Bob
Guest
I admit to being an XM addict. I got it in about 2004 for my car and really like it for long trips as well as my daily commute. I particularly appreciate it here in the mountains where I can't hold an FM signal for more than about 10 miles. When I got my NT I bought a Scala Rider G4. Over the holiday I purchased a zumo 665 to go with it.
My first test drive was in my wife's 1999 honda crv, which incidently needs a 6th gear way worse than the NT, on a 1200 mile trip to Illinois and back. My daughter has my Highlander (with the in dash XM) on a three week cross country trip. The 665's built in, front window facing speaker was terrible for anything other than nav directions so for most of the Illinois trip I used some headphones which I had brought. With that setup the Garmin worked great. It took a quick phone call and about 2 minutes later I had XM service. During the trips I had no reboots, good reception with the magnetic hockey puck like antenna just sitting on the dash, and excellent reception if I stuck it up on the roof. I left it in motorcycle mode to get a feel for the screens as I would see them on the NT, a good way to get used to it without a lot of distracted riding on the bike.
Most of you have used a GPS and the nav stuff was pretty typical. The zumo is more customizable than my nuvi and I like having the ability to contantly display your choice of two items chosen from arrival time, miles remaining, elevation, speed, etc. It also displayed speed limits which was kind of nice although they were wrong a few times. The XM screens are basic but functional. You can save and delete stations from a single list of favorites. Once you have your favorites list built you can move forward or backward (or browse) through that list, through a list of recently accessed stations, or through all of the stations. Station, artist, and song are displayed on the XM screen. You can get to XM screen from the nav screen by pressing one button. One button then returns you to the nav screen. I wish there was a way to move up and down stations from the nav screen without first going back to the XM screen. If you have no destination prgrammed the nav screen does display some information about what you are listening to on the top banner. If you have a destination prgrammed in the top banner displays information about your next turn.
After the drive to Illinois I was eager to get the zumo on the NT. I installed it the afternoon of the 4th. The GPS is on a ram ball on the left handle bar mirror mount. Since i will be changing stations some I wanted it close to my left hand. The mount has a cable attached to it which I ran back along the gas tank to the seat area. The cable splits after a few feet into four sections: power, xm antenna, mic, and audio out. Since I am using bluetooth I left the mic and audio out tied under the seat for now. I used a posi-tap to tap into the switched power below the NT's fuse box (Thanks to the fuzebox thread on this site) and the ground to the battery. Initially I put the antenna on my top case as it seemed to me this would have the clearest view of the sky. The puck is higher and farther from me than it would be in the more typical location which is on a ram mount or shelf near the right handlebar. But reception was terrible. I stopped in the middle of the ride, took the seat off, and ran the antenna out the front of the seat and just plopped it on the gas tank. Reception improved to an almost acceptable level. I think the problem with the top box location, at least in my case, is vibration. I will put it on the right handlebar tommorrow and let you know what I find.
If the reception is fixed when I move the antenna I think I will be pretty happy. In retrospect I might be tempted to get a 550 for the hard buttons, mount it up on the dash, and put a seperate XM unit on the left handlebar. It wouldn't be waterproof but I don't ride much in the rain and would just put a plastic bag over it when needed.
My first test drive was in my wife's 1999 honda crv, which incidently needs a 6th gear way worse than the NT, on a 1200 mile trip to Illinois and back. My daughter has my Highlander (with the in dash XM) on a three week cross country trip. The 665's built in, front window facing speaker was terrible for anything other than nav directions so for most of the Illinois trip I used some headphones which I had brought. With that setup the Garmin worked great. It took a quick phone call and about 2 minutes later I had XM service. During the trips I had no reboots, good reception with the magnetic hockey puck like antenna just sitting on the dash, and excellent reception if I stuck it up on the roof. I left it in motorcycle mode to get a feel for the screens as I would see them on the NT, a good way to get used to it without a lot of distracted riding on the bike.
Most of you have used a GPS and the nav stuff was pretty typical. The zumo is more customizable than my nuvi and I like having the ability to contantly display your choice of two items chosen from arrival time, miles remaining, elevation, speed, etc. It also displayed speed limits which was kind of nice although they were wrong a few times. The XM screens are basic but functional. You can save and delete stations from a single list of favorites. Once you have your favorites list built you can move forward or backward (or browse) through that list, through a list of recently accessed stations, or through all of the stations. Station, artist, and song are displayed on the XM screen. You can get to XM screen from the nav screen by pressing one button. One button then returns you to the nav screen. I wish there was a way to move up and down stations from the nav screen without first going back to the XM screen. If you have no destination prgrammed the nav screen does display some information about what you are listening to on the top banner. If you have a destination prgrammed in the top banner displays information about your next turn.
After the drive to Illinois I was eager to get the zumo on the NT. I installed it the afternoon of the 4th. The GPS is on a ram ball on the left handle bar mirror mount. Since i will be changing stations some I wanted it close to my left hand. The mount has a cable attached to it which I ran back along the gas tank to the seat area. The cable splits after a few feet into four sections: power, xm antenna, mic, and audio out. Since I am using bluetooth I left the mic and audio out tied under the seat for now. I used a posi-tap to tap into the switched power below the NT's fuse box (Thanks to the fuzebox thread on this site) and the ground to the battery. Initially I put the antenna on my top case as it seemed to me this would have the clearest view of the sky. The puck is higher and farther from me than it would be in the more typical location which is on a ram mount or shelf near the right handlebar. But reception was terrible. I stopped in the middle of the ride, took the seat off, and ran the antenna out the front of the seat and just plopped it on the gas tank. Reception improved to an almost acceptable level. I think the problem with the top box location, at least in my case, is vibration. I will put it on the right handlebar tommorrow and let you know what I find.
If the reception is fixed when I move the antenna I think I will be pretty happy. In retrospect I might be tempted to get a 550 for the hard buttons, mount it up on the dash, and put a seperate XM unit on the left handlebar. It wouldn't be waterproof but I don't ride much in the rain and would just put a plastic bag over it when needed.
