What Sat Nav

[Grumpy Lee]

OK, so here's the scenario. I know (virtually) nothing about all this SatNav stuff and having been reading various posts and such have decided that I might like to play.

So, if I get one it will be mainly for getting around the UK, it might be useful to know where petrol stations are (I once managed after being detoured all over the place in the late evening because of an accident in the pi**ing rain not knowing where I was and getting very low on fuel to put more petrol in the tank than it allegedly held!!), and we're off to play with Greg on the ToT, so some Euro stuff might be handy.

Taking all this into consideration and features v price v ease of use (I've only just worked out how to text on the mobile - or should that be txt!!) do I take a closer look at the SP111, the 2610, the Quest or something else.

This should give me something to play with over the winter, along with the intercom I have yet to get and fit

I will await your answers and suggestions, and then sort through the sensible ones and :flush the rest.

Lee

 

[Howie]

Taking all this into consideration and features v price v ease of use (I've only just worked out how to text on the mobile - or should that be txt!!) do I take a closer look at the SP111, the 2610, the Quest or something else.

Garmin quest is a good buy , I believe some BMW dealers have started to stock them them in for around £395. You can also fit it in your pocket with ease
Give Dave a call at Rainbow BMW and he will explain how good it is in detail , and do some comparrisons for you.

TEL 01709 835917

cheers

Howie

 

[shready]

grumpy-lee,

I went through the same decision process a month or so ago just before the Quest came out. At that time I was looking at a StreetPilot III and a 2610. I discounted the StreetPilot III because it is 'old hat' now and I didn't want to be out of date as soon as I made a purchase. That said, I know people with this unit and they are perfectly happy with it.

I left my final decision until I saw the Quest and compared it to the 2610, hands on so to speak. I did this at the Southampton boat show a couple of weeks ago and the Quest is a nice unit and I almost went for it. In the end I went for the 2610 and I am knocked out by it, fantastic piece of kit/toy. I am sure that I would have been equally pleased with the Quest but the deciding factors were the screen size being a bit small on the Quest, the lack of touch-screen functionallity and at the time the lack of a suitable mount.
The Quest also didn't have that 'built like a brick' feel to it that the 2610 has. The good thing about the Quest though is that it is battery powered for setting up routes indoors without cables and small enough to pop in your pocket or on a bicycle mount.

Price is also very different, the Quest is about half the price of the 2610, perhaps that should also be telling you something. I think the Quest is fullfilling a slightly different market area.

I also heard from someone evaluating the Quest that the software sent them on different routes to the software in the 2610 that they also used. They believed that this would be rectified by a software patch in the future.

Have a look at the 'GPS Virgin' thread that I started a while back on this Forum, that has a similar theme to your initial question, like you my main requirement was for mainly UK routing with occassional European use.

Whatever you go for, I am sure you will be happy GPS is so cool, earlier this week I had to visit a client and I popped their address into the 2610 and it dropped me bang outside their drive. I couldn't see any house numbers 'cos it was too dark and the drives were way too long, fantastic in my books.

Hope this helps.

Jon

 

[richie]

Go for the quest.

Comes with Mapsource City Select

Where as the 2610 comes with the slightly more detailed City Navigator. But most say the difference is more important to delivery companies etc than motorcycle car use.

Unless you are rich or slightly poor eyesight, then go for the 2610...

 

[Greg Masters]

If you want to have accurate GPS mapping for the entire Tossers-on-Tour route, the only options are a 2610 (26xx series or BMW Nav II) or another unit with numerous spare datacards or carry a laptop to update).

I will be using the 2610 with all the required maps on a single 1Gb card. A one-stop solution so to speak, but one that does come at a price.

Greg

 

[shready]

Richie,

You are right on the eyesight thing, Pan often mentions this. My eysight ain't bad but I do now need very weak reading glasses and I did find the Quest screen a bit on the small size. I did like the touch screen on the 2610 though, very useful and OK with gloves on too.

The best thing to do is actually look at the units side by side and decide for yourself, you would do that with most other purchases so why not this one too.

The Quest is a good value unit at the moment.

Jon

 

[BurnieM]

The other thing is to work out the mounting position on the bike and measure the distance from the screen to your eyes and hold them at this distance when comparing.

Also, look at the units outside
(I was going to say in sunshine but then this is a UK board!)
All units will look brighter inside.

 

[richie]

The other thing is to work out the mounting position on the bike and measure the distance from the screen to your eyes and hold them at this distance when comparing.

Also, look at the units outside
(I was going to say in sunshine but then this is a UK board!)
All units will look brighter inside.

Burnie, I think you are wrong the 60 and the quest and your own (I think 276) all look brighter outside with the natural light on them. If you look at those screens in a badly lit shop without the backlight I doubt you'd buy one...

 

[PanEuropean]

Guys:

Geez, I don't want you to think I'm half blind or anything like that - I make my living as an aircraft pilot, and have 20/20 corrected vision.

The point I have tried to stress about eyesight and the smaller screen GPSRs (Quest, 60, 76 et al) has two parts to it:

1) The smaller and more detailed the image on the screen is, the more time you will need to spend looking at it to extract the information you want to get. "Head down" time on a motorcycle is not really a good thing, time spent at stoplights excepted. Right now, I am using a 296, which has a physically very large screen, but it is highly detailed (more dense pixilation than a SP III or SP 26xx). Much to my surprise, I found that rather than thinking the extra detail is wonderful, I just compensate by zooming in further, so the level of detail is the same as a SP III or SP 26xx. This enables me to get the info I want from it faster (meaning, with less time spent looking at it).

2) The other issue is that of normal aging - once we pass through the 40 to 43 year old range, our eyes don't change focal length as quickly as they used to. Which means when we look down at our GPSR (typically about 40 cm from us) after having been looking at the road in front of us (with our eyes focused on infinity), we don't re-focus so fast. If the screen is larger and the image is also proportionately larger, we can focus on it faster. The car industry knows this - just have a look at the size of the letters and images on a BMW 7 series instrument panel, and compare them to the size of the letters and images on a BMW 3 series instrument panel. The aircraft industry knows this too - look at the size of the display panels in the aircraft picture that I use as my avatar.

Anyway - my basic point is that a physically small, highly detailed display might look really great in the showroom, but what works best on a fast-moving moto, with a rider who is over 40, is a physically large, not-so-detailed display. This kind of narrows the choice of GPSRs down to the SP 26xx series, or the older SP III, or perhaps a 276 or 296, if you are prepared to run at a tighter zoom level than you use in the showroom or in your office.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from a Quest or other smaller GPSR - just trying to give you all a 'heads up' (literally as well as figuratively), so you don't have any post-purchase frustration.

If you're not sure about it - borrow someone's small screen GPSR and ride around with it for a few hours - that's the best way to test it.

PanEuropean

 

[adamski49]

With regard to screen size it really depends on what information you want to take from the screen. If you want to see a moving map with you in the centre then I agree the larger screen models such as SPIII, 26xx, etc are ideal.

On the other hand if you just need it to navigate then the smaller screen models are fine as they still show a zoomed image of the next junction plus with the Quest you'll get voice if you plug it into your Autocom or similar.

When using my V I just glance the screen for distance to next junction. If it's 50 miles or so I can pretty much forget about it until I get nearer to the 2 mile mark when the directions will be in text above the map and a zoom of the junction will appear at frequent intervals as well as through the junction.

I understand the concerns regarding detail and size of screen and it took me a little while to get usd to the V (I suspect this is the same with any first GPS unit) but now it's second nature and my eyes aren't off the road long enough to cause concern.

Personally I feel the V (and now the quest) win over the larger models purely for portability, never mind the fact they give almost identical navigational info for less cost.

I'm looking forward to using the Quest especially now I know it has the ability to learn your average speeds from your riding/driving - thanks for the info Pan.

Adam