When I traded in my 2015 Fat Boy (awesome bike) for my new 2018 Road King, I also took the opportunity to upgrade my GPS setup from the Zumo 665 to the Zumo 595, the latter being Garmin's latest motorcycle GPS unit. I did this sight unseen, based solely on reading on-line reviews. Reviews are all over the place, so here are my first hand experiences and impressions.

Screen -- the biggest criticism of the Garmin 660/665 series (the older model) was that the screen was not particularly bright and looked "washed out" in bright sunlight. This criticism is and was justified. I am not going to say that the screen was unusable in bright sunlight, (because indeed, I used it under those conditions given that I live in Southern California) but it was certainly disappointing and less than stellar with respect to screen brightness. The Zumo 590/595 series screen is remarkably better. The screen is brighter, sharper, and just plain easier to read and use. On a ride during a bright sunny California day I had no difficulty reading the screen even through my heavily tinted helmet faceplate; indeed it was a pleasure to use the unit. The screen is still not as bright as certain marine GPS units with which I am familiar, but it is quite good and a huge improvement over the 660/665. I would recommend that anyone considering adding a GPS go with the 595.
Screen layout -- I really really like the layout of the 595 versus the 660/665. For example, on the top of the screen it always tells you which street intersection you are approaching -- I've never had any other GPS that did this, and it is a very useful feature -- here in California street signs are often either haphazardly placed, or absent altogether. Kudos to Garmin.
There are lots of other nice features. For example, you can set the unit to ask you, after a stop, whether you refueled and want to reset the fuel tracker to full. Nice little touch and useful.

Other useful features -- you can program the unit to avoid certain places or types of road, including toll roads (I hate our toll roads and will not use them). As mentioned above, it will track your fuel usage based on your entry of parameters, i.e. number of miles before it shows you "low fuel" diagnostic -- in practice this is a very nice little feature.

There are lots of other features on the Zumo 595 that I have not used yet, such as music streaming, route planning (for curvy roads, scenic, etc.) and I may update this review later. Hope this was of interest to someone.

This picture doesn't do the unit justice as the camera flash makes the screen look dim, but here is the unit mounted on the Road King with the HD mounting system:

 

Good review. I’m still running, the now ancient, Zumo 450

 

Does your G.P.S. use 'voice' to tell you when to make turns etc. ? Do you have a 'Bluetooth' or such to be able to hear the 'commands' ?...b.

 

My older 650 has those features, so I’m sure their latest model does. And it actually names the street, hey, etc. to turn at.

 

Yes, in fact that is the feature that is unique to motorcycle GPS units -- you get turn by turn instructions via bluetooth. Works great. I use the Sena 20S headset which mounts inside my helmet (Bell RS-1).

 

That's not unique. My smartphone replaced my garmin a long time ago.

I get turn by turn, phone, music, etc... through helmet mic and speakers over bluetooth.

I know the big complaint used to be offline maps. The Here! Maps app let's you download by continent for offline use and still get turn by turn.

 

 

Nice review of the 595 Redlegvzv. For the last 4yrs (or so) I have used a Zumo 590. Used a Samsung smart phone as a GPS before this, but a short ride in heavy rain killed it. I like the Garmin Zumo due to the robust build, where I have used it on a 3 week Adventure ride through the South Island of New Zealand (it absolutely p***ed down along the west coast), and stood up to the many tumbles I had on the gravel tracks, and river crossings. Now I'm riding in the UK, where weather conditions are not that much different (apologies to all you Brits). They aren't cheap, but I would buy another one tomorrow if I had to.

 

Love my 590. I especially get a lot of use out of the "What's Up Ahead" feature. Gives you a list of all of the gas, food and lodging establishments at the next get off. Very handy little feature. I don't have to plan or calculate stops, anymore.

 

Thanks for the informative review. Think I'll drop by my dealer today for one of these. I would use it on my 2018 Heritage 114. I haven't been real pleased with trying to use my iPhone.