this video about the Garmin 450 Zumo GPS, it’s worth watching.

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