In general GPS worries me. I fear my attention will be taken from the road, and I'll crash. I think I'll stick to old school. Study before the trip and strike out on the road.
That is so true; and you thought that cell phone use was dangerous; these GPS things can kill you; having said that, I wouldn’t be caught dead without one.
At the risk of sounding like a paid promo; being directionally challenged, I don’t necessarily share MJZ’s perspective about the Quest functionality and form factor being inferior to the other GPS offerings. The larger units have expanded capabilities like XM, MP3, Bluetooth, 3D displays and so on, but I prefer the portability of the Quest. With a form factor smaller than a pack of cigarettes and a solid 20 hour battery life, this thing is more like personal GPS than automotive.
Being directionally challenged, my priority is directional stability on the bike, in a car, in the back seat, on a bus or on foot. With such a small display, Navigation aids like auto-zoom, turn pointer and the other text fields play a critical role in aiding your navigation. In a busy metro area or in Europe, counting down the seconds to your next maneuver is one of the most useful features on any GPS. The map itself is secondary to the navigation aids on the right of the screen IMHO.
Maybe it’s just me, but portability that practically allows one to navigate from their shirt pocket more than offsets the value of the peripheral geegaws offered on the larger units. I take the Quest with me out of town on business; on vacation whether domestic or abroad; local hops if I’m not familiar with the area; you could put 2 of these in your shirt pocket without any trouble. Keep in mind that this perspective is from someone that will jump in the pickup with a trailer full of snowmobiles on the bumper and run 1,500 miles without turning on the radio; and on the bike, a radio simply ruins the experience for me. The XM, MP3 and Bluetooth are things that I can easily live without.
H-D offers a decent looking compact handlebar mount for the Quest that allows you to run it on any H-D. I also have holes in my fairing, but I had this to do this over, I would run the handlebar mount. For some reason the original Quest is still offered; for those folks looking for a truly portable GPS, I would recommend H-D’s Conquest or the Quest 2. <end of unpaid promotional announcement>
djkak
Author
Topic: Garmin Quest 2 (Read 1565 times)