anybody use a 276 on a bike?

[birdseye]

thanks to a smidsy, my quest is an ex quest. I am thinking of replacing with a 276 so I can also use it on my boat - the quest screen really is too small for boat use.

but the question is, how practical is a bulky unit like the 276 on a bike? does the weight of it mean it vibrates? are the holders sufficiently strong? is it cumbersome to use with gloved hands? etc

 

[simonm]

Hi,

Had a 276c on my 1150 for a couple of years.
Bought cos I didnt want to use voice so wanted a large clear screen.
Buy a mount off Migsel on this forum, this places the unit just under your line of sight.
If you use the short RAM arm the damping in the cockpit mountings makes it stable enough. If you plan on dong hard core off road as opposed to gentle green laning and the like, I'd be looking at a shock mounted TT unit.
I dont have any problems using the buttons, but I try not to do too much while moving for obvious reasons; zooming in and out, or cancelling requests to recalculate are OK

HTH

 

[ebbo]

Use it on your bike, boat and in the car, sounds like a good idea to me. No problems with the buttons, I cannibalised the marine mount for the bike, cheap and effective now that bikes gone I’ll have to thing of something else. Mine doesn’t seem affected by vibration, and I really like the big screen

http://www.ebbo.org/garmin_276c.php

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Delighted with mine, use night view (black background) in bright daylight, but I have not seen a better one for the money.

 

[shedracer]

I use the 276c, its been great. I used to have a Nav11 (BMW 2610), but I wanted the internal battery and larger screen for bike, car, mountain bike and also for walking (with Topo UK for walking and mountain biking).

What bike are you going to mount it on? You will need a base mount of some kind to fix to the bike, but you should be able to use the marine cradle (which holds the 276c), which is in the box (once you have removed it from the marine mount) and attach that to a suitable mount. There are many types, try a search.

Cost wise, as others have said can be quite expensive, you have to buy an Automotive kit, but this gives you the mapping (City Navigator V8), memory card, car mount and the car power cable/speaker.

Pros are, great large colour screen, internal battery so it can be used without bike/car power, very configuarable, Topo mapping can be used and it can be used on a car, bike, push bike, walking and boat.

Cons are, cost and it doesn't support the latest on screen speed camera warnings and TMC.

 

[HMR]

but the question is, how practical is a bulky unit like the 276 on a bike?

There isn't anything better available on the market.

- Better screen resolution/map detail than most other models.
- Bigger memory for routes & tracks than most other models.
- Built in battery.
- Outstanding (together with the 60Cx) for small road & offroad.

Negative sides are limited support for speed cameras and high price.

 

[BurnieM]

Sure;

 

[Garry H]

276 is a great unit this is how i mounted mine to reduce the vibration

 

[Garry H]

riders eye view

 

[PanEuropean]

how practical is a bulky unit like the 276 on a bike? does the weight of it mean it vibrates? are the holders sufficiently strong? is it cumbersome to use with gloved hands?

It works well on a moto, there are no problems with weight, mounting it, using it with gloves, things like that.

If you are well familiar with the unit and what it does and does not do, and have decided that this is the model you want to get, go ahead. There are quite a few 276 owners here who are very happy with that model.

Be aware that the 276 does not support many features that have become 'basic equipment' on newer models of GPSRs over the past two years, such as Custom POI databases (speed camera databases), text to speech capability, receiving TMC (traffic message channel) messages, stuff like that. If the bulk of your riding is off-road or in remote rural areas (e.g farmland, Scandinavia, etc.) this won't be a big concern. If you do a lot of riding in heavily populated areas, you might want to have these capabilities.

There is also the 'data card vs. preloaded maps' issue, but again, if you are riding in thinly populated areas, and not doing much international travel, that is not as big concern.

Michael

 

[birdseye]

Thanks for the replies.

On my Quest I had downloaded the camera database off this forum - will the 276 not do this as well?

My only reason for chosing the 276 is that I want to use it with Garmin blue charts on the boat. The only other unit that will do that is the quest but as a marine unit that is a waste of time IMHO - its simply too small to be able to see contour lines, buoys, read off light signals etc.

the other Garmin units wont take marine charts.

I dont go off road - the only reason I use a GPS is because my memory is so poor that I have forgotten what I have read off a paper map within 5 mins so I get lost on the bike big time without a GPS

 

[HMR]

On my Quest I had downloaded the camera database off this forum - will the 276 not do this as well?

No it will not do that if it is a POI database. But it will if it is a a waypoint database.

 

[PanEuropean]

Birdseye:

I've loaded BlueChart maps onto several of the 'pure automotive' GPSRs that I have owned - for example, 2xxx series GPSRs - and the nautical maps work pretty well. They are a bit clumsy to use, meaning, you have to go in and turn off all the road maps first - but they do show up OK. The tide tables don't work, though.

If your usage split is going to be 50/50 marine and automotive, or primarily marine and secondarily automotive, then it's best that you stick with a 'primarily marine' GPSR, which are the ones with the three digit product numbers. But, if you figure you will be using the GPSR 90% of the time or more on the road, and only very occasionally on the water, you might be able to get away with buying an automotive GPSR that offers you the 'Custom POI' warning feature, in other words, the speed camera warnings.

There is a considerable difference between the performance of the 'Custom POI' warnings and simply installing speed cameras as waypoints or as map overlays. If the GPSR has 'Custom POI' capability, you will get a warning every time there is a speed camera on the road ahead of you, and you will get a continuous beeping tone if you are travelling faster than the speed the camera is set for. You don't get any of these warnings if you just install the camera information as normal waypoints or semi-transparent overlay files.

The very newest 'three digit model number' GPSR, the 496, supports full marine capability and full Custom POI warning capability. But, that is an aviation - marine - automotive GPSR, and it is expensive. I don't know whether there will be a '476' version (in other words, a marine and automotive unit) made or not.

I don't think that any of the other three digit model number GPSRs (378, 478) support Custom POI recognition, but, do your own due diligence on that - I have not used any of those units myself.

Michael