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Beeline Moto - new type of navigation aid

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Tried to flip the photo and failed but mine is mounted on the middle of the handlebars. Very easy to look down quickly. The unit tells me how far to the next turn and in what direction that turn will be. When you reach the turn, the arrow points in the direction of travel. Effortless navigation that reminds me of the onboard gps in my car but without the map and the street names. So far, I'm pretty happy but it has only been one ride.
 
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... When you reach the turn, the arrow points in the direction of travel...
Did it tell you to turn BEFORE the turn?

I had the arrow indicating the turns AFTER the intersection. Several times in-between 2 intersections. It is a known fault that has been reported by many motorcycle users.
 
For those not familiar the unit:the little dot tells you the direction and the mileage underneath tells you where to turn. When it gets to 0.1mi it's time to slow down. It does seem to turn right at the turn. I see your point about not much notice. With a lot of close streets and turns it may turn out to be a pain, but my car suffers from the same affliction when I'm driving downtown.
 
For those not familiar the unit:the little dot tells you the direction and the mileage underneath tells you where to turn. When it gets to 0.1mi it's time to slow down. It does seem to turn right at the turn. I see your point about not much notice. With a lot of close streets and turns it may turn out to be a pain, but my car suffers from the same affliction when I'm driving downtown.

My ^ indicator turns at 50' to 200+' after the actual intersection. I tried this several times at ultra low speeds when there was no traffic so I basically crept through several intersections watching/testing the accuracy.

I had several instances in areas where the ^ indicator turned almost exactly between 2 streets.

Again, this is a know glitch that affects some. Oddly, I have an iPhone and most of the reports are from Android users. Tech support asked me 3 times to confirm my phone make/model.

I do agree that at 0.1 mi its time to slow down. But again, it requires concentration on the device rather than on traffic. I believe it needs audio cues. Can't tell you how many time I've been riding down a road and alerted to a turn by my nav unit's voice command because I was not watching the screen. I don't think watching a screen while riding a motorcycle makes a lot of sense.

Again, just my person gripe.

As far as car nav systems go, I guess we got lucky with ours? I get a pictograph of the intersection indicating exactly which of several streets to turn on while getting voice prompts. Even tells me what lane to get into in advance of the upcoming turn.
 
Well I had the chance to use the BeeLine Moto a few time in the past couple days and I must say that I am a big fan. I've put in my own route, used it in compass mode, and let it chose routes for me, all of which worked well. The routes that it chooses are good, it recalculates very quickly, the display is easy to understand and is very responsive, it is easy to see while not being distracting, and it looks very cool. Ive found that if I make a google map, translate it to a gpx with mapstogpx, download it to my computer, email it to my phone, and open it with the beeline app it loads right up. It seems like a lot of work but it is really pretty fast, even I was able to figure it out without asking a 20 year old. All in all a win for me. I understand melensdad's criticisms but it seems to do the trick for me.
 
Glad it works for you, the Beeline comment boards are lighting up over the past few days with people who have the same problems I have so I have to ask, are you using an iPhone or an Android? And which network do you use: ATT, Sprint, etc?

I'm starting to wonder if many of the problems are network related? Or phone platform related? Or...?
 
Possibly network related, I use Verizon on an iphone. The turn appears very consistently 0.03 mi before each turn, which is about half of a city block, or slightly over 2 sec at 45 mph. I haven’t used it in a dense city environment and would have much less confidence there without being able to see street names
 
Possibly network related, I use Verizon on an iphone. The turn appears very consistently 0.03 mi before each turn, which is about half of a city block, or slightly over 2 sec at 45 mph. I haven’t used it in a dense city environment and would have much less confidence there without being able to see street names

Mine tried to turn me into the front lawn of a suburban homeowner. Also had me turning between 2 different intersections that were about 400' apart. I would not bother to use this in Chicago. It was horrid enough in the suburbs. Out in rural areas, on 3 different occasions, I was directed to turn into farm fields where no road existed for at least a 1/4 mile in any direction other than the road I was on.
 
I eventually learned how to import .gpx routes rather easily. However, most would not work in route mode because the Beeline wouldn't recognize more than a certain small number of waypoints. I just received a notice from Beeline that this limitation has been fixed and that beeline will now follow imported .gpx maps in route mode. This fixed the only criticism I had of this device. One other small complaint; one of the rubber rings that hold the universal mount to the handle bars began to crack after a season in the sun. When I emailed the folks at Beeline, they immediately sent replacements free of charge, which arrived from the UK in less than a week. I could not recommend a better Christmas present for a motorcyclist.
 
I eventually learned how to import .gpx routes rather easily. However, most would not work in route mode because the Beeline wouldn't recognize more than a certain small number of waypoints. I just received a notice from Beeline that this limitation has been fixed and that beeline will now follow imported .gpx maps in route mode. This fixed the only criticism I had of this device. One other small complaint; one of the rubber rings that hold the universal mount to the handle bars began to crack after a season in the sun. When I emailed the folks at Beeline, they immediately sent replacements free of charge, which arrived from the UK in less than a week. I could not recommend a better Christmas present for a motorcyclist.
Clearly 2 wildly different sets of experiences with Beeline.

FWIW, I also managed to get mine to easily import .gpx routes. And they did update their software to allow for more than 25 waypoints. But I still believe it is generally dangerous to use, especially in traffic with complex intersections. The turn indicator is clearly inaccurate on mine (and many others reported the same problems) with it signaling the turn after the intersection, between close proximity intersections or even into non-existent roads. It also has some serious issues with needing to be connected to the internet at all times if you ever need to use the "re routing" feature.

It is cheap, so if someone wants to throw money into a stocking stuffer then I can't fault them. But downloading SCENIC is a far better solution. I'm sure there are many other lower priced alternatives too.
 
Certainly not the first, and definitely not the worst internet disagreement! The bad thing is that I have one and now can only buy myself socks for Christmas.
 
Certainly not the first, and definitely not the worst internet disagreement! The bad thing is that I have one and now can only buy myself socks for Christmas.

Have a good Christmas ... at least you will have warm feet!
 
Ran across this review of Beeline. It seems like a fair review. Experiences seem similar to mine. It works, sort of. The author rates it as working 60% of the time, does odd things in areas of weak signals but on the bright side he says it is also better than "guessing" the route.

LINK TO STORY --> https://adventuremotorcycle.com/gear/beeline-moto-navigation-review
 
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