Topic: What satnav ? (Read 1890 times)

Paul1 · « **on:** July 16, 2011, 03:44:10 AM »

Will soon be purchasing a satnav, is it better to buy from Harley, or direct from Garmin ? Any pointers will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Paul.

bissjim · « **Reply #1 on:** July 16, 2011, 05:59:25 AM »

If you buy the Road Tech from Harley you will get a 2 year warranty, if you buy from Gamin it will be called a Zumo and you will get a 1 year warranty. Both units are the same inside with the exception that the Road Tech can be used with the NIM while the Zumo can not. The Road Tech comes in Harley Orange and Black colors.

Check the discount Harley dealers and you can save up to 20%.

They are both good GPS's.

grc · « **Reply #2 on:** July 16, 2011, 02:03:24 PM »

If you go to the Garmin website you will find that the full price for the Zumo 665 is $799.95. Then if you go to the Harley accessory site and look at their offering, the price is $999.95. I realize there are a lot of folks who pay way too much every day to buy stuff with the Harley logo on it, so rather than make any disparaging remarks I'll just leave it to you to decide if buying it from H-D is worth an extra $200.

BTW, you can get the Harley unit from some of the discount dealers, but none that I've checked actually discount it at 20%, and after shipping charges it's not even 10% (ie. Zanotti's $888.75 + 42.54 shipping, Surdyke $849.96 + 68.00 shipping, etc.). You can also get the Garmin at a discount from some of the electronics stores, but nothing close to the discounts available on the car models. Best price I saw online was around $765 including shipping.

I guess if the NIM (navigation interface module, $150 additional) is important to you, you will be stuck paying Harley their extra profit since I don't think the Garmin version will work with the NIM. As for the warranty, my experiences (and those of the folks from Consumer Reports) have been that if this sort of product is going to fail, they tend to do so sooner rather than later. So I don't give much weight to the supposedly longer warranty from H-D. You are basically paying $200 extra for the extra year, I think you can do better buying an add-on service contract for the Garmin from most retailers if you really think longer coverage is necessary.

For me, it all comes down to how much you care about integrating it to the radio. If I didn't care about that feature, I'd save the $200 plus the $150 for the NIM and just stick with the Zumo. As far as that goes, I'd probably save another $150 and just go with the Zumo 660 without the XM traffic and weather stuff. I've got a Garmin with traffic in momma's car, and it's been a worthless feature so far. And if I want weather updates I've got a weather band on the bike, and weather stations on the car radio. I can also stick my finger out to check for wind and rain, and use my eyes to peruse the sky for obvious signs of impending doom.

JMHO - Jerry

Twolanerider · « **Reply #3 on:** July 16, 2011, 02:10:45 PM »

I checked the Zumo 660 offerings just last week. Cheapest online seller I found for the Garmin branded unit was $640. The Harley branded "RoadTech" version of the 660 was right at $600 from Tri County Harley who did the full 20% off.

Paul1 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 16, 2011, 02:36:58 PM »

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Sorry to sound dumb but what is the benefits of having the NIM ?

plasmadaddy · « **Reply #5 on:** July 16, 2011, 02:58:46 PM »

I'm having the 660 fitted on Thursday.

Didn't bother with the NIM - seems like a lot of money for not very much! It basically means that the Sat Nav voice comes through the speakers of the bike. If you are listening to your music it'll dim the sound whilst the instructions are transmitted.

Seem to be a lot of problems out there with the NIM. I'm happy using the screen and don't care about the voice!

CVODON · « **Reply #6 on:** July 16, 2011, 04:44:49 PM »

NIM works good, I never look at the screen, car or bike, just listen and turn. I disagree with earlier post about NIM, but then we all have opinions. If you don't need XM or Traffic then the 660 is a better buy from Harley, Tri-County sells for 20% off and charged me $10 shipping and it will work with the NIM whereas the ZUMO 660 will not + Road tech has all the HD dealers pre-stored (I know you can download at the site on the Garmin unit) but it is nice they are there when on a trip if you want a t-shirt, someplace to rest/cool off.

Midnight Rider · « **Reply #7 on:** July 16, 2011, 05:51:04 PM »

Personally, I love the GPS talking to me through the radio. I wear a helmet headset at all times, and having the directions piped into my ears instead of having to take my eyes off the road and look at the GPS to turn, is well worth it. Of course, there are other ways to skin that cat, besides the NIM, but none are quite as convenient, IMO.

I've heard the weather feature is nice because you get a map of where the storm is relative to your position...however, most of the time I'm locked in to my route and it would be a shot in the dark to try and circumvent the storm with a detour, so I'm not sure how useful that would be in practice. As Jerry said, the radio has a WB, I have eyes, and if it looks THAT bad, I'm getting off the road at the next opportunity. XM is nice, but the radio already has that feature available.

charles05663 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 17, 2011, 04:43:41 PM »

Quote from: grc on July 16, 2011, 02:03:24 PM

BTW, you can get the Harley unit from some of the discount dealers, but none that I've checked actually discount it at 20%, and after shipping charges it's not even 10% (ie. Zanotti's $888.75 + 42.54 shipping, Surdyke $849.96 + 68.00 shipping, etc.). You can also get the Garmin at a discount from some of the electronics stores, but nothing close to the discounts available on the car models. Best price I saw online was around $765 including shipping.

It sure looks like both Zanotti's and Surdyke's is trying to make up their "discount" in their shipping prices.

mjb765 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 17, 2011, 05:06:48 PM »

Quote from: grc on July 16, 2011, 02:03:24 PM

And if I want weather updates I've got a weather band on the bike, and weather stations on the car radio. I can also stick my finger out to check for wind and rain, and use my eyes to peruse the sky for obvious signs of impending doom.

JMHO - Jerry

And you can use the air temp gauge to see if it's hot or cold while riding

CVODON · « **Reply #10 on:** July 17, 2011, 08:41:42 PM »

I want to thank the person who posted the charges from Zanottis & Surdyke. Thanks, that confirmed that I will never buy anything from those crooks if they overcharge that much on postage. Why give a discount on the part if you intend to overcharge 4 or 5 times on the shipping.

mjb765 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 17, 2011, 08:50:06 PM »

I never ran into that shipping issue with Surdyke--but I haven't bought from them in a while.....Zannotti's doesn't surprise me. You have to figure in the shipping when it comes to comparing them with other places. I found cheaper shipping buying from a place across the country than from buying from them.

grc · « **Reply #12 on:** July 17, 2011, 08:55:29 PM »

Quote from: COR on July 17, 2011, 08:41:42 PM

I want to thank the person who posted the charges from Zanottis & Surdyke. Thanks, that confirmed that I will never buy anything from those crooks if they overcharge that much on postage. Why give a discount on the part if you intend to overcharge 4 or 5 times on the shipping.

That's exactly why I often caution folks to get the TOTAL price when shopping for parts. I noticed Zanotti a few years back undercutting the other 20% dealers on price, but then charging ridiculous shipping charges. They seemed to back off that practice for awhile, but when I looked up the nav unit I about fell out of the chair. And then I checked Surdyke, which I never noticed playing those games in the past, and nearly fell out of the chair again. I might believe it was an unintended web site error if only one came up with ridiculous shipping, but when both of them do it I have to believe it's on purpose.

There are some honest folks still out there, it just takes a little more effort to find them. I tend to look for the places that include shipping in the price, or charge one flat fee for shipping like Eastern Performance. Places that play games with shipping charges don't get my business, even if the final price is still competitive. I don't appreciate subterfuge.

Jerry

Twolanerider · « **Reply #13 on:** July 18, 2011, 12:27:38 AM »

Lake Shore is a dealer that stays pretty close to the 20% discount and does not rape on shipping. They even quite regularly do free shipping on orders over $500.

Paul1 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 18, 2011, 01:35:48 AM »

Quote from: plasmadaddy on July 16, 2011, 02:58:46 PM

I'm having the 660 fitted on Thursday.

Didn't bother with the NIM - seems like a lot of money for not very much! It basically means that the Sat Nav voice comes through the speakers of the bike. If you are listening to your music it'll dim the sound whilst the instructions are transmitted.

Seem to be a lot of problems out there with the NIM. I'm happy using the screen and don't care about the voice!

Are you having that fitted at the dealers ?

Author Topic: What satnav ? (Read 1890 times)

Paul1

What satnav ?

bissjim

Re: What satnav ?

grc

Re: What satnav ?

Twolanerider

Re: What satnav ?

Paul1

Re: What satnav ?

plasmadaddy

Re: What satnav ?

CVODON

Re: What satnav ?

Midnight Rider

Re: What satnav ?

charles05663

Re: What satnav ?

mjb765

Re: What satnav ?

CVODON

Re: What satnav ?

mjb765

Re: What satnav ?

grc

Re: What satnav ?

Twolanerider

Re: What satnav ?

Paul1

Re: What satnav ?