Why buy a bike specific sat nav?

...and what sort of GPS do YOU have ? :augie

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WHY BUY A BIKE SPECIFIC GPS

I have had my zumo 660 for over 3 years now, bought the lifetime map updates which i believe were good value for money.

I only use the unit on the bike but it comes with a car cradle and the mrs has used it often in her car if shes going somewhere shes not familiar with.

My main use is planning routes on the pc and transferring to unit, either for a days ride out on recommended roads ive not used before, or for longer trips, I have an annual 10 day europe jaunt each year and this year have had a week in ireland and a week in the north of scotland. For these trips the sat nav is a real benefit, in europe for example just finding your way to your hotel at the end of a days riding used to take us an age of fecking about, and getting out of cities on the correct roads in the morning:blast

I enjoy planning the trips and the sat nav just allows you to enjoy the ride safely, concentrating on the road as opposed to trying to look at a map on the tank etc.

Its waterproof so no worries in the rain, has bluetooth so i can listen to the instructions on a headset.

Would never use it locally or on a route ive done before but otherwise they are good value in my opinion.:hide
 
i've a garmin nuvi 1340 (i think) cheapo.
i borrowed a Garmin Bike specific (fectifino wot it was) for our recent trip to France.
Reason;
my garmin nerdi was not waterproof and the screen is really dim :mad: compared to the 'bells and whistles' one i borrowed.
the borrowed one - was great for finding the hotels - i'd loaded the addresses into it, so come days end - just hit the button to lead me to them and i could SEE the effing screen.
Idiotproof. :thumb2

I considered all ways to waterproof the nerdi - cling film to plastic bag to sticking it in a condom! :eek
the screen would still be so dim as to be a hazard and no use.

now i can see the point of getting a good one.
Sat navs not only aid navigation but lower the amount of argument and stress levels you can have with your pillion.
That alone makes them priceless and you can get on with enjoying the trip. ;)
 
Yes you do have to have a bike specific GPS.

It has to have MP3, bluetooth, it has to play video and it has to have as many other farkles on it as possible.

It has to be one that has already had a lockable, expensive billet aluminium GPS mount for it in the Touratech catalogue.

You won't EVER need any of these things, above the basic routing from A to B of course.

BUT....if you don't have all of the above, you will be looked down on by all the wankers here who sadly, have to self-justify their own purchase of a similar unit.



A lot of them (not all, being fair) are the ones who have plastered their expensive Tesco panniers in stickers that they have ordered from EBay, have the most expensive jackets and trousers and a peaked MX style helmet.

The only place they need these things is IN THEIR HEADS.......most of them barely get out of Britain, let alone Europe.

These people are really easy to spot....if you look at their bikes, they usually have things like extended mudguards (carbon fibre of course) but also have knobbly tyres (WTF :nenau) or other pairs of items that utterly contradict eachother.

Nearly all of it is utter bullshit....they just like expensive farkles (hey, and why not, man toys are good :thumb2) and will try and convince you to get the same, so they are happier with their choices and can pretend that they are in some adventurer's club rather than just having rather smaller reproductive organs than normal.


If it makes you happy and you want to, go out and buy one of these uberGPSs........but no, you do not need one, and a 15 quid second or third hand Nuvo from Ebay will do a bloody good job......you can stick it in a 5p ziplock bag if you can't position it out of the rain, but IME you don't have to.

Aluminium mounts? bollox.....two bits of velcro pad, 30p (it's a quid a metre in a haberdashery)

Power on the bike......1.49 free shipping from Ebay, plus a quid for an in-line fuse.

You can spot the most insecure wankers by the way...they'll be the ones who most vociferously try and defend their buying of the uberGPS....just watch, some will be along here soon :augie

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Total cost <20 quid.....has lasted 2 years so far, 2 winters (all year around riding) and rain, snow, sleet, fog, heat and bird shit.

:thumb2


I'm not usually one to retort to this kind of response but.

Fanum,

I really feel for you, the amount of anger you have pent up within your psyche must at times be almost debilitating.

I have over my extensive working career met and worked professionally with many angry people. The stress it ultimately causes themselves and people close to them can at times be very destructive if not managed effectively.

Do yourself and those around you a favour, have a good look at your anger.

Steve
 
I have a garmin 660 , cant fault it in the three years of ownership have navigated to all the tesco outlets near me. Never let me get lost and arrive at the store on time. I have asked if the individual stores will do a sticker so i can cover my panniers with them.
I might even try to navigate to another tesco in another town. Well you have to try dont you.:eek:
The Gs1200adv always looks well in their carpark,especially when parked in front of store illegally. :cool:
Nobody says owt cos i have me black sunspecs on to look cool. Once i even inadvertently went up a kerb whilst checking me reflection in the window. However having nearly knocked me sat nav out of the mount I wont be doing that again.:eek:
Out of the shop and look for home and off we go. Not got lost once going home either AMAZING Arne t sat navs brilliant :thumby:

I know I`ll get me coat:D
 
I really feel for you, the amount of anger you have pent up within your psyche must at times be almost debilitating.

Oh that really is an old post-Freudian model of the "psyche" and an epistemological mistake. You know there's no such thing as "anger"...? Yes, it's an abstract noun and linguistically a nominalisation that you can't put in a wheelbarrow. So you can't have this non-existent anger "pent up inside you". It's not a helpful model because if it were the case, it would pose the problem of how the hell would you "get rid of it". Not that you have to, of course, because it doesn't exist.

Now, he may well find that there are things that make him angry and he might be an increasingly intolerant old bugger (I know that feeling, especially in respect of epistemological mistakes of this nature...) and it might be helpful for him to do some work on the process that provokes those states in him but he doesn't, nor do any of us, have things "pent up" that we need to get rid of, apart from bodily fluids and solids. That old post Freudian hydraulic model of energy is long past its sell-by-date. :)

Of, course he might just be on the edge of Internet trolldom.....:nenau
 
I've had a quest and zumo 550 but the best so far on my bike was the nuvi :thumb

Car-based but a cheap mount from ebay and a ciggy sockety wire thingy and it got me around france and belgium and all over UK with no problems at all :thumb

When it did rain, and I can recall getting caught in torential rain after the chunnel for 3 hours once, I just popped into my tank bag :thumb2
 
I'm not usually one to retort to this kind of response but.

Fanum,

I really feel for you, the amount of anger you have pent up within your psyche must at times be almost debilitating.

I have over my extensive working career met and worked professionally with many angry people. The stress it ultimately causes themselves and people close to them can at times be very destructive if not managed effectively.

Do yourself and those around you a favour, have a good look at your anger.

Steve


I have zero anger involved in this issue......the only negative emotion I experience when considering it in fact, is that of pity for those who have to either spout pseudo-phsyco babble about it in order to defend themselves and their sheep-like buying decision, or that of wonder that so many people are still kidding themselves so thoroughly about their perceived need for such ridiculous electronic farkles.

The only debilitating thing I'm experiencing right now are some ripped ligaments in my left knee which are stopping me from being able to ride safely.....other than that, I find the whole thing quite amusing :comfort

So go on...which GPS did YOU buy? :augie
 
PS FWIW I have owned several bike-specific GPS units, from one of the original street pilots to my favourite (still in use) quest.....in fact, I've had 3 quest 1 models so far.

I've also got three variants of the Rino series combined walkie talky/gps devices, which were bought (and served exceptionally well) for a very specific purpose.

My day-to-day GPS unit though is that 15 quid Nuvi, which does everything I need it to do in the real world, and is almost a disposable item :nenau
 
I've had a quest and zumo 550 but the best so far on my bike was the nuvi :thumb

My Nuvi 760 with US maps on an SD card, in a RAM Mount, fitted to Earache's Pan European on our trip from Indianapolis to Colorado and Utah and back again in 2011. It worked perfectly to navigate me back from Blackhawk to Indy on my own and survived a downpour as we skirted the crashed cars on a rain lashed freeway around Denver.

But only because I chose to leave my Navigator IV at home....:augie
 

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I have used car sat navs on the bike with no issue. No world touring just UK and Ireland runs. No issues. Pick your sat nav carefully though. £80 will not allow you to do much other than get from A - C via B.

I bought an old 765t Garmin sat nav. Car specific. Cost me £39 on e bay. I then bought a ram kit and a waterproof case, and created cables that can be unplugged easily. I left the ram mont and case on most of the time overseas. In the UK, I remove the ram mount with Sat Nav in it overnight. Mainly used for trips and not on a daily basis.
I have used Bumpkins advice and created a very workable solution. All in, less than £100 but I did not update maps. Yet. Just done 3500 miles on it across Europe. No bother, no hassle. Before that I used a tom tom v1 (but you cannot do route planning/ create an itinerary) on those. The 765 does.
I get music/blue tooth for phone, and spoken commands via my autocomm.
No need, but it is a neater/cleaner solution.
 
You can buy a car based second hand GPS device (just as you can buy many things second hand) saving money over the cost of a new one. Whether you decide to have one that will take self-created routes or whether you are happy to allow the device to always chose your routes for you, is up to you.

You can then spend time (and some more money) sourcing and installing a waterproof carrier and a dedicated power supply, suitable for running the device on a motorbike. You can, should you so desire, then spend some more time (and a little bit more money) making a copy of the 1600 GT's GPS dashboard out of balsa wood and leatherette vinyl.

Or you can just buy yourself a second hand bike orientated GPS device (that will probably work just as well in a car) and save yourself a lot of bother.
 
...and what sort of GPS do YOU have ? :augie

As you can see a Garmin 660. Had a Sreetpilot to begin with - was good in it's day.

As you can see I also have ridiculous metal panniers with the totally stupid external oil can etc.
I remember one of you earlier rants on this paricular subject. :aidan
 

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As you can see a Garmin 660. Had a Sreetpilot to begin with - was good in it's day.

As you can see I also have ridiculous metal panniers with the totally stupid external oil can etc.
I remember one of you earlier rants on this paricular subject. :aidan

Riding in Chile, two up, metal cases and oil cans are eminently sensible :thumb2

If you'd bought them just to look good on your way to Tesco though, with no intention of going any further, it would make you a tit :D

(Though of course, as so often pointed out by that sort of tit, if they really want to do that, it's up to them and it is after all, their money.
It doesn't make them any less tit-like though :D)
 
Riding in Chile, two up, metal cases and oil cans are eminently sensible

If you'd bought them just to look good on your way to Tesco though, with no intention of going any further, it would make you a tit


Ah we are as one :D:D:thumb
 


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