BMWMCCWA

Hi everyone
I am looking at buying a GPS and would appreciate advice from anyone.

Regards

JP

For what type of bike. Black Tar Riding or Real Mens Dirt Riding.
As this will determine the unit.

Old Betsy

Feel a bit funny calling a bloke 'Old Betsy' but you learn something new about the club every day.

Real men's dirt riding and BTW, I have a 2006 r1200gs (bought from Ken - yes the one with banana peels in the gear box!)

Regards

JP

Well I have/had a Magellan Triton 1500 on the GSA ( Old Betsy ) . It as a large screen with off road maps on it. But I have had trouble with this unit from day one. But Magellan are trying to find the fault as the faults that are happening have got them stumped. But they have been very good in trying to fix it. You cant really operate it with gloves on.
After our little ride across to Eucla and seeing Bens Garmin GPS 60 and seeing them on special I have gone and purchased one of these with off road maps.
Screen is smaller but you can use with gloves on. I have also got a lockable Touratech mount for the Garmin coming as well.

Old Betsy (Mike)

You are luckly because there are no banana peels in that gearbox or engine.
BECAUSE KEN NEVER WORKED ON THIS BIKEit is a untouched virgin.

Thanks Mike

Really appreciate your advice

Regards JP

Hi jpgs

I have just purchased a R1200GSA that came fitted with a Garmin Zumo 550
This unit is well known as an excellent MC GPS with good city mapping, easy glove friendly menus, screen very readable in sunlight, phone & music bluetooth interface if you're so inclined.
However this unit also came with topographic maps , I have yet to test them out but the Zumo and City maps are really easy to use and sooooo much better than the other GPS units I have tried along the way. If youre heading to one of the Catalano's Sunday morning coffee meetings let me know and I will bring it along for you to have a look at.

JonO

I bought a Tom Tom Rider V2 and if i had my time over again, i would choose something else. It wasn't cheap (bit cheaper than Garmin units) and has served me well for cities and towns, but is lacking some detail out in the sticks. I have tried to get other software/downloads to improve it's off road capabilty but there is nothing available to make it more versatile. It does have some fruit with it (bluetooth etc) and i will not go out of my way to replace it until it breaks, but i would purchase something else next time.

Thanks everyone for your advice, it's very much appreciated.

Regards

JP

Hi JP

Well with the troubles that I was having with my Magellan. Magellan have given me a new one. But as I have just brought a Garmin I now have a spare Magellan GPS Unit, with Topo Maps Cards, Cradle for the bike and power cable. The Unit is worth about $1200 so if anyone is interested A reasonable offer would be excepted.

Old Betsy

jpgs wrote:Hi everyone
I am looking at buying a GPS and would appreciate advice from anyone.

Regards

JP

Hi JP,

Depends on the depth of your wallet, and your needs.

After much heart break and discovering that GPSs are really a very immature product...

It is very difficult to get one that does all, add way points, track back, city maps, country town maps, 4wd maps, lane guidance.

Be very specific about what you are after.

I ended up with a TomTom Start for $132. It lives in the top of my tank bag. I can hear it talking at town speeds. It guided me to friends houses and through all towns and cities on my recent Round Oz trip via the Great Central Road. It got me to friends in Darwin, Alice Springs, Bundaberg, Longreach, Nambour and appears to work well in the car.

It will guide me through Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for that part of my trip, which I will complete in October.

Your cash... If you want everything, open the wallet.

I have used a Tom Tom Rider 2 and have had problems with the mounting. I am on my second mounting and that is now not working properly.
The first mounting fell apart on a corrugated dirt road in Tassie. The second mounting failed after one year and does not connect connected with the electrical power correctly. The mounting has 4 (I think- not in front of me now) spring loaded pins that mate with the back of the TomTom and provide power to the TomTom. These fail and the Tom Tom goes on and off and eventually runs out of power. The mountings are not cheap to replace. For this reason I would not get one if I had my choice again.

I think if you are going to use a tank bag then the idea of getting a cheaper GPS that fits into the clear plastic top of the bag appeals to me.

I recently purchased a Zumo 660 but have not learnt how to use it properly yet. Too early to make a comment but bought it based on recommendations of other Garmin Zumo users.

Garmin Zumo 550.

Have used mine for 2 years now. Faultless. Used on highways and on some of the remotest tracks this side of Alice Springs.

Standard supplied maps (City Nav) is only good for major highways & cities.

I bought an additional GPS map (Oztopo) and whilst it's not 100% complete/accurate when you get well off the highway, it's still plenty good enough. IMO, when going this far into the bush, you'd be crazy to not have a paper map with you anyway and also I advise a bit of trip planning on Google Earth. You can create waypoints on GE and convert them to a GBD file then load into your Zumo and voila... you have the reassurring cross-check in your GPS of the map software PLUS your visually referenced waypoints from GE.

Catch me at a club meeting and I can explain in better detail. Give me advance notice and I'll bring my laptop & Zumo to the meeting for a quick demo.

Shane

Stay with garmin - you will not find a better product. As someone else mentioned in an earlier post, not all GPS's do everything that you may want them to do, although by readingn between the lines I would suggest the Garmin zumo used in conjunction with Garmin Mapsource and various uploadable maps.