Zoom, zoom with the Garmin Zumo 550
I had a chance to take my new Zumo 550 mounted to my CBR1100XX out for a spin this weekend, and now can give a bit of a hands on report.
Installation: For once, something went easy. I don't have old school tubular bars on my bike, and the clutch mount option would interfere with my windscreen. This eliminated the two provided ways to attach the Zumo to the bike. Fortunately I was able to put the u-clamp around the riser on my Heli-bars... this put the Zumo in a near perfect location. None of the gauges were obscured and no interference with moving parts or accessing the ignition.
The device: The screen is bright and clear, even in difficult lighting situations. The mount is very solid and secure feeling (which is good... I'd hate to see $1000 of electronics skipping down the road.) More importantly, it's quick to dock and undock the unit, and small enough to not be a burden to carry (take it with you when you park!) I had no problems working most of the device with gloves on.
The UI: I'm still a bit unhappy with the UI, the main map display specifically. The TomTom UI was clearly better and yesterday's ride just hammered that fact home. Specific shortcomings:
1) Just not as clear. TomTom used better colors, better fonts, and better layout.
2) Zumo lacks the next turn indicator. That little glyph in the corner was brilliant. It helped make sense of roundabouts which might be hard understand looking at the map. It was also something that could be quickly glanced at to know that a few miles up the road I might want to be in a particular lane.
3) Framerate. The map display doesn't update as smoothly as the TomTom. It is just enough of a difference to make navigating in congested areas ("this left? or the next left?) a bit more difficult. You need to look, not just glance to piece things together and know what's going on.
4) Slower to recalculate. I had one instance where it took 10-15 seconds to figure itself out, and during that time I had no map at all (just a little message saying "drawing...") I never saw this happen on the TomTom.
Now that I'm more comfortable with the menu UI, I'd say that it's on par with the TomTom... maybe a little better because it's more tolerant of fat fingers. Having dedicated buttons to augment the touch screen is nice.
Routing: I'm still learning how to deal with routes and tracklogs, but my first attempt was a success. I think that's a sign that the feature is reasonably well designed. I used Mapsource to plot out a route (an easy enough process, although with some room for improvement) and uploaded it to the GPS (a simple one click process.)
When we got ready to set off, it was just a matter of selecting the route and we were on our way. I made a few goofs when I made the route (mistakenly setting the waypoint a hundred feet up another street at an intersection, necessitating a u-turn, etc. I think the trick here is not to set the waypoints at the intersection but just before/after. I also made a few goofs navigating as I was having fun motoring along not realizing a turn was just ahead. I was happy to see I could very easily add waypoints en-route. This is key because a motorcycle just wouldn't be as fun without the freedom to change your mind and visit something else that looks interesting (and nice to find the nearest petrol/toilet too.) We stopped, and visited a castle ruin, and when restarted I was again happy to see I could easily pickup the route where I left off.
Tracklog: This feature is really neat. I copied the GPXs over to my machine. Used Google Earth to suck them in, and there it was... our complete trip overlayed on the globe. The trackpoint resolution is very good, capturing all the little twists and turns on these tiny country roads.
You can see the route in Google Maps here:
Bourne End, Berkhamstead Loop in Google Maps
Or download this to see it in Google Earth:
Bourne End, Berkhamstead Loop KMZ file
Interesting note... must be some quirk in the tracklog. It seems to have captured some erroneous speed data at one point (you might have to look at the KMZ directly or the properties in GoogleEarth to notice.)
The device: The screen is bright and clear, even in difficult lighting situations. The mount is very solid and secure feeling (which is good... I'd hate to see $1000 of electronics skipping down the road.) More importantly, it's quick to dock and undock the unit, and small enough to not be a burden to carry (take it with you when you park!) I had no problems working most of the device with gloves on.
The UI: I'm still a bit unhappy with the UI, the main map display specifically. The TomTom UI was clearly better and yesterday's ride just hammered that fact home. Specific shortcomings:
1) Just not as clear. TomTom used better colors, better fonts, and better layout.
2) Zumo lacks the next turn indicator. That little glyph in the corner was brilliant. It helped make sense of roundabouts which might be hard understand looking at the map. It was also something that could be quickly glanced at to know that a few miles up the road I might want to be in a particular lane.
3) Framerate. The map display doesn't update as smoothly as the TomTom. It is just enough of a difference to make navigating in congested areas ("this left? or the next left?) a bit more difficult. You need to look, not just glance to piece things together and know what's going on.
4) Slower to recalculate. I had one instance where it took 10-15 seconds to figure itself out, and during that time I had no map at all (just a little message saying "drawing...") I never saw this happen on the TomTom.
Now that I'm more comfortable with the menu UI, I'd say that it's on par with the TomTom... maybe a little better because it's more tolerant of fat fingers. Having dedicated buttons to augment the touch screen is nice.
Routing: I'm still learning how to deal with routes and tracklogs, but my first attempt was a success. I think that's a sign that the feature is reasonably well designed. I used Mapsource to plot out a route (an easy enough process, although with some room for improvement) and uploaded it to the GPS (a simple one click process.)
When we got ready to set off, it was just a matter of selecting the route and we were on our way. I made a few goofs when I made the route (mistakenly setting the waypoint a hundred feet up another street at an intersection, necessitating a u-turn, etc. I think the trick here is not to set the waypoints at the intersection but just before/after. I also made a few goofs navigating as I was having fun motoring along not realizing a turn was just ahead. I was happy to see I could very easily add waypoints en-route. This is key because a motorcycle just wouldn't be as fun without the freedom to change your mind and visit something else that looks interesting (and nice to find the nearest petrol/toilet too.) We stopped, and visited a castle ruin, and when restarted I was again happy to see I could easily pickup the route where I left off.
Tracklog: This feature is really neat. I copied the GPXs over to my machine. Used Google Earth to suck them in, and there it was... our complete trip overlayed on the globe. The trackpoint resolution is very good, capturing all the little twists and turns on these tiny country roads.
You can see the route in Google Maps here:
Bourne End, Berkhamstead Loop in Google Maps
Or download this to see it in Google Earth:
Bourne End, Berkhamstead Loop KMZ file
Interesting note... must be some quirk in the tracklog. It seems to have captured some erroneous speed data at one point (you might have to look at the KMZ directly or the properties in GoogleEarth to notice.)
Comments
In all it's a steep learning curve both while riding and using MapSource...Most important is to make sure you have the latest downloads for the unit and the computer!
Once "she's" gotten you lost or in trouble, you learn what to watch out for...till the next time you have to learn something....I like your comments about waypoints, I select them on the far side of the intersection so I know at least I don't have to do a U-turn.
And it doesn't help that the government hasn't updated some of the maps/roads in the outback...it's fun to find yourself riding along at 89mph on a nice road only to look at the zumo and see you are out in a pasture.
One last point, in my hometown of Adelaide (1 million people) the routes she wants me to take across town are often longer and more congested than the routes I've learned in my head over the years....but in a city that you don't know any better, then she's good...except in Hobart where she had me going down a main one-way street the wrong direction....
Mike