GARMIN Zumo 450 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2 x 3 x 4 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000MF7L46
• Item model number: 0100056705
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,607 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Car Electronics > Vehicle GPS > Motorcycle GPS

• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 1, 2007

Product Description

Manufacturer Description
Born to ride, the Garmin zumo 450 brings all the power of a GPS navigator, wireless communicator, multimedia entertainer, and tour guide all into one device. And it's made just for motorcycles. Designed by bikers, zumo's motorcycle-friendly features make it easy to operate while in the saddle. From back roads to rallies, its preloaded maps and high-end navigation features give you the freedom to go where you want. The zumo 450 includes many of the 550's motorcycle-friendly features, minus bluetooth wireless technology, text-to-speech and XM Satellite, at a price that won't break your budget.

View the zumo 450 in action. You can also see a demonstration of the product's features. (Best viewed with Internet Explorer)

The zumo comes with a motorcycle mount with universal mounting hardware so you can mount it anywhere.

An internal battery lets you roam on foot with the device.

The unique motorcycle console offers valuable trip information, including a fuel gauge to warn you when its time to fill up. View larger.

The zumo 450 features a glove-friendly touch screen with an intuitive interface, as well as left-handed controls that make it easy to operate. View larger.

Made for Two Wheels
The zumo is made for extreme durability; it's vibration-tested, waterproof, and built with fuel-resistant plastics to withstand the elements. It's also intuitive, with a glove-friendly touch screen with left-handed controls that make it easy to operate. There's a bright, sunlight-readable, UV-resistant display that makes it easy to view, as well as a unique motorcycle console for trip information, including a fuel gauge to warn you when its time to fill up. The display measures 3.5 inches diagonally and features 320 x 240 pixel resolution.

Measuring 4.8 x 3.9 x 1.6-inches (W x H x D) and weighing just 10.6 ounces, the zumo is small enough to carry with you while you're off the bike. The high-sensitivity GPS receiver is powered by the SiRF Star chipset, which offers extreme accuracy, even when you're riding under dense foliage or between tall buildings. The unit also features Garmin Lock--an advanced anti-theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until you type in a specific four-digit PIN or take the unit to a predetermined location.

The zumo comes with a motorcycle mount with universal mounting hardware so you can mount it anywhere. Garmin also provides custom caps, which are available in a variety of colors, so you can reflect your style.

Navigate the Open Road
The zumo 450 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps and a hefty points of interest (POIs) database, including motels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply enter a destination, and the zumo takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions that speak street names. In addition, zumo accepts customized points of interest such as school zones and safety cameras, and it also includes proximity alerts to warn of upcoming POIs. A rechargeable, removable lithium-ion battery that offers up to three hours of use is integrated into the zumo for trip planning or use on foot. In addition, the zumo even accepts electronic maps, making it the ultimate off-road navigator.

Traffic Alerts
The zumo can receive optional TMC traffic alerts (in select cities) when used with a compatible traffic receiver. Simply press a button on the screen, and the zumo recalculates your route to avoid traffic tie-ups.

Route Planning, Sharing, and Entertainment
The zumo makes it easy to plan your next trip and share routes with your riding buddies. Plan trips on your computer before you start. Search for food and fuel stops and local attractions. Then, transfer your route to your zumo and go.

At the end of the day, share your favorite places and rides with other zumo riders, and review your travels in Google Earth. SD card expansion makes it easy for storage and route sharing, and you can download routes to share with your riding buddies. You can also load MP3s onto the unit so you can enjoy music while you're riding. Plus, a JPEG picture viewer lets you share photos of your adventures with friends and family.

Product Description
Rugged and ready to ride,Zumo 450 is your faithful guide to the open road. With glove-friendly, left-handed controls, preloaded street maps and a sunlight-readable screen, this waterproof navigator is made for motorcycles. Zumo 450 includes many of the 550's motorcycle-friendly features, minus bluetooth wireless technology, text-to-speech and XM Satellite, at a price that won't break your budget.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1st 1000 miles with my Zumo, June 4, 2007

By	Carl Boler (Watertown, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zumo 450 in Europe, July 17, 2007

By	J. Shoffner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great GPS for bike and car, July 16, 2007

By	Tom S - See all my reviews

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.