If I get a Montana what else do I need?

I've heard of people using the 32 gigabyte uSD cards but have only used 16s myself. There doesn't seem much reason to go higher than that unless you already have a 32 kicking around.

Personally I'd rather have two identical 16 gig cards in case one should be corrupted. I keep my second card taped to the battery. (I once gave away my twinned card to an ADV Inmate from the US who was riding this area but didn't have maps - he gave me an empty one in return)

does the montana have any internet or wi fi capabilty?Ie how do you get the pics of the camera?USB only?

Neither internet nor wifi. It has a form of wireless transfer to 'like' devices but it's relatively slow. Getting pics off is a usb only affair, unless you save them to the uSD card and take that out of the gps.

hmm i wonder if one of these would work?

Nope. They don't make them in Micro SD format. I have 2 of the EyeFi cards myself. EyeFi does work in a GoPro, though.

so many technologies,so many choices,the hunt continues

Where are you folks getting your topo maps for the device? Any place to get or make 24k ones?

There are a number of free sources. I'm sure someone will provide a list here shortly, but I only get mine from gpsfiledepot.com

Just to be clear, for US road maps, off road camping and hiking in the US, and the ability to create a route on my PC, I need the following:

1 650t
2 North America CityNavigator (DVD)
3 Various mounts for the motorcycle

Thanks

Correct. That lineup will do what you want it to.

A 24k series map has more detail (in theory), but the 100k series map in the 650T is pretty good.

Do you guys with the 650 use the camera very much? My 1st thought was that it would be nice to have, but it seems like on the bike it will be locked in the mount and not very accessible? What you think?

Does anybody use a camera for taking pictures anymore??

I use my 650t's camera.

Because it is mounted in the rugged mount, it's very quick to pop out, put it in camera mode, and snap a shot. No digging in my pockets.

Yes I still use a camera for our tag game and I am contemplating a step up from the canon ixsus I want more options in low light.The new mirror less wifi ones look interesting

Is there any reason that one could not buy the 24k Topo card and make copies of it onto a larger cap card that could hold multiple map sets? If that would work, is there a particular folder structure that the Montana would expect or require?


I know people say get the disc instead, but I have a line on a card for a really good price...

The map is almost certainly locked to the card it came on. It can make sense to buy maps on SD card, but only if you're happy with it being locked.

"almost"? *twitch*

While I don't have the maps you're asking about, I do have some Garmin SD card maps and there's nothing legal you can do to move them to another card. It may be possible to crack them but I wouldn't know anything about that.

But this is how Garmin explains the different formats.

And this is what they say about SD cards:

Pre-programmed datacards: Pre-programmed datacards are immediately ready to use out of the box. Simply unpack the card and insert it into your compatible GPS device. These maps do not need to be unlocked to your device which allows you to move the card to multiple units if desired, however, you will not directly have access to the mapping on your computer. City Navigator maps in this format are not eligible for map updates and mapping from the card cannot be copied. If you wish to obtain updated content, a new card will need to be purchased.

Thank you for the info, Emmbeedee!

Ordered a new Montana 600 (don't need the camera, I have cameras for that ).
Found a site www.ems.com that sells them (new) for $400 so I used GPSCity's price match feature and got the 600, Topo 24 DVD (SE), City Nav. DVD and some RAM mounts.

Thanks for all the info provided here. Looking forward to mounting it on the Dakar.