Mapping Using the Garmin Nuvi 750

I’ve owned a Garmin eTrex Legend since they were first released.  The device was small enough to pack in and out without much effort and the battery life was decent.  But the device was designed more for navigating off road than it was for driving assistance.  We dabbled with tying it to a laptop and using Microsoft Mappoint or Delorme Streets as our mapping software.  This worked ok in a car, but on a motorcycle, this just wasn’t going to happen.

Did some shopping around over the last year or so.  Motorcycle specific devices like the Tom Tom Go or the Garmin Zumi are priced at a premium.  I needed something functional, yet inexpensive.

One of the biggest features I desired was the ability to upload custom routes to the device.  When navigating in a car, the driver normally takes the quickest route.  A rider on a motorcycle, however, tends to stay off the beaten path and more to the scenic routes if possible.  The Nuvi 750 will accept GPX files from Garmin Mapsource.  We tried to upload some GPX files from sites such as mapmyride.com and bestbiking roads.com but the Nuvi 750 wouldn’t recognize them.  Now, the problem is not with the GPX files from the sites, but that the Garmin adheres to a very strict, and older GPX implementation.

For use on the bike, I also needed a device that would read the street names to me.  In a car, eyes off the road only means you might hit something.  On a bike, eyes off the road could also mean you fall over.  In our tests this week, the Nuvi did an excellent job of giving aural directions.

A feature not listed in the sales material from Garmin, is the auto-zoom.  If a segment of your route is long, the map zooms out to give a greater overview of the route.  As you approach a tight series of turns or slower traffic speeds, the map zooms in.