What's your GPS choice?

[FlaNC700X]

Ok my GPS is screaming at me to update the map. At $80 I would rather buy a new one with lifetime map updates. Tell me the gps you would pick and why? Try to stay around $200. I know Garmin has bike Gps's for $700. But I'd take a $200 one and put it in a ram case or something.

 

[670cc]

Although it's not a new model anymore, I use a Garmin Nuvi 550. The primary reasons is that it's rugged, IPX7 waterproof, and has a removable/replaceable battery. It does pretty much what the Zumo does for a lot less $. There is a RAM holder available for it. Refurbs are $200, new a little more. If you buy it new I think you get a one time free map update to the latest and greatest.

 

[Tucsonrider]

My Navigon GPS on my iPhone.. Works great.... Great App,

 

[Rocker66]

A road Atlas Sorry but I'm bit of a Luddite

 

[happy]

Tomtom's are very popular here. The Europe Rider version with Bluetooth, etc.

I use a cheapo one from the supermarket. It cost 29chf (down from 199chf) on a special "open new store day".
Yup 29.

 

[happy]

My Navigon GPS on my iPhone.. Works great.... Great App,

My problem with the iPhone is
1. Battery (although can use charging cable)
2. Map data (some needs dataplan downloading all the time / although I have unlimited data plan)
3. Roaming to other countries will knock a big hole in my wallet
4. Not enough way points memory
5. Touch screen not possible with glove unless special glove solution, etc

And me, I am a purist. One device one function.
Of course iPhone works for some riders. Cool!

 

[FlaNC700X]

Thanks everyone I also was thinking of the phone option but Joe brought up some of the reasons I wou
D not go in that direction. 670cc has a good recommendation, but new gps 's from farming come with lifetime map updates.

 

[happy]

Motorcycle GPS are NOT CHEAP. so I use an Auto GPS....

 

[turbodieseli4i6]

Right now I'm using a Garmin 60 CX on my NCX. I use a cheap Garmin Nuvi 205 on my GL1200 and cages.

 

[SuperMek]

I use a TomTom Rider. Although I don't like the company behind it, the GPS has its advantages. Two of them are the choice of roads when you program a route, marked as "use twisty roads" and "avoid highways/freeways". These choices are cleverly imbedded in the unit. Battery time is up to 8 hours and charging is done by any USB outlet via a USB mini connector. Map, POI, speed limit indication and radar camera updates are the common GPS manufactories standard, i.e. they are years behind what actually happens on the road network.

Matte display with good strong level of backlight, rain resistant construction and a crappy mounting bracket that breaks down in a short time. Spare brackets are almost impossible to get unless you pay a ridiculously high price on the "black market" on ebay.

Oh, I almost forgot the most stupid thing in the unit, and that is the map storage. The unit is sold as "all european maps included", but the GPS can only hold a small part of the countries at one given time as the internal, not expandable or changeable, memory is limited. Europe is split up in five zones and you can only install any one zone at any time. Poor you if you have to travel from one zone to an other and don't have your laptop with you on the bike to be able to reprogram and reload a new zone to the GPS. This solution is so incredibly silly that words can't tell.

 

[Beemerphile]

I have stuck with Garmin over the years for no particular reason other than it is what I have settled in with. I now use the Zumo 665 with weather radar provided through Sirius XM. It is a decent unit and I have the map updates for life. In fact, I just downloaded one yesterday. Mine is mounted in a Touratech MVG mount.

 

[James59]

A map in a map holder with a chinagraph pencil so I can mark the plastic with road numbers and junctions in sequence. Cost about £15.00. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of GPS and have one on my phone, just too cheap to spend the money on one right now, typical Scottish.

 

[SuperMek]

...typical Scottish.

Oh, you confirm that the rumor is no rumor?
Splendid! Now we can deal with this as fact instead and the stories are not stories any more, but trustworthy information!
Like:
"The Scottsman to his son: Is that your new shoes lad? If so, take longer steps!"

 

[happy]

Oh, you confirm that the rumor is no rumor?
Splendid! Now we can deal with this as fact instead and the stories are not stories any more, but trustworthy information!
Like:
"The Scottsman to his son: Is that your new shoes lad? If so, take longer steps!"

Ha ha....works for you, I guess.

If it were me cracking such a joke, I'd be picked out and hanged to dry on a pole.


I have a GPS, James, but I also like the pen and paper approach. I actually like getting a bit lost while riding.... it is afterall an "adventure" bike...

 

[Rocker66]

Oh, you confirm that the rumor is no rumor?
Splendid! Now we can deal with this as fact instead and the stories are not stories any more, but trustworthy information!
Like:
"The Scottsman to his son: Is that your new shoes lad? If so, take longer steps!"

I like it. I have some good friends on the W650 forum whom I meet up with on my trips to Scotland and I will try that one on them. To be fair their hospitality is very good 99.9% of the time. the odd 0.1% is if when asked what you want you say a whiskey and then asked which brand you prefer you say "Bushmills"

 

[James59]

I one toured Andalucia and Southern Spain for a few days without a map, I was bemoaning, bloody Spanish, no maps in garages, maybe that's how they discovered America. Of course, it wasn't the Spanish at fault but me. However, I went to places and saw things I would have by-passed if I had a map. I got a beautiful map from a garage..still have it.

 

[James59]

Bushmills is lovely, not harsh like some Scottish whisky.

 

[James59]

Yes, exactly. When time is tight and you have a schedule to keep then sure..But, its nice to just go where the road takes you with no plan. I get my coffee machine ready the night before, I prepare my breakfast the night before, I am always thinking ahead, anticipating what will happen in work, anticipating bills coming in and when to move money about from one account to another, it is all planned exactly and it works, but its nice to do no planning and just go sometimes...that's one of the reasons I love bikes...

 

[TechiePilot]

Wow, a lot of stuff here...
I find that using my phone for navigation drains the battery quicker, map detail not the greatest, I don't get to choose routing...ie use of freeways/not...fastest/shortest. To compound matters, I don't have the accessory power outlet (yet). A different phone may fix that, but I'm too cheap, and I think my phone should just be a phone.

I will continue to steal the Magellan Maestro 3250 from my car because I have options not usually found with some of the cheaper units...
* programming a trip with multiple stops and being able to resume navigation to the next destination (the Maestro can hold 20 trips)
* I can choose one of four nav options, I usually play with three of them...fastest time, most use of freeways, least use of freeways
* I can feed the audio from the 3.5mm phono plugs to my headset in the helmet
* gps can survive on battery for over 2 hours (that's longer than my team will ride without break).
* Once on track, I don't need constant confirmation, so I can switch it off to conserv batterye.
* the map update may set me back $80, but I have the features I want, and they still work.
* a sub to the above point is that I want to keep my carbon footprint small ;-)
* my top feature to keep is being able to exlude a section of route just by picking it off the list, and have the GPS reroute around. Its kinda like detour, but not exactly. And yes, I do still have sectional maps... Nothing worse than losing a signal or the "updated" gps confused about some recent improvement/construction work ;-)

 

[happy]

I have been using Garmins GPS 10 years ago, before automobile GPS took off.
I currently own a Tomtom for my car, because it is the best in Europe.

I know one thing is for sure. the maps for US/N.canada and the europe are very different and their costs also make it very different.
One can hardly find a device which supports both US and Europe.

I know in the US, Garmin /Magellan is the preferred vendor, while in Europe it is TomTom.
Therefore it can be quite difficult for us on this side of the earth to "advise" what to get on the other side of the world.

For Europe, tomtom is never wrong.
There is also one at PEARL - Ihr Online Shop für Elektronik, PC- & Büro-Zubehör & MEHR (navigon?) but then it is again for Europe.