The Garmin XT is a bit too shiny; this product cuts out the glare. (Photo: Kate Murphy)

Like a lot of dedicated GPS-using motorcyclists, I upgraded to a Zumo XT last year during one of their sales. My (very) old Nav IV (nee Zumo 660) had been getting unreliable. More often, it took minutes to find satellites and would then randomly lose them again mid-ride.

The XT is everything I had hoped it would be, especially since its last software update. It’s a great replacement for the 660. There was one nagging complaint I had about the unit though: the glare.

The XT’s very shiny screen would reflect sunlight, sometimes right into my eyes, often to the point that reading the screen was a challenge. Credit card at the ready, I set out to solve this problem.

So shiny! Too shiny! Photo: Kate Murphy

An Internet search brought up a vast array of possible solutions. I read through a bunch of product review blurbs and decided to spend the princely sum of $17 USD on an anti-glare screen protector three-pack from Speedo Angels. (I always buy multiples of things like this, just in case I mess one or two of them up.)

This UK-based seller has a surprising number of motorcycle screen protectors of various fitments on their website. I imagine with the recent preponderance of dashboard TFT screens on motorcycles, it helps to protect a touch-screen that might see a lot of dusty use. Not all of them are anti-glare, so if that’s what you’re looking for, be sure to select the correct version.

That all said, I am not particularly worried about protecting my XT, only in making it less blinding . I think it worked. Direct From Seller

I ordered directly from the Speedo Angels website, not from a reseller. It took a little over a week to get to me in New Hampshire from the UK, which I thought was pretty speedy.

The instructions are quite clear about how to install these, but the process was still kind of a pain. The protector comes as three layers; the protector has a top & bottom film. The company also includes a cleaning rag, a lint remover sticker, and a hard plastic square to help work out any bubbles. Photo: Kate Murphy Careful Perseverence Pays Off

I mixed up some soapy water in a small spray bottle, per the instructions. I sprayed the XT down, pulled off the film’s backing, sprayed that down, and applied.

This created a bubbly mess, but I persevered, and set my OCD free, working out all the air pockets and then all the small bubbles. The wet application ensured I was able to straighten the protector perfectly on the screen. The next step was pulling the front film off. Perhaps I should have waited longer, but pulling that layer off, introduced all kinds of bubbles all over again. After working all (OK, most) of those out, and toweling the XT off, I powered it up. The glare is gone. Photo: Kate Murphy Thumbs Up

The glare is gone. Photo: Kate Murphy

Lo and behold, the glare is gone. Fitment is exact, down to the tiny angled corners of the screen. Functionality is exactly as before with no loss of precision. A day after installation the protector is fixed solid with no worry about peeling up.

This is a good product at a decent price. I’m a happy customer. Would recommend. To be clear: I spent my own money on this, Speedo Angels didn’t request a review, and I absolutely would have told you if it sucked.