What GPS to get

[Lapchik]

I think it's time to update from my Zumo 550 to something new. I would like to be able to do tracks, must plug in to the bike power, navigate off-road, etc with it as well as navigate big cities. What are you using, what did it cost, and how is it working for you?

[LSGiant]

Don't we all when you find one unit let me know.

[Sleddog]

Montana 610 will do it. You'll need to buy City Navigator. Get the downloadable with lifetime updates.
GPS City has had good pricing, around $350.00

Not the best "Rally" gps though.

[LSGiant]

What do you guys think about this. I know is expensive but I have been looking at having to buy two units. Screen is so small on Montana.

[Sleddog]

(12-08-2016 01:25 PM)LSGiant Wrote:  What do you guys think about this.

??????

I haven't used one but, the new Garmin 276cx is available. It has a 5" X 5" (diagonal) screen & push buttons. It seems to be the hot item.



The Montana's screen is 2" X 3.5"

[LSGiant]

Yes that is what I meant to copy

[MikeH]

A lot of people talk up the old Garmin 478 as good for rallies and offroading. People must like them as they hold their value. I've never used one.
My Zumo 665 has gotten better with age, it still routes poorly but doesn't require a restart 3 times per day.
I have a Rino 665 with topo of WY for on the snowmobile, screen is really small though. 2-way radio function is nice

[ajayhawkfan]

(12-08-2016 11:13 AM)Sleddog Wrote:  Montana 610 will do it. You'll need to buy City Navigator. Get the downloadable with lifetime updates.
GPS City has had good pricing, around $350.00

Not the best "Rally" gps though.

I have gone from a Garmin III to a Garmin 60 to 60CSX to Colorado to a Montana650T. I also have the Garmin Navigator V that is installed on my GSA.

The Montana is the best of the bunch! As Jack stated get City Navigator with lifetime updates. However I know a bunch of people that get free routable from http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ and they are happy enough.

I have the T(Topo) model. The unit came with Topos installed. You can get the Montana without topos and download free ones as well. For me I liked having them installed. The 650 included a camera. That is something I almost never use and would not pay extra for it again.

I have it mounted on my handlebars and have never had a problem with glare or size of screen

I have never done one of your rallies so I don't know why Jack said it doesn't do great. I have found 1000's of geocaches using both the city nav to get me close and then the TOPO to bring me to the exact spot.

I also use the Montana in my car and take it with me while flying for business. It works great.

[Sleddog]

(12-08-2016 03:13 PM)MikeH Wrote:  A lot of people talk up the old Garmin 478 as good for rallies and offroading. People must like them as they hold their value. I've never used one.

The advantage of the old 478 & 276 units are the size of screen & push buttons. Disadvantage is they are limited in memory & the number of track points that can be stored. I believe it's around 500 vs 4000 for the Montana & the new 276cx. In a nutshell it's how detailed the track can show.

I know of several rally riders that use the Montana for it's ability to show all of their waypoints (bonus locations) when zoomed out. However it's not the best at routing or adding stops along an existing route.

[MikeH]

478 can show all the bonus locations too.
I have 2720's for that reason, they also do a better job with routing than my Zumo. Same problem as 478, old tech that isn't supported by Garmin anymore and small memory. At least a 2720 or 2600 can be had for under $100. One of my 2720's failed this summer, the other is starting to show the same signs so I'm in the market. Maybe a Montana or if the new 276cx cause 478's to drop in price. Don't feel like paying $500 for a gps that can't have new maps.

[Lapchik]

On a related note, if anyone wants a Zumo 550 with two of the touratech locking mounts I have them for sale. Works fine for streets/navigating, but I want offroad nav capability and topo.

[AlvinB]

I've never used anything outside of the Garmin Zumo series, but in my limited experience, I really like my 590. The only complaint I have is that occasionally it will lock up and restart while adding a stop to an existing route. I would love to have the new 595, so Lapchik, maybe I should sell you a gently used 590?

[ST Rich]

Just my $0.02, if you can get the functionality of the 650T Montana in a device with a larger screen, for me, that is the winner.
My Montana is a shapeshifter going from off-road to the car to the GPS that shows me the big picture on rallies, and on the rallies I keep it set on shortest route when traveling point to point. If the new 276 can do that, and can hold up to the vibration of the Husky and KTM (I had to add extra vibration isolation) it will be on my short list.

[dajuice]

I love my Montana but its inability to find POIs along my current route make it useless to me as a stand alone GPS for what I do. When rallying, it is my data center and high level overview since you can zoom out to a very high level (see several states at once even out west) and still see your user waypoints. This can be customized if you don't want that. Of all the GPS's I've owned, if I could only own one, it would be the Zumo 590LM. I thought I would miss the XM I had on the 550 but the 590s integration with the cell phone is really good and I've found that when traveling cross country I nearly always have a data connection with Verizon. I may go an hour or two here and there were Pandora streaming will cut out, but I switch to MP3s, Audiobooks or podcasts.

The 590 works just as good off road as it does on road. The only advantage the Montana has over the 590 from my needs is you can't see the user waypoints when you zoom out. The 590 kills the Montana on road... at least for my needs/wants. When using the 590 to find along your route it tells you actual road miles and estimated times... very nice on a rally when you're trying to squeeze every drop of fuel and not waste too many brain cells doing math or pushing extra buttons.

GPSs I've had... 60CS, Nuvi 765, Zumo 550, Montana 650, Zumo 590

[Sleddog]

(12-31-2016 11:39 AM)dajuice Wrote:  The 590 works just as good off road as it does on road. The only advantage the Montana has over the 590 from my needs is you can't see the user waypoints when you zoom out. The 590 kills the Montana on road... at least for my needs/wants. When using the 590 to find along your route it tells you actual road miles and estimated times... very nice on a rally when you're trying to squeeze every drop of fuel and not waste too many brain cells doing math or pushing extra buttons.

School me. I admit I didn't have a lot of time to pursue what was going on.

I almost exclusively use tracks for any of the rides I do. I have over 40 tracks for my trip to Alaska Each track is about one days ride. One of the guys, on the trip last year had a 590. I could only load one track at a time, then I had to delete that & load the next days track. IIRC when loading all of the tracks I would get an error of not enough storage. Was I doing something wrong?

[dajuice]

From what you describe I bet he has his internal memory filled up with something like music? My 590 can show 15 tracks at a time on the map but I've not reached a limit to the number of tracks I can have stored on the device. I just pulled up my 590 that still has 32 tracks loaded on it from my last trip to the north shore of lake superior and verified I can show up to 15 at a time. I've got 1.6GB free on the internal storage with City Navigator North America and I've got my music on the microSD card.

So you have found an advantage to the Montana, I don't believe the Montana has a limit to the number of tracks that can be shown on the map at the same time... I've got all 32 enabled on the Montana at the moment.

[Sleddog]

I seldom have more than 1 or 2 tracks showing at a time. I do have the "track overlays" loaded as a map that I can toggle on or off. The overlays take up little to no memory space. They also open quickly. Not like when you have a bunch of tracks showing & it has to load them all each time you turn the unit on.

[dajuice]

Hey Sleddog, wanted to follow up to this based on some experience from my IDBDR trip last week. I had both the Montana and the 590. This time instead of loading tracks one by one I used the overlay you told me about so I just had one map to turn on. It worked great on my Montana. The colors I had set the tracks in basecamp before exporting to the overlay stayed and I could zoom way out and still see the track. On the 590 every track was converted to grey on the overlay and it was only visible when I was zoomed further in than I'd want to be. Interestingly, even though it converted to grey the tracks would disappear at different zoom levels depending on what color they were when I exported them. The ones that were red in basecamp stayed visible as I zoomed out longer than the blue or green ones!

I had also loaded waypoints of various POIs on both units. The montana kept the same icon as what was in basecamp which I really liked. The 590 converted all the icons into a generic symbol.

Another couple of nods in favor of the Montana. I was really glad I had both the Montana and the 590 on the trip though.

[Cruzin]

(07-29-2017 11:07 AM)dajuice Wrote:  I had also loaded waypoints of various POIs on both units. The montana kept the same icon as what was in basecamp which I really liked. The Montana converted all the icons into a generic symbol.

:

[dajuice]

Damn my proof reading skills... that last line should said, "The 590 converted all the icons into a generic symbol."

I fixed the original post!