around Europe with the Quest 2

[bigbob]

Hi
this is my impressions of the Quest 2 after using it on a motorcycle tour of 3400 miles in Europe. Firstly anyone who has been reading the forum will know that I had problems downloading routes from mapsource to the Q2 due to too much hidden data being sent and this caused freezing and also the unit would trunicate routes as it thought it had more waypoints in than it showed this was overcome by downloading just waypoints to the unit (approx 130) and making a note of the waypoints on each route so they could be put in sequence day by day. The next days route was done the night before and old routes deleted and this in my case stopped any problems with freezing or trunicating. On the navigation side the unit generally performed very well indeed and on every occasion except one put me at the door of the hotel We were staying at provided you followed the route it had chosen, however if you took an other road the recalculation time was very bad and a lot of time you were better off stopping to let the unit get its position and recalculate the route ( a bit embarrissing when you have an exellent map reader in your group who is just itching to find fault) As far as how durable the unit is I can only commend Garmin for there efforts as the unit survived going through the cell of an electrical storm complete with electrical discharges going on all around ( one fork of lightning landing between my bike and the one following !!) and the most horrendous hale storm I have ever been in and even though everyone had the best of gear we were all soaked through and my mobile was fried the Quest survived.
One of our groupe had only a tank range of about 110 miles so the quest was handy at finding the nearest fuel stop if things got desperate. The other thing that I found with the Q2 is the unit is not sensitive enough and often lost satallite reception under trees in the Ardenne black Forest area and in mountain/Gorges which is not so bad if you are on the same road for the next 10 miles but if you are coming up to a turn and you miss it or if you do realize you need that turn and there is an other turn to make soon after the first you might not make it as the unit has still no reception or taking its time recalculating (an other source of hilarity from the map reader). A friend took a Tom Tom unit down to the house and it was still picking up Sats inside the house so they must have better reception, maybe for where I was I could have done with an external antenna.
So good points are:-
Very Durable
Accurate navigation
good in built facilities Auto Fuel POI etc

Bad points

lacks sensitivity (could do with more sensitive front end of better Antenna)
recalc/redraw time if off route is very bad could do with quicker CPU

I would like someone to do a test with Q2 and Rider mounted on same bike to see which is the best in practicle terms. In general the Q2 did help most of the time and if above issues could be sorted would be excellent.

[locksmith]

Are the slow recalculating route times typical of Quest2 ? as I've read this before.
My Quest1 is very fast at recalculating, so is the original better than the 2 series?

[bigbob]

Hi Locksmith
I suppose its swings and roundabouts the Q1 is quicker and the Q2 has whole of western Europe on board plus the Q2 has more map detail but I believe uses compressed data which has to be uncompressed during processing which is probably part of the reason the recalc/redraw times are so bad plus it could do with a quicker processor on board considering all the extra work it has to do I don't know if anyone has tried V7 (Q1 maps) on the Q2 and if it speeds things up any, might be a good compromise if it worked. I don't know too much about the architecture of the Q2 i.e is the compression/expansion done within the hardware or software/program if its the former probably won't make much differance.

cheers Bob

[yamkwak]

Hi Bob I also have not long returned from europe , over 3000 miles. Using a Quest 2. One problem I had was constant 'freezing' of the unit so bad I had to call Garmin UK from Italy and went through a master re-set with them, after that it worked fine however I noticed the 'loss of signal' problem going through wooded areas/ valleys. As you say NOT GOOD and I had an external powered antenna running on my bike , mounted on fairing. Altogether not overly impressed with the unit considering its cost and the powered mount also broke, one of the contacts snapped off. I also noticed the screen has become scratched/discoloured. Overall I would like to compare with a Tom Tom rider just to see the difference in performance. Have lost a bit of confidence in the unit now and once you do that may as well go back to maps!!!! Ah well cant afford to change it and will just perservere.

[bigbob]

Hi yamkwak
I must admit to have lost confidence in the unit myself and would be very wary of buying an other GPS unit I think they are all not without problems. I might even go back to the GPS 12 without maps and just put waypoints in as at least it had good reception I await to see developments as there are several new gps units being released this month also like you would love someone to do an honest practical review of motorcycle GPS units so we could choose more wisely instead of blowing an other half K down the pan.

cheers Bob

[BikingBud]

Just psyched myself up to splash out for the Quest2 plus bike mounting brackets and you ge and tell me it's not really worth it.

Do i save up and buy a map or do I risk it and see if it really is that bad?

What's in the box and what extra do I need for the bike? Ram mount about £45? Different charger, £25? Extra aerial?

The credit gremlin was looming and the force was strong, I may be able to deter him yet if you convince me it was so poor.

I may resort to buying a new laptop instead and putting up with more of this:

BB

[bigbob]

Hi Biking Buddy
Sorry re negativity about Q2 I did try to be objective about the small review round Eu and to be fair it got me to the place where I was staying everytime except one and the one time it did not put me at the door of the hotel was because the whole town (Saas Fee in Switzerland) was pedestrianised and you had to park at a car park and phone for a taxi and I can hardly blame the unit for that. The main problem is not the fact that the unit got me there but how it got me there as it would loose sat lock and the redraw recalk times were slow on the other hand it is small and very hardy and has good find features re fuel hotels tour attractions etc. I got the powered motorcycle mount and ram mount when I purchased the unit. In all fairness I do not know what to advise you on which unit to purchase as I have not tried any of the other motorcycle GPS units against the Q2 I wish someone would do an honest review of them all anyway it got me there and back and I will be selling the Q2 including all the bits if someone wants to PM me.

cheers Bob

[locksmith]

Just come back from a German tour using my Quest 1 and it was faultless.
So maybe try to get the original Quest?

[Skippy]

[BikingBud]

Not sure that I can justify nearly £500, when you consider adapters and attachment parts when there are other toys I want. I am going to Europe at the end of Aug but I have no problems with a good map and doing some route planning. It used to be all part of the fun.

Will it cause me pain and grief if I do not get one, no. Would the money be better spent on a good laptop, I think so.

Maybe one of you lot could lend me one for the weekend and I can then decide ;) after a comprehensive road test.

Bud

[BrunoSoares]

Hi there...
I own a Q1 and had a Q2 for 2 weeks, that I borrowed from a friend of mine just to test it.
This is only my opinion: If you don't bother uploading maps everytime you make a trip, and POI's are not very useful then the Q1 is the one.
On the other hand, if you are not a fan of losing time with your PC at home and can afford slow recalculations and redraw of maps and POI's are useful then you choose the Q2.
Both are very good, Garmin has lauched the Zumo, that is made firstly for motrcycle use and has lots of extras.
I will continue using my Q1, its the best for what I do, and put's me everywhere I want.
Last year made a trip to Spain and never got lost, even between the tall and very dense trees of Picos de Europa, and saved me two or three times of going in the opposite direction that I wanted.
It's not perfect but helps you a lot, and the space that I used for maps can now be used to put more interesting stuff.
If you want I can post pictures of my home made adapter.
PS. Sorry for my english

[Skippy]

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