Garmin makes some big claims for the Zumo stating that the 550 is "designed by bikers" and that is is ideal for the gloved hand, we'll certainly put both of these to test with the Lordpercy Stig, who is never happier than when wearing mittens and tearing up the Essex countryside. The first thing that surprised us about the Zumo was the number of items within the small box, there are literally tens of parts, leads and bits that make up the full GPS kit. The unit itself measures 11.3 x 9.9 x 7.3 cm and weighs 269 grams, the design is simple and not at all fussy being dominated by the 3.5" screen and some rubberised side grips. Due to the limitations placed on the units interface by the users (bikers) the buttons are very large a few, the right hand side has just one (on/off) and the left has 4 contextual buttons.

The Garmin Zumo 550 uses the same 1.9Gb hard drive as the Nuvi and packs Navteq maps of western Europe onto it, mapping is in different levels of detail but you get a coverage map to see where you can get street level directions. Fitting the Zumo to the Stigs ride was a fairly painless process as the U shaped bracket and mounting plate easily clamped to the bars, the mount is very secure and the unit clicks home with a satisfying sound. Routing the power cable was a bit more tricky and may not be possible on all bikes, however the 550 does have a 4 hr internal battery which could mean you needn't worry about the power cable.

Power up and about 30 seconds later the nanny state splash screen appears requiring a stab of the finger to admit you won't try and use the Garmin while on the move (yeah right). The inbuilt GPS antenna managed to get a strong lock about 20 seconds after we had cleared the splash screen and we were ready to input our first route. The destination screen is the first sign of trying something a bit different. There is a row of 5 buttons across the top of the screen each designed to cope with the gloved finger and each showing a letter of the alphabet. below this is a slider bar which can be pressed and dragged (a bit like an iPod interface) this changes which letters are displayed on the buttons above. Clearly this isn't as quick as a full keypad but is far easier to operate while wearing gloves than a tightly packed keypad.

Garmin persist with their country/town/street/number input system which feels a bit slow on a full Qwerty screen with your full dexterity, so we do wonder if something a bit simpler would have helped the gloved hand. Still there is also the ability to navigate to POI's, city centres and you can store favourite locations. Route calculation is swift and on a par with most car based systems. We were almost ready to start our test but we had to first equip the Stig with a Bluetooth earpiece which is paired with the Garmin. This earpiece is not supplied with the system and at first that seems like a flaw but most motorbike users already have a favourite choice of headset (normally an in ear type) and the pairing process was simple and quick.

So with a destination set in it was time to see if the Stig though he could live with the Zumo as his daily navigator. To be fair he was very sceptical saying that when you are on a bike it is best to concentrate 100% and he didn't like the idea of having a screen to peer down at. So when he arrived at our first waypoint his positive reaction was all the more pleasing. He commented that the screen was only used twice in his journey and that the quality of the audio instructions was 1st class, he particularly liked the text to speech (TTS) feature whereby road names are all spoken rather than just a plain old "turn left". This first leg took in a chuck of A and B road driving and the Garmin seemed to select a good sensible route. Next the LP Stig decided to throw a few wrong turns into the mix and see what happened next.

While stiggy was away we set-up our next test which was deliberately designed to check on how easy it was to use on the move specifically when trying to route around traffic. When Stig arrived back with us he was somewhat less happy as he had tried to make more use of the screen but complained that the glare when in direct sunlight meant it was difficult to read. To be fair to Garmin it is much better than a normal Nav system with UV filters and anti glare coatings but the early spring sunlight was just too much.

As promised Mr Stig had chosen to ignore a few choice instructions from the Zumo 500 including taking the wrong exit at a major roundabout, this could have phased the unit but it did not. Stig reported around a 15 - 20 second gap where there were no instructions until the spoken guidance started again and took him up to the next round about along the dual carriage way and then guided him back to the correct roundabout exit.

Further incorrect turns proved that the Zumo does try to re route via alternate roads rather than just trying to get you back on it's old route. This is handy as our next test was to try out the TMC or Traffic Messaging which provides a basic display of delays on your chosen route which given the usability of the screen is a bit of a challenge. To be honest it was a struggle as there is no way of the unit telling you via the audio signal of an impending queue ahead, so you just have to be lucky and able to see the screen. Perhaps this is not of major importance to a biker but it is a shame as the TMC reception seemed to work quite well unlike other units we have tested.

Overall stiggy seemed impressed with the little Zumo and we parked up outside in order to complete our last review item, to test the Zumo versus the British weather. That's right we left the Zumo clamped to the bars in a fairly hefty downpour. True to the spec it must be watertight as it survived perfectly and had we been somewhere other than a secure car park we could have taken some small comfort in the security measures of the Garmin, with the unit locked into place and also the use of security screws to hold the mount onto the bars. Although we doubt this would trouble a determined thief for more than a minute!

There are some nifty extras like the ability to plan your route on a PC, then download them via a USB 2.0 connection, we can see this being quite useful for most bikers. Also we liked the ability to upload your journey back from the device onto a PC and watch the route on Google earth. Sadly the picture viewer and inbuilt MP3 player were a bit of a loss and nothing more than gimmicks.

One extra worthy of note is a car mount which is supplied as standard with the 550, this allows you to place the unit inside a car and also contains a speaker so that you can hear the audio directions without the Bluetooth earpiece. This is great and something that costs extra with the TomTom Rider.

So how does the Zumo measure up against the Rider, overall it is significantly better, with richer features, a sturdier mount, better screen (although still not flawless) and text to speech, the TMC is a nice touch and we love the number of bundled extras that come with Garmins offering. Sadly this is all reflected in the price, which at £470 plus the cost of a BT headset is much more than the now defunked TomTom Rider.

So by qwerk of fate the Garmin Zumo 550 is one of the few remaining options for a biker who want SatNav, but you will have to pay for it and handsomely too.

Published - 07/04/2007

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