Category Archives: Motorcycle GPS

The features are endless on the Garmin Zumo 550. For starters, the Zumo is a 20-channel, SiRFstarlll highly sensitive GPS receiver and all maps of North America are supplied pre-installed on the device. Operation is easier with the TomTom Rider, but as always, we recommend that you really get familiar with the Zumo and its features before hitting the road.

From the Main Menu, you are starting with two large and clearly marked options for navigation – presented Where? View Full Profile – as well as several elements at the bottom of the screen, such as a telephone icon (if you are already connected to your Bluetooth phone), a musical note symbol for the MP3 player and a tool icon on the Settings menu “. Tapping any of the icons will take you to a series of submenus for that function. For example, if you touch the phone icon, another menu comes, means that up phone numbers for points of interest (POI), call log and phone book.

Navigation features are on par with the latest portable navigation systems. The Garmin Zumo 550 gives you turn by turn text-and voice-guided directions, plus it has text-to-speech functionality, so that the system will speak actual street names. Other navigation functions include automatic route recalculation, detours, and a healthy POI database. You can also use real-time traffic updates from Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network or XM Navtraffic service, but you need to buy a compatible traffic receiver and subscription plan.

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There are nearly 6 million POIs pre-installed on the device. POI drivers love can also install software from the additional CD that you download access to many extra ones. I do not have this feature yet, because I tried to use a Mac, but it gives you the option of special destinations and routes, or download, upload created by others, then synchronize this information between your PC and zumo. Check out this blog on POI and route-sharing riders with compatible navigation devices. With the software installed, you can also receive notification when you are in a certain distance from a point, or if you’re speeding, are zones of distance to school and so on. I have this feature yet because I’m on a Mac OS I tried, but it gives you the opportunity to invite your favorite POIs and routes, while downloading POIs and routes created by other of your PC to the zumo. Check out this blog compatible to this cool and POIs Route Sharing driver with navigation equipment.

You can map in 2D or 3D mode with day or night colors display. The colors of the night setting automatically switches on sundown.The map screen is very simple and shows your speed, estimated time of arrival and distance to next turn. On top of the screen for the next turn and the street name is displayed, and there are plus and minus buttons to zoom in and out of the map. If the speed tab, a smooth, touch-screen trip information comes from viewing your direction, speed, maximum speed, and a fuel gauge. The last feature is displayed only when the device is connected to the motorcycle, but to mount. You can also POIs near your current location, but this is one area where the icons were too small to open up with big gloves easy. Obviously it’s pretty dangerous when you actually go and try to do this so that I can not recommend it.

With the integrated Bluetooth, you may use the Zumo 550 as a hands-free speaker phone calls, and it is also one of my favorite features. After some trials and tribulations that I Zumo paired with a Palm Treo 650 and a Cardo Scala Rider FM. See our tips & Tricks section for more details about the process. Once your phone is connected, your phone is synchronized to the Zumo. If you have a lot of numbers in your phone book, it may take a while to scroll through all the contacts, but you can choose whether to spell the first or last name, and within a couple of letters gets your matching contacts, which is a great feature.

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From the menu of the phone to provide you with five icons: Phone Book, POIs, Dial (presented brings the keyboard menu), Call History (last dialed, last received has missed), and call home. I had no problem scrolling through the phone options safely while driving. Once on a call, it is a phone icon, which appears to touch on the menu card, and a menu pops up with a huge End Call icon. It is also an Options tab that brings up a touch screen, where you can transfer audio to your phone or mute the microphone.

Finally, the Zumo 550 is has a built-in MP3 player. You can load a number of songs on an SD card and listen to songs for hours on a Bluetooth headset with your helmet. The Cardo Scala Rider FM worked like a champ with this unit. The experience was actually better than on the zumo on the tab, because they are never let the Bluetooth connection. This happened a few times on the rider, and although it is not to connect a big deal, it was kind of a pain. You can also use a pair of external speakers (and amplifier) to the handlebar holder, because the device is equipped with a 3.5 mm jack.

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