If you have ever traveled on a motorcycle across country you know what the hassles can be associated with it. It can be a drag having to stop ever so often to find the correct route. Most of the time you will have to pull over on the highway and with traffic flying by it is really hard to read a map sometimes. This is why getting a GPS unit for your motorcycle is something you really should consider. It will make traveling a lot easier as you will be able to have more time to enjoy your ride instead of having to worry about which turn to make all the time. Let us look a little closer at GPS on motorcycles and how it can actually help you.
Over the years many different companies have come out with Motorcycle GPS, but none have worked very well until the Zumo550. This portable GPS unit is from Garmin and has many great features that will make traveling so much easier. It is very easy to operate and has all the features anybody who rides a motorcycle would ever need. You also get the Garmin name, which is the industry leader as far as GPS technology is concerned. Turn by turn navigation is something you will like from this unit as well as touch display and easy accessible controls make your traveling much easier than ever before. This is a very solid performer that will last you for years. Let’s look at how it will make life easier for you as you’re on the road as well.
One of the hardest things to do when you’re driving a motorcycle is to watch everything around you. With traffic and other obstacles that could be fatal you must stay very alert and this usually causes you to miss an exit and makes traveling much tougher than ever before. This is where a motorcycle GPS unit can really make things much easier. With turn-by-turn navigation you will be able to see what exit you need before you get right upon it. You will have much more time to react and in the end you will be much safer as you will not be weaving in and out of traffic because you will know exactly where you need to be.
Most of the newer motorcycle GPS units have a fuel monitor on them which means it will give you a warning when you are getting low on fuel so you will know exactly when it is time to fuel up. Now finding a gas station especially out on the road can be tough sometimes, but with GPS technology that will not be a problem either. With a touch of a button you will be able to pull up the points of interest database. This database will have a list of gas stations and exactly what exit they are on and how many miles away from you. This takes all the guesswork out and makes sure you never run out of fuel.
Motorcycle GPS will also make traveling on your motorcycle much more fun as well. No more worrying about how to get somewhere or how many more miles to go. It will all be right at your fingertips. This is why getting a GPS system for your bike could be the best investment you ever make. The hours that a unit of this type will save you is immeasurable. Most people who get one will tell you they would never leave home without it. Many people worry about hooking one of these up, but in reality it is real easy and does not take much time at all. The learning curve is real short as well so you will be on the road heading in the right direction very quickly.
If you travel a lot and want to make that experience even more fun than by all means grab a GPS unit for your motorcycle. One of the best around is the Garmin Zumo550, which has many extras that you will love. It is easy to hookup and operates so you will be on the road in no time at all. GPS technology is the wave of the future why not has it on your motorcycle as well. It will save you money in wasted trips and wrong turns that it will pay for it probably is just a few uses. I know as a rider I have made so many wrong turns, but now with GPS technology those turns will be a thing of the past for me.
By: Jeffrey Meier
Posts Tagged ‘Industry Leader’
Motorcycle GPS Makes For Better Travels
March 10th, 2010How to Choose the Right Bluetooth GPS Receiver
February 9th, 2010
When the first Bluetooth GPS receiver came out, honestly I thought that was something I didn’t need. Actually, I’m not one of those drivers who spends a lot of time talking on the phone. Later when I upgraded my GPS to a unit that had Bluetooth, I loved being able to talk “hands-free” so much I would never consider buying a unit without that capability.
Buying a GPS is sometimes difficult because there are so many manufacturers and they have so many products to choose from. If you’re focusing on a GPS that has Bluetooth, then you’re narrowing the field down some, but still, you have a ton of possibilities.
In this article I’m going to make the choice of the right Bluetooth GPS a little (how about a lot?) easier for you. Once you finish reading this, you’ll be ready to purchase the right unit for your needs and your budget.
One thing that helped me when I bought my unit was realizing there are three main manufacturers of GPS devices. Garmin is the industry leader with probably 70% of the market share. Tom Tom is fast catching up with great products and great prices. And Magellan certainly holds its own as one of the early pioneers with a lot of proprietary features.
I’m not going to tell you which unit I chose. I will tell you it was made by one of these three.
Let’s talk about each of these companies and their GPS’s that have Bluetooth capability.
Garmin
Garmin has a huge range of products. They have several GPS devices that have Bluetooth integration. Personally, I like their newer, sleeker nuvi line. The nuvis are replacing the StreetPilot as Garmin’s flagship line of GPS receivers.
There are several nuvis with Bluetooth. Their numbers are the 360, 370, 660, 670, 680, 760, 770, 780, and the recent arrivals the 880 and the 5000.
The 300s all have the smaller 3.5-inch screens. The main difference between the 300s and the 600s is the screen size. If you want a huge screen, try the 5000! It’s screen is a huge 5.2-inches along the diagonal.
The 600s also have what’s called FM transmission capability. That is, the sound from the GPS is routed through your car’s stereo system.
What the 700s offer above the 300s and the 600s is multi-destination routing. In other words, if you want to drive from New York to Calgary to Vancouver to San Francisco, you can enter all that information in your GPS at one time and it will calculate the best route to get you to all three places. (Unfortunately, it can’t make the drive shorter!)
Nuvis currently run from right around $200 for the 300s to $350 or so for the 700s. The 5000 is currently around $650, and the 880 runs about $1,000.
Magellan
I absolutely adore Magellan’s Maestro line! In that line, there are two GPS’s that support Bluetooth, the 3250 and the 4250. They are the same, except the 4250 has the larger 4.3-inch screen.
These devices are comparable to the Garmin nuvis. Magellan does have a proprietary thing with AAA, where they offer their Tour Book actually on the device. (You have to be a AAA member to access it.)
At the moment, the 3250 will set you back about $200. Believe me, that’s a lot of GPS for that amount of money. And the 4250 is about $250.
Tom Tom
Tom Tom is the newer kid on the block. And they have been aggressively gaining market share with great products and very aggressive pricing. The Tom Tom Go line supports Bluetooth. The Go 510 runs slightly less than $200 and the Go 920 runs between $300 and $350.
Unfortunately, no six hundred word article can tell you all you need to know about these great devices, even if you narrow it down to just the ones with Bluetooth. What you need to do now, is to get on an informative website where you can actually look at specific models and check their current prices.
By: Rick Cole
What’s the Best GPS For Car Use?
January 20th, 2010
To find the best GPS for car use, you have to understand a little about the market. Specifically, you need to know who makes the best GPS systems, what their features are and how much that’s going to cost. Then you can choose the best GPS for your needs and budget.
In the United States, there are three manufacturers of GPS systems you need to focus on–Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan. Garmin is without doubt the industry leader, selling around half of the GPS devices sold. Tom Tom and Magellan each sell about 20%. So, these three companies represent about 90% of the total U. S. market.
Although there are several other companies that make GPS’s, I would look no further than these three.
Buying a GPS is a little difficult, sometimes.
Even if you focus on just these three manufacturers there’s still a ton of models to choose from. Also, GPS devices all have features that normally you might not have considered important, like what they call FM transmission–the ability of your GPS to send it’s sound through your car’s stereo system.
I’ve been reviewing GPS systems for quite a while, and I’ve written several hundred reviews. One thing that seems to help people is to divide the marketplace into three areas, entry-level, mid-range, and high-end. Within each of these divisions, it’s easier to say which unit is actually the best GPS for car use.
So, let’s talk about each of these market segments in order, starting with the entry-level market.
Best GPS for Car, Entry-Level
In a short, 500 word, article it’s impossible to give the GPS marketplace a complete treatment. So at each price point, I’m going to mention one of two GPS’s that I really like and give you an indication of why. You can then continue your own research online on a good website.
There are four entry-level devices I like. The Garmin nuvi’s 200 and 350. The Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, and the Magellan Maestro 3100.
The nuvi 200, One, 3rd Edition, and the Maestro 3100 all sell for about $150. Of these three, the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition offers the most features for the money. The nuvi 350 is slighly higher at $200, but it has a lot of features only found in more expensive devices, like traffic alerts and actually saying street names when it tells you where to turn.
Personally, of these four, I would go with either the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition or the nuvi 350 according to how much money you want to spend.
Best GPS for Car, Mid-Range
Again, Magellan, Tom Tom, and Garmin all have good products. At the lower end of the mid-range, I would probably go with the Magellan Maestro 4250. It only sells for about $250 and has a ton of features including AAA’s famous Tour Guide right on the device.
Tom Tom’s GO line offers some good products, like the GO 920T, but frankly I think they’re a little overpriced.
If you’re willing to spend $300 or so, then you’ll want to check out Garmin’s nuvi 760. The nuvi 760 has Bluetooth and multiple point routing, among a host of other features. It’s currently selling for just under $350. That’s a lot of GPS for the money.
Best GPS for Car, High-End
The high end of the market belongs to Garmin. And their best product is the state-of-the-art Garmin nuvi 880. What can’t the 880 do? It will cost you a cool $900, but if you’re looking for cutting edge technology, you’ve found it!
What you need to do now is to find an informative website where you can browse individual units and find out their current selling price.
By: Rick Cole
