Customer Reviews

GARMIN Zumo 450 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Received my Garmin Zumo 450 on a Tuesday and promptly unpacked it. My first impression was "This is different". Hope I didn't waste my hard earned cash for this gadget. I connected the Zumo to the computer and checked for updates. One was available so I downloaded it.
Next I attached the supplied RAM mount to my BMW R1150GS and hardwired the dc cord to an appropriate place. The first couple of days of commuting to work with this GPS I noted my likes and dislikes of this Zumo. At this point the dislikes far outweighed the likes. Hope I didn't make a mistake with this purchase.
The weekend came and I took a long trip through the Adirondacks of NY, the Green mountains of VT and the Berkshires of MA for a distance of 800 miles total for the weekend. By the time the weekend was complete my dislikes with this machine was down to two. The first dislike was fuel stops in rural communities does not display. When in Long Lake, NY it says my closest option for a fuel stop was 22 miles north in Tupper Lake when there were two well-established fuel points in that community. I also experienced this throughout my travels through rural America in the northeast.
The second dislike is the nut that holds the RAM arm. RAM makes a key locking nut that will prevent someone from walking off with your GPS. This item can be purchased separately.
Now for some of my likes:
1. Touch Pad is very nice and easy to maneuver through the various pages.
2. The Garmin Security Lock, when activated prevents someone from using the GPS unless they have the PIN or is at a predetermined location of your choosing.
3. The ability to recalculate your route should you want to deviate from it and go exploring.
4. Waterproof.
5. The RAM mount comes with this unit.
6. Nothing optional that is needed with this unit.
7. The ability to accept Points of Interest. There are free POI's available from the Internet or you can commercially purchase them for your unit.
8. Comes with a carrying case.
9. Large display suitable for the motorcyclist.

It's been a few years since I have updated my GPS. My previous model was the Garmin eMap. The ZUMO 450 is not designed to go hiking and is rather bulky to carry in your hand. The internal lithium battery life of four hours isn't practical to carry on long hiking trips. Garmin's literature states "this unit was designed for a motorcycle by a motorcyclist" and now I believe it. If you are serious about having navigation on your motorcycle the Garmin Zumo deserves some consideration. I have no regrets and feel that I have made a wise choice.

I was looking for a mobil GPS unit that I could use on my bike, car or when exploring unknown ground on foot. Doing some research and reading the reviews on Amazon.com the Zumo 450 seemed to be the right choice. Out of the box it has everything you need to install it on your motorcycle. I believe in manuals and read through it, however, if you among those who can't wait for the hands-on approach the Zumo 450 is very intuative to use. For my first trip I actually used it in my car. For that I had also ordered the Garmin automotive mount (010-10860-00) together with the 12-Volt Vehicle adapter (010-10747-03). The automotive mount has a built-in speaker that alows the Zumo 450 to read the turning instructions back to you. Although the little speaker is not great, the mount comes with an audio output (as well as a mic input) which allows you to connect the automotive mount to your car stereo. I have a simple car stereo with a tape deck where I use one of those tape casette adapters with audio connector to connect the Zumo 450 to my car stereo. Throw some MP3s on a optional SD card (the type that is used in many compact digital camareas), insert it into your Zumo and you can listen to music and the turnig instructions of the Zumo at the same time (the Zumo pauses the music like it's much more expensive built-in cousins when giving instructions). I tested it out last weekend on a 500+mile trip to unknown territory. In the past I would be "armed" with Mapquest printouts which can become sometimes a challange in heavy traffic when reading printouts and paying attention to the moving sourroundings at the same time. I can gladly say those days are over (although I don't believe in using a GPS because one doesn't know how to read a (paper) map).

The installation on the bike is straightforward, with running the wire for the electric hookup of the Zumo (included) took me the longest. I was amazed about the vibration free display. A big difference to what I get from the mirrors on my KLR at higher rpms. Although the included mount for the motorcycle has audio in and output as well as a USB connector I will not use them on the bike as the Zumo will be a visuell guide for me only. The Zumo comes here really handy when navigating in areas you don't know as it lets you concentrate on traffic and keeping an eye on those car drivers who are too busy to otherwise notice a biker.

Last but not least the built-in battery of the Zumo is supposed to last for up to 4 hours (I haven't tested the batteries capacity yet) in those instances when you're exploring places on foot. The battery recharges once you connect it back to your auto or bike mount.

In terms of the software that comes with the Zumo it allows you to plan trips ahead of time using MapSource (included). Mapsource works along with Google. However, the version of MapSource that came with the package did not recognize the Zumo properly which prevented up and downloads of routes, maps, waypoints to and from the Zumo. Downloading the latest version of MapSource from Garmin's website fixed that problem. So if you want to plan a ride this is one way you can do it.

I definitely don't regret bying the Zumo 450 and can only recommend it.

I bought the Zumo 450 for use on a recent motorcycle trip through Europe (Italy, Switzerland and France) I bought the Euro data base, which seemed quite pricey at $240, but I it turned out to be the best investment of the entire trip. The Zumo worked perfectly, although some of the route building methods seemed a little qwirky (it may also be that I spent no time learning it before the trip and everything was done virtually on the bike). Without the Zumo on this trip, I would likely still be wondering around Europe lost in the crazy traffic. The data base gave use the tinniest of roads and a great view of the Alps. We learned to trust it completely - just follow the purple line and all will be well. You have to be careful though if you ask it to give you the shortest route, it will indeed be the shortest regardless of the type or size of road. We saw some pretty interesting sights in Switzerland this way. But shortest doesn't mean fastest. We learned to use the 'via' function to drag and select our map points to control the route - then just press go and enjoy. Reception was instant and alway solid even in torrential rain and thick clouds, it even worked all the way through most of the tunnels except the Mont Blanc tunnel (7 miles !) I did get a look at the screen of a TomTom in a taxi at one point during the trip and think I like how TomTom depicts things like round-abouts better. The only criticism was the at very congested intersections or freeway ramps, the Zumo shows the turn at the geographic intersection which might still say 200meters ahead, but in fact you need to be in the right lane and already exiting right now, the lane lines require a bit of study and learning. Garmin might want to re-examine how they depict tightly spaced ramps and converging roads. But if you miss a turn, no worries, the Zumo was quick to recalculate and tell you what to do (U turn or turn later, etc.) Overall it worked excellent and you can trust Garmin. We did 2000Km overall and we all agreed that it saved us an entire day of reading maps and trying to figure out which way to go (we never read a street sign the entire trip). One of the coolest things was that we used a travel guide to select some hotels, the guide had a small map of the town showing the hotel locations, so we were able to zoom the Zumo into the destination point to show street detail, we could identify the street corner we wanted from the map and then tap the screen and select it as a destination point - hit GO and have fun. The same worked for making short runs to points off the original route. The screen allows you to drag around with your finger to find the place you want to go, tap to select it as a destination or 'via' point and press GO. Pretty cool. It even has boat and train ferry routes. We once ended up at lakeside dock with 20Km to go on the trip and the purple line just went out into the water. We thought Zumo had hosed us, but a ferry boat came around the corner and voila! You mount the holder semi-permanently to the bike - it would be difficult to move it bike to bike without multiple holders (the holder is u-bolted to the handlebar and hardwired to the bike's battery). But the Zumo itself snaps securely on and off in 1 second so you can take it inside and do programming or route planning running on its internal battery. It works well inside off-line without signal working just from the data base. We referenced maps at night because they are easy to lay out and plan, then selected points in the Zumo - but you could do an entire trip without any paper map whatsoever. Overall 4 stars - one deduct just because how the congested roadway software depiction is done - we sometimes stopped at the apex of a multiple ramp convergence to be sure we were about to get the right one. A lot of this will be mitigated with practice and use, but it could have been a bit more clear I think. Nothing is perfect. Go for it. JS

I had been looking at the Zumo for quite some time before I finally decided to purchase it. I had been using a Magellan Meridian Color with a bike mount on my Harley. It did turn by turn but had no auto-rerouting and the routing was extremely SLOW (like I had passed the next turn before it registered it).

After scoping out EBay for a couple of weeks I found it more feasible to purchase my 450 on Amazon. The price was pretty close to the EBay listings that I was watching and the shipping was a STEAL (Only $10 and some change for overnight - most of the ones on EBay were $25-40 for overnight).

I got the unit and it installed on the bike in a snap! The RAM mounting system is awesome. They really thought this through when they packaged the unit. Everything you need is all there in the box.

I don't have the hardwire hooked up yet as I am waiting on an adapter for my AUX switch on my Ultra Electra Glide. I connected the hardwire to a cigarette lighter adapter and ran it to a converter to charge the Zumo. One note on this is that the unit will only charge in the motorcycle cradle if it is turned on (handy if you hot wire it to the bike and don't want it draining your battery to charge).

When I received the unit it was showing 2 bars on the battery. This gave me about 3 and a half hours of life (much better than the Meridian which only gave 1 and a half to 2 hours with full brightness on - this was the only way I could half see it on the bike).

I ordered a Auto cradle and auto charger also - these work great - the auto cradle actually has an integrated speaker so you can use it in the vehicle and get the voice prompts without hooking it to anything else.

Performance is awesome - I get a full GPS fix in my garage (something the Meridian could NEVER do). Programming is really easy and the Navigator software installed is every bit as good as the Magellan software I used.

The screen is easy to read and follow - even in direct bright sunlight (again a major problem with the Meridian)

With the RAM mount on the handlebars the unit is rock stable. No shake or problems (Impressive on a Harley with aftermarket exhaust!)

I HIGHLY recommend this unit. If you have been debating it - make the move and get it!

I looked at the 550 with Bluetooth, XM, etc but the extra cost and with having to purchase a seperate XM antennae (about $200 more dollars for this alone)made me decide to stick with my MyFi and get the 450.

You won't be disappointed!

I bought the Zumo 450 a month ago and promptly mounted it to my 2003 Goldwing. The supplied RAM mount is excellent and provides for a variety of mounting positions. Wiring was made simple by Honda, as there is a fused auxiliary power supply under the left cubby.

The Zumo is exceptionally intuitive and easy to use. I played around with the unit for about a week while commuting to and from work. Then the fun began. I took a trip on the motorcycle from Seattle, WA to Blandon, PA and back. All told the trip was 7,000 miles. We did a ton of sight seeing during the trip, and thanks to the Zumo we had no stress about going anywhere we wanted to go.

With confidence, we rode into and around Chicago and Philadelphia. We took back roads out of Glacier National Park that we would never have seen had it not been for the Zumo directing us there.

Only had two issues with the Zumo while on the trip. The first one was that the unit froze up and would not turn on once. I followed the manual's instructions for resetting the unit (press the + and Power buttons at the same time) and I was off and running again. The second issue was that while in Philadelphia the Zumo told us to make a left turn when the street was a one-way street for traffic in the other direction. No big deal, just went an extra block and the Zumo immediately recalculated the route.


The Zumo has a ton of great features. The ones that I used the most on the trip were;

Knowing my actual speed vs. what my speedo was reading.
Altitude readings were fun!
Knowing how many miles were had left for the route in a given day.
Finding the nearest Hotels.
Finding the nearest Starbucks!
Finding the nearest gas station.

This thing has a bunch more features that I did not use much, but I am sure that I will get around to them soon. Going on another 1000 mile trip next weekend!

I am completely satisfied with this unit and would highly recommend it!

After hearing good things about the Zumo product line from Garmin and owning another Garmin GPS unit I purchased the 450 model because I did not need all the features and the expense of the 550. First off there is no owners manual in the box only a "quick start" card and a cd containing a pdf manual which does not print on standard size paper. This doesn't work out so well if your on the road without a laptop to view the manual. The unit does seem to be well built and installation was pretty simple on my 2002 Gold Wing since I already had power for a previously installed GPS III and a mounting bracket on the bike. Once the cradle that comes with the unit is assembled and the power cable connected to the cradle (by tiny screws), attaching it to the bike was a snap but once the cable is connected to the bike power source the cradle assembly must remain attached to the bike since the power cable is screwed to it. On the GPS III I could unplug the cable from the rear and loosen the mounting arm and tale the whole unit off the bike just leaving the cable in place. The unit itself attaches to the cradle with a multi-pin connector on the bottom and small clamping device at the top with security screw that takes a special small screw driver that's supplied. This makes it very unhandy to just pop the unit off for a quick lunch or rest stop. Also,the little screwdriver they supply is stupidly designed. They instruct you to attach it to your key chain via the hole at the top but if you do this to turn the security screw you have to turn your whole key chain and keys because it doesn't swivel at the top. For me that includes the big key fob for locking and unlocking the Gold Wing's luggage. Dumb design. OK now for operation: Programing routes via computer or the touch screen was no problem and was actually pretty easy. It took a little investigation before I figured how to copy routes to a SD card on the computer and then put the card in the Zumo and upload them to the unit. It's easier to upload routes via the supplied usb cable. Again pretty hard to do if you don't have a laptop on the road. BUT the biggest problem I had was that on my first 750 mile trip this Labor Day weekend the unit quit working after 500 miles. It's "deader than a door nail". Made a rest stop on the way home and shut the unit off and when I went to leave it would not restart. It does not work off the bike power nor the internal (4 hr) battery. By the way the only way you can charge the internal battery is from the bike power cable and I think it also charges when attached to the computer via the usb cable. Anyway another rider on the trip said that a friend of his had the same problem with his Zumo and he had to return it and they sent a complete new unit. Hopefully they will do the same for me but I did not expect this from Garmin (or any other gps of this class) since I have used my GPS III for years on my motorcycles and bicycle without a problem. This is a unit specifically designed for motorcycle use and it it very disappointing to have it fail so quickly. I hope it is not a Zumo-wide flaw.

OK I just read Chad K's review below and the manual and did the "power & +" buttons reboot and the unit is up and running again. But why did it quit in the first place??? Would have been nice to have the manual on the road but my laptop won't fit in my trunk!

I too, highly recommend this unit.

Very intuitive and easy to use and even more so if you take a quick look at the manual. Fast re-routing, and extremely close GPS resolution - especially in WAAS mode. Good database of gas, food and other facilities.

The included mapping software allows creation of routes on your PC and upload to the Zumo. Data can also be downloaded from the Zumo allowing a visual representation of your ride either of graph form or through Google Earth.

Installation was a breeze on my Honda ST1300 using only the mounting hardware provided with the Zumo. No extra parts were required. The included RAM mount provides an very stable, vibration-free platform.

Unless you really MUST have XM and Bluetooth, the 450 will do the job for you quite nicely.

I had a Garmin 2610 for several years and mounted it in my cars, my Goldwing, my Suzuki, etc. The 2610 is NOT an ideal motorcycle GPS but is great for a car because of its remote.

On the other hand, the Zumo is really convenient for both types of vehicles. The Zumo is my first experience with a 3-D, what-you're-pointing-at-is-up display; after a couple thousand miles I've grown to like it. I'm not sure that the Zumo has auto-zoom, but whatever it is doing is far superior to the auto-zoom on the 2610 (which frequently showed me a quarter of the continental United States...like I need that on a motorcycle!)

All of the features of the Zumo have a design center of a bike rider with 3 season gloves on. I like that!

Compared to the 2610, you lose some options, some extra data, etc., but overall I do not miss that stuff a bit.

Yes, the 450 compared to the 550 requires some extra purchases (automobile components) but it is $200 less expensive at this point.

I just got back from a 1300 mile drive (in a car) to California from Portland. On the return, I plugged my portable XM radio into my car's AUX input instead of the Zumo (which I had done on the outbound) with the 2GB SD car I had loaded up with tunes. Well, at 5:15 am, I just about drove up the sidewalk when the Zumo spoke to me without the benefit of an audio input to the car's system. Garmin does not do a very good job of marketing the fact that the car mount INCLUDES a speaker on it, so no audio connection is needed to the car (although the output is provided!).

NOW, my complaint...on this return car trip from the north Bay area, the Zumo went belly up somewhere just south of Shasta City. Why??? Dunno. Fortunately, it had already directed me through a fairly tortuous route through Napa & Sonoma counties (in the dark, with fog, yuck). On the road, I tried every CPR technique (even reading the manual on my laptop during the lunch break) but to no avail. Once home, where the tools are, I got out my metric allen wrenches, removed the battery, counted to 30, put the battery back in, and all was swell. Guess what little tool is going into the Zumo's carrying case???

Except for this lapse in firmware which seems unrecoverable without a hard repowering/rebooting, I like the Zumo 450 a lot. Would I go for the 550? Well maybe...maybe not. The Bluetooth thingy is OK, but using it means you spend mega bucks rather than $4 for an audio cord. Fit a BT earpiece into my helmet?? RUNUTS?

Indeed, the internal memory holds the entire USA and every 2-bit Denny's along the way!!! You put in an optional SD car for the ability to play music.

OH YEAH - ONLY .MP3 files area supported. Bummer for other formats.

I bought the Garmin Zumo 450 as my first GPS. I had contemplated getting a GPS for years. I've always been a `map guy' and was reluctant to make the leap to GPS. I had plans for a few motorcycle trips this year and saw the Zumo line. I also had a car trip through France planned and when I realized I could buy a France map card for the Zumo, that sealed the deal. I've used the 450 on three motorcycle trips already and just got back from France. The Zumo was a real nice addition. Apart from the navigation, it is handy for looking up places. When in Indy for the F1 race, I wanted to find a bookstore...looked it up in the Zumo. Wanted to see a movie...looked it up in the Zumo and it gave the telephone number so I could call for movie times. The France map card worked great...helping me navigate the maze of Paris and the countryside. I still recommend using a map to cross check. On the downside, I wish the Zumo had elevation. Also, since the added features of the 550 (Bluetooth, etc.) didn't appeal to me, I got the 450. Well, the 550 comes with a car mount which I would have appreciated. Probably would get the 550 the second time around. Bottom line, it is a nice tool. Easy to use, in the car or on the bike.

Very easy to use, easy to mount. Best feature is the database that stores such things nearest places to eat and type of food, gas stations, parks, movie theaters...basically anything you can imagine. You can easily pick the place you want to go to, and the Zumo takes you there. VERY COOL!!! It's very easy to create routes on the computer and way points...even easier downloading them to your Zumo.