The Garmin Zumo 550 Motorcycle GPS. Quality Pays.
Motorcycle Navigation Made Easy – By Garmin
The Zumo 550 is of course not the first GPS system that Garmin have made for motorcycles. In fact they offer a range of GPS systems for motorbikes, including the Zumo 400 and the the Zumo 500 as well as the 550, and more. They claim though that the 550 is the first GPS satellite navigation unit made specifically for bikes with easy to use controls so that they can be operated with gloves on and with the left hand.
Probably the most important feature of the Zumo 550, or any Garmin motorcycle GPS unit for that matter, is it’s durability. It’s not easy being a motorcycle GPS system, and any good one has to be tough, tougher than a car GPS.
When used on a bike the GPS unit suffers all of the extremes of weather that the rider suffers, incuding heat, rain and heavy vibrations.
So it has to keep running through all of this. The 550 is totally waterproof, has been rigorously tested for vibration resistance and is built with fuel and UV resistant plastics to ensure that it continues working in the toughest of environments.
And most importantly it comes with a dedicated motorcycle mount. One of the great difficulties for bikers in the past who wanted a GPS device on their bike was to mount it successfully so that it was mounted in an easy to read place but didn’t get in the way when riding. Oh, and the mount had to offer some vibration resistance too.
Finding a good GPS was often only a part of the equation in the past, mounting it was also quite a problem. And if you’ve got a car as well then it comes with a mount can be used in a vehicle as well, (windshield or dash), so you can transfer it from bike to car with ease.
Of course the primary requirement of a navigation system is that it provides easy to follow directions to get you to where you want to go. The 550 has all city navigator NT maps preloaded and a large point of interest database, just so that you can find exactly what it is that you want to see.
It includes such things as hotels and restaurants and handy locations like fuel stops and ATMs. Anywhere you want to go to in North America is covered, just plan your route, there’s a map to cover it.
The Zumo offers both voice and visual directions so that you can ride without looking down at the screen if you wish, which is of course preferable, especially in heavy traffic. It has text to speech functionality so it can give you verbal street directions including street names. It makes difficult navigating a snap. Voice is transmitted wirelessly to your headset.
And you can choose a 2D or 3D display, whichever you prefer.
The screen is a little small for some at 3 1/2 inches, and those with poorer eyesight may struggle if they felt the need to navigate by the screen, but why not use the voice function, and size of the icons can be increased. It has an internal battery so the unit can become portable if needed just by taking it off the mount, and the battery life is around 3 to 4 hours of continuous use.
All you need to do to get to where you want to go is to tell it where you want to go. Of course it’s best to do this before you leave, and then you can leave all the hard work navigating to the Zumo and those busy little satellites above.
Trips can be downloaded later for storage or to share with friends, so you can reproduce your best trips at any time just by preloading them. You can even review your trip in Google Earth. You can save your trip on the SD card and give it to a friend so he can load it on his zumo. If you’re planning on riding in a group but the group may like to split up at some time, everyone can follow the same route to the same destination.
Now of course all the above is about navigation. But a modern world class GPS does much more than just navigate, and Garmin Motorcycle GPS systems do not disappoint when it comes to extra features. The 550 is Bluetooth compatible so you can make hands free phone calls, or perhaps you’d like to listen to a little mp3 music. The Zumo 550 does it all. And with a jpeg picture viewer you can all share your photos later.
It can be programmed to warn you when you need to fill up with fuel, and has special anti theft features.
Now of course all of this comes at a price, and the Zumo 550 isn’t cheap. Of course if you don’t need all these features, for example you can get by without the bluetooth feature, then check out the other models in the Garmin Zumo range like the 450, they come at a lower price.
There is no doubt that GPS is one of the best navigation aids that has ever been available to the biker, and it’s refreshing to see companies like Garmin directing their attention of offering high quality motorcycle GPS systems that are specifically designed with the motorcyclist in mind. For somewhere around $1000, depending on where you buy, it’s hard to go past a GPS unit like the Zumo 550 for value for money. It turns navigation into a simple affair, and takes the stress out of getting there so you can enjoy the ride.
A good motorcycle GPS, like the Zumo, can be worth it’s weight in gold on a bad day.
Like everything on the internet the price is flexible, you just need to know where to look. So check out our price comparisons below. We use the latest in web technology and dynamic price search to bring you the very lowest price available for the Garmin Zumo 550 GPS.
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