Garmin ZUMO

**McJim** · 29th August 2008, 21:37

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Mine has now been running for seven days in three USA states and now in Canada. It is absolutely fantastic. I rely on the information it provides implicitly. Every day so far Doris has unfailingly delivered us to the door of our hotel, in a land where I know not my arse from my elbow.

Buy one.

If you're in the States shouldn't that be "Ass from my elbow"?

P.S. so you have a very clean elbow and a shitty arsehole at the moment?

**Hitcher** · 30th August 2008, 17:10

Originally Posted by McJim

If you're in the States shouldn't that be "Ass from my elbow"?

I resisted engaging with locals who used the term "ass" within my hearing. Actually that was easier than wanting to hit people who used the term "BS" instead of "bullshit". Twats.

**Grub** · 31st August 2008, 17:41

Originally Posted by Hitcher

I have just returned from 40+ days traveling in the USA and Canada..

Welcome back you two ... when is the evening slide show? Did you do a blog at all, would love to hear all about the beauties, trials and tribulations of a trip such as that.

**Hitcher** · 1st September 2008, 12:36

For a small fee...

**Wufnik** · 4th September 2008, 19:35

According to the website below, Garmin are now discontinuing the New Zealand mapping. Or have I missed the point somewhere? Probably have...

http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/m...ewZealand.jsp#

**Hitcher** · 4th September 2008, 19:46

There's a New Zealand open source map project. That's where the NZ maps on my Zumo came from. I must send the authors some feedback...

**Wufnik** · 4th September 2008, 19:50

And I think I did get it wrong. The NT version appears to be still available. It is the non-NT version that appears to be discontinued (per this link).

http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/m...NewZealand.jsp

**PrincessBandit** · 8th December 2008, 16:10

We just got ours through Mapworld in CHCH (early Christmas present for the Christmas ride.....) and have been playing with it for the last couple of days on our bikes.
Balu has hardwired his mounting unit into the ciggie lighter on his scooter (a function I don't have) so he can run it off bike battery; I run it off it's internal battery. We've been chuffed with it so far, very impressed with the ability of it to map out new route if you choose not to follow the route it sets out for you.
What we have noticed though is a rather large discrepancy in our speedo readings on the bike compared to the gps. Up to around 50 kph it's pretty close but this afternoon I was on the Southern motorway, bandit's speedo reading 125 kph but the unit said I was only doing 115. I know the Burgmans supposedly "overread" on their speedos, but it would seem that the bandit does as well. Anyone able to explain why the gap between what speed the bike reads at compared to the gps unit?
(Maybe it's a crafty conspiracy just to make us riders think we're going a whole lot faster than we really are........oooooh conspiracy theories.......)

**NordieBoy** · 8th December 2008, 18:01

Most speedos read about 10% over.
Odo's are usually accurate though.

**Hitcher** · 8th December 2008, 19:01

My speedo is only 2% out at 100kmh. When my current tyres were new, it was near enough to perfect.

**Rockbuddy** · 8th December 2008, 19:11

in the car my zumo reads the same as the speedo to within 1km on the bike ots anything from 5kms to 15kms out, ??????

**sinned** · 8th December 2008, 19:39

Originally Posted by Rockbuddy

in the car my zumo reads the same as the speedo to within 1km on the bike ots anything from 5kms to 15kms out, ??????

It would be interesting to know the amount of the error manufacturers build into their speedo readouts. I have done some tests with the GPS (that is accurate on a straight flat road) and found the SV1000 read 8% high, a HD is spot on, S3 is 8% high. My 2008 Mazda3 is 5kms high at all speeds, the 1998 Corolla is close to correct, the XR6 I had was spot on at 100kph and I got a ticket to prove it.

I wondered why some drivers of new cars drove at 45kph in town - now I know - the speedo is reading 50.

So some bikes (Suzuki) have a built in percentage error, some cars have a fix km error.

I have wondered if the HP cops know what the speedo error of different vehicles is?

**Gremlin** · 9th December 2008, 00:48

Originally Posted by dennisr

I have wondered if the HP cops know what the speedo error of different vehicles is?

Why do the cops need to know? Speedos will over-read rather than under-read, so if you are caught on radar doing 115, odds are, your speedo was reading higher than that.

Katoom speedo is never more than 3-4kph out, even all the way to 190 odd.

I love my zumo 550, and if you have a garmin, check out www.nzopengps.org