Sat navs talk to me!
Discussion
I was very impressed with CoPilot running on a mates phone some time back, it did a great job of choosing interesting roads, and a lot of phones now are waterproof which is a help. The main problem with phones tends to be the smaller screens and the fact they're hard to see in bright sunlight though.
Has a Garmin Zumo 350 and did not like it al all. I went back to Tom tom. Not for the bike but I just use Road signs and maps on the bike at present and seems to work. If I needed one again for the bike I would not get a Garmin as I disliked it compared to the Tom tom rider. So that would be my choice
Silver993tt said:
Rawwr said:
Most sat navs talk to you.
correct
I have a small HG thingy for my car sat nav, it's got a clear front, a grommeted hole for the power wire, a sunpeak, and velcros to the handlebars. Keeps the rain out and goes on and off in seconds. Power via an ignition switched lighter socket.
I would like to be able to use waypoints; the slightly clunky option is to collect postcodes from google maps and put the next one in when you get to the current one. Or don't bother and follow your nose, then when it's time to head home, turn the satnav on.
I mostly just glance at the large "next route instruction + distance" box at the bottom of the screen. When it shows "[arrow right] 6 miles", just ride; and then pay more attention when it says "300 yds"
obscene said:
As for customer service, Garmin have been fantastic. Had a new unit sent as one played up and they included another mount so I have a second one come should I put it onto another bike.
How the f
k did you wangle that? I can't even get a poxy little bracket off them. wkers. And you're a wker too for having more luck than me with them. bd!RAM make holders for various car sat nav units. e.g. 
I bought one recently with a ball mount that replaces one of the bolts on the centre handlebar clamps. You have to buy 3 separate parts IIRC, and ended up costing about £45. Money well spent though, the mount is rock solid and very good quality. To wire it to the bike I just used a fag lighter socket from Maplins which attached to the battery.
I have a Garmin and personally found pre-programming the routes on PC to be a complete nightmare. In the end I gave up and just used the sat nav to find my way to hotels in city centres, the rest being done with maps. I also thought it didn't perform very well in very built up city centres. It lagged behind where I actually was, and when stopped at junctions it would sometimes spin around and point in a random direction, making it impossible to follow. The only other sat nav I've ever used is the OEM BMW one in my 2004 3-series and I've never had trouble in built up areas at all. Even though the BMW one is ancient and has a map disc that's 10 years out of date, I still prefer it over the Garmin.
I also thought about using a smartphone instead, but I don't think most screens will work with bike gloves, whereas car sat navs do.
I bought one recently with a ball mount that replaces one of the bolts on the centre handlebar clamps. You have to buy 3 separate parts IIRC, and ended up costing about £45. Money well spent though, the mount is rock solid and very good quality. To wire it to the bike I just used a fag lighter socket from Maplins which attached to the battery.
I have a Garmin and personally found pre-programming the routes on PC to be a complete nightmare. In the end I gave up and just used the sat nav to find my way to hotels in city centres, the rest being done with maps. I also thought it didn't perform very well in very built up city centres. It lagged behind where I actually was, and when stopped at junctions it would sometimes spin around and point in a random direction, making it impossible to follow. The only other sat nav I've ever used is the OEM BMW one in my 2004 3-series and I've never had trouble in built up areas at all. Even though the BMW one is ancient and has a map disc that's 10 years out of date, I still prefer it over the Garmin.
I also thought about using a smartphone instead, but I don't think most screens will work with bike gloves, whereas car sat navs do.
cava said:
I have a Garmin and personally found pre-programming the routes on PC to be a complete nightmare.
Really? I use Autoroute; zoom in to find your start point, right-click/'Add as start'; find your destination, right-click/'Add as end' then pick as many points as you want en route to make sure those roads get included, right-click/'Add as stop' then go to Route/ and click Directions. Once you're happy, go to Data/ Export GPX file, save it somewhere handy then connect your Garmin and use Windows Explorer to send the route to the satnav.I'm a complete technomongtard and even I can do it
The only problem with route planning is that different routing engines will use different routes to get from A to B. I use AutoRoute to plan the route then distribute it to the Old Gits having used ITNConv to get it into ITN, GPX etc. formats. We've then had two separated Tomtoms, which are the same model, running the same version of maps and using the same version of the software decide on two different routes between waypoints. 
It gets worse as you get different versions of maps, different versions of the software and different makes of sat. nav. Still, it gives us something to argue about over breakfast as we try and decide which route is best.
Back on topic. One thing to watch if using a car sat nav is that even the quality/expensive Tomtoms (I don't know about others) will not output to a set of external speakers connected by Bluetooth. As said previously, you can get by very nicely without the audio but it would be nice to have the choice.
It gets worse as you get different versions of maps, different versions of the software and different makes of sat. nav. Still, it gives us something to argue about over breakfast as we try and decide which route is best. Back on topic. One thing to watch if using a car sat nav is that even the quality/expensive Tomtoms (I don't know about others) will not output to a set of external speakers connected by Bluetooth. As said previously, you can get by very nicely without the audio but it would be nice to have the choice.
fergus said:
When using car based satnavs, do gloves make selecting options on the screen any more difficult?
Per 993TTs post below, do you literally use a car sat nav bolted straight to your bike, with no additonal weather protection? I didn't think car sat navs were IP rated?
My Garmin Nuvi 670 is perfectly ok with gloves and yes I use it in all weathers. True it has some protection from the screen on the bike but it's located above and slightly behind the handlebars so when riding in traffic, gets soaking wet in heavy rain. No problems so far but since it's 8 years old, it doesn't matter. as soon as it stops working, I'll buy another car navi as they work fine on a bike and also in the car but have bigger screens, more functions/features and around 1/3 the price.Per 993TTs post below, do you literally use a car sat nav bolted straight to your bike, with no additonal weather protection? I didn't think car sat navs were IP rated?
I even changed the internal battery as it wouldn't hold charge more than 5 mins. Cost £10 off Amazon and now it's as good as new.
I used a car sat nav (Tomtom 700 then Tomtom 510) for about 7 years. I used a RAM cradle and fitted a 12c socket so I could use the standard power lead. I found that I didn't need the sat nav that often when it rained so I simply packed it away. I did use each of them a couple of times in the rain. A clear plastic bag over the top, with a couple of elastic bands to keep it taught, did allow some view of the screen but it did steam up a bit.
My Tomtom 700 did get caught without its bag in a sudden very heavy downpour on the French motorway to Calais. It stopped working but 5 minutes under the hot air hand drier in the Port loos had it working fine again.
I had no problems with using a gloved finger to operate it.
Having said all that, I now have a Garmin 660 and would buy another bike sat nav again even though the price is a total rip off.
My Tomtom 700 did get caught without its bag in a sudden very heavy downpour on the French motorway to Calais. It stopped working but 5 minutes under the hot air hand drier in the Port loos had it working fine again.
I had no problems with using a gloved finger to operate it.
Having said all that, I now have a Garmin 660 and would buy another bike sat nav again even though the price is a total rip off.
Tribal Chestnut said:
Wedg1e said:
Really? I use Autoroute;
He's probably using Base camp, which is the biggest load of bks. Ever. It decided to turn my map/route upside down once so I vowed never to use the fker again.I bet Obscene likes it though.
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