Garmin Zumo mounting on BMW Motorcycles

Ok, while we wait for the Big Bend trip starting next month, lets talk a little about how I mounted the Garmin Zumo 550.

If you have the Zumo GPS then you already know it comes with several mounts. All you need to do is just mount the cradle on the two screws on the clutch reservoir.

Here's a pic (no additional hardware is required for this setup):

This pic was taken from the riders seat look at the handlebars.

The next pic is from the top down so you can see the screws.

Since the Zumo just ships with total of 4 screws, I used two of the screws to secure the mount to clutch reservoir and the other two screws to secure the cradle to the mount. Since I was short two screws, I doubled up on the nut so it won't get loose due to virbrations. Some locktight was used to further reduce the possibility of screws working themselves out.

The Zumo 550 is excellent, I use 2GB SD card to store ton of music and it connected to my T-Mobile MDA via Bluetooth. I've also uploaded BMW dealers across US which might come in handy incase of break downs on the road.

October 11, 2007 ride to Big Bend

This time, I and Kathy are going to go ahead of the group. I'll be on the motorcycle and Kathy will drive in her car. We'll meet up in Austin and then go through Alpine to Lajitas and enjoy the stay at The Ultimate Hideout.

The rest of the group will be about two days behind us.

Kathy will leave a few days before us, as she has class, and I'll join the rest of the group on the way back.

Here's the route for going to Lajitas. According to the GPS it'll be 661 miles one way, the way back should be longer as we'll do some riding in The Hill Country:

Our last visit to The Ultimate Hideout in Lajitas was such a blast that this time we are going to spend more than just one day. This will be our base camp to excursions around Big Bend area.

The rest of the group will be coming via Uvalde to Lajitas. At this time I believe we have about 13 bikes registered to go with the group. I'm expecting probably around 5 bikes to actually go as most of the days in this trip fall on weekdays.

Last trip to Big Bend was a great success with 14 bikes. Some of the bikes were GS dual purpose and these guys split up from the group to ride on some of the unpaved roads. My K1200RS is stable on gravel roads (compared to the K1200LT) but since I have highway tires, I try to stay on the blacktop.

Here's a picture from last year's Big Bend trip. No you don't want to run out of gas here, which one of the guys on our last trip did. Don't worry Brian I won't tell anyone.

The Equipment

The motorcycle I have now is a BMW K1200RS. This was an upgrade from a Yamaha FZ6.

The bike, as you probably know, has a flat four cylindar liquid cooled engine. It includes ABS, heated grips, standard seat, cruise control and currently I have Maxxis tires that replaced Metzlers. The tires weren't by choice, long story, I might post that story one of these days. The Maxxis are definitly a lot better compared to cupped Metzlers!

I have the BMW side cases along with a Givi top case (everything else is stock). For directions and entertainment I use a Garmin Zumo 550 which hooks into my Autocom for music, directions, FRS Radio bike to bike communication, cell phone and rider/passanger comms. I don't yet have the traffic and weather update subscription on my GPS, but that's part of the thrill!

The pic to the right is from when I first picked up the bike.

As far as riding gear, I have a riding jacket (Joe Rocket), boots and cheap bycicle gloves (they work great and let plenty air through). Finally, I carry a rain suit in the top case. I have yet to use the rain suit as I just ride in the rain with just my riding jacket. Maybe I'll get to use the rain gear on next Big Bend trip.

I bought the motorcycle from BMW Motorcycles of North Houston and have so far been on a few rides to Hill Country, been once to Big Bend last year, been to Arkansas once this year and on October 11, 2007 will be heading through Austin, via Alpine to Big Bend.

While I work on posting the route about the upcoming Big Bend ride, you can enjoy some pictures from previous rides here: http://portal.bmwmch.com/

While we are on the topic of bike pictures, and you don't feel like browsing through a bunch of them, here's a different view of my bike without the top and side cases. The one immediately to the right of my bike is a K1200LT, the luxury tourer, a little too bulky for my taste.