GPS systems

Originally Posted by Grinch

look a rather neat system.. did the mount come with the i3? Did you have to do anything special to get it to fit?

Nope - knocked it up at work - got plenty of CNC machine tools and the like. There's a real lack of GPS mounts for bikes with clip on bars - the mounts seem designed more for naked bikes with plenty of free bar space.
It mounts on the lower of the two bolts where the left hand bar bolts onto the rest of the bike. Just took the old bolt off and replaced it with a slightly longer one and torqued it back up to spec.
I suspect a slight degree of luck was present in it fitting spot on the very first time, but now it'll be easy to make another just like it.
If anyone is thinking of getting an i3 for their SV, I could knock them up a similar mounting bracket.

is it powered from your bike? Or does it run off its own battery?

Pair of AA 2500 mAh NiMH batteries. They last for ages - a good 8 hours with sound. Normal alkaline AA's were awful - not even 2 hours without using sound. It comes with a 12v car adapter which I'm told can easily be wired to the bike, but I'd rather not have the extra wires to bother with as I wouldn't ride for long enough to make it worthwhile. Maybe If I were doing a big trip I'd get around to it. For now I just have one set of batteries in the GPS and a spare set in my pocket.

I was reading up on it as they say it don't have a speed camera warning. Have they changed the model?
Don't your little bag steam up? or even flap about a bit? have you used it in any heavy rain?

ram mounts are the way to go, they fit to the bike and you can get a seemingly unending range of accesories to fit them

The speed camera download is the same as all the other gps systems - download it from www.pocketgpsworld.com. The i3 has only been out about 2 months and as far as I know has always had the camera download for use on it. The above site has all you'll need for gps systems in the forums - same format as this site too.

The i3 makes a loud "boing" noise and the screen gets a red border with a "warning xxmph speed zone" when coming up to a camera site (mobile, specs, truvelo, gatso...) and if you persist in going over the limit, a bitmap of the camera location (bitmap varies with type of camera) is shown where the camera is located. Once you drop below the limit the bitmap vanishes to save clogging up the map. Very nice touch. Speed up again and the bitmap reappears and it starts "boinging" at me again.

I was out across Kent on Sunday morning and got rained on several times. Bag didn't get steamed up at all and it avoids some of the rain by being below the level of the screen, so when moving it's not getting much rain on it. I'm confident it would stand up to a heavy downpour - freezer bags are much thicker than most plastic bags, and the rain can't get in from underneath.

I had a look at Ram mount http://www.ram-mount.com/ but the options for a bike with clip on handlebars are pretty poor, it seems that there are bags of options if you have plenty of available space near a round bar (i.e. a naked bike) but not for faired bikes. It wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good, wouldn't have lasted as well, and would have cost me more than the 30 minutes I spent making it. I don't like their obsession with cheap plastic and cheap rusty steel, either... I'd rather have stainless steel.

[tigersaw]

Hi again,
I take it you gave up on the screen mount idea, however, your home made mount looks superb. I would be very interested in you making one for me, either PM me or post details here - great.

Incidentally, I had to travel into deepest london ( well Richmond - as deep as I like to go! ) the other day, I took the I3 and the Tom-tom to help me find the way to the Richmond Hill hotel. I set them both to `shortest` since quickest is irrelivent in these circumstances. Oddly they wanted to take different routes, the I3 taking shortest literally and pointing down narrow streets, the Tom-tom sticking to wide roads. I found the audio directing from the I3 far better, after making a manouver it then tells you what you will be doing next, even if that is just going straight on for 20 miles, whilst the Tom-tom keeps stum until its time to do something.

Originally Posted by tigersaw

Hi again,
I take it you gave up on the screen mount idea, however, your home made mount looks superb. I would be very interested in you making one for me, either PM me or post details here - great.

Incidentally, I had to travel into deepest london ( well Richmond - as deep as I like to go! ) the other day, I took the I3 and the Tom-tom to help me find the way to the Richmond Hill hotel. I set them both to `shortest` since quickest is irrelivent in these circumstances. Oddly they wanted to take different routes, the I3 taking shortest literally and pointing down narrow streets, the Tom-tom sticking to wide roads. I found the audio directing from the I3 far better, after making a manouver it then tells you what you will be doing next, even if that is just going straight on for 20 miles, whilst the Tom-tom keeps stum until its time to do something.

Yeah, the screen mount seemed a bit too much of a bodge. Plus the fear that it would fail an MoT, etc. for having altered/obscured the screen.
I'll weigh one of the things to find out how much it'd cost to post and let you know. Can only guarantee it'll fit a K4 pointy faired bike, though I'm sure it'll fit most bikes.

I hear lots of things about the i3's slightly unusual choices - it does seem to prefer single track roads if it can use them to cut the corner on a major route. I've turned on the "avoid unpaved roads" selection, having heard of people being directed down dirt tracks. I like this bit though, as it's taken me down some really scenic B roads rather than big A roads, yet the time is about the same.

I've been told that with batteries in the unit is limited to 3 volts, and with the car adapter it goes up to 5 volts and so the volume is louder when run from the vehicle. I've yet to try this, but if it's true then the top volume should be loud even on a bike - it gets loads of good ratings for having one of the loudest gps speakers.

I like the turn directions too - that "distance to next turn" figure is handy if not using/being able to hear the speaker. Did get caught out once where next turn was listed as over 5 miles away and I came up to a give way and a left turn... looked like they'd converted it from the road I was on having priority to the other road having priority - maps being a few years behind... but that's true for every gps out there.

I had a Garmin Quest bought for me for a retirement present. It comes with a suction mount for the car windscreen and is powered from the cigarette lighter, the power lead incorporating a small loudspeaker. Unless the Garmin is powered there is no sound generated. It worked really well although when I went off route on purpose it kept on calmly recalculating my route. I expected it to lose its temper any moment.

I first tried it on the bike by placing it under the map window of my tank
bag but it was really difficult to see as it was sort of under my chin which meant looking down which is not the best of things to do. So I purchased a RAM mount from GPS Warehouse
http://www.gpsw.co.uk/index.html
It cost about £78. I tried various place to fit it but found I needed to get it more or less in front of me and as far into the screen as possible and ended clamping the mount to the fairing bracket. See picture below. I must re-route those cables.
I tried several types of earphones including the Maplin inner ear type
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...32255&doy=8m11 Then I got talking to a policeman at the BMF tail end and found out they use tailor made ear plugs and helmet speakers. So I butchered a pair of in flight speaker ear phones from a holiday flight. They sort of worked but became uncomfortable after a while. I ended up buying these from Clearer Communications in Vancouver http://www.clearercom.com/Helmetspeaker.htm they are nice people to deal with. I wanted the short lead to the speakers and the patch lead to the SatNav.

I just love using it and sometimes just ride and get totally lost and set the SatNav for home finding some great places and roads I wouldn’t have gone down by choice. One great advantage is riding at night, having the SatNav set at the right resolution shows the shape of the road ahead which certainly makes night riding a lot easier.

I also have a Garmin i3 GPS which I'm fairly happy with in the car. I have used it a couple of times on the SV (K1 Curvy), in my tank bag. It's not great as I have to take my eyes off the road to read the thing. I have been looking for headphones for the thing but so far no luck. I think that SVeedy Gonzales's ball mount may be the best answer. So... Can you make me one up? Do you think it would fit a K1? How much do you want? I've PM'd you.
Mitch