I’m no satnav or navigation expert but I do like to plan routes and lead small groups here and in Europe, and have used phone apps and satnavs and still use both systems today so I thought I would give an unbiased view of the whole shabang. Well almost unbiased as this is from an iPhone users point of view.
I’ve put this thread here because it’s about units that can use the wheel on the bars, not looking into stand alone units like the XT but moderators move it if need be.
So let’s start at the beginning with the nav5 which I believe to be the first unit to utilise the wheel to operate it. I had a nav 5 and found it to be very reliable. The screen could have been a lot brighter and it doesn’t have all the features that the 6 came with. I wouldn’t play music via the iPhone for instance, not a deal breaker and for some it doesn’t matter at all. I think there were some other extras in the menu as well that I can’t remember.
That leads us to the nav 6. I had a lot of these as they kept failing with the ghosting issue. The screen was so much brighter than the 5 and had a few extra bits like the iPhone music player. Now I had both versions, the original and the make life a ride version and they both failed with ghosting issues. The only difference between them is the look the newer one has to match the font of the tft screens, but it’s the same hardware and screen. If you have one that hasn’t played up yet, you have been lucky.
So after all the issues with the nav6 BMW parted company with garmin and brought out the connect cradle and app. I had one of these as well and really liked it. I used an iPhone 11pro in it in a slim case and it worked well. But then everyone jumped on the vibration ruins your phone wagon. Now from the iPhone 11 onwards the focusing and stability system is a more robust unit, I used mine off road constantly with no issues. The app was pretty good and the routing was tomtom based which worked well and the live updates for road closures was good. Now you could do that with the nav6 if you had the garmin app on your phone and linked them but the connection was a bit unreliable. That was an issue with the nav6 between headset and phone as well. The recommended way was to use the nav as a hub, connect the headset to the nav and the phone to the nav and then your calls should come from your phone to the nav then your headset, but I found this unreliable at best Using just the phone in the cradle done away with phone connection issues completely. The connect cradle also had wireless charging but the charger was weak at best and when I questioned BMW about it they said it was for keeping the phone charged not charging from flat. But the wheel worked well with the app but the bike info screen didn’t give as much information as the nav5&6 did, and there was no speed cameras on the app.
It’s not all roses with phones as they don’t like the sun or the heat, as we all know leaving your phone in full sun will render it useless till it’s cooled down. Also you need a phone that will work in the rain.
I used mine until the bracket which held the phone in snapped, luckily it happened putting the phone in and not on the road.
This lead me to the WunderLINQ unit. I like to plan routes and send them to my unit, I also plan off road routes as well, that was something the connect app couldn’t do.
I was really hesitant about getting one but I still wanted to use the wheel and at the time it was my only option unless I went backwards to something I’d already tried.
But the WunderLINQ is only as good as the app you use on it to navigate with. Now I use scenic as I could make a single lifetime payment as I don’t like subscriptions, it can import and export routes and you can even send a routing you planned on google maps without having to convert files, plus it has lots of different routing options, for me it works perfectly and now it has had speed cameras and road closures added etc. it works even better. Alot of people like myroute app, tomtom, calimoto the list goes on. Not every app works with the WunderLINQ so make sure the app you use does before thinking of getting one. I use a wireless quadlock charger on mine which charges the phone really quick and the WunderLINQ also has a high output usb socket I use to power a tablet for rallying.
Finally there is a new navigator from BMW but at nearly £700 I haven’t tried it but from what I’ve seen it is a unit that uses software similar to what the connect app comes with. Which for most people I think will work well.
As I said at the start I use both gps and phone, on my handlebars I have a BMW version of the garmin 600 Montana, this has ordinance survey maps and city navigator. I use this more for off road use and as a back up if the phone ever fails, it has no audio and a small screen but it’s bombproof.
I wouldn’t rule out a stand alone gps, apparently the XT is really good and there is also things like the carpe iter but none of these use the wheel, so if you have it you might as well use it.
Hope this is of use to someone.
I’ve put this thread here because it’s about units that can use the wheel on the bars, not looking into stand alone units like the XT but moderators move it if need be.
So let’s start at the beginning with the nav5 which I believe to be the first unit to utilise the wheel to operate it. I had a nav 5 and found it to be very reliable. The screen could have been a lot brighter and it doesn’t have all the features that the 6 came with. I wouldn’t play music via the iPhone for instance, not a deal breaker and for some it doesn’t matter at all. I think there were some other extras in the menu as well that I can’t remember.
That leads us to the nav 6. I had a lot of these as they kept failing with the ghosting issue. The screen was so much brighter than the 5 and had a few extra bits like the iPhone music player. Now I had both versions, the original and the make life a ride version and they both failed with ghosting issues. The only difference between them is the look the newer one has to match the font of the tft screens, but it’s the same hardware and screen. If you have one that hasn’t played up yet, you have been lucky.
So after all the issues with the nav6 BMW parted company with garmin and brought out the connect cradle and app. I had one of these as well and really liked it. I used an iPhone 11pro in it in a slim case and it worked well. But then everyone jumped on the vibration ruins your phone wagon. Now from the iPhone 11 onwards the focusing and stability system is a more robust unit, I used mine off road constantly with no issues. The app was pretty good and the routing was tomtom based which worked well and the live updates for road closures was good. Now you could do that with the nav6 if you had the garmin app on your phone and linked them but the connection was a bit unreliable. That was an issue with the nav6 between headset and phone as well. The recommended way was to use the nav as a hub, connect the headset to the nav and the phone to the nav and then your calls should come from your phone to the nav then your headset, but I found this unreliable at best Using just the phone in the cradle done away with phone connection issues completely. The connect cradle also had wireless charging but the charger was weak at best and when I questioned BMW about it they said it was for keeping the phone charged not charging from flat. But the wheel worked well with the app but the bike info screen didn’t give as much information as the nav5&6 did, and there was no speed cameras on the app.
It’s not all roses with phones as they don’t like the sun or the heat, as we all know leaving your phone in full sun will render it useless till it’s cooled down. Also you need a phone that will work in the rain.
I used mine until the bracket which held the phone in snapped, luckily it happened putting the phone in and not on the road.
This lead me to the WunderLINQ unit. I like to plan routes and send them to my unit, I also plan off road routes as well, that was something the connect app couldn’t do.
I was really hesitant about getting one but I still wanted to use the wheel and at the time it was my only option unless I went backwards to something I’d already tried.
But the WunderLINQ is only as good as the app you use on it to navigate with. Now I use scenic as I could make a single lifetime payment as I don’t like subscriptions, it can import and export routes and you can even send a routing you planned on google maps without having to convert files, plus it has lots of different routing options, for me it works perfectly and now it has had speed cameras and road closures added etc. it works even better. Alot of people like myroute app, tomtom, calimoto the list goes on. Not every app works with the WunderLINQ so make sure the app you use does before thinking of getting one. I use a wireless quadlock charger on mine which charges the phone really quick and the WunderLINQ also has a high output usb socket I use to power a tablet for rallying.
Finally there is a new navigator from BMW but at nearly £700 I haven’t tried it but from what I’ve seen it is a unit that uses software similar to what the connect app comes with. Which for most people I think will work well.
As I said at the start I use both gps and phone, on my handlebars I have a BMW version of the garmin 600 Montana, this has ordinance survey maps and city navigator. I use this more for off road use and as a back up if the phone ever fails, it has no audio and a small screen but it’s bombproof.
I wouldn’t rule out a stand alone gps, apparently the XT is really good and there is also things like the carpe iter but none of these use the wheel, so if you have it you might as well use it.
Hope this is of use to someone.
