Progress report...

[walti]

I bought a £150 SP111 for use on the R1200GS, and feel that it's fine.

I've deliberately gone different routes to those it's worked out, just to push to see what it does, and it seems to recalculate fast enough. Maybe not quite fast enough for central London at rush hour , but OK out here in the sticks.

I've been using it without an ear peice on the bike and with the squeaker in the cage. I must get myself an earpiece now, the difference is enough to be important on unknown roads.

It's made a couple of tiny errors in navigation, probably due to the version of map not being quite as up to date as the roads are! (I really must go round one of the new Bypasses round here to see what it does, my previous Tom Tom got very confused!)

The device is wired into the cockpit accessory socket socket, if that makes sense, the BMW special socket on the wiring loom, and I had the "CanBus switch off syndrome" which is quickly sorted by re-starting the bike (annoying but there you go)

All in all, 8/10 I like it and it was well worth the £150 I paid. Would a more up to date one be worth the extra £3-500+ you could pay? - I don't think so. Llama had his Quest on his bike on Sunday and I must say that I much prefer this one as I can see the screen more clearly, I'd need to put my galsses on to use a Quest!

I'm now looking forward to using it to guide me down to the Alps and round a few mountain passes!

I need to get my head around the tracking feature a bit more, this seems to be superb and is keeping a good record of a ride out.... I'm yet to work out how much info the device will store before you start to lose tracks, it seems to store far too much at the beginning and end of journies, when you are going slowly, I guess a bit of twiddling with the settings will make a difference!

The altitude information varies a great deal, presumably dependant upon how good a signal it's got from how many sattelites. but my house has varied from -45ft to +130ft in altitude, i must say I didn't feel a thing!

 

[Mutley]

I'm glad you are happy with your purchase, £150 is good value for a GPS

Unfortunately, now that you are beginning to explore the features, I think you are about to realise why the SPIII was discontinued. I understand your comment on the screen size, but that is about the only advantage you have over the Quest, which you could have bought at around the same price

On the Llangollen ride out Lord Snooty and I both set our GPS's to track the route. Snooty's SPIII track was full by lunch time whilst my Quest was only 27% full at the end of the day. Just one example .....

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

track memory can be saved by setting the thing to resolve by distance, say 500m, not autoresolve.

 

[walti]

On the subject of track logging...

When the memory is full does it simply stop recording or delete the first records?

AND

Does it log while not "routing" so simply on but not navigating for you?

 

[ampthill]

On the subject of track logging...

When the memory is full does it simply stop recording or delete the first records?

On the Quest you have the option of doing either. This setting is contained within the menu system.

Does it log while not "routing" so simply on but not navigating for you?

Yes.

Peter

 

[Scottch]

Guys,

Why do you want to track your routes?

 

[Mutley]

Uses of the track log

Well I wanted to track where Tarka took us on the Llangollen ride out as he didn't have it set up as a GPS route. Whatton then turned my track into route so I can then save it and go back to the roads I might want to ride again.

In a similar way if you are just out for a ride, even if you have a planned route, you might decide to detour. I your tracking is on then where you actually go is recorded. You can then find that excellent road / view again.

There are lots of uses off road as well. Garmin base maps don't cover lots of tracks and also you may not necessarily be on a bike. On foot you can use the tracking system to retrace your route if you get lost.

I'm sure someone else may come along with other uses

 

[walti]

Guys,

Why do you want to track your routes?

I've already found that I don't follow routes precisely, so in some instances like to see where I actually went (or where I should have gone)

I'm looking at using it to log where I go when in the Alps soon, so although I may start off navigating acording to a route, than I expect to go on detours!

A good method of keeping track of what you've done I thought!

 

[PanEuropean]

Hi Walti:

Thanks for giving all of us such a comprehensive report on how your SP III is working out for you.

One thought for your consideration: If having the slightly out of date maps doesn't bother you much, you might be better off to stick with the map version that you have now, and not update. This is because the amount of data per square mile keeps increasing (quite significantly) with each new issue of the cartography, and you will notice a slowdown in route calculation and re-calculation speed on the SP III if you upgrade to the newest maps.

In other words - as long as your expectations from the device are reasonable and appropriate for the hardware you have - and it sounds like they are - then 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Keep the money you would spend on a map upgrade in your pocket, or escrow it towards the savings fund for a newer GPSR in, say, a couple of years' time.

Michael