with MP3s, I don't see a use for the XM radio personally but I rely on the XM weather very much so. It's not the best live radar in the world but you get alerts when weather is near you and it has literally saved my *** once riding out of Capitan south on 380 (east of Ruidoso) when storm clouds appeared over both the santa monica mountains moving from northeast to southwest and the Sierra Blanca mountains moving from northwest to southeast almost at the intersection of of 380 and 70. kind of like a perfect storm scenario. When I stopped to look at the radar on my GPS I saw the red and yellow so I decided to take 70 headed south to Roswell instead of going back to Ruidoso like planned. Later that day when the weather cleared out and we headed back into Ruidoso, the hail was so thick on the sides of the roads, it looked like snow. Got back to ruidoso and some folks we were with had vehicles there.. beat to crap by hail... needless to say.. that woulda really hurt like hell if we would have rode into that mess...

I mounted my antenna directly on top of the radio inside the fairing. Works great there...

 

Update - took bike to dealer today. They installed the round puck antenna and the NIM. Gave me a good deal on the service. I personally spoke with the technican and he explained the operation exactly as you guys have said. Thanks for everyones help on educating me on the Zumo.