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Garmin Zumo 550 Owners

1K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  Mercury 
#1 ·
I plan on buying one of thsese in the very near future. A few questions for those of you that have this already

1. Any accessories that I truely need to get? I am not going to use it for music or cell phone. Just as a GPS.

2. How secure does it seem to be on the bike with the special locking screw to keep it from being stolen?

3. Do they give you all you need to hard wire it into the bike?

Thanks!!
 
#2 ·
I got one in October. Here are my thoughts.

1. I needed no accessories. Everything I needed was in the box.
2. Forget the locking screrw. Someone can just remove the holder with your GPS. I actually removed the screw because I found it annoying to have to unscrew it everytime I got off the bike.
3. I had everything I needed to hard wire it to the bike. My husband did it and I don't recall any problems at all.

I have also used it in my car and it works great. Speaker on the car holder is clear.
 
#3 ·
I love my Zumo 550 ....

Everything you need is included in the 550 box. (I'd say the most needed 'accessory' would be a 2GB SD Card for music, but since you aren't using it for music ...)

By "secure", do you mean "stable"? ...or "theft-proof"?

The 550 is extremely stable on the RAM mount and cradle provided. I leave my cradle attached all of the time (because the bike power and comm cable plugs into it, not the Zumo). In order to 'plug' the Zumo in, you just put it into the cradle and flip down a lever of sorts on the top to lock it in place using two tabs on the back.

"Theft-proof"? ...heh, the cradle comes with a locking screw (you have to use a 'special' screwdriver provided) that will keep the 550 from being removed from its cradle. Unfortunately, a thief can still simply remove the cradle from the RAM ball mount and take the whole thing. (I thought it was silly too). Personally, I don't use the screw ...I just remove the unit and put it in my pocket whenever I get off my bike.

Hard wiring power to the bike is just about as straight forward as it gets. One cable (included) that plugs into the cradle and runs back to the battery. Some will run it to a switched accessory lead in the headlight bucket, but since I don't leave the Zumo attached, there's no power draw to just the cradle so I went straight to the battery.
 
#5 ·
Biker & Debbie, & anybody else who has this unit, how do you like the unit itself as far as use, ease of use, etc? Have pretty much decided on the 550 myself & would love to hear your likes/dislikes, etc. :biggrin:
I haven't used it much but what I really like is that it is easy to see the display, the directions are in a large enough font to easily read and you can touch the screen with a glove on and it does respond. I have used it a few times both on the bike and in the car (even brought it with me to Florida) and I have no complaints to date. It finds my location very quickly and reroutes quickly as well.

I am still learning the mapping software in order to upload routes and haven't mastered it yet. But I think that is more a problem with me and not the unit at all. I lack patience with things like that.
 
#6 ·
Gary,

I've had my two Zumo 550 units for about 3 months now. Liked mine so much, I bought another for Sue. I also bought the XM receiver and subscribed to XM TrafficWeather as well as standard XM. I commute 60+ miles daily on my Meanie and we sure haven't had much wet weather. I've got an SD card loaded up with tunes, but I actually listen to XM more that I thought I would. The traffic reports are much better than anything the local stations offer. The PC mapping software is really easy to use and its trivial to set up routes on the PC and fairly difficult to do on the unit self. XM TrafficWeather integrated with GPS only covers a few dozen major market areas, so it won't do you any good, but I think the XM traffic stations are included with the basic service.

I had it on my Meanie in October when we met up at Miland Tavern & Lodge in October. It was a last-minute detour for me and entering their address was easy and got me right there. I like having my MP3 player bolted down right in front of me, and the GPS/XM is a bonus!

I had one issue with a dead Zumo lithium battery keeping the 550 from starting up on external power. Garmin replaced the battery and I had bought an extra with the unit just in case something happened. Apparently this is not uncommon with the Zumos. If you're going to buy one, I recommend you buy a spare battery even though you may never use the unit on its internal battery.
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
I can also add that they have good customer service. I had a problem with the car cradle speaker (I have the worst luck with everything). I called them and they sent me a new one without any problem since it was still under warranty. I just had to send back the old one.
 
#10 ·
I own one of these zumo 550's it is one of my best pruchases ever - and I buy a lot of stuff...

Cool features - go online and you can download other "rides" opeople in your area have gone on - this is wild!

The zumo goes on my bike easily I like that there is a security screw - it does keep the honest people honest... but if somebody really wants it they just cut the wire and rip the thing off.

I used it in my truck to go way out 5 hours to PA, to NC, upstate ny - all over the place.

price = try BUYERETAIL

kenny
 
#13 ·
#14 ·
I told my wife (kinda half jokingly) that I wanted one of these for Christmas. She called me tonight saying that she had been debating for a half an hour on whether to press the order now button on one. I told her not to, because I wanna get more on our feet financially before I pull this kind of plug. :frown: I'll get one sooner or later, but not now.
 
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