Garmin Zumo

I’ve been using satellite navigation on the bike for a number of years now. My first excursion involved linking up a hand-held Garmin receiver with my Psion hand-held computer. It involved pulling over and setting up, but was marginally better than reading a map.

When Garmin introduced their colour screen StreetPilot series with auto routing, things really took off and I wrote about it at the time.

My recent change of employment has made the satnav a crucial business tool – and, despite still working well after eight years, the slow screen refresh was becoming tiresome.  Not least when navigating through London. So, too was having to load maps onto a memory stick. An upgrade was in order.

After looking at what the market had on offer, I decided eventually to buy a Garmin Zumo 550. This is designed specifically for the bike and is supplied with both a bike mount and a car windscreen mount so I can switch it from the bike to the car with ease. I did this with the StreetPilot III and appreciate maintaining this facility.

The Zumo shows just how much technology has moved on in the intervening years. Despite costing a fraction of that paid for the StreetPilot, the Zumo is packed with extras missing from its forebear. It links to a bluetooth enabled phone, giving hands free operation of this through my Autocom system. Not that I’m much in favour of using the phone on the move, but the facility to use it without having to remove my helmet and dig around for it in my bag makes for convenience. I’ve also added the traffic receiver system for a few extra quid – so now I know where those hold ups are occurring. The unit gives me the option of avoiding the jams – or, as I’m on the bike, more likely I’ll just trickle through the queue as before. Still, forewarned is forearmed.

I did wonder how I would get along with the 3D display. In practice, I found it immediately intuitive and as it is constantly refreshing rather than completely changing to an enlarged view of the junctions as you approach them, the refresh problem has gone. Also, unlike its predecessor, all the maps are loaded on the internal memory, so I don’t have to keep loading different mapsets each time I plan a journey. The updateable “safety” camera database is a useful tool, too. A series of “bings” assault the eardrums when approaching a speed camera site – along with a message stating the allowed speed limit. So if you did miss the signs, there is no excuse for getting caught out. If you persist in exceeding the speed limit, it bings at you in capital letters until you take notice. Irritating, yes – but that’s the point. If you ignore it, you stand to get a ticket – the choice is yours.

The bike mount comes with a special security screw and bespoke screwdriver. This is supposed to provide some measure of security when the unit is in the mount. However, as I take it off the mount when leaving the bike, the security screw is proving to be something of a pain – far too fiddly for my liking.

The voice prompts have improved from the StreetPilot, too. Now they give road names as well as directions, so I can concentrate on navigating without peering at the screen when riding through unfamiliar cities.

One other extra is the MP3 player. The BMW has a radio and I tended to leave it set to Radio 2. Trying to play tapes was more bother than it was worth. The Garmin MP3 player though is another matter. I’ve loaded a 2Gb SD disk with my choice of music and can hear it clearly through the Autocom’s headset.

So, overall, a sound purchase and one that I am happy with and happy to recommend. Garmin have produced a quality product at a reasonable price – the extras are a bonus. I bought mine from these people.