Replace my Zumo 550 with ?

Looks like my Zumo 550 will no longer read the SD card with my full set of NA maps. So, what do I replace it with? Trying to stay in a $350 +/- budget. Refurb 395? Refurb 595? Damn...

I suggest you wait till you can afford a 276Cx.

Or sell a kidney.

If you have to change the mount for your new GPS I could use one so I can mount 550.

I have a 660 and a 590. So far both are working well.

FJRay said:

I have a 660 and a 590. So far both are working well.

Click to expand...

Obviously you can't use both at once, so which one are you gifting me?

b-bike393 said:

If you have to change the mount for your new GPS I could use one so I can mount 550.

Click to expand...

Will let you know what I decide

bikerskier said:

FJRay said:

I have a 660 and a 590. So far both are working well.

Click to expand...

Obviously you can't use both at once, so which one are you gifting me?

b-bike393 said:

If you have to change the mount for your new GPS I could use one so I can mount 550.

Click to expand...

Will let you know what I decide

Click to expand...

The 590 came with the Spyder and will go with it when and if it sells. The 660 will go on the next wing after the tricycle sells.

OK, seriously this time.

You can get a refurbed Zumo 660 for about $280.

Functionally a great unit albeit somewhat hard

to read the screen in daylight.

Includes lifetime map updates.

For the last 3 seasons, I've used a mid-quality Android tablet (7") with actual GPS chip (GPS receiver & Russian standard GLONASS) as my swiss army knife travelling device.

At home, I plan quite detailed, long distance routes using multiple layers, waypoints, and line segments in GoogleMaps, then export as a .KML file. That file can be converted on a legitimate/free website here (https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input) to a .GPX modern GPS data format. There are a number of decent GPS map apps in both the Android and Apple technology spaces; so far, my choice remains OSMand (https://osmand.net/).

Tablets like these offer Bluetooth 4.0, connecting seamlessly with my old Sena SMH-10s for turn by turn directions, and this gives me GBytes of storage for playback of MP3 tunes for those long stretches across the plains...

When I get to a hotel at the end of ride day, I also have a travelling computer for Internet searches etc, and I can catch up on emails/social media, then push the day's pics up to a cloud service storage - instead of carrying it with me to the end of the trip and doing it at home.

Have it wrapped in an inexpensive, but high quality neoprene skin to prevent most damage from falls, and locked into a RAM universal cradle mounted to my tank bag at an angle with home-fabricated aluminum bracket. Have been caught in day-long rain on many trips the last couple years, and I am amazed at no water intrusion problems yet.

Now in 2017, I can't believe that there remains much of a market for overpriced, special-purpose bike GPS units. I'm not saying they were poorly made, but tiny displays, limited additional features and connectivity challenges make me think they have to be going the way of the Do-Do bird very soon.

All in, I think my total replacement cost for this GPS solution would be well under $250 for you USA folks.

Good luck in your quest.

Have you tried a new SD card? I always carry a cloned card just in case it craps out.

Oh yes, extra SD and thumb drives should always be considered. Now I'm also geeking out further with a portable router, a small 1TByte portable USB drive, etc.

I had an older 276c and really like it, much easier to search/browse the map than a sumo but I replaced it with a 550 until it failed. I replaced the 550 with a 390LM and I'm happy with it.

I purchased a refurbished one for $409 a few yrs ago.

https://g.factoryoutletstore.com/Category/CategoryListNoCache.aspx?category_id=0&search_term=390LM

Cyclepath said:

For the last 3 seasons, I've used a mid-quality Android tablet (7") with actual GPS chip (GPS receiver & Russian standard GLONASS) as my swiss army knife travelling device.At home, I plan quite detailed, long distance routes using multiple layers, waypoints, and line segments in GoogleMaps, then export as a .KML file. That file can be converted on a legitimate/free website here (https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input) to a .GPX modern GPS data format. There are a number of decent GPS map apps in both the Android and Apple technology spaces; so far, my choice remains OSMand (https://osmand.net/).

Tablets like these offer Bluetooth 4.0, connecting seamlessly with my old Sena SMH-10s for turn by turn directions, and this gives me GBytes of storage for playback of MP3 tunes for those long stretches across the plains...

When I get to a hotel at the end of ride day, I also have a travelling computer for Internet searches etc, and I can catch up on emails/social media, then push the day's pics up to a cloud service storage - instead of carrying it with me to the end of the trip and doing it at home.

Have it wrapped in an inexpensive, but high quality neoprene skin to prevent most damage from falls, and locked into a RAM universal cradle mounted to my tank bag at an angle with home-fabricated aluminum bracket. Have been caught in day-long rain on many trips the last couple years, and I am amazed at no water intrusion problems yet.

Now in 2017, I can't believe that there remains much of a market for overpriced, special-purpose bike GPS units. I'm not saying they were poorly made, but tiny displays, limited additional features and connectivity challenges make me think they have to be going the way of the Do-Do bird very soon.

All in, I think my total replacement cost for this GPS solution would be well under $250 for you USA folks.

Good luck in your quest.

Click to expand...

My name is Fred W and I'm a Garmin GPS geek.

I've got two zumo 550 units still, and have bought and tried multiple other GPS units. IMO, the 550 was a unicorn. The screen brightness in daylight, level of detail on the screen, overall usability of the unit is excellent. They didn't know that they had made a unit quite as good as they did, which ruined it for all the lesser units to follow.

There are certain features of the newer units I'd really like to have, and certain negative traits of the 550 I'd like to be rid of, but on balance I still find the zumo 550 to be the best thing out there for riding a motorcycle on pavement. Which is really saying something after all these years.

So, now... let's get down to your 550's problem:

What exactly does the unit do when you power it up?

Have you tried removing the SD card and powering it on?

Have you tried using an alternate SD card? (someone else asked. I didn't see an answer)

Have you tried reloading the software on the GPS device? (would require that you have it backed up somewhere)

If you'd rather continue this dialog offline shoot me a PM or email and we can carry on.

SLK50 said:

OK, seriously this time.You can get a refurbed Zumo 660 for about $280.

Functionally a great unit albeit somewhat hard

to read the screen in daylight.

Includes lifetime map updates.

Click to expand...

I bought one but did not realize that the main display shows the time to the next turn, not the arrival time at your destination. Yes, you can call it up but showing both the time and distance to the next term , rather than the distance to the next turn and the arrival time at the destination on the main display is dumb IMHO.

You can change what is displayed on the screen.

Thank you Fred you saved me a lot of money. I have a 550 but I was hearing the sirens song of the 590 or 595. In the end the 550 has never let me down. I will stay with what I know.

Fred W said:

My name is Fred W and I'm a Garmin GPS geek.
I've got two zumo 550 units still, and have bought and tried multiple other GPS units. IMO, the 550 was a unicorn. The screen brightness in daylight, level of detail on the screen, overall usability of the unit is excellent. They didn't know that they had made a unit quite as good as they did, which ruined it for all the lesser units to follow.

There are certain features of the newer units I'd really like to have, and certain negative traits of the 550 I'd like to be rid of, but on balance I still find the zumo 550 to be the best thing out there for riding a motorcycle on pavement. Which is really saying something after all these years.

So, now... let's get down to your 550's problem:

What exactly does the unit do when you power it up?

Have you tried removing the SD card and powering it on?

Have you tried using an alternate SD card? (someone else asked. I didn't see an answer)

Have you tried reloading the software on the GPS device? (would require that you have it backed up somewhere)

If you'd rather continue this dialog offline shoot me a PM or email and we can carry on.

Click to expand...

Fred W said:

My name is Fred W and I'm a Garmin GPS geek.
I've got two zumo 550 units still, and have bought and tried multiple other GPS units. IMO, the 550 was a unicorn. The screen brightness in daylight, level of detail on the screen, overall usability of the unit is excellent. They didn't know that they had made a unit quite as good as they did, which ruined it for all the lesser units to follow.

There are certain features of the newer units I'd really like to have, and certain negative traits of the 550 I'd like to be rid of, but on balance I still find the zumo 550 to be the best thing out there for riding a motorcycle on pavement. Which is really saying something after all these years.

So, now... let's get down to your 550's problem:

What exactly does the unit do when you power it up?

Have you tried removing the SD card and powering it on?

Have you tried using an alternate SD card? (someone else asked. I didn't see an answer)

Have you tried reloading the software on the GPS device? (would require that you have it backed up somewhere)

If you'd rather continue this dialog offline shoot me a PM or email and we can carry on.

Click to expand...

Will PM on the weekend. Thanks.

K_Flyer said:

SLK50 said:

OK, seriously this time.You can get a refurbed Zumo 660 for about $280.

Functionally a great unit albeit somewhat hard

to read the screen in daylight.

Includes lifetime map updates.

Click to expand...

I bought one but did not realize that the main display shows the time to the next turn, not the arrival time at your destination. Yes, you can call it up but showing both the time and distance to the next term , rather than the distance to the next turn and the arrival time at the destination on the main display is dumb IMHO.

Click to expand...

Um...You can very easily program the GPS to show the info you want. Don't blame the device because you failed to RTFM.

Um... I did RTFM. I also called Garmin and they confirmed that there was no way to configure the 660 to put the destination arrival time on the screen in place of the "Time to Turn." You can click on the "Time to Turn" spot to pull up the trip computer which is a separate display that shows, among other things, the arrival time at the destination. However, this covers the map view completely. You need to click on the back arrow to get back to the map view.

I'm curious to how you think you can "easily program the GPS to show the info you want."