Motorcycle Sat Nav

CrazyRabbit

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere. I've read the stickies (including most of the loooong 'Motorcycle FAQ' one) but can't see any topics on Sat Nav systems.

I'm looking for recomendations on which Sat Nav system to buy and where to find it. I'm willing to spend about €500. It needs the following features:

1. Can be mounted on a Gilera DNA.
2. Has a connection for earphones/earpiece.
3. Up-to-date maps for Ireland

I'd prefer an actual shop that I could go into and see/test the unit (in or around Dublin)

If needed, I guess I wouldn't mind using a portable Sat Nav...just keeping in my jacket pocket and listening to the directions.

Thanks for any advice

MrPudding

I have a Garmin Zumo 550 and it is the dogs. They are over £550 here in the UK so are most likely over your budget (can't imagine they are cheaper in Ireland) but would be excellent if you could stretch to it.

MrP

saobh_ie

The Zumo 550 seems to be the dogs bollixs as far as GPS goes, far to expensive for me though. I only get the bike out of Ireland once or twice a year though so theres no real need for it.

MrPudding

saobh_ie wrote:

The Zumo 550 seems to be the dogs bollixs as far as GPS goes, far to expensive for me though. I only get the bike out of Ireland once or twice a year though so theres no real need for it.

I got mine for free which was well inside my budget...

MrP

Krusty_Clown

The cheaper options for bikes that are typically recommended are the Garmin Quest and the Garmin 2610 (and to a lesser degree, the TomTom Rider).

The Quest and the 2610 have been discontinued (no longer manufactured) but you can still pick them up on www.gpsw.co.uk and upgrade to the latest mapping for free. I've been using the Quest on my bike for a couple of years, and it does a great job. They're not leading-edge GPS receivers, so no bluetooth, 3d mapping etc., but if you want the frills (Zumo 500 and 550), you'll have to pay the frilly prices..

If you have any questions about the Quest or 2610, lash them on..

Also, unless it has very high sensitivity, keeping it in your pocket and listening to vocal instructions may not be too effective.

KTRIC

Get yourself a Garmin i3, its the business. It has a suction cup mounting and I just stick it to the tank. I've driven hundreds of miles with mine and its never budged.

The Doktor

Was lookin at the zumo today. It really is the business.
if the 550 is beyond your price range why not look at the zumo500 still might be a bit dear. (612 euro from www.blokestuff.com)
But there will be a Zumo 450 out soon, if its not already out and it will be even cheaper.

saobh_ie

MrP You plick.

600€ lol. My petrol for last weekend (600 glorious miles) was outside of my price range. Just doing straight up and straight back to Donegal this weekend, affordable petrol costs and no need for a GPS.

CrazyRabbit

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess there is no shops in Dublin that sells Motorbike Sat Nav systems. I hate buying expensive stuff online.

MrPudding

CrazyRabbit wrote:

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess there is no shops in Dublin that sells Motorbike Sat Nav systems. I hate buying expensive stuff online.

You should try and get over that, the expensive stuff is magically less expensive online.

MrP

Krusty_Clown

MrPudding wrote:

The expensive stuff is magically less expensive online.
MrP

Too right.. The Zumo 500 is 549 euro on Pixmania.

If you insist on trying before you buy, and buying in Ireland, MySatNav.ie is based in Dublin (Sandyford Industrial Estate). I'm sure they'd let you have a look at the devices, but they'll charge you 850 euro for the Zumo550 and 735 for the Zumo500, for the privilege, so 186 euro extra for the 500 model (minus P&P).

CrazyRabbit

Krusty_Clown wrote:

Too right.. The Zumo 500 is 549 euro on Pixmania.

If you insist on trying before you buy, and buying in Ireland, MySatNav.ie is based in Dublin (Sandyford Industrial Estate). I'm sure they'd let you have a look at the devices, but they'll charge you 850 euro for the Zumo550 and 735 for the Zumo500, for the privilege, so 186 euro extra for the 500 model (minus P&P).

Cheers for the info. It's the 'trying before you buy' part that I like. Once I've found something that I like, then I don't mind buying online.

What I meant when I said that I hate buying expensive stuff online, is that there is no way to have a really good look at it, or try it out. It's a big risk to take when you are buying something expensive.

CrazyRabbit

I went with the Garmin Quest. €310 delivered, which includes the mount/bracket.

Not exactly the easiest to use, but it does the job well and I guess that I'll get used to it pretty quickly.

I figured I'd be able to find a cheap easy way to add an audio earpiece to it, but it seems the only options are :

http://www.sat-nav.co.uk/details/prod2733.html (€44 without P&P)
or
http://www.gpsw.co.uk/details/prod2642.html (€73 without P&P)

...neither of which are cheap!

I think I'll just make my own...

Krusty_Clown

I use the RAM mount and QPAC cable. Picked it up 2nd hand for 20 quid..
Keep an eye on eBay. I don't typically use the earpiece anyway (I use the cable for power) and change one of the display fields to [distance to next].

MrPudding

I had a giggle the other day with the gps. Going from Milton Keynes to Holyhead to get the ferry.

The route was "interesting." It took me along the a5 which winds through the welsh mountains, absolutely stunning views and a lovely twisty road with nice overtaking. Much better than the route I have taken before.

Then it got really interesting. It takes me off the a5 and onto a little road, and then a littler one and then an even littler one.... At this point I am on a road, with a name, that has a huge grassy bump in the middle of two dirt tracks. This "road" was so narrow that two of my bikes could not have passed.

It got a bit hairy and I had a bit of a wobble when the bike got caught in some rutts and bounced off the grassy bump in the middle. That lasted about a mile and then I got back onto a proper road. It was a bit of a giggle but I was glad to get back on the main road.

Missed the ferry and everything.:( I love GPS!

MrP

Paparazzo

Pudding, set your vehicle to something bigger (like a truck) or set it to fastest route instead of shortest route and you should avoid those small roads.
I got a zumo 550, great fun using it, I'd say it's invaluable for a trip on the continent

MrPudding

Paparazzo wrote:

Pudding, set your vehicle to something bigger (like a truck) or set it to fastest route instead of shortest route and you should avoid those small roads.
I got a zumo 550, great fun using it, I'd say it's invaluable for a trip on the continent

I have it set to car / bike but it is fastest route. Not sure what was going on there......was a bit of fun though.

I would have been very woriied about the continental trip had I not got the Zumo, a lovely piece of kit. Hoping for another european run before september so it will get plenty of use.

MrP

Hotblack Desiato

MrPudding wrote:

The route was "interesting." It took me along the a5 which winds through the welsh mountains, absolutely stunning views and a lovely twisty road with nice overtaking. Much better than the route I have taken before.

I would have thought every biker in the UK knew about the A5!!!

Then it got really interesting. It takes me off the a5 and onto a little road, and then a littler one and then an even littler one.... At this point I am on a road, with a name, that has a huge grassy bump in the middle of two dirt tracks. This "road" was so narrow that two of my bikes could not have passed.

This is why imho GPS are useless for route planning. I still think you can't beat a really good road map like Michelin. GPS is useful when you already know what route / waypoints you want, less useful when you just give it a start and an end point.
Also you can't spread out a GPS over the floor of your tent in the evening, see the whole of France in one go and decide where you want to be tomorrow

CrazyRabbit

MrPudding wrote:

I had a giggle the other day with the gps. Going from Milton Keynes to Holyhead to get the ferry.

The route was "interesting." It took me along the a5 which winds through the welsh mountains, absolutely stunning views and a lovely twisty road with nice overtaking. Much better than the route I have taken before.

Then it got really interesting. It takes me off the a5 and onto a little road, and then a littler one and then an even littler one.... At this point I am on a road, with a name, that has a huge grassy bump in the middle of two dirt tracks. This "road" was so narrow that two of my bikes could not have passed.

It got a bit hairy and I had a bit of a wobble when the bike got caught in some rutts and bounced off the grassy bump in the middle. That lasted about a mile and then I got back onto a proper road. It was a bit of a giggle but I was glad to get back on the main road.

Missed the ferry and everything.:( I love GPS!

MrP

I ran into a closed road on Sunday and I chose the option to 'detour' for 1km. Guess what? Yep. it brought me on a 1km detour back to the closed road.

I also chose 'shortest' route and it brought me down roads that hadn't been resurfaced in 100 years. I've never seen so many potholes in my life & had to drive very slowly to manuever around them. When I arrived at my destination I checked what my average speed was...39.4 kph!

MrPudding

ninja900 wrote:

I would have thought every biker in the UK knew about the A5!!!

I didn't. I was talking to a couple of the lads I work with. It actually runs through Milton Keynes the whole way to HolyHead. Could be an interesting trip. The M6 is a bit rubbish.

I think when I am going over next month I will try to get a route without motorways to around Birmingham and then pick up the A5 there and take it the whole way to HolyHead.

MrP

echomadman

I got a bluetooth GPS accessory for my nokia E61, velcro'd it onto my top yoke and loaded tomtom mobile onto the phone. i can leave the phone in my pocket and use the headset to get directions. I'm looking at making a mount for it on the dash but this arrangement works fine for the moment. I really bought it for trips to europe. I dont really need gps to find my way around ireland.

I use nokia sport tracker more than tomtom mobile as it'll record your runs, give you loads of nerdy stats and exports your route to google earth.

http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/SportsTracker/

I had the phone anyway and the bluetooth GPS was less than €100 on ebay so it was the cheapest sat-nav option available for me.

Krusty_Clown

Nice piece of kit that!
You can buy a Navman Bluetooth GPS receiver for 18 quid sterling here. (Plus P&P) Not sure about compatibility though (or if its waterproof)..

faceman

im curious about gps, is it really worth it in ireland?

CrazyRabbit

faceman wrote:

im curious about gps, is it really worth it in ireland?

Depends on how good your sense of direction is, or how good you are at reading maps

I find it useful for my trips up north.

Paparazzo

ninja900 wrote:

This is why imho GPS are useless for route planning. I still think you can't beat a really good road map like Michelin. GPS is useful when you already know what route / waypoints you want, less useful when you just give it a start and an end point.
Also you can't spread out a GPS over the floor of your tent in the evening, see the whole of France in one go and decide where you want to be tomorrow

I agree with you there. I open a map (discovery series ones of ireland are the best, contours, historical sites, tiny lanes, etc) find a few places i want to go that look interesting, usually they're in a maze of backroads, mark it on the GPS, and off I go! Lots of small back roads have no signs, and when looking at a map you're not sure if a driveway up to someones house is actually a junction, so the GPS is handy for stuff like that. OR if you arrive into a strange city and need to find somewhere it's very handy. Or when it's dark and you've been driving for 8 hours with a pain in the arse and being lost isn't enjoyable anymore it's very handy!