Garmin announces the 2820 GPS for motorcycles

[meyerweb]

Michael:

Your 2820 review is very interesting. I don't have much interest in the BlueTooth, but the improved traffic monitoring and re-routing is of significant interest. Do you have any insight (or guesses) as to whether these improvements will show up in the 27xx models via a firmware update?

Thanks,

Bob Meyer
('01 ST1100 rider)

 

[SilverFish]

Available for £519.99

Not quite sure about it enough to put in my own card details, but this company is only asking for £519.99 incl vat, pick up from their shop in Chiswick....

http://www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/garmin_navigation.html

The 2820 is a little way down the page - you have to scroll down to see it.

Not heard of them before, if you follow through to the card transaction pages they show up as "Drivetime Chiswick Ltd"

Best I can tell their site looks completely kosher, and there is a bricks and mortar premises as well.

I know the price would come down, but not that fast! Has anyone else see them discounted so quickly?

Cheers,

Mike

 

[PanEuropean]

Michael: Your 2820 review is very interesting. I don't have much interest in the BlueTooth, but the improved traffic monitoring and re-routing is of significant interest. Do you have any insight (or guesses) as to whether these improvements will show up in the 27xx models via a firmware update?

Hi Bob:

99% of the improvements that you see in the TMC functions of the 2820 will carry over to the 2720, 7xxx series, and all the other GPSRs that support traffic monitoring.

The software that deals with the TMC functions is a little 'sub-container', so to speak, that is common to all the GPSRs that support TMC. There might be some very minor differences in presentation from one model GPSR to the next, but if there are any, it will be due to GPSR specific issues such as screen size or screen resolution.

In fact, I'm currently testing an advanced beta build of traffic software on my 2720 that is way further ahead than the traffic software I have on my 2820. And (this is kind of topical), the chief TMC software wizard from Garmin will be spending all this week driving around Europe, function-testing new TMC software here. I had planned to spend a few days riding around with him, but I have to go to the Falkland Islands tomorrow to pick up an airplane, and neither one of us could change our schedules. So, no moto testing from me for the next 10 days...

Anyway, the short answer to your question is YES, all the TMC improvements that have shown up on the 2820 will also show up on the 2720. Just be sure to use the Garmin 'WebUpdater' program to update your 27xx series GPSR, because that is how firmware updates to the little GTM FM traffic gizmo get passed to it - via WebUpdater. The GTM does not need to be connected to the GPSR when you run WebUpdater - the GTM updates will be passed to the GPSR, and the GPSR will pass them to the GTM automatically the next time you connect it to the GPSR.

Please be aware, though, that the sophistication of the TMC data offered by the TMC service provider in the USA is nowhere near as well developed as what is offered in Europe. This is likely because the Europeans have had about 15 years experience at it now, but the service is less than a year old in the USA. So, many of the neat things you see in the pictures that show European TMC services might not show up on your screen - not because your GPSR or GTM can't handle them, but simply because the data provider is not broadcasting the information... yet.

Michael

 

[Jon]

Not quite sure about it enough to put in my own card details, but this company is only asking for £519.99 incl vat, pick up from their shop in Chiswick....

http://www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/garmin_navigation.html

The 2820 is a little way down the page - you have to scroll down to see it.

Not heard of them before, if you follow through to the card transaction pages they show up as "Drivetime Chiswick Ltd"

Best I can tell their site looks completely kosher, and there is a bricks and mortar premises as well.

I know the price would come down, but not that fast! Has anyone else see them discounted so quickly?

Cheers,

Mike

Okay, who ordered 300 to sell on flea-bay? They're now £729.99..........

Obviously a typo originally. I was gonna order a few for e-bay myself

 

[Dale]

Track Log Details

The track log gives the rider three options: Automatic resolution, time based resolution, or distance based resolution.
Michael

Michael,

Where did you find this setting? I dont see anything about it in the manual and also have looked on the GPS itself without luck.

Either I'm just missing something really obvious or perhaps the software you had loaded was/is different to the v3 currently available?

Dale

 

[PanEuropean]

Dale:

I'm back in Africa again, and don't have an automotive GPSR (2xxx series) with me - only a 496 Aviation GPSR.

It's possible that I may have confused the choices available for tracklog settings on an aviation GPSR with the choices available on an automotive GPSR. Perhaps someone else who has a 27xx or 28xx could double-check and let us know.

Michael

 

[Major Gadget]

Garmin Zuma

Michael, I see that Garmin are now bringing out the motorbike specific Zuma in October, which will apparently have the facility to accept Electronic Maps other than Navtec,and will have all the features of the 2820. So is it worth waiting till October then?

Regards, Ken.

 

[WeeWillieWinkie]

Dale:

It's possible that I may have confused the choices available for tracklog settings on an aviation GPSR with the choices available on an automotive GPSR. Perhaps someone else who has a 27xx or 28xx could double-check and let us know.

Michael

Hi there,
The 2820 (v3 s/w) has three tracklog settings: off, automatic and distance.

WWW

 

[Dale]

Hi there,
The 2820 (v3 s/w) has three tracklog settings: off, automatic and distance.
WWW

WWW,

I must be really stupid , but can find that setting anywhere! Can you please explain which menus it's in?

The only place I can find a track setting is under Tools - My data - Track log, then there are three options

Recording (either on or off),
Percentage full (with a "clear log" option), and
Map display (which lets you specify the zoom level for seeing the track on the map)

Dale

 

[Dale]

Michael, I see that Garmin are now bringing out the motorbike specific Zuma in October, which will apparently have the facility to accept Electronic Maps other than Navtec,and will have all the features of the 2820.
Regards, Ken.

Ken,

Most Garmin products can accept electronic maps form other sources. The prerequisite is that the maps are written in such a way as to be compatible with Garmin units. There are 2 kinds of maps, those which are autoroutable and those which are not. Both can be loaded but the non-autoroutable ones will simply appear on the screen as an overlay - ie you can see which road you are on but the GPS does not inherintly know that it is a road.

The easiest way to check is to load the maps into mapsource. If you can autoroute with them there then they will work fine on your GPS. If you cant autoroute with them they will appear as overlays.

Some of these overlays will be transparent, some not (depends on how the map is constructed). Remember that if you have multiple maps loaded to the GPS (eg a topo map, your "base' map and a 3rd party street map), you need to disable the ones you dont want to see otherwise it will confuse the ones you do want to see.

Not sure I have explained this particularly eloquently, give me a shout if it's unclear.

Dale

 

[ColBol]

2820

£649.99 on Flea Bay. Coming down all the time. They'll soon be giving them away !!

 

[WeeWillieWinkie]

WWW,

The only place I can find a track setting is under Tools - My data - Track log, then there are three options

Recording (either on or off),
Percentage full (with a "clear log" option), and
Map display (which lets you specify the zoom level for seeing the track on the map)

Dale

Dale,
Sorry, I misinterpreted the resolution as being the three settings shown in tracklog/map display, which of course determines the level of detail displayed. From the options on my 2820, it looks like the resolution of tracklog itself is pre-set and not user defined.

WWW

 

[PanEuropean]

Michael, I see that Garmin are now bringing out the motorbike specific Zuma in October, which will apparently have the facility to accept Electronic Maps other than Navtec,and will have all the features of the 2820. So is it worth waiting till October?

Ken:

Honest, I can't offer an answer for that question. I'm involved with that project, but I really can't say anything with authority about it, other than what Garmin has published on their website.

If I lived in Southern Spain, where it is warm all year round, I might hold off until it comes out. But, October is almost the end of the riding season in the UK... if you are going to wait until October, then you might as well wait until next spring, if you know what I mean.

If I had no GPSR today, I would probably buy a 2720 (unless I needed phone and music via Bluetooth), and use it. I could always sell it via eBay or some other method pretty easily if I decided I wanted a Zumo later.

Michael

 

[kiwiAdventure]

Ken:

Honest, I can't offer an answer for that question. I'm involved with that project, but I really can't say anything with authority about it, other than what Garmin has published on their website.

If I lived in Southern Spain, where it is warm all year round, I might hold off until it comes out. But, October is almost the end of the riding season in the UK... if you are going to wait until October, then you might as well wait until next spring, if you know what I mean.

If I had no GPSR today, I would probably buy a 2720 (unless I needed phone and music via Bluetooth), and use it. I could always sell it via eBay or some other method pretty easily if I decided I wanted a Zumo later.

Michael

Our riding season down under is all year round, but spring is here next month. So your advice would be to wait for the Zumo

 

[digitalthirsty]

£649.99 on Flea Bay. Coming down all the time. They'll soon be giving them away !!

Why Bother flea bay when you can get Garmin Streetpilot 2820 at £649 from a proper store