GPS choices

[Dave Cr]

I spoke to a Garmin rep. at the Bike Show and explained I wanted a sat.nav. that I could use both on the bike and in the car. On the bike I want to fit it in my jacket and use an ear piece connected to my helmet - and was told that the Garmin 7 series systems were suited to this.
Called into Halfords today and the assistant said that only the dedicated bike systems would be any good. Can anyone advise me on the best choices please?

 

[Schtum]

Garmin 7 Series... If you mean the Garmin Nuvi 7** Series, then yes, they'd fit in a jacket pocket but I'm not sure what satellite reception would be like. (I'm just about to nip across the road to the local Chinese restaurant, so I'll bung my 760 in my jacket pocket and see what sort of signal it gets.

However......by putting the GPS in a pocket and relying only on voice instruction, you're depriving yourself of much of the information it will provide, in terms of routing, mapping, speed cameras, etc. Far better to mount it on the bike so you can get the visual information as well. Nuvis aren't waterproof, apart from the Nuvi 500, so that presents something of a challenge but it can be overcome.

The other issue that's often raised in relation to Nuvis is that it's not possible to create routes on the PC and upload them to the GPS unit. That's not quite true of the high-end models such as the 7** Series which support up to 10 routes. However, the units come with City Navigator NT pre-installed and aren't shipped with a copy of the software on disc. So if you wanted to have a copy of Mapsource running the maps on your computer, you'd have to source these in addition to purchasing the GPS unit.

Finally, if you do decide that you want to go for a Nuvi, you should look at the whole range.

HTH

 

[Kritou]

If you rely solely on the audio directions I promise you will get totally confused several times per trip - sharp bends are interpreted by the Satnav as a required turn and road forks are often not detected until you have ridden a short distance up the wrong one. Additionally you will lose the "picture" of upcoming roundabouts - a most useful aide. On top of all that, some mapping provides the name of the road and town you should be selecting and headed for - so you will be losing that capability

 

[Schtum]

Well that was interesting......especially when a disembodied, female, English voice announced "Lost satellite reception" from somewhere around my left nipple to the assembled masses in the Chinese restaurant.

FWIW, in the breast pocket of a fleece, under a Lowe Alpine jacket, the Nuvi managed pretty good satellite reception.