GPS for R1200GS

New to the club so hello everyone. I need a bit of advice. Bought my GS last year and love it to bits. This year I am gradually building on the accessories, panniers, crash bars and nose extender all bought or coming in the next week or so. Now I am hunting for a GPS. So far I am told the Motorrad is best but my wallet says NO! Therefore I am looking at Garmin Streetpilot or Quest or somthing along those lines.
Any advice to this novice would be gratefully received. Garmin or other? New or possibly used? And where to go? Local BMW dealer has been excellent and will assist in making whatever I get fit bike.

Mnay thanks

BA

Brian,

I am going through the same process, and am definately no expert, so if you dont mind advice from a newbie .....

First go have a search through the archives - there have been MANY discussions on the different GPS's and makes and models available. Go have a look especially for posts from "PanEuropean" (Michael) some really usefull info on the newest stuff available.

2 big decisions that will guide you in your search:

1. What do you want to do with it ... GPS's are becomming more specalised over time - units that are really good for pure street navigation are not so good for hard-core off-the-beaten-track work and vica versa.
2. Budget - the prices range is incredible and it's not necessarily the most expensive that is best.
3. decide if you want a easy to use system, or are a bit of a gadget freak who needs all the power features.

I have only looked at Garmin (the other makes not available here in SA) Most popular models seem to be
For street use: 2610 (and the new version of this 2760 I think), BMW's Navigator, Quest
For off road use: Map76cx, 276c

HTH
Dale

Dale,

Sound advice and your point 3 is spot on, I am attracted by the high tech gizmos and use about 15% of their features. I will probably set my sights on the lower spec units.

Cheers

Brian

BMW's Navigator 3

Its just about to hit the dealers, can't remember all of the improvements but 3D mapping, no CF card but memory big enough for all maps (europe) to be pre installed, bluetooth connection to helmet for voice instructions and more.

Now just waiting for the dealers demo unit to see if I can't live without one!

I've just been through this process myself... Whatever you get, be prepared for it to be cheaper next week, made to look old by a better model released next week, so last year's technology within six months and costing you perpetual upgrades for updated maps. Just like any rapidly developing technoogy market.

Write down your criteria, understand what you are prepared to compromise on and what you are willing to pay a premium for. Don't be phased by the must-have, bleeding edge technology.

My basic criteria were:
Waterproof
PC based mapping support
As much of Europe as possible in the maps

Ended up with a 2720. Very happy with it. Mapsource would be great if the maps looked like OS maps, though it does work well once you get the hang of it.

Good luck.

Hi

Similar to Chisurz, I've just got my first gps also

For me, the decisions went like this:

1. Waterproof and "bike ready" or mess around with covers and holders? Easy choice: something waterproof: quest 1 or 2, 2610, 2720 or TT Rider.

2. A Battery / Power unit, or Power only? I want something that will give me lat / long off the bike, so its down to a quest 1/2 or TT rider

3. PC mapping support? I wanted to be able to build routes on my pc and transfer them to the unit: TT Rider doesnt have this (yet), so Quest 1/2

4. Cash: £500 for a 2 or £130 for a Quest 1. No brainer

The Quest 1 doesnt have enough memory to hold all of Europe at one time (you have to load and unload maps as you need them). In reality this isnt a problem for me as I'm unlikley to find myself in Germany when I was going to Spain... but its the kind of thing that "sounds" like more of a limitation than it is practise.

I guess the other way of looking at it is size: the Quests are substantially smaller than the Garmin 2720 / 2610 and the TT Rider. I prefer the small pocket sized thing, but others prefer the larger easier to see and use unit.


HTH

Jon

Hi

I looked long and hard for a GPS and ended up getting the 276C.

It was between the StreetPilot 2720 and 276C.

(I did look at the GPSMAP 76CSx too.)

I wanted a large color screen and the unit to be portable, have lots of memory and to be water proof.

I can use the 276C in my car and on my bike. I can also load topo maps and use it back-packing.

The only downside is, that the screen is hard to see in bright sunlight. I did get a visor for it that does help a bit.


P.S.

Like has been already said, those Quest No1.s are selling for a good price in your neck of the woods.

Thanks to all your sound advice I have discarded a few options and am closing in on a purchase hopefully.
One model of Garmin keeps coming up and saying "Buy me, buy me" is the GARMIN STREET PILOT III DELUXE.
There are tons on Ebay, varying from around £100 for used and not a lot of detail (Instinct say leave them), to around £200 for brand new units with V7 software. Am I still being naive? Are these genuine bargains, are they fit for the job (Job being touring UK and possible mainland Europe) and will they fit my GS without too much hassle?

Once again, any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

BA

Brian Anderson said:

Thanks to all your sound advice I have discarded a few options and am closing in on a purchase hopefully.
One model of Garmin keeps coming up and saying "Buy me, buy me" is the GARMIN STREET PILOT III DELUXE.
There are tons on Ebay, varying from around £100 for used and not a lot of detail (Instinct say leave them), to around £200 for brand new units with V7 software. Am I still being naive? Are these genuine bargains, are they fit for the job (Job being touring UK and possible mainland Europe) and will they fit my GS without too much hassle?

Once again, any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

BA

Click to expand...

I'd steer well clear of the SPIII. I think they're very dated now (hence lots going cheap). I owned one for 2 years before moving on to a 2610. The SPIII was very slow to re-calculate if you went off route and the memory capacity is very poor. The touch screen facility of the 2610 also reminded me of how bad the SPIII was at entering destinations and scrolling across maps ......

Peter Pan said:

I'd steer well clear of the SPIII. I think they're very dated now (hence lots going cheap). I owned one for 2 years before moving on to a 2610. The SPIII was very slow to re-calculate if you went off route and the memory capacity is very poor. The touch screen facility of the 2610 also reminded me of how bad the SPIII was at entering destinations and scrolling across maps ......

Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree. To take your points in turn;
The SPIII is slow to recalculate. But why bother? Just leave the auto-recalculate switched off.
The touch screen in the newer Streetpilots is excellent. But the Quest & Quest IIs don't have a touchscreen; are you saying these are obselete? In fact, the SPIIIs entry keys are very similar, except they're bigger & easier to use.
The memory capacity of the SPIII is greater than the Quest (you could always buy an additional memory card - 256mb cost me £75). Again, are you saying the Quest is out of date?

On the other hand,

The SPIII is very cheap.
It is easy/cheap to mount on the bike.
It has a big screen.
It will run off batteries.
It will navigate you across Europe just as effectively as any of the garmins

The big disadvantage is that it's big & heavy.

And it looks dated.

Just like an 1150GS

chasr said:

I'd have to disagree. To take your points in turn;
The SPIII is slow to recalculate. But why bother? Just leave the auto-recalculate switched off.
The touch screen in the newer Streetpilots is excellent. But the Quest & Quest IIs don't have a touchscreen; are you saying these are obselete? In fact, the SPIIIs entry keys are very similar, except they're bigger & easier to use.
The memory capacity of the SPIII is greater than the Quest (you could always buy an additional memory card - 256mb cost me £75). Again, are you saying the Quest is out of date?

On the other hand,

The SPIII is very cheap.
It is easy/cheap to mount on the bike.
It has a big screen.
It will run off batteries.
It will navigate you across Europe just as effectively as any of the garmins

The big disadvantage is that it's big & heavy.

And it looks dated.

Just like an 1150GS

Click to expand...

I'm unable to comment on the Quest & Quest IIs as I've never owned one. Simply because they don't have touch screen doesn't make them obsolote. I have owned an SPIII however and am now the owner of a 2610. I've got a 4Gb card with all of the UK and Europe (that's available) loaded on it so there's no faffing around downloading selected maps etc.

The 2610 is probably easier to mount on a bike than the SPIII as it doesn't have the little antenae sticking out. RAM mounts are easily available for both.

In terms of speed of recalculation, if I've misunderstood a direction while navigating through a busy city, I'd want it to recalculate the right route ASAP. There were times when I'd have to pull over to one side while I waited for the SPIII to recalculate.

re, your other points :
The SPIII is very cheap. Already agreed.It is easy/cheap to mount on the bike. No different to most other mounting systems
It has a big screen. Not much larger than the 2610 from what I can recall
It will run off batteries. A definite improvement on the 2610. I wish the 2610 had the ability to run on batteries
It will navigate you across Europe just as effectively as any of the garmins - I disagree. It will navigate you across Europe but IMHO NOT as effectively as the 2610

There is just no way I could go back to an SPIII now.....

Peter Pan said:

There is just no way I could go back to an SPIII now.....

Click to expand...

Not for one minute am I suggesting you should.

Brian asked for advice. You gave it. I disagree with you.

I never said the SPIII was better than the 2610.

The SPIII is slow to re-calculate to the point of being frustrating. If cost is an issue then you will put up with it, otherwise you will be fine until you see your first SP2610/SP2720/GPSmap 276C

The SPIII has a memory card size limit of 256MB. Okay for the UK but why have this limit when a SP2610 is only a little more.

Peter Pan said:

In terms of speed of recalculation, if I've misunderstood a direction while navigating through a busy city, I'd want it to recalculate the right route ASAP. There were times when I'd have to pull over to one side while I waited for the SPIII to recalculate.

Click to expand...

I use a 276C today and of course I don't wan't to go back to the SP3! Does this mean that the SP3 is useless? Definitely not! It's great!

It's a question about what you want to use it for. Your comment above indicates that navigating in big cities is important for you. Then the road itself is not so important and you can trust the navigator to select the roads. And use the built in routing capacity.

I seldom drive MC in cities. To me the road is the goal and I plan the route in MapSource on the PC. I always have set Off Route Recalculation = OFF since that would destroy my planned route. With this setup, and riding on countryside roads, the slowness of the SP3 is not a big problem.

Today you can buy a SP3 for a third of the price for a SP2720. If money is an issue, and if riding on selected roads is the main usage, then the SP3 gives a great value for the money!

chasr said:

Not for one minute am I suggesting you should.

Brian asked for advice. You gave it. I disagree with you.

I never said the SPIII was better than the 2610.

Click to expand...

Listen guys, I'm not gonna get drawn into this one. At the end of the day it's horses for courses.

My parting comment is simply that knowing what I know now having owned both a SPIII and a 2610 I wouldn't go back to an SPIII and I'd be pretty *issed if someone had recommended it to me when IMHO a 2610 is a significant improvement. How a 2610 compares with other Sat Nav systems I have no idea .....

But you spoke out very strongly against the SPIII. As HMR says, the SPIII is great value for money. It will do the job.

As I hinted before, the 1150GS may (to some people) look dated and the 1200 (to some people) may have better performance, but would you tell someone to steer clear of the older bike, even if that bike cost considerably less than the 1200? In the same way, if you only want to spend a small amount, and can't find a cheap Quest, the SPIII may be suitable.

A quick trawl and I found one could buy a new 2720 for around £130 more than a 2610. And I think the 2720 is a significant improvement over the 2610

Brian Anderson said:

...One model of Garmin keeps coming up and saying "Buy me, buy me" is the GARMIN STREET PILOT III DELUXE. There are tons on Ebay, varying from around £100 for used and not a lot of detail (Instinct say leave them), to around £200 for brand new units with V7 software. Am I still being naive?

Click to expand...

Hi Brian:

Uh, I hate to say it, but yes, you are being naive. I will, however, give you a lot of credit for recognizing that risk and checking for advice.

Let me start by helping you define what you need.

1) Because you are going to use the GPSR on a moto, you want it to be waterproof. That is non-negotiable, an absolute must. Any GPSR that is not waterproof you can rule out.

2) You don't need a GPSR that runs on batteries if you are going to be using it on your moto and in your car, but not for hiking. So, you can safely include in your search the 'pure automotive' GPSRs that do not operate on batteries - they need a 12 volt power supply. I'm not saying that you have to exclude battery powered units, just that it is OK to include 12 volt only units.

3) You're new to the whole world of GPS, so, the last thing you want to be doing is buying an oddball or an antique. Getting a SP III today as a first GPS would be a lot like getting a 286 today as a first computer. There is a reason those SP III's are so cheap - it's because they are way out of date. If you can imagine running Windows XP on a 286, then you can imagine what it would be like trying to run today's cartography on a SP III. The level of detail in the cartography has increased by an order of magnitude since the SP III hit the market.

4) You have not really identified how and where you intend to ride. for example, if you plan to ride on the continent vs. stay in your own corner of the UK and ride off-road most of the time. How you intend to use the GPSR will affect your decision of what to buy.

If your budget does not allow you to get one a new 'high end' GPSR (for example, a SP 27xx series), then your very best bet would be to look closely at the crop of current production simpler GPSRs. The Quest (1 and 2) are examples of this, there are others. Your next best bet would be to look at high end GPSRs that are perhaps one generation (maximum!) out of date, such as the 26xx and 25xx series. Don't even think about anything older than that - you'll just be fed up with it within a very short period of time.

There are folks out there who have bought used SP III's and are very happy with them. Chances are that those folks had quite a bit of GPSR experience under their belt and knew exactly what they did and did not need so far as capabilities go, and knew exactly what the limitations of the SP III were. In those rare cases - only - it can be an appropriate purchase.

Keep looking, and most important of all, keep on gathering information. Feel free to ask more questions here. Better that you should wait a few weeks, gather more info, learn a lot more about the product differences, then make your purchase, than buy in haste and regret later.

Michael

Garmin 2720

Hi Micheal;
Many thanks for all your info of all the various GPSR'S especially the Garmin units. As a result I have just purchased the 2720 the second Garmin the first being the SP111. I'm well pleased with it and its a great improvement on the SP111.Could you please answer me two questions?
1.Where can I get a good reliable download for the UK speed cameras, and whats the sequence of events to put on the 2720? Could you make it easy to follow (not Wanting to mess it up) does it have to be on the maps all the time or can i call it up when I want?
2.I tryed to use it in a truck yesterday and there was no power to the unit, I know the cigarrette lighter was live so thought the fuse had blown or a problem with the lead. Tryed it in my car and it worked fine. Could it be anything to do with the truck being 24v? The SP111 I had before worked fine in various trucks.
Many Thanks
Del.

I dont know much about Bike based gps, i mainly use them for in the hills, but 'RIDE ' magazine did a gps test in the MAY2006 issue.
I know some people ridicule their tests but i find myeslf agreeing with a lot of their tests, they put the quest as best buy, due to features and cost, with the quest 2 and the sp2720 getting recommended, 2720 on top

Happy Navigator!

Many thanks to all to gave me advice re buying my first gps for my GS. Have ended up with a Motorrad Navigator and am delighted with it. It will meet my requirements ideally for a couple of years or so then I will upgrade as I get braver and venture further afield.

Once again thanks to everyone.

Cheers

BA