Nuvi 550?

[jackpiner57]

I'm looking for a GPS that's reasonably priced and has a map for North America. I came across the Nuvi 550 and was wondering if anyone else has one and what are your opinions? It seems that it needs a motorcycle mount and I was wondering if the power cord and connection is waterproof.

[Mudcat]

Yep, I think it’s a pretty damn good GPS Should be great on your bike.
You will want to buy CityNavigator on a disk too, so you have mapsource and can do routes on your home PC
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Here is a link for a cradle.
Cradle
http://www.gpscity.com/ram-mount-gar...hol-ga32u.html
<o:p></o:p>
It came from one of the guys on the forum, I can’t remember their name
Oh, here is the guy, Emmbeedee

[PapaWheelie]

A very good reasonably priced GPS. Replaced my flaky 2610 with one and have been very satisfied. Buy the Garmin cradle which attaches to your bike's battery - yes, it's waterproof. The unit also comes with a free Mapsource update to get you current.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by jackpiner57

I'm looking for a GPS that's reasonably priced and has a map for North America. I came across the Nuvi 550 and was wondering if anyone else has one and what are your opinions? It seems that it needs a motorcycle mount and I was wondering if the power cord and connection is waterproof.

I have one, and I HATE it.

The USB connecter is waterproof, til you forget to unplug it before you try to take the GPS off the cradle, then it warps badly and gets all mangled.

The Power cable is WAY delicate. Salt air dissolved one of the in a month.

It's got very tiny letters that are hard to see/select when riding. and they are not in qwerty and I know of no way to make it.

It cannot follow a track.

I updated mine on my mac and it lost topo completely.

I've had two now that after a bit decide it has an 'invalid' battery. Then it throws up a dialog to tell you this about every ten seconds.

[Mudcat]

Originally Posted by PapaWheelie

Buy the Garmin cradle which attaches to your bike's battery - yes, it's waterproof.

Oh, the cradel plugs into the Nuvi like on my Zumo 450?

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Mudcat

Oh, the cradel plugs into the Nuvi like on my Zumo 450?

no, but it comes with a hardwire power cord. I think the cradle was not so good so I got the Ram one on top of that.

[Mudcat]

Originally Posted by xymotic

no, but it comes with a hardwire power cord. .

I’ve seen the hardwire power cord on Amazon for about $20.
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I think the USB plug on the Nuvi is a weak point

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Mudcat

I’ve seen the hardwire power cord on Amazon for about $20.
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I think the USB plug on the Nuvi is a weak point

One of many

[Mudcat]

Originally Posted by xymotic

One of many

Oh, let us know what you think is bad about the unit.
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It doesn’t do tracks, I know that. And I don’t like the plug. <o:p></o:p>

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Mudcat

Oh, let us know what you think is bad about the unit.
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It doesn’t do tracks, I know that. And I don’t like the plug. <o:p></o:p>

See post #4, I'm on my second one, and it's going to Garmin this week.

[Countdown]

I have 450 or something, works great in my motorhome which is what it was designed for. Wouldn't think of using it on a morotcycle.

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by Countdown

I have 450 or something, works great in my motorhome which is what it was designed for. Wouldn't think of using it on a morotcycle.

I asked a bunch of stuff about the Nuvi 500 in the Nuvi threadfest, starting on about page 43
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...118162&page=43

Ogre_fl has a 550 and seems pretty happy with it. I think he's been beating it up pretty good on a 640A.

The Nuvi 500 and 550 are different than the other Nuvis - at least they are waterproof to IPX7 and they do take custom routes (some other Nuvis do custom routes too though).

500 has CN NA NT lower 49 states and a DEM (digital elevation model) topo.
The topo pretty much only has elevation shading and contour lines from what I've seen - no roads or trails. It overlays the City Nav map (which is unlike other Garmin maps).
The 550 has all of CN NA NT (including Canada and Alaska) but no topo.

I picked up a refurb 500 for $150. I have only used it a couple of times on the bikes so far, but I am pretty impressed.

I bought the Garmin cradle and power supply. The USB plug has a little rubber boot on it to help keep water out (pic in the threadfest). The power converter/cable is pretty stout, heavy guage wire and seems well built. That said - I have just been running the GPS on battery power for day rides so far.
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=27931
I got mine from offroute.com Comes with a RAM ball for the cradle, but you will need a ball and arm for your bike.

The cable is not part of the cradle, so I would think it there was a little slack it would be hard to damage the plug, but I haven't tried it yet.

Compared to a 60Cx, the screen and letters seem huge

Yeah, "ABC" keyboard is kinda silly, no way to change to QWERTY.

It gives voice directions, but no audio out to get them into your helmet.

xymotic must have to 500, since he is talking about losing the topo map. I had a similar problem (running PC with Win XP), but only because I ran the update twice. It took some time on the phone, but Garmin helped me fix it.

I think if you buy one and it's eligible for a map update the update will actually load Mapsource on your computer even if you never had it before.

You can't turn off the automatic off-route recalculation. I've played with a few routes and it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal if you have enough via points in the route. AFAIK if you go off route it will route you to the nearest via point then continue on with your route.

It doesn't do tracks, but you can use WinGDB3
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=411674
to convert tracks to routes then run the Nuvi in off-road mode. I think max points is only 250 though.

I have been playing around converting tracks to routes with the various options in WinGDB3. I actually have had some success converting tracks with more than 250 points (using "invisible via points" or "shaping points"). However the tracks have to be totally off-road - if they follow along roads shown in City Nav for any distance the route goes crazy on import.

[Ko]

I just got a 550 couple days ago, and so far I like it. I got it because for me was the best deal, when comparing functions versus price. It's not perfect, but so far there's no perfect GPS yet.

I also wanted to confirm that with the free map upgrade I got the Mapsource installed on my computer.

[Mudcat]

Originally Posted by Ko

I also wanted to confirm that with the free map upgrade I got the Mapsource installed on my computer.

The update installed the map on you home PC too?

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by Mudcat

The update installed the map on you home PC too?

Yeah, mine did that. You have the choice to update just the GPS or both your computer and GPS. What I'm not sure about (but others have reported) is that even if they have never had Mapsource installed on their computer the update will install it AND the updated maps.