Garmin's BMW Motorrad III Navigator motorcycle GPS receiver

European bikers will soon be tearing up the continent with a little more direction thanks to Garmin's upcoming BMW Motorrad III Navigator GPS receiver designed specifically for the helmets and leather crowd. Probably also functional on non-BMW motorcycles, the Motorrad III features a 454 x 240 TFT display, birds-eye view mapping, and 500MB of free storage after MapSource City Navigator Europe NT Version 8 is installed. Also on board is a Bluetooth radio, although the poor translation of French site Mobinaute that our intern managed to patch together doesn't make its functionality exactly clear -- we think you can pair it with a Bluetooth headset for hearing the spoken guidance cues inside your helmet, and perhaps like some other Bluetooth-equipped units, it may be possible to have it dial points of interest on your phone as well. Sources indicate that this model should be available sometime this month, but pricing, as is often the case, remains shrouded in mystery.

[Via ployer]

[Dave @ Apr 6th 2006 11:01PM]

I'm looking forward to this. I have both a Navigator I and II and they worked great on my bike. Rain, nor sleet, nor snow, has affected either of my previous two units. I'm also happy that it looks like they kept the same size/form factor as the current units. Should be a simple swap to upgrade.

[john @ Oct 13th 2007 10:35AM]

Hello,

I am in need of a mic attachment for the Navigator 11 as well as a mount for the handle bar??? Can you tell me where I can buy these items? thanks, as i am new to this...John

[Russell @ Apr 6th 2006 11:53PM]

I'm looking forward to adding this to my Beamer too... :o or the tom tom rider :o

[Mort @ Apr 7th 2006 5:33AM]

For those who don't speak German, Motorrad is motorcycle, so this is for our two-wheeled bimmer-riding friends. Which makes that voice-control-via-bluetooth very useful for people with a bluetooth helmet.

[Meatball @ Apr 7th 2006 6:34AM]

For those who don't speak German, it's pretty darn obvious that Motorrad is motorcycle.

[jared @ Apr 7th 2006 10:03AM]

*yawn* If this were from anyone else, maybe we could expect a price war with the Tom Tom Rider. I'm waiting for the version that auto-detects "special events" and activates a built-in video camera.

[Late news... H-D's had this for over 1 year @ Apr 8th 2006 5:59PM]

H-D's been shipping the Garmin unit (albiet with a couple less features), but can attest that it works fantastic.

[Rick Sherman @ Apr 8th 2006 7:46PM]

Please forward any info you have on BMW motorcycles and their gadgets. Always intrested in toys for riding!

[Razib Ahmed @ Apr 10th 2006 8:27AM]

What will be the price of this device? It sounds to me to be very impressive and instantly will catch the attention of many bikers. I am really happy that this company has realized the potential of the motorcycle market.

[Silence7 @ Apr 14th 2006 3:29AM]

I just got done setting up a Motorrad Navigator II for a friend tonight, (Installing maps etc) So I got to mess around with it a bit, Very quick map redraw/panning, touch screen, very sturdy, Garmin's easy to understand interface, and a nice bright screen. It's really a slick package.

[Robert @ Apr 26th 2006 10:30PM]

It looks very nice. The literatures says that no maps need to be loaded. I wonder if its worth the 1299 price tag? Seems steep for a GPS. Oh, and incidently a "bimmer" is a car made by BMW, they eventually began making cars too, a "beamer" is the motorcycle.

[Los Angeles Orange County BMW Ford Chevrolet San Diego @ Aug 30th 2006 7:41PM]

This is a great idea from BMW. I've never seen one but I'm assuming that there is some kind of lens over the display to allow you to focus that close up.