BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Much as the title says, which sat. nav. have you got and why did you chose that particular make & model. What have your user experiences been like and which would you recommend to purchase in the future. The more I hear/read about BMW Nav. units made by Garmin the less I want one.

I currently have a 10 year old Garmin Zumo 660 which works just fine. It's hard wired for power & coms. through an Autocom unit with in helmet speakers. I'm not interested in anything other than sat. nav. voice prompts, no music or telephone answering etc. Would want something that is user friendly and can be used in conjunction with Garmin BaseCamp for route planning. Are there any units out there which like the Zumo 660 can be hard wired for coms. or would I have to either get the Autocom Bluetooth module (which I've had before) or resort to a Bluetooth helmet or headset/in ear speakers.

As makes/models are declared, I'll add them to the poll to get a feeling for what is most popular. I'll kick the poll off with both a Garmin Zumo 220 & 660, I've had both but can only vote for one.

Nav V which came as part of a promotional pack with a new GS in 2015.  Before that had a zumo 220 on an RT.
NAV V has been ok apart from a glitch on the way to Spain in 2017 where an update left me without maps from France onwards.
Would I buy another BMW / Garmin nav ? No, the next bike will probably have the next generation Sat Nav. However, I'll hold off until things improve after reading the threads on here.

I'll add BMW Nav. V to the poll. I certainly won't be getting a bike with a TFT screen and integrated nav.

Nav V never had any problem with it , good GPS and phone / bluetooth connections .

Are the BMW Nav. V's user friendly with Garmin Basecamp. I like to create a bespoke route in BC, then transfer it to my GPS device.

Can the BMW Nav.V be used with a Garmin Zumo 660 cradle/mount to receive power and send voice prompts via wires to an Autocom unit or is it Bluetooth only.

David. wrote: Are the BMW Nav. V's user friendly with Garmin Basecamp. I like to create a bespoke route in BC, then transfer it to my GPS device.

User friendly and Basecamp don't belong in the same sentence.
However, yes Basecamp routes can be transferred to a Nav V easily enough.

My 2012 Camhead RT doesn't have the BMW mount/cradle or wonder wheel, would this be a problem when using a BMW GPS device or can the functions be accessed by touch screen like the Zumo 660.

If you didn't have a BMW bike, would you fit a BMW sat. nav. or an alternative such as Garmin or TomTom.

Nav5, purchased at the same time as my 2014 RT. Worked well with mapsource then basecamp. Connects to autocom comms via Bluetooth module and gives me music tracks from an SD card.
Nav6 purchased 2nd hand last month, better screen definition and brightness, also allows me to delete waypoints etc. from the memory which I couldn’t do on the 5.
6 is on the bike, 5 now in the car.

That's a helpful response about Bluetooth & Autocom, thank you. Just need to know if the BMW units will take power from the Garmin cradle/mount. When I was looking at a Wethead in 2014, I was told that the Zumo 660 would work ok in the BMW cradle/mount but probably power only.

BMW Nav. VI added to the poll.

Had a 660 till I lost it on the way to work one morning.Thought I'd try a different make(had the 550 before the 660)so went for the Tomtom 550 and have to say it's a great nav,find it so much better than the Zumo.Easy to use for someone who found the basecamp a load of cobblers(my personal view)
Wired straight into the RT and sits in a cradle on top of the dash.Easy to set the bluetooth up with me Neotec, for me personally it does what I need and want with out issue.

TomTom 550 added to the poll. With TomTom, what PC based route planning (like BaseCamp) is used.

TomTom 550 for me. Plan routes using TomTom Mydrive on my MacBook or iPhone. Favourite places and routes are then synced via WiFi to SatNav. TomTom 550 has built in WiFi for these syncs and map updates. No need to use cables. This means that you can plan a route on any computer connected to the nerd and then send that to your SatNav. This is useful when touring. However though navigation and traffic are good the SatNav is not perfect. The main element missing is there is not media player. No music. MyDrive on the computer can except GPX imports pity the iPhone version cannot. Much cheaper than BMW SatNav and having used both think TomTom is just as good if not a little better.

I have Nav VI.  I have it because it came with my last bike (K1600).  Works well, easy to use, integrated into the bike.
Badly let down by map updates which I have found impossible to complete due to extremely slow download speeds despite my superfast fibre service.

Nav V. It came with the bike but I rarely, if ever, use it. Just no need. I use a Sena for telephone and music and simply don’t bother with the Nav, nor do I need its mapping and routing features. I wouldn’t buy any navigator, regardless of brand.


That said, I’m disappointed with how easily the unit can be undocked and stolen (‘15 RT). It’s more of a liability than an asset, at least to me.

I have both a Nav V and a Nav VI. My bike came with the Nav V, never had any issues with it except the screen which you can barely see with a bright sunlight behind your back. Lately, the total NA won't fit in memory so I had to add an SD card.
A friend of mine sold me his used Nav VI at a significant discount. I wanted to upgrade so that was a good timing for me. It came with EU maps instead of NA. I did see once the ghost issue but a good cleaning of the screen seems to have fixed it. If not I will give Garmin a call.