Garmin Zumo install on a Yamaha Majesty
With the help of Diamantino, we installed the Zumo motorcycle mount on my Yamaha Majesty 400. Although the included RAM mount system is very nice, I wanted something more permanent and difficult to steal, with the end result looking much more integrated and stock. We drilled five holes on the handlebar top plastic cover, four for the Zumo motorcycle mount plus one for the power cord. The unit gets power only when the ignition is on (we hooked up a multimeter to the power cord, and found out that the peak consumption is only 0.6 amps @ 12 volts = 7.2 watts).
Put some Zumo™ in your life!
I’ve just bought a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS to use on my motorcycle, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a great “do everything” GPS, including being suitable for geocaching. Here’s a copy of the review I wrote about it at epinions.com:
Introduction
My review of the Garmin Zumo 550 is from the standpoint of a longtime Garmin user. My first Garmin GPS receiver was a 45XL bought in 1996, and I also own a Garmin V and a Garmin Streetpilot i2.
I bought it to use it on my motorcycle, but from my short experience with it I’ve decided that this is the only GPS that I need, not only on the motorcycle, but also on the car and even handheld to use it for Geocaching.
What’s in the box
I bought the Zumo 550 with the full European City Navigator v9 coverage, which includes: motorcycle mount, with a RAM mounting solution; power cable with fuse to install in the motorcycle; car mount, with windscreen suction cup; cigarette lighter cable; USB cable; wall USB charger; City Navigator v9 European DVD (although the maps are already loaded in the very spacious 2GB internal memory).
Overview
When it’s advertised as a “fully featured” GPS, they’re not kidding. Besides being an excellent weatherproof touchscreen GPS, it features Bluetooth with a very interesting implementation (more about that ahead), mp3 player (either stored on the main memory or on a SD card), JPEG viewer with slide show, plus extras that can be installed (such as travel guides to enhance the already excellent City Navigator POI database).
Ergonomy
The unit is slightly bigger than what I expected, but in a good way. The screen is really big, taking about 80% of the front of the unit. They really got the right balance between resolution, font size, clarity, and touchscreen sensitivity. It feels nice on your hands, and the car and motorcycle mounts give very steady attachment points. The hardware buttons (except the power button) are on the left side of the unit, so it can be used on a moving motorcycle.
User interface
Besides being very responsive, the layout of the menus is very logical. I showed it to someone who had no experience with GPS receivers in general, and within 30 seconds she managed to find her home address and save it within the favorite locations. You can get to most functions within 3 or 4 screen taps, and there are some helpful shortcuts (like tapping and holding the back screen button to get to the highest menu level).
Bluetooth
The Bluetooth implementation is very interesting. You can pair both your headset/carkit and your phone with it, and the Zumo basically acts like an intermediary between the two. Depending on your phone model, you can see the caller id of incoming calls on the Zumo’s screen, voice dial, etc., which is pretty useful on a motorcycle, as with just the headset you’re limited to voice dialing and not knowing who is calling you. The navigation voice prompts are also routed to your headset/carkit, as is the mp3 output. It’s a very complete solution, that works pretty well.
Media
Although not exactly an iPod, the mp3 player is more advanced than a lot of DAPs out there, and it’s one of the pages accessed through the “page” hardware button, so it’s always very accessible. The jpeg viewer also works well, supporting simple slideshows, zooming into pictures. I don’t know why it doesn’t have a headphones jack on the unit itself, I know a lot of people could use it as a music player even when not moving.
Conclusion
This is the closest to perfection I’ve come across in GPS receivers, moving with success into the territory of music players, in the escalating war of convergence, with the plus for me of being usable in Geocaching, something that is missing from a lot of “road” GPS receivers. Although I think the price is just for what’s included in the package (the mounts, the full coverage maps, the chargers, etc.) I think if they managed to sell it in the $450 range with less bundled accessories, it would be a tough GPS to beat feature wise.
Pros
For motorcycles, but also great for car and handheld usage
Works for Geocaching
Cons
No Mac OS X support yet
Routing sometimes takes you onto very secondary roads
The Bottom Line
The best GPS I ever had, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just for motorcycles.
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Me
Although similar to the 6 random things post I did a while ago (challenged by my good friend Spiff), I’ve been tagged by my fellow matsu blogger across the ocean to write about five things that people don’t generally know about me. By “people”, I mean both my offline and online partners in crime, and I’ll take some inspiration from the challenger!
- I can wiggle both my ears, either together or separately.
- I can cook some mean brigadeiros, except I don’t go into all the work of rolling them into little balls, I eat them straight from the pot!
- Whenever I don’t have to to take Carolina with me, I ride my scooter to work, regardless of rain or cold*. I save over 100 hours a year just on my daily 12km (7.5 miles) each way commute! That’s over four full days less of sitting in the car.
- I’m brazilian but I’ve lived in Portugal since I was 5 years old, and I have lived one year in Missouri in the US as an AFS exchange student.
- Yellow is my favorite color.
* It’s not that cold in Lisbon, especially comparing to where I lived in Missouri 
Things that should be taught in school
Do you know the saying “Everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten”? Well, a lot of people don’t know some very simple things. One of my personal gripes is about incorrect elevator usage (lifts in the UK).
A little technical background on elevators – the cabins are usually counter-weighed for half the carrying capacity of the elevator. This means that the elevator will expend the least energy when carrying half the rated capacity, and the most when it’s either empty or completely full (in terms of transported weight). This is done like this so the capacity of the motor is only half of the full rated weight (an elevator rated for one ton only has to move up (if full), or move down (if empty) 500kg at most, and 0kg when there’s exactly 500kg inside the cabin.
So moving an empty elevator (especially down) is one of the most costly operations in terms of energy and wear and tear.
Unless it’s one of the new (recent) elevators where you push the floor you’re going to from the outside, most elevators have two call buttons – one for “up”, another for “down”. You press the “up” button if you want to go to a higher floor, and the “down” button if you want to go to a lower floor. Pretty simple concept, right? Why is it then that a LOT of people don’t grasp this concept? They either press the wrong button (thinking perhaps that they are commanding the elevator to come up or down to them?), or they press both buttons (in the hope that it will arrive faster). In the former mis usage, if there are other active calls on or to other floors, the consequence is that the user will go for a longer ride, going in the opposite intended direction first, taking a longer to arrive, which is mainly a problem for the passenger. On the latter case, when both buttons are pressed, the elevator(s) are being called twice, one for a trip going up, another for a trip going down. This generates a lot of unwanted stops on single elevators, and a lot of wasted empty trips on a bank of multiple elevators.
Another thing I don’t understand is when people wait for the elevator just outside the doors, having to move away when (surprise!) there are people that want to leave on that floor.
The solution, besides having “Elevator Usage 101″ in schools? Just a simple labeling of the buttons instead of arrows: “press this button to go up” and “press this button to go down“; and with a note stating “DO NOT PRESS BOTH BUTTONS FOR ONE TRIP” next to the call buttons, and “PLEASE LEAVE SPACE FOR EXITING PASSENGERS”. A lot of time, wear and tear, electricity, and frayed nerves would be saved by these little labels.
