Sat nav for bikes

[timwilky]

Half the fun of not knowing where you are is checking out the answer to "I wonder where that road goes etc".

yes I do own a sat nav. I have TomTom is on my iPAQ with a blue tooth GPS reciever. If I do use it on the bike, it is for a route I need to follow and don't know. It stays under the seat with an earphone to give me directions.

I know from using them in the car that they become a fixation, on a bike I aint got time to be looking at a screen simply follow the directions and listen to the siren sound when I approach scamera sites.

I used to have one of those "indistructable" maps under my seat. dumped that as the thing never showed the B roads I was using etc. The iPAQ TomTom maps are far more detailed and upto date so tend to browse the maps on that.

As a general mapping tool though I use Mappoint 2006.

I'd wait. Like any technology, these things are going to plummet in price. Soon they'll be built into your mobile phone (it's started already). I'd like one but there's no way that I'm going to pay current prices for them.

The Garmin Zumo will be out soon. If nothing else it will put pressure on the marketplace. Its not cheap tho. Depending on how advanced you want theres deals on perfectly good year old (in terms of tech) stuff on some sites now.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by timwilky

Half the fun of not knowing where you are is checking out the answer to "I wonder where that road goes etc".

I agree completely with this.

I got mine mainly as a learning tool - it allowed me to concetrate on my riding rather than the route - its kind of like having an electronic examiner/DAS Instructor.

Havent had it on my CG125 for over a week now - I know the route to/from work.

However I think it WILL be invaluable when I just want to get from A to B around London in as short a time as possible.

For bimbling around the country, it will probably be along, working as a nice friendly interface to my phone, and as a map reference if needs be.

David

I used to say the same until my friend Loz showed me how he will be just riding somewhere and decide to explore, and use the satnav to actually either return to where he deviated or to reroute once lost. That application has escaped me, i.e. the ability to just 'get lost' and get back later. Thats why I want one.

And also for getting to hotles and campsites when tired after a long day. Ive lost over an hour sometimes trying to get round towns, its no fun when its getting dark and youve done a long journey.

I have Tomtom mobile running on my phone. I just put the bluetooth box in my outside jacket pocket and my mobile on my inside with the normal nokia headset in my ears. This system works fine only problem is you need to take gloves off to change any settings.

I do fancy getting a Tomtom rider next year if the price drops a bit. Has anyone got a picture of one mounted on a SV?

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Wadda

Has anyone got a picture of one mounted on a SV?

Will take a pic or two and post tonight

David

[anna]

Originally Posted by Grinch

Well I've just got me phone, bluetooth GPS, and TomTom... works just fine. I get lost all the time to, its now a god send as it means I can find my way home once I am lost.

Is that so long as it doesnt get wet

I want to get one. I drive/ride to a lot of different places for work and yes, getting to a town with a map is easy, but what is difficult/impractical is finding the street you need once you're there. Multimap directions (and even several various level of zoom maps printed out from there) aren't really that good. Even in London, I've found an A-Z works quite well, but if I bought an A-Z for the 100+ different areas I go to, it'd pay for a GPS. If I get one, it'll be a bike one that you can get a car mounting kit for. I'm quite tempted by one of those hand held ones that just act as a GPS and point a direction arrow at your target rather than calculating the route(GTA, eat your heart out) but they've not really come down as much in price as you'd hope. Probably due to their popularity with hikers.

Yep, getting lost on a weekend bimble in beautiful scenery is great fun and a good way of discovering good roads. Rushing through an unfamiliar city with little/no idea of where you're heading on a Monday morning when you're late for a job is both stressful and dangerous. I'm also fed up of spending as much as 40 minutes of an evening trying to find my hotel

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by anna

Is that so long as it doesnt get wet

Tom Tom Rider is WeatherProof

Phone is in Pocket

Bluetooth receiver is inside Lid

MP3 player also in Pocket

So should be good for UK weather

David