Why I WOULD'NT Recommend The Garmin Montana 700i For a Motorcycle! 

Fantastic review thanks for the heads up. You’ve definitely put me off. I was contemplating the system that I had read online about the same issues that you had had.

Same shutdown issues, once deep in the wilderness and it would not restart until I removed power and the battery. Garmin told me to reset it back to factory defaults and reload all my settings but the issue is still happening.

I orderd my 750i about midsummer, got it today. Will use it for hiking as well as motorcycling offroad. Keeping my hopes up. Regardless, thank you for your work and effort. Very useful information.

An older thread I know. I had 2016 BMW 1200GS and used an older Garmin Zumo which used to switch off all the time. After a bit of research it appeared to be the canbus system which was causing the problems. Under some circumstances (which I never fully understood) the canbus would turn off the power socket. Solved it by wiring direct to the battery.

I'm curious if, when tracking, it has the option to wrap rather than auto-archive. I've used both the Montana 680 and 276CX and both have an issue with your current track disappearing behind you when it auto-archives the track. On the road, it's maybe not the end of the world, but travelling on snowmobile it can create a very dangerous situation if you're in bad weather or crossing large lakes and you want to follow your path back the way you came. It's happened to me so many times I tell myself that I can't buy another Garmin product, but I don't know of any viable alternative.

I have had the same random switching off issue (although only when on my 790 Adv R and so far never when hiking, mountain biking or when it's hooked to a laptop to plan tracks and routes in Basecamp). Garmin told me they know about the problem and believe the issue is within the powered mount, not the device - which doesn't quite tally with your experience. They are apparently working on a fix and since I purchased my mount from them, they will inform me and repair/replace when that becomes available. We'll see where that goes. I am also trying to get them to replace my 700 with a 700i. I didn't need or want the In Reach feature and they told me that if I purchased City Navigator mapping (CN Europe), which does not come with the 700 model, as a download only, I could save access to that (it lives on their server, they said) on my laptop and just choose whichever countries I needed in Europe as and when required. Therefore my 700 would function as a 700i without In Reach (i.e. more towards the function of a Sat Nav device as well as the usual old (600 series) Montana function as just a GPS device and CN Europe would not clog up its internal memory (which in any case they claim is 16gb regardless of which 700/750 model you get). So I gave them 75 quid and tried to download CN Europe. But instead of the promised offer to download to my computer or the device, the on-screen message said I needed to insert a 7 - 32gb sd card in the slot as my 700 suffered from insufficient space. It also said on screen that CN would only run on my device with the sd card inserted. Exactly what they had told me was NOT the case! That would mean I would be unable to use my full UK 25k & 50k OS mapping or other OSM mapping I have for trail riding in Europe as the card slot would be taken up with the CN card. I had purchased the 700 from the OS shop so they said I had to go back to them to argue my case for a 700i as a replacement for my 700, but at least Garmin are going to refund the cost of the CN download as they had clearly mis-sold it. Now you've got me thinking I should look into an XT too! We'll have to wait and see what OS say, but so far they've only offered repair/replacement in the event of an issue found when the unit goes back to Garmin. Well Garmin already said the issue was with the mount and not the unit. So that leaves me spinning around in a circle that ain't going anywhere.

Thank you for you review; looks like a Zumo XT for me

if it turns off, did you check the standby mode settings? I believe its normal behaviour for it to go into standby after the backlight goes off, unless you are doing a course or an activity it would turn off.

The same experience I have with the old Oregen 450t, and I noticed it behaves fine (without turning off) when I reset it back to original values (there is somewhere a reset in there) and yes it is a software glitch, soon you start customise the background image and theme it starts happening at random...even with AA Batteries....

I had a Montana 600 which did the same thing, suddenly switch off. That turned out to be a vibration issue (KTM 690) causing the battery to move inside the unit even though it was permanently powered. Wrapping tape around the battery solved it. Not saying it is the same thing in the 700 i. A few thousand off road miles later the "rugged mount" (LOL! rugged my a+se!) power feed line that was incredibly thin (human hair thin almost) cracked somewhere in its insulation and caused the same problem. A replacement mount sorted that but I made a reinforced outer cable to protect the poor delicate little 'rugged mount' line from kinking and breaking again! I am looking to buy an Zumo XT now but my faith in Garmin is severely diminished as I also had problems with post code searches and also actually Zip codes when I took it to the USA even though I bought a very expensive Garmin USA background mapping. I have a Garmin Drive Smart 65 in my car which seems to be pretty reliable although now I think about it that has once or twice that also gone on strike for no reason when driving along. Hard to know what to do really. Everybody rates the XT but I just don't know?

My Montana 700i is about 6 months old and Im having some issues when I try to navigate to a destination. It calculates the route up to 80% and then gets stuck there for a long time until I eventually get a message on the screen (“route calculator error”) This left me unable to navigate in the Karoo over the weekend. I updated my unit this morning hoping its just a bug but the issue still remains. Sometimes it does calculate the route but if I miss a turn off it starts recalculating and the 80% freeze happens again. I have emailed Garmin in SA. No response yet. Im also considering just getting rid of the unit and finding another option for navigating.

My Montana 700i suddenly switch off too!! I'm going to send it to support but the guy I heard by phone was non surprised about this problem...

Have you updated the Garmin Firmware to the latest version?

I have owned many Garmin GPS’s and the only wanting feature I had was screen size. So, I purchased the Montana 700 series. Disappoint #1 I could not install City Maps (which was noted in the lit. but I did not see). #2 Power Switch - I also owned the Montana 600 series GPS and hated the power switch because you had to take your gloves off to get it to work. The new 700 series have the same switch and now I have problems with that switch and P.S. the switch broke completely on the M600 series and now it is a paper weight. Summary - bad power switch on a $700 dollar unit. #3 touch screen works only when you hit it the right way. #4. To use AA batteries apparently you must purchase more kit? Positive comments #1 The larger display is very nice. #2 Being able to insert more pages for display is great. Would I purchase again Absolutely NO!

I have only ever used the Garmin Zumo on my motorcycle. Never had any problems with my Zumo but of course it is not nearly as versatile as the Montana

Very thorough review; thanks for that. Can you or anyone else mention any other, comparable, units that might be worth considering fixing to my CRF300L?

I’m not entirely sure but does the vlogger Itchy Boots have the same sat nav, certainly looks the same but made just one from that series. I have the BMW Nav VI it wasn’t cheap either had it several years now always been reliable and the sat nav part is Garmin. I wouldn’t buy another but that’s down to the cost, I would have an XT though. As to return I would return it to the company get a refund, think once you’ve lost confidence it’s eats away at you and will never really get resolved.

I have the same unit with the citynav chip and it will not find anything from any of the search options. I have to scroll around to find what in looking for then click to add the waypoint.

hey there, i bought last week the montana 700 (standard) and it shut off during nav with no reason i will call garmin on monday

Thanks for the vid. Is it the unit or the mount? I found with (the car mount) that it is intermittent, ?

oh... 3rd contry problems... :D Of course - for that money - sad that not reaching quality and service level what was expected...

Surely not the best for motorbiking. I am on my third (750i) now after a great number of faults on the first two. Sloow screen, dying, complaing for battery-back-up, locks up for minutes without cause, wont recalculate a route but locks for minutes, etc etc. The third one now does die as well. But is immediately turned on again on the button. Only buy this one if You need Sattelite, geocaching and the many things it can do that You may not find in the other devices. The Zumo is surely more bikelike.

Is it a device that switches of after a time if you don't use it ,if so change in settings👍

Mine has randomly turned off as well.

i wonder if this could be related to the bike (bare with) i have had issues with phones and navigation devices on single cylinder bikes that are very vibey and wonder if the manufacturers are aware that these devices are too sensitive for this style of riding, hence why quad lock have developed the dampening device for their mounts. Just a thought.

Hi just seen your channel would you recommend this unit or is the tom tom 550 rider a better unit

Well no problem at the moment l purchased a Garmin entrex 22 dew to the knarly hard enduro riding l do but after getting home and start setting the unit up the way l wanted to use it l immediately found it was a antiquated design that was not only hard to use but painfully slow to use which makes the unit a single use GPS and will only work better if l buy another unit and run them side by side as the hard enduro guys use them even for a weekend warrior trail riding it is painfully slow to to use with less than average features like menu's and resolution so can anyone recommend a better GPS to run then the eTrex 22 or the Montana 700

Garmen XT , no problems here 👍

Don't catch them mosko Moto bags on any gate post ect : the back tears of them👍

i have the montana 700i and it turn off randomly when connected to the atv

It's designed as a handheld, not to mount it on a motorcycle. I'm guessing that it has problems with the vibrations of the motorcycle, just like smartphones do.

Wow! I am a carbon copy of this video! Had mine just over a year. First one was replaced like yours. I'm having EXACTLY the same issues! Would never have bought it if I'd known then what I know now. Zumo XT get nothing but rave reviews. VERY frustrating.

I’ve had random problems with every Garmin product I’ve owned. Unfortunately there are not many other options. Garmin is way overrated.

XT done

Give it back

Tom tom rider 550 seems a better gps unit

Text Garmin support. They helped me a lot because my 396lmt-s zumo had a software issue and would shut down when I'd input destination. They send me few fixes which didn't work and exchanged my unit for free! I'm using my 396lmt-s with premade tracks and it works well, but I wish it would do more.