So am I correct in thinking you can tell these via a pc the exact route you wish to take or let it take you the quickest way as per a normal satnav?
Do you find address via town, road etc?
Can you say route to avoid motorways or locate petrol stations etc
I see a few on fleabay but they all say 115Mb, are most like this? I assume this is the us one. Or have they all jsy copied someone elses specs?
You're correct, the American Quest only has 128MB RAM, 115MB (ISTR) of which can be used for the mapping that you load from your PC. Definitely one to avoid as for once the Euro spec. model is better boasting 256MB of which you can use 243MB, no doubt comparatively more expensive when new though. The primary reason for this is down to average road density between the two continents with Europe having far more per sq mile that the US, the mapping for the latter is far 'slimmer' on average for a given area so they can pack plenty into 115MB. Using one of those here would only give you half of the UK and cripple all but the shortest of trips into Europe. In addition it would have the US base-map and lack the European base-map. The base-map has a basic road network and is navigable if appropriate mapping isn't loaded for the area you're in. A very poor 2nd but worth having.
Using MapSource you can easily plot a precise route following exactly the roads you want to travel and then upload this to the unit which, IMHO, is a must for recreational bike use and a massive point in favour of Garmin GPS*. This is possible on the unit as well but is fiddly and time consuming (ideally a paper map can be used as an overview), I'd reserve that for emergencies when you're on tour and want to plot an alternative day trip. MapSource is a little quirky and takes a little getting used to, once you have though it's a very handy tool. Converters are available that permit you plot your route in the likes of MS AutoRoute and then convert to Garmin .gdb or .gpx which you then open in MapSource, re-calculate, check and upload. (any foreign format imported, even a different Garmin mapping version, will need recalculating).
You can load up to 50 routes at one time onto the unit, best to break routes up into days or even half days for big tours rather than trying to do the whole thing in one hit. Split at ferry terminals as well otherwise Mapsource will try to take you via the channel tunnel when leaving the UK practically no matter what route you try to plot, the ferry captain should know where he's going anyway.
Searching for a location is done via country > town/village > street > street number (enter 0 if you don't know). Once found you can either route to it, save the location for later use or find points of interest nearby that you can route to or save instead. When navigating on the unit you can opt to route using fastest time, shortest distance, off road (point to point as the crow flies, this option brings the compass screen into play for walking etc.). Selecting any of these options on a route you've uploaded from your PC will probably change the route once you use the recalculate option on the unit.
Searching for Points of Interest (petrol stations, hotels etc) is easy and similar to location searching above. This can either be done around your current location or around a distant location that you've searched for and found. You can load your own POIs from MapSource or create them on the unit, the limit here is 500.
You can opt to avoid certain basic road types, however, these are a little US orientated: U-Turns, Highways, Toll Roads and Unpaved Roads (Highways being the odd-ball, have yet to establish what these exactly equate to, motorways + dual carriageways?). If checked these are avoided unless there is no viable alternative. You can also set-up custom avoidances to avoid areas or specific sections of particular roads, you can even set an expiry date on these so they are automatically dumped on a set date.
The Quest has plenty of other options and will take a little while to get to grips with but once you've done so I think you'll find it a very capable unit in a neat package, it's far more compact than the other models and has the benefit of an internal battery that can genuinely last for a whole days riding if you don't have a powered cradle.
When buying a used unit from e-bay ensure that it is complete with all disks and the yellow slip of paper that has the unlock code for the mapping. It's also worthwhile asking the seller to de-register the unit with Garmin to enable you to do so. Without doing that it's difficult for you to obtain mapping updates. As for the mapping versions; V9 is current but V8 is OK unless you're intending to use in Ireland (V9 has far better coverage there).
(* don't be fooled into thinking that all Garmin units can use MapSource for route planning, the Nuvi range, i3 and C series StreetPilot range can't, they're just A-B devices. Quest, 26**, 27**, 28** and Zumo are the ones to go for. QuestII has issues so avoid.)
