5277 miles in 14 days

[steve0]

Georgia to Yellowstone National Park, Badlands, Sturgis Rally, all the tourist traps in that area. Fully loaded at around 400lbs, it handled really well and averaged 48 MPG. I love everything about this motorcycle except for the insane cost of insuring it. 

 

[ogri]

I see that you have a GPS Navigation system mounted on the handlebars. Which one do you use and how do you like it?

[steve0]

Zumo 660. It gets the job done but I wouldn't recommend it. Too expensive. You could do better for hundreds less. It is water-resistant and "ruggedized" but I believe a car-type GPS would hold up fine if you keep water off of it. I can't say I've ever heard of a non-motorcycle GPS failing from vibration. I could be wrong about that though.
 
The screen isn't very bright and it doesn't have apps like new ones do but it gets me around.

[jimf]

Zumo 660. It gets the job done but I wouldn't recommend it. Too expensive. You could do better for hundreds less. It is water-resistant and "ruggedized" but I believe a car-type GPS would hold up fine if you keep water off of it. I can't say I've ever heard of a non-motorcycle GPS failing from vibration. I could be wrong about that though.  
The screen isn't very bright and it doesn't have apps like new ones do but it gets me around.

I have the Zumo 660.  I have it because I tried a Nuvi and it didn't work out at all. 
It was fine as long as the weather wasn't bad.  Unfortunately any major trip is likely to have rain where I live.  So I got a RAM waterproof box for it.  That worked just great in the rain!  But in bright sunlight the glare made the GPS utterly unreadable.  So, that didn't work.
 
I have a friend who was using a Nuvi longer term and she did have what appeared to be vibration induced problems.  So, YMMV in that respect.  There's no question that you don't want a Nuvi in the rain though.
 
I find the 660 to work about as well as any Garmin.  Routing works ok, usually.  The UI isn't too horrific.  I hate the fact that it will only give me one of the (possibly several) names of a particular road, and it's almost always the "local" name of the road rather than the route number that I'm probably trying to follow.  Same-old-same-old Garmin.
 
It is highly weather resistant, though, and the mounting system was pretty easy to manage.  I wish there was a power cable that was only a power cable -- I have a couple of dangling pigtails for e.g. audio that I will surely never use that I had to tuck away under the seat -- but other than that it's fine.
 
I'm also not entirely keen on the 660's handlebar mount.  There is no way to really lock it in, and I know people who have lost them when the lock mechanism vibrated open.  That's hard to stomach when the unit costs so damn much.
 
The primary thing I hate about the 660 is its sheer cost.  At around five times the cost of a halfway decent automobile GPS it's crazy.  I absolutely would not have paid that if I hadn't had so many problems with the Nuvi in a case.
 
I would have tried using the TomTom app on the phone, like I do in the car, and a waterproof case ... except that you can't import routes into the TomTom app.  I tend to plan long trips using the Harley Ride Planner these days (waaay better than the gymnastics you have to use to get a route out of Google Maps and into the GPS!).  Can't do that with the app, so that's a non-starter.
 
TomTom offers the Rider GPS for a lot less money than the Garmin Zumo line (think $400, not $600+).  I looked into it before I bought the Garmin, but it wasn't yet sold in the US.  Now that it is it might be an alternative, and if it's anything like their phone app it will be an improvement in some ways over the Garmin units.
 

[steve0]

Thanks, Jimf. Now I can say I have heard of someone having vibration issues with a car-model
 
 
 

[keithu]

That sounds like a great trip. Post some more pics when you get a chance!