Agreed. I have an older Nuvi 760 but it has all of the bells and whistles. Now that I have a power for it and not have to rely on battery, I plan to investigate the audio portion.

The only downside is the Nuvi line isn't waterproof and easily pops in and out of the RAM mount, so you'd never leave it in overnight or even while you pop into the john at a rest area. And you obviously cannot use it when it is raining. That said, none of those issues justify the hundreds of extra dollars for the Zumo line for me.

 

nuvi 500,550 i think is waterproof,if u dont pay for a waterproof unit a baggie and rubberband will work9a little hard to see.get a audio cord at radio shack couple $.

 

I paid about that for one a couple years ago. Sure, worked okay except ya can hardly see it in the sun and good luck when it rains. Bought a zumo 660 for $614.12 and couldn't be happier, especially when it is raining. Try that with a nuvi. As far as mounting if you want a nice clean handlebar mount try www.motomount.net. Don't have a fairing so can't help ya there.

 

Just Put a Rt Zumo 665 in a 2011 ultra limited with dash mount also changed the Aux cord and put in a heavy duty cord. With a straight plug instead of 45 angled plug so it wont rub on the inner faring. Good unit works well I use the Xm and weather and works great. Put in the new patch cord 76000024 to intergrate the cd,am,fm, so gps will cut out the radio to give the directions. The only issue hear is you still have to use the aux port on the front of the radio for the xm and mp3 sound out of the dash....

 

I've had great luck with the Ram mounting system for the handlebar. Using a older Tom Tom unit when I need it. Can't hear the directions but it's easy to see and I keep a baggie in the windshield bag in case it rains. I don't have an audio out and use a usb in the lighter socket for power. Works for me and I can still use my radio, CD player for tunes. Good luck but check out the Ram mounts- quality product.

 

Setting aside which gps unit you buy, if you ride 2-up mount it off to one side. I used a handlebar mount, because that was fairly easy for me to do, but only discovered while riding with it that my wife can also see it. So we have two pairs of eyes navigating and I get prompts over our intercom, which is a great help in heavy traffic!

 

I have a StreetPilot 2720 that has been dicontinuied for the Zumo line. It is waterproof and is mounted on my fairing in my sig. I also have a Nuvi 550 that is also waterproof that I bought as a back up when my streetpilot craps out. It will mount in the same place via a modefied ram mount.

 

I've been thinking about a mount for my Iphone. I'm not a fan of having these devices on the handlebars. Kuryakin makes a gas door mount that's pretty sweet. Here's a link to how someone on this site did theirs

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...ble-wires.html

 

I would also recommend a waterproof unit. I travel/tour quite a bit and in this weather I don't feel like stopping everytime a storm blows up. I guess this all depends where you live. I've ruined two communication unit that mount to helmets because we couldn't stop in time. I have an older model Garmin, and love it!!!

 

For as little rain as we have here in SoCal, I opted to get the optional waterproof cover for my Garmin. I call it "the plastic baggie."