BMW Navigator III specsheet (?)

[TxTortoise]

Garmin vs Nav Difference

Great guidance on GPS's Michael...worth crossing the Atlantic for. ;-) Hope your slow flight north is progressing well.

Since you obviously have a few more inside sources than the rest of us, can you confirm if the Nav III has the same differences as the Nav II, when compared to the Garmin model. This was listed on Advrider.com a while back. Item 3-5 are of the biggest interest to me.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120036

"There are a couple of other minor differences between the 2610 and the Nav 2. The Nav 2 has the following features that the 2610 does not.

-Special mount with 4 extra buttons that allows much easier left hand navigation
-Mount also has an audio jack
-Gasoline splash resistant screen
-Rubber mounted circut boards to dampen vibration
-Hardened circut boards
-BMW dealership database preinstalled
-2 GB CF card
-Extra motorcycle specific power cord as well as one for your car
-Minor other software differences"

Guess you could open your Nav III up for the cause and look. ;-)

Cheers...
Ralph @ San Antonio
'05 BMW R1200GS, Rich's Saddle, Micatech Panniers, SW-Motech Crashbars, Fastway Pegs, and other bits

 

[illustratedman]

2820 pricing

Blokestuff.com are doing the 2820 for the princely sum of £687.38
Inc.VAT

 

[PanEuropean]

Hi Ralph:

The thread you refer to on the other forum discusses the BMW Nav II+, and your question addresses the BMW Nav III (the newest one). I'll speak to the Nav III, I have not used the Nav II+. First off, let me tell you that I'm not an expert on these things, I'm just a volunteer beta-tester. I have both units - a Nav III and a 2820 - and based on the units I have (which are pre-production), here are the differences I see:

-Special mount with 4 extra buttons that allows much easier left hand navigation YES
-Mount also has an audio jack YES (in the bottom of the 4 button thing)
-Gasoline splash resistant screen I DON'T KNOW
-Rubber mounted circuit boards to dampen vibration I DON'T KNOW
-Hardened circuit boards I DON'T KNOW
-BMW dealership database preinstalled YES
-2 GB CF card They both have 2 gigs of internal storage (not a card)
-Extra motorcycle specific power cord as well as one for your car YES
-Minor other software differences YES

To elaborate a bit:

The BMW device comes with the 4 button cradle, and there is an audio-out jack on the bottom of the 4 button cradle. However, the Garmin 2820 has an audio out jack in the side of it too (this is new), so functionally there is not a significant amount of difference, assuming you don't need to integrate the device with other BMW audio components on the moto.

I honestly don't know what the story is about the 'gasoline resistant screen, hardened circuit boards, and rubber mounts'. All I can say is that I have ridden over 90,000 km (60,000 miles) with plain old Garmin GPSRs on my moto, and never had one fail because of vibration. Nor have I ever had problems arising from exposure of the Garmin GPSRs to gasoline, gasoline fumes, etc.

The BMW device does have an additional POI database of BMW dealers.

The BMW device does have some software differences: It has the RMI (radio-magnetic indicator) type display, and the behaviour of the GPSR when you control it through the 4 additional buttons on the BMW specific mount is a little bit different than how you would accomplish the same functions using the screen controls on the 2820. The BMW device also has a software control that allows you to turn off the touch-screen functions if you want to.

Both are very competent units that share a common design heritage and common internal electronics. As you probably already know, the BMW one does not support the MP3 music player function, and does not have a microphone and speaker jack on the left side of it. This leads me to speculate that perhaps BMW has plans for additional accessories of their own down the road for such purposes, however, I stress that this is pure speculation on my part, and not based on any inside information of any kind.

Michael

 

[TxTortoise]

Thanks Michael, sorry I wasn't clear...I was targeting the Nav III and wanted to see if the comments about the Nav II could be validated on your Nav III. The Garmin unit vs the Nav III seems to be a no-brainer, but since you were using both, I thought I'd drill down a bit...though I do like the 'compass'. ;-) Thanks for the feedback.

Now if I could just get the BMW helmet over here...in the correct size, whatever it might be. ;-)

Cheers...

 

[Paul Wakefield]

-Gasoline splash resistant screen

The low tech solution I adopt for this is to put one of my gloves over the screen when filling up.

Cheers.

Paul

 

[PanEuropean]

...though I do like the 'compass'...

The compass is cute, but really not the most useful thing in the world. It's more of a 'feature' than a 'benefit', if you know what I mean.

I think the criteria you need to apply to make a decision between the two is this:

1) How much value to you place on the additional 4 buttons? They can be very useful.

2) What is the probability that you will want to tie into existing or future BMW audio accessories? This is especially important if you have a big BMW Tourer (the LT) with the CD player, intercom, etc.

If you don't have a BMW moto, and just want a GPSR for stand-alone use, then I think the 2820 would be fully suitable - if you can cope without the extra four button control, which is quite a useful device.

Michael

 

[TxTortoise]

4 Buttons

Michael, I haven't seen much said about the 4 buttons from a pro/con standpoint...other than a comment that a couple may be duplicated on the 2820. You've made a couple of positive comments on the buttons, would you elaborate on their functionality or link to a previous thread...when time allows. ;-)

Thanks...

Ralph
San Antonio, Texas
BMW R1200GS, Rich's Saddle, Micatech Panniers, SW-Motech Crashbars, Fastway Pegs, and other bits

 

[PanEuropean]

Hi Ralph:

Well, in my own opinion, the nicest thing about the 4 buttons that come with the BMW mount is that you can quickly zoom in and out without having to be 'careful' about where you touch the screen. In other words, you can put your hand on the GPSR without really looking, and just feel for the appropriate zoom in or zoom out button, then push it a few times. Then, you can look at the screen to see the results.

To zoom in or out using the touchscreen only, you have to look quite carefully at the touchscreen to determine where the + and - buttons are, then carefully touch those spots.

The other two keys - which are, I think, ENTER and ESCAPE, perform a variety of functions depending on where you are and what kind of dialog is present. The software (the user interface) for those two buttons is very carefully thought out, which means you can actually accomplish everything you want to without ever touching the screen. This can be handy if you have heavy gloves on, for example, winter riding.

But - for the last few years, while I used the 26xx and 27xx GPSRs, I just stuck the Garmin-supplied remote control onto the top of the clutch fluid reservoir using some Velcro, and that gave me all the functionality of the BMW cradle. Truth is, 99% of the time the only buttons I use are the zoom in or zoom out ones (on the cradle or on the remote). Some folks have reported problems with sunlight affecting the IR remote receiver, but I have never encountered any problems of any kind in over 60,000 km of riding. That's probably because I always use the most up to date software.

Below is a picture of the 'poor man's BMW'.

Michael

Garmin Remote mounted on clutch reservoir
In two years, I have never removed this, even when washing the bike with a power washer. It still works just great.

 

[PanEuropean]

Ralph:

If I were you, rather than spending the extra money to get a BMW Nav III over a 2820, I would spend the extra money to get a 2730 or 2830 (if there is such a thing as a 2830) that can receive weather information from the XM weather satellite. I used this weather information on a recent flight that took me past the USA - it is really quite amazing to see your route on the GPSR, with real-time clouds and weather and real-time lightning strike information depicted on it.

The XM satellite service only works in the 48 states, and there is a fee to get the weather information from the people who operate the XM satellite (it ain't cheap either), but it is really quite fascinating. The photo below was taken when I was about 300 miles offshore, north of Bermuda, on the weekend. You can see all sorts of other stuff - hurricane tracks, county weather advisories, storm warnings, the works, and the information is quite granular - right down to the 'city' level.

There is no similar weather satellite broadcast service for Europe, so, this suggestion only applies to American riders.

Michael

XM Weather as depicted on a Garmin aviation GPSR

 

[TxTortoise]

XM Weather

The XM weather has more appeal over here, particularly since we don't have the radar/speed trap points catalogued like you do on the continent, but you're correct on the pricing. The aviation package is $30/mo and the ground package is $100/mo....neither cost beneficial for just periodic travel.

Looks like the 2730 just has the capability for traffic weather reports, to get NexRad, and the good stuff you need something like the 378/478. Since the 276 is well thought of by some on here, maybe this later generation is worth looking at.
http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap378/

As usual, it's not the razor that costs so much, its the monthly cost of the razor blades. ;-)

Cheers...