Garmin c550 gps...finally broke down and bought one....

[Crash]

***please don't revoke my man card*** I know with the fzr or sportbikes in general a GPS is not the first thing that comes to mind but I love GPS! I searched and hunted online for a while for a GPS that isn't a total grip (a.k.a tom tom rider or garmin nuvi 550) ya 500-1000 bucks for a "motorcycle" gps I don't think so. That being said I beileve I found the best budget gps with all the IMPORTANT features of the higher priced units.

Garmin c550 gps

1.Performance\Reception I purposely went the opposite way down a rode other than the gps said and within 2-5 secs it already made a new route for the current street I was on! the Sirf-Star 3 chipset is the same one that is in the higher priced garmin nuvi motorcycle gps.

2. battery is amazing 8hours on a charge won't even need to wire it into the fizz

3.bright clear screen, now I use it as my speedometer...as you see below only up to 86mph so far

4. The mount it comes with is good however I think spending 20-30 bucks on a RAM mount is worth the money I kept looking down when I was punching the fzr around wondering "will it hold on?"

5.COST....$200 shipped from costco online now I bet a lot of you are thinking "200 bucks thats a slip-on exhaust or a good time at centerfolds " true but the amount of uses for this unit is damn near endless even when your in the cager you can go the ebay route or get it for cheaper if you hunt around more but with costco you can see if you like it and in 90 days or less return it

6. Cool feature you plug in this FM traffic reciever and it gives you live traffic updates on your screen and if your on the road the traffic delay is on it automatically asks you if you want to avoid\detour!! free for 3 months after that they ream you for $60 a year for the service

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[yamaha_george]

Hi,
found this for those who may be interested:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GARMIN-STREETPILO ... .m63.l1177

[demon_knight69]

well, sure for $200 it coulda been a slip on, but who cares. you got a pretty damn good deal! i've been thinking of picking up a gps, not necessarily for the bike, but it would be handy there too . i think my friend just spent around $500 on a garmin for his fiancee, must have been the "upgraded one", whatever helps him sleep at night LOL2

[megaloxana]

I've thought about having a GPS on my bike before definatly. Just pack up, get some riding buddies and ride into nowhere land. It would be nice to scope out the roads before you hit them.

[yamaha_george]

i think my friend just spent around $500 on a garmin for his fiancee, must have been the "upgraded one", whatever helps him sleep at night LOL2

For that amount of money I hope she rewards him with many sleepless nights

[Luke-a-Tron]

I have POS Mio GPS that I got for free because my dad hated the interface. So do I, but hey, it was free. I'll sometimes toss it in my pocket when I go out and use it guestimate which direction to head to find the nice twisty roads. The battery life is all of 15 minutes though so it's not very useful. Also, I wish there could be some sort of GPS magic that would tell you the pavement condition. Most of the time I find a stretch of road that looks good on the GPS, when I get there it's a pothole riddled death trap. No good for having any fun on.

I suspect in a couple years the technology in those things will make the current crop look like an Atari 2600. The usability on every portable GPS I've yet played with leaves a lot to be desired. The Garmins are the best of what's available though.

[demon_knight69]

i think my friend just spent around $500 on a garmin for his fiancee, must have been the "upgraded one", whatever helps him sleep at night LOL2

For that amount of money I hope she rewards him with many sleepless nights

she definitely rewards him with LOTS of those sleepless nights

[YAM93]

Very nice.

I gotta say though, I enjoy getting lost and usually only check the gauges to make sure I turned the turn signal off.

Speed limit ? I'll just go as fast as I believe makes sense. Isn't that what George Washington would want me to do? Or at least Thomas Jefferson anyway.



I'm not inherently evil or sadistic or anything, but I'm the kind of guy who ONLY wants his cellular phone to make phone calls, not have access to the internet, be useful for "texting", or any of the other goofy video feces these tech companies come out with to make us even more like consumer robots.

Being an "ex-video game addict" is bad enough.



I tell the guys who put the "hour meters" on their motocross bikes, "what... you didn't do well in math class??? can't add the hours that you've ridden in your head ?? " oh well, i don't want anything extra hanging on my MX bike unless it's there to protect components or add power.

Only reason I haven't R6'd the FZR is just laziness and lack of funds, well, that and I like the way it looks. Plus i'm not racing it.

<end brain-dump>

[Luke-a-Tron]

I love navigating by dead reckoning. I usually go by the sun. I did end up in Ohio on accident one time when the weather changed to a heavy overcast while out riding. I also stuck a cheapy digital watch to my upper triple with double sided tape so I could keep a better eye on the time.

[haro504]

i gotta get my gf a gps do you know how many times ive been called and sent to mapquest to locate her and tell her how to get home, while she refuses to stop so i can find her, gotta be one step ahead. got pretty good at it should start a service. ill give a years service for a few sleepless nights, well i guess that might not be the best form of payment

[megaloxana]

Not to mention its hard to look at mapquest printouts while riding the bike.

[mike94fzr600]

i was looking to get one. i was goig to ask if anyone had put on on their bike before.