Quest or 2610??

I've been digging around the pages and have been doing some research into a GPS unit but need a little bit more guidance/advice.

I would like a GPS unit for use in the car, especially for trips to France etc., and on my R1100GS.

I am currently looking at either the 2610 or the Quest. I had a good look at them both at the Southampton Boat show over the weekend and they both impressed me. The Quest is a very small unit and could easily be used when walking too, as it is very small and light but has a good display.

I have the following questions that I need to get answered before I make the final plunge.

1. Is the mapping provided with the Quest as good as the 2610? ie. City Select versus City Navigator

2. Is there a decent motorcycle mount for the Quest?

3. Can I get the voice prompts from the Quest whilst on my bike?

4. Is the memory size going to be an issue on the Quest, bearing in mind my intended usage?

5. Can I power a Quest from my bike?

The cost of the units seem to vary massively, maybe due to opening offers on the new Quest, I can get the Quest for £395.00 (inc VAT) and the 2610 for £693.00 (inc VAT). My 'gut' feel is to go for the Quest but would welcome any pointers.

I have discounted the SPIII in my choice as I perceive this to be discontinued pretty much now.

Cheers.

Jon.

1. Is the mapping provided with the Quest as good as the 2610? ie. City Select versus City Navigator

They contains the same maps, but City Select has fewer invisible road attributes such as turn restrictions, time of day restrictions, and weight restrictions. Fully suitable for cars and motorcycles. Not appropriate for delivery vehicles or intense urban work.


2. Is there a decent motorcycle mount for the Quest?

Nope, not yet. But I've been looking at it and I think it's not a big problem to mount a RAM ball with diamond base to the back of the car mount and start from there.


3. Can I get the voice prompts from the Quest whilst on my bike?

Sure. Just plug in earphones or helmet speakers. Or wire it to an Autocom if you have one. You can cut of the car cable at the cigar lighter thingie with the speaker. Solder on an audio plug and you're off.


4. Is the memory size going to be an issue on the Quest, bearing in mind my intended usage?

The 240 Mb of usable memory in the Quest is quite a bit. If you plan a trip, you can load chunks of the maps around your route. I recently did a 4000 km trip and a friend fitted all of the maps on this 60C with about 50Mb. If you want to do a huge trip all over Europe and you want to load most of Europe in detail maps, it will be too small.

5. Can I power a Quest from my bike?

Of course. With the same cut car cable. There are two wires for power in there.


Have you considered the 276C? I would take that into the equation too. It has the same features as the Quest and more, with replaceable Garmin memory cards.

The Quest certainly is a very nice unit. The main disadvantages are the small screen and the small buttons to me.

But then I'm comparing to my 2610. Depends on what you're used to I suppose. I still am quite happy with my 2610, but if I had to lay my money down now, I would hesitate too. The difference is quite big. And the Quest is so small that you'll get use of it while walking in a city, hiking, on a bicycle...

Screen size is less important if you use the voice guidance and you shouldn't be fiddling with the buttons too much while moving anyway...

Good luck with the choice!
Michel

jonshread said:

I am currently looking at either the 2610 or the Quest.

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I suggest that you forget the 2610. It has too many limitations. I would instead choose between the Quest and the 276C.

Or why not buy both! They use the same map format and Garmin allow you to run two devices from only one map license.

Having now seen both 'in the flesh' the Quest appears delicate to me. It's small and slim and the buttons would be tricky maybe impossible with gloves on . The 2610 with it's larger memory capacity is in a different league. I think the Quest is a complete unit offereing good value but it just seems too delicate and that wierd flat antenna looks like it could be vulnerable on a bike depending on where it would be mounted. If you can afford a 2610 you shouldn't be looking at the Quest - if you can't afford the 2610 then the Quest or 276 are viable choices.

The quest seems to be an excellent deal and would be probably my prefered choice eccept I like the portability and ruggedness of what I have. 60C, like Gecko.

I have used the 2610 and as far as the screen size is concerned as michel says if you have the speaker whtas the problem, the 60c has the same screen and for me is no problem.

My worst criticism about the screen is in the car. On the bike its fantastic (in the cokpit with black background), but on the mount with the windscreen natural light all around it it is sometimes difficult to see, unlike the 2610. Again with the voice prompts not a problem.

John, I can not comment on the others, but my new 2610 is brilliant, I have used it quite a bit since Friday and can not fault it, I wanted it for car & bike use and it is working a treat.

My wife was very sceptical about GPS she felt it was a waste of money and a worthless gadget , she need to go from Reading to Romford yesterday although she is great with maps I twisted her wrist to try it, I set the route on the unit (as I am still learning how to plan a route on the computer ) it found the address via the Co's postcode. and even though she had to change routes due to accidents, the 2610 automatically altered the route for her and got her there door to door

She said it took away the stress of looking for your turn or worrying that you are going to miss it , I am not sure how much use I am going to get out of it now as she has fallen in love with it

2610 works for me mate especially as I can buy a 1 or 2GB CF card for next summer, 2 gig will take all of Europe Inc UK

Hope you had a good holiday

Mutley

Hi Mutley,

Cheers for the reply and yes I had a great holiday thank you.

Typical, Garmin go and bring out a new GPS whilst I was away, before my hols I was fairly set on a 2610!!

I'm glad you are pleased with your unit from Aspid, did they charge you the VAT?

Funny, my wife is good at map reading too. I was always led to believe that women are bad with maps (no offence intended ladies).

Cheers.

Jon

Hi jon not as far as I am aware, the invoice is on route under seperate cover but the check out said NO Tax to pay so I suspect its all fine.

Yes My wife is an excellent map reader (although redundant) now, across continents to the exact place she was good, but it did get a bit stressful when under presure to make a decsion left or right, thats all behind me now

Funny thing is she had a really vivid dream about me with another women, chance would be a fine thing this ladies name was Rachael, (she would not tell me if she was a looker though ) she said it was so vivid and seemed so real that it did upset her a little, we have all had dreams that seem real at the time, so guess what I called the GPS








You guessed it Rachael I said to her yesterday did Rachael managed to get you to your meeting ok

Brilliant.

Mutley 2610 owner and chuffed to bits

jonshread said:

2. Is there a decent motorcycle mount for the Quest?

3. Can I get the voice prompts from the Quest whilst on my bike?

4. Is the memory size going to be an issue on the Quest, bearing in mind my intended usage?

5. Can I power a Quest from my bike?

The cost of the units seem to vary massively, maybe due to opening offers on the new Quest, I can get the Quest for £395.00 (inc VAT) and the 2610 for £693.00 (inc VAT). My 'gut' feel is to go for the Quest but would welcome any pointers.

I have discounted the SPIII in my choice as I perceive this to be discontinued pretty much now.

Cheers.

Jon.

Click to expand...

In answer to your questions 3-5, i was talking to these guys last week about the Quest http://www.adventure-motorcycling.co.uk
He wa saying that he is currently developing a bike (GS) mount for it and that it will provide the the power and audio conections on the mount. It is not on the site yet but it would be worth talking to them about when a mount will be available. they were very helpful when i spoke to them.

I've just spotted a handlebar mount on the Garmin website http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010-10507-00

May do the trick??

For me the screen size IS important. I've got the 2610, and I wish it had a bigger screen.
I often don't use the routing facility and usually ride without an earpiece, so the voice commands aren't important.
I'm often meandering in a general direction, using the moving map to get roughly where I'm going and hopefully find some interesting roads on the way. Alternatively I have to take a detour round a traffic jam or negotiate a mapping error, and the 'detour' facility is not effective or too tedious to use, so again I just eyeball it on the screen map.
Bigger is better.
I think that the touchscreen DOES work quite well too. I haven't used the SPIII or Quest, so couldn't say how buttons compare.
Would definitely like zoom buttons on the 2610 though.

Roger thanks for the link to adventure-motorcycling.co.uk.

A support guy has called me about this new Quest motorcycle mount. Apparently it's a fairly complicated construction as the power charger uses pins on the rear of the unit, also the volume control is mechanical (via the DC adapter) and not software reliant.

They hope to have a prototype out by the NEC Motorcycle Show in November (5th) and production models a month or so later.

Interestingly, he said that the routing software is giving different directions to a 2610 model and reckoned that a software fix may be needed.

As you said Roger they are really helpfull and friendly.

I am now getting swayed towards a 2610 as everything is at least tried and tested with that.

Cheers.

jonshread said:

I am now getting swayed towards a 2610 as everything is at least tried and tested with that.

Click to expand...

How come you are not considering the 276C with its lower price, bigger screen, and fewer limitations in comparison with the 2610?

HMR:

What the heck do you mean when you refer to "limitations" of a SP 26xx GPSR? You have suggested twice in this thread - once right above, and once earlier on - that the 26xx series has some kind of "limitation".

Let me set the record straight - the SP 26xx series is the top of the line, premier automotive GPSR. It is the only Garmin GPSR that accepts CF memory media, which means there is no (practical) limit on the number of maps you can load into the unit - you can put all of Europe and all of North America in if you want.

The SP 26xx series has a number of automotive-specific features that the 276 does not have - not the least of which is the ability to set custom routing preferences, so that when autoroutes are generated, the GPSR will keep you off the motorways, or give preference to twisty secondary roads. The SP 26xx series offers custom avoids, the 276 does not.

The 276 is a MARINE GPSR that has secondary functionality as an automotive GPSR. It will give you all the automotive functionality that a SP III will, but not all the automotive functionality that a SP 26xx will. It is also limited to using the small Garmin proprietery memory chips, which is unfortunate, but something Garmin had to do to support the marine users who were trading up from other, older marine units. If you bought a 276 and you are happy with it, great, that is wonderful. But for Pete's sake, don't post misleading and unsubstantiated comments here in the forum when others ask for advice respecting a purchase.

Jon is on the right track - he wants to buy a GPSR for automotive use, and he's trying to decide between two GPSR's that were both designed primarily for automotive use. My personal thoughts on the original question - Quest vs. SP 26xx - are as follows:

1) Be sure you see a Quest in person, and determine if the screen size (physical size) and screen resolution (pixel density) are suitable for you. This decision will depend largely on your visual acuity - if you are over 40, you might find that you prefer the larger display size of the SP 26xx.

2) I have not used a Quest, so I don't know what the functionality of the GPSR is. Check and find out if it supports custom route preferences, if that is important to you.

3) The European version of the Quest ships with about 240 megs of built-in memory that cannot be expanded. This is probably enough for a 'short' trip to the continent, but won't be enough if you want to hold, for example, all of France or all of Germany for an extended tour.

4) The Garmin mount for the Quest (another poster provided a link to it above) is a BICYCLE mount, not a moto mount. If it fits your moto, great, but be aware that the bicycle mounts are not subjected to the same type of testing as the moto mounts are. Not too many bicycles travel at speeds above 30 MPH.

It's kind of a tough question (Quest vs. SP 26xx) - both are very capable units. It's sort of like saying "What moto should I get, a 650 or an 1150?" No-one can really say that one is better than the other, what you have to keep in mind is that the two units were designed for different applications - and different price points.

PanEuropean

HMR - I think that PAN has answered your question for me.

PAN - thanks for your feedback, I have waiting for you to get onto this one as you seem to be the GPS guru. The Quest is small and due to my old age (only just past 40) and newly declining eysight (why does this happen at 40? beats me) it may cause problems I agree.

After weighing everything up I have finally ordered my unit, a 2610 from Aspid and am eagerly awaiting delivery.

Thanks everyone for your invaluable help and input, very much appreciated.

My next questions will be about how the thing works!!!

Hi Jon:

I am pretty sure you will be happy with the 2610. I agree with the comments that others have made about the lack of 'physical' zoom buttons - it is a bit of a nuisance to not have them. The fix is easy, though - simply attach your remote to the handlebar of the moto with Velcro, aimed at the GPSR, and voila, you have physical zoom buttons. I put my remote on the handlebars 6 months ago, have never removed it, and no problems with water, dust, elements, etc.

Right now I am using a 296 (aviation version of the 276) because I am testing new software enhancements for it. It is a nice enough unit, but to be honest, I don't find the high detail screen to be much of an advantage for automotive use, simply because when I am driving a car or riding a bike, I only glance at the GPSR very briefly. Before leaving on my present moto trip (I am in Bohemia now, on the way to Dresden, then Poland), I spent a month using the 296 in an aircraft every day. In that environment (and presumably in a marine environment also), it is possible to spend more time carefully looking at the screen, and the increased pixel density on the 276/296 becomes useful.

I don't know what kind of screen the Quest has - whether it is the same spec as the SP 26xx screen, or the same spec as the 276/296 screen. What I do know, from years of experience, is that if you are over 40 - as I am - then you want to have a large display for automotive use, even if it is a large display with low pixel density. It's too difficult, and too time-consuming (thus hazardous when riding) to look at a small screen GPSR if your eyes have started to lose their ability to change focal length rapidly.

You wrote in an earlier post, speaking about a proposed third party motorcycle mount for the Quest:

"Apparently it's a fairly complicated construction as the power charger uses pins on the rear of the unit..."

Click to expand...

Uh, Garmin originally planned to use pins on the motorcycle mount to connect the power, etc. to the SP 26xx GPSR. I tested a prototype of this design during the summer of 2003 - rode from ocean to ocean and back with it. The results were not good - every time the moto hit a severe bump, power was lost momentarily - and as a result, Garmin decided to go with a conventional plug-in cable for the SP 26xx moto mount. The Quest might not be as severely affected by this because it has batteries in it - but just a "head's up'", the idea of a spring loaded pin connection has been tried and discarded.

Lastly - you asked about why eyesight declines past 40 - it's not that our visual acuity changes, it's just that our eyes lose the ability to change focal length quickly (and through the same range we had when we were younger) - thus, it becomes difficult to see things at close range. It's a physical degradation of the muscles in the eye, that's all.

PanEuropean

Hi Pan,

The pins are visible on the 360 view of the Quest on the Garmin site, however, they look the same on the 360 view of the 2610 (but square), so I am a bit confused.

I'm just going on what the chap told me, he said that when they received the first models from Garmin they differed from what they had originally been expecting.

Hey, I hope the design works out for them. I quite liked the original 26xx prototype with the pins - problem was, it only worked well 99% of the time, the other 1%, it didn't work. I only mention this whole business about the pin contacts for the benefit of anyone who may be thinking of getting one of these mounts (if and when they are produced) - might be best to get some kind of promise that you can return it in 14 days if you are not satisfied with it.

I have observed over the years that some of the third party vendors who come up with accessories for Garmin GPSRs tend to rush their products out - they want to be the first ones in the market with a new gizmo to sell, and as a result, the products are sometimes not as carefully or thoroughly tested as they should be. Just consider some of the SP 26xx third party motorcycle mounts that block the internal antenna on the top of the GPSR, for example.

Garmin put their 'pin-type' motorcycle mount for the SP 26xx through tens of thousands of miles of real world motorcycle testing before they rejected it in favour of a more reliable (but less flashy) cable connector.

PanEuropean

PanEuropean said:

HMR:

What the heck do you mean when you refer to "limitations" of a SP 26xx GPSR? You have suggested twice in this thread - once right above, and once earlier on - that the 26xx series has some kind of "limitation".

Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing out a few of the reasons to choose the 2610 instead of the 276C. This is the first time I have seen some real reasons.

So - what are the limitations with the 2610 I am talking about then?

I have a SP3+ and have been using it for 30000 km so far. I love it! It is a great device but it has one show-stopping limitation and one very irritating limitation.

The irritating one is that it can only log about half a day of driving. Often when I am out driving during a weekend far away with a local guide I would like to store the track and bring it home to my computer.

The real show stopper is that the SP3+ can only store routes for about a week of driving. This is not sufficient for a long vacation in Europe. On long tours I want to store a large amount of nice routes that I can coose among depending on where I decide to go.

And - surprice, surprice - the 2610 has exactly the same limitations while the 276C has not!

Also - the two buttons I use most on the SP3+ are the zoom in and zoom out. Available on the 276C OK. Your suggestion to use the remote seems to be solution for the 2610. Good.

The fact that the SP3+ is very slow I can live with. The only two real limitations I see with the SP3+ are still present in the 2610. But not in the 276C.

I have never tested the 2610 myself so maybe I'm on the wrong track. Please correct me if that is the case!

I believe that the 276 and the 2610 can both hold 50 routes. To be honest, I'm not 'intense' enough to want to program 50 routes into the GPS before leaving on a trip, however long !! Need to take a laptop, or do it in the hotel the night before.