I’ve owned a Garmin GPS V for several years. I bought it when I had the illusion that I’d be doing a lot of “adventure” biking on the Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle I bought in 2002. I had that bike about 8 months before trading it in on a cruiser.<\/p>\n
The GPS unit fit my needs at the time. I still use it for trips and it’s helped out quite a bit going into unfamiliar places. I just create the route on the computer, upload the route, waypoints, and maps to the unit, and then it’s ready to go.<\/p>\n
The unit came with the unlock codes for version 4 of Garmin’s North America maps. I upgraded the next year to version 5 (at $75), and then the next year to version 6 (another $75). Last year I got the version 8 upgrade, but never purchased the unlock code for it. Since we’re going out west in a couple of weeks, I figured I’d go ahead and update the maps and get the latest (yet another $75).<\/p>\n
The GPS V comes with a little less than 20 megabytes of storage, so you kind of have to be selective on the maps. I’d already created routes and waypoints and selected version 6 maps in the MapSource program on the PC, and found that I was probably going to be a little short on memory. I remembered reading that the newer version had better compression, so I figured I could get the same maps in a smaller space.<\/p>\n
I just finished the unlock process. You install the maps, then you plug in your unlock code that you’ve purchased.\u00a0 Relatively painless if convoluted.<\/p>\n
So I went to the Las Vegas area. In version 6, there were two map areas that needed to be selected, which added up to about 8 meg of space. With the 2008 version, the Las Vegas map had just one area (that included the two I’d selected from the old map), and it took up about 7 meg. I figured I was good to go.<\/p>\n
Then I started plugging in the San Diego and Oceanside maps. Since there’s an outside chance we might drive up to Los Angeles,\u00a0 I wanted to include those maps as well. Fifty megabytes of maps later, I’m thinking I got screwed.<\/p>\n
Basically, there’s no way I can include all the areas I want if I use the 2008 map; my unit just doesn’t have enough memory. And there’s no way to add memory.<\/p>\n
All that makes me think that Garmin wants me to buy a new GPS. And if I do that, the unlock codes I have for the GPS V all become unusable with the new unit. That doesn’t leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.<\/p>\n
The GPS V had the features I wanted when I bought it. It was water resistant and there was a motorcycle mount for it. But I guess the weakness it had was lack of memory expandability.\u00a0 Which means that I’ll be looking for something new with similar features, but which can handle the maps I need.<\/p>\n
Anyone have any recommendations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve owned a Garmin GPS V for several years. I bought it when I had the illusion that I’d be doing a lot of “adventure” biking on the Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle I bought in 2002. I had that bike about 8 months before trading it in on a cruiser. The GPS unit fit my needs … <\/p>\n