Motorcycle touring sat nav advice
Discussion
I have no experience of sat nav use other than the OE one in my car (which I rarely use). All my previous motorcycle touring has been planned with maps and Googlemaps. The main aim is of course to go the most interesting route rather than the most direct and to that end I spend a lot of time before trips planning routes on Google. What I want is to be able to transfer a selection of planned routes into a motorcycle sat nav well in advance and then just press and go on the day... How hard can it be?
So:
1. Garmin vs TomTom? I have tried looking at the Garmin Basecamp software but can't get much idea how usable it is without spending lots of money on maps... If I bought a Garmin device are those maps (Europe) included? Is Basecamp any good?
2. Tried Tyre but couldn't get it to work properly so gave up in frustration after spending my E10. Presumably if Basecamp (or is there a TomTom equivalent) works OK Tyre is unnecessary?
3. I assume they need to be hard wired in as battery life will be short.
Any thoughts
Thanks
So:
1. Garmin vs TomTom? I have tried looking at the Garmin Basecamp software but can't get much idea how usable it is without spending lots of money on maps... If I bought a Garmin device are those maps (Europe) included? Is Basecamp any good?
2. Tried Tyre but couldn't get it to work properly so gave up in frustration after spending my E10. Presumably if Basecamp (or is there a TomTom equivalent) works OK Tyre is unnecessary?
3. I assume they need to be hard wired in as battery life will be short.
Any thoughts
Thanks
I am a bit out of touch with current offerings since I have an old Garmin 550 - which did include the Europe maps.
You'd definitely want to hard-wire a satnav in.
I have used Garmin Mapsource for planning routes. It was bundled with the GPS.
They are very useful things to have but for exploring more interesting routes, make sure you plan them on a map first and use plenty of waypoints to keep you on the route YOU want to follow.
You'd definitely want to hard-wire a satnav in.
I have used Garmin Mapsource for planning routes. It was bundled with the GPS.
They are very useful things to have but for exploring more interesting routes, make sure you plan them on a map first and use plenty of waypoints to keep you on the route YOU want to follow.
Garmin units appear to be the preferred satnav for motorcycling from my experience. I believe they have a bit more functionality out of the box than TomTom for example they can do tracks I think. However, saying that I have only ever had TomTom (or clones) and found them fine for what I need.
I had a see-through case for my satnav running TomTom, however I found it too reflective, so bought a cheap Chinese waterproof satnav. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m57... I think I only paid £70 though so it was worth it. They come with iGO 8 on them which isn't too bad actually, but I managed to get TomTom on it. It was however hanging every 30 mins, so I reloaded it last night and hope this has fixed it.
If I want itinerary planning I use "Tyre" as it's free and works ok I found, just try and take a bit of time learning it? Takes a little bit of getting used to. But once you have created the itinerary you just then take the .itn file and pop it on the TomTom in the ITN folder. The only issue I have seen is if you miss your waypoint and want to carry on to the next one, you have to select this in TomTom otherwise it'll insist routing you via it. This is a pain if you create a waypoint 500 yards up a side road by mistake. Not the end of the world though. My friends who have Garmin units, send me their route plan files and I just convert them into TomTom format in Tyre. It routes us differently occasionally but overall it's ok.
I have recently started using Basecamp as I have a handheld Garmin unit. It's odd to use, but I am sure with more use it'll become easier.
One thing a proper Garmin or TomTom will give you is proper Bluetooth. My Chinese one will pair to my helmet, but doesn't support phones, so I can't listen to directions and listen to MP3's or make phone calls from my phone at the same time. Most of the Garmin and TomTom units will allow this and it's a nice feature if you have a Bluetooth helmet.
I'd suggest a proper motorbike unit as it'll hard-wire in to the bike and have a cradle so you can just pop it out when you stop for fuel or a rest. Also I believe some of them are designed for fat fingers/gloves and of course they're waterproof, so no faffing around with cases.
I had a see-through case for my satnav running TomTom, however I found it too reflective, so bought a cheap Chinese waterproof satnav. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m57... I think I only paid £70 though so it was worth it. They come with iGO 8 on them which isn't too bad actually, but I managed to get TomTom on it. It was however hanging every 30 mins, so I reloaded it last night and hope this has fixed it.
If I want itinerary planning I use "Tyre" as it's free and works ok I found, just try and take a bit of time learning it? Takes a little bit of getting used to. But once you have created the itinerary you just then take the .itn file and pop it on the TomTom in the ITN folder. The only issue I have seen is if you miss your waypoint and want to carry on to the next one, you have to select this in TomTom otherwise it'll insist routing you via it. This is a pain if you create a waypoint 500 yards up a side road by mistake. Not the end of the world though. My friends who have Garmin units, send me their route plan files and I just convert them into TomTom format in Tyre. It routes us differently occasionally but overall it's ok.
I have recently started using Basecamp as I have a handheld Garmin unit. It's odd to use, but I am sure with more use it'll become easier.
One thing a proper Garmin or TomTom will give you is proper Bluetooth. My Chinese one will pair to my helmet, but doesn't support phones, so I can't listen to directions and listen to MP3's or make phone calls from my phone at the same time. Most of the Garmin and TomTom units will allow this and it's a nice feature if you have a Bluetooth helmet.
I'd suggest a proper motorbike unit as it'll hard-wire in to the bike and have a cradle so you can just pop it out when you stop for fuel or a rest. Also I believe some of them are designed for fat fingers/gloves and of course they're waterproof, so no faffing around with cases.
I use the Garmin Zumo 660 on the bike and in the car. Works really well and the Garmin Base Camp mapping is really good for planning routes. I have toured around Europe with it, and as long as you set it up correctly (for example avoid motorways and toll roads in the route preferences) then it works well.
I'll second the Garmin route, and certainly hard wire it into the bike electrics. Very reliable unit and it makes the euro tours much more efficient in getting to stop and see what you want and do your route planning in the pub when you aint riding. They also take an SD card for music too, mine is hard wired through the autocom system and together they work perfectly.
I've got a Tomtom Rider, and having used Garmin in a rentalv car recently I much prefer the navigation display on the Tomtom. Got a few mates who swear by Garmins though. Weak point on the Tomtom riders is the mounting system, if your bike is a bit vibey the back of the unit wears and eventually stops charging. Mind you tomtom have fixed it twice for free, and the second time it was way out of warrenty.
The critical thing for a bike satnav is the ability to do waypoints or itinaries. I use Autoroute to plan a route and then convert it to Tomtom format with ITNconverter. If you've got an internet connection then you can also plan on ITNconverter (it uses google maps), but I teavel with a small laptop so find it easier to use an offline option. Garmin's are a bit weird as it seems they need to upload the waypoints to thier pc software, add thousands of waypoints for the entire trip, and then save it to the unit. Uploading a GPX file with just the waypoints on from ITNconverter just gices you a straignt line between each point which seems a little weird to me.
The critical thing for a bike satnav is the ability to do waypoints or itinaries. I use Autoroute to plan a route and then convert it to Tomtom format with ITNconverter. If you've got an internet connection then you can also plan on ITNconverter (it uses google maps), but I teavel with a small laptop so find it easier to use an offline option. Garmin's are a bit weird as it seems they need to upload the waypoints to thier pc software, add thousands of waypoints for the entire trip, and then save it to the unit. Uploading a GPX file with just the waypoints on from ITNconverter just gices you a straignt line between each point which seems a little weird to me.
Coming back to this - thanks for the comments. After much deliberation have just got the new version of the Tom Tom Rider - just starting to explore what it can do, but one of the main attractions was to be able to plan routes with the Tyre software (which I've now got working nicely). Hopefully will turn out it be a good solution...
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