POSITIVES
• Integrated with Basecamp
- Routes developed in Basecamp transfer and import without discernable changes.
Note: Zumo 595 switches out of motorcycle mode on routes built under other activity profiles.
- Sorts favorites into categories assigned to Basecamp waypoints.
- Provides live traffic data & access to traffic camera images.
- Provides weather & weather alerts.
- Enables LiveTrack – sharing a weblink (with constantly-updated location) via e-mail.
- Displays (and, optionally, reads) text messages.
• Detects fuel stops
- Prompts for reset of fuel gauge whenever stopping at or close to a filling station.
NEGATIVES
• NOT glove-friendly
- Screen sensitivity is adequate but not great.
- Many displayed features are TOO SMALL and / or poorly located.
The top bar of the map display is too small for gloved hands.
After initially in top bar, warnings reduce to tiny icons in the upper right corner (far right of top bar). Nearly impossible to open on the first try.
- Example: Zumo 595 was unable to discern travel on stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Cherohala Skyway that have been in place for decades. Riding the same roads 8 months earlier with Zumo 660 proved to be no problem. Illustrations available.
• Irritating alerts
- Sound can be disabled but the pre-defined list cannot be changed.
EVERY curve with a highway sign prompts an alert.
Helmet law alerts pop up near EVERY state line.
- Pointless alerts (e.g. “Construction reported on I75.”) frequently repeated.
When the only offered selection is “Dismiss” then the alert was pointless.
- Unless you seek cow paths and / or once-paved trails.
• Display
- Larger. But the additional space is not effectively utilized.
- Detects light level to automatically adjust brightness.
- Visibility in sunlight is NO better, maybe worse. (Definitely worse compared to Zumo 660 equipped with a hood.)
- Automatically formatted as required after installation & power-up.
- 64 GB max?
Not yet ready for “prime time” because the Zumo 595 lacks two important features:
- Accuracy in calculating location
- Glove-friendliness