Motorcycle GPS.

[Hilux]

Need to see some options. Since owning my bike I've red one review of a Garmin and it was like $900...so....I don't think so!


Also, I have no place to put it. I hope there is a clamp-on for the bars I assume?

Also, power. How can I wire this up? I'd rather just use a cigarette lighter attachment that clamps on the batt. (and use my Garmin C330, that I love BTW)

do the new, smaller, motorcycle GPSes do both top-o and street?


Can I run a snow-mobile suit and GPS off the battery at the same time?...I think not, but I'm gonna ask anyway...

 

[valentine]

I'm not familiar with model numbers, but they make them for the etrex legends. You can find them on Ebay for $10-$15.
This one isn't mine.. I found it in a thread on a CT90 forum...

I made my own mount... kind of ghetto, but it works.

 

[Hilux]

E-Trex

how do those work?

a friend bought one, and I recall a little about it...(he returned it within a week, but that's cause he tried to use it as a multi-state GPS)

I doesn't do the "turn left in .5 miles" thing, and tell you of the nearest gas station (points of interest) for instance, right?

You have to DL your route or something like that, right?

I'll go look one up, next time I pass the place...

is there any threads you know of you can link?

 

[Hilux]

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=163

 

[yooper]

Can I run a snow-mobile suit and GPS off the battery at the same time?...I think not, but I'm gonna ask anyway...

It's different for every bike. I don't know about yours. Some bikes have a lot of excess capacity built into their electrical system, some barely function with the factory lighting.

For the GPS I'd install a cigarette lighter plug on the bike, probably next to the gauges. Makes it quick and easy to plug it in. For short trips just use the batteries in the GPS.

 

[VFRMAN]

Tomtom One XL-S. Now that I have a second mount, I will re-do the ziptie/backwoods method. Radar goes to the left of the GPS, Ipod in the top map case of the tankbag. Chatterbox communicator in the side pocket of tankbag.

It's all just thrown together, but works great.

Be careful how you mount anything near your steering head. Turn lock to lock to make sure nothing binds up on your throttle or windscreen. I used a Ram ball mount(you can buy them to fit 1000 different gizmos) and ran a 12" or so threaded rod down thru the steering head and double nutted it on the bottom. Solid as a rock.

 

[thorvald]

Tomtom One XL-S. Now that I have a second mount, I will re-do the ziptie/backwoods method. Radar goes to the left of the GPS, Ipod in the top map case of the tankbag. Chatterbox communicator in the side pocket of tankbag.

It's all just thrown together, but works great.

Be careful how you mount anything near your steering head. Turn lock to lock to make sure nothing binds up on your throttle or windscreen. I used a Ram ball mount(you can buy them to fit 1000 different gizmos) and ran a 12" or so threaded rod down thru the steering head and double nutted it on the bottom. Solid as a rock.

nice, except can you read your other guages?
like the gas?

 

[VFRMAN]

nice, except can you read your other guages?
like the gas?

I'll take a better pic when I clean it up, but I played around with a bunch of different locations before settling on where it is. Gas gauge is the farthest leftmost gauge so I see it perfectly. Speedo is obscured, but the GPS is easier to read anyway. Tach I don't really care about for most rides.

From where I sit, I can read any of the stock gauges with a little shift in my seat. Which I need after 150 miles anyway.

 

[valentine]

I'll take a better pic when I clean it up, but I played around with a bunch of different locations before settling on where it is. Gas gauge is the farthest leftmost gauge so I see it perfectly. Speedo is obscured, but the GPS is easier to read anyway. Tach I don't really care about for most rides.

From where I sit, I can read any of the stock gauges with a little shift in my seat. Which I need after 150 miles anyway.

Does the sun wash out the screen very bad?

 

[VFRMAN]

I've been really impressed with the visibility. It might even help more to wash it once too I guess.

Riding into a sunset sucks bad enough when it hits you just right, but in that case I don't look at anything but straight ahead and up. If you plug it into your helmet speakers, you really don't have to look at it for navigation though. Pick the hot Euro-voiced computer chick for the audio. I think you can get different voices now too?

 

[valentine]

I've been really impressed with the visibility. It might even help more to wash it once too I guess.

Riding into a sunset sucks bad enough when it hits you just right, but in that case I don't look at anything but straight ahead and up. If you plug it into your helmet speakers, you really don't have to look at it for navigation though. Pick the hot Euro-voiced computer chick for the audio. I think you can get different voices now too?

Cool I didn't think of the audio.

I probably won't get anything like that for my little CT90, my Magellan is good enough, I only use it for trail riding in a place I don't know well.... Oh, and to find out the exact top speed. 47 mph on a long straight stretch of road.

 

[VFRMAN]

I hear you. I have my Sporttrak mounted on my mountain bike and a mount on my XR too. Works a lot better offroad and roads that aren't always shown on the Tomtom anyway.

The TTR does 33 mph and my XR did 86 mph on the lake last winter. I think it had a little to go too. Colder weather and harder ice would have been nice.

 

[valentine]

I hear you. I have my Sporttrak mounted on my mountain bike and a mount on my XR too. Works a lot better offroad and roads that aren't always shown on the Tomtom anyway.

The TTR does 33 mph and my XR did 86 mph on the lake last winter. I think it had a little to go too. Colder weather and harder ice would have been nice.

86 mph on the ice...insane. I love it!

It doesn't freeze up around here otherwise I might look into that.

 

[thorvald]

I hear you. I have my Sporttrak mounted on my mountain bike and a mount on my XR too. Works a lot better offroad and roads that aren't always shown on the Tomtom anyway.

The TTR does 33 mph and my XR did 86 mph on the lake last winter. I think it had a little to go too. Colder weather and harder ice would have been nice.

have any pics on the ice?

 

[VFRMAN]

No. My wife wouldn't come out to snap a few for me. It's just me playing around on the lake. No racing or anything special like that. Sure gets the ice fisherman's attention though. I don't know if it's the cold, or being surrounding by trees on a lake, but that bike seems 10 times louder in the winter. I can't find my other discs for the exhaust. No worse than a piped triple 2 stroke sled though.

We're getting cold here already. May get some ice early this year. I'll take pics of the GPS while I'm holding on with one hand going across the lake. Safety first ! I had a pic doing that down a gravel road at 78 mph, but I can't find it. "Kids, do as I say, not as a I do."

 

[thorvald]

No. My wife wouldn't come out to snap a few for me. It's just me playing around on the lake. No racing or anything special like that. Sure gets the ice fisherman's attention though. I don't know if it's the cold, or being surrounding by trees on a lake, but that bike seems 10 times louder in the winter. I can't find my other discs for the exhaust. No worse than a piped triple 2 stroke sled though.

We're getting cold here already. May get some ice early this year. I'll take pics of the GPS while I'm holding on with one hand going across the lake. Safety first ! I had a pic doing that down a gravel road at 78 mph, but I can't find it. "Kids, do as I say, not as a I do."

cool, will look forward to the pics

 

[VFRMAN]

It's odd, but the bike hooks up better on glare ice than it does on dirt. If you're leaned over and feel like it's going to slide out, let off the gas and it stands right back up. (to a point, I guess). Only found that point once and it was pretty slow. The kids thought it was funny as Hell though.

 

[97 FZJ80]

Costco has the Garmin Zumo 450 on sale for $350. It lacks the bluetooth capability of the Zumo 550, but it's a great deal at that price!

Costco - Garmin z?mo® 450 Motorcycle GPS

 

[Hilux]

Costco has the Garmin Zumo 450 on sale for $350. It lacks the bluetooth capability of the Zumo 550, but it's a great deal at that price!

Costco - Garmin z?mo® 450 Motorcycle GPS

Dude, unreal. That is the almost exact model that I was talking about in the 1st post. The one I said was almost $900, the Zumo 550. Thank you, and great find.

So, IOW's. The bluetooth, XM and text to speech, are another $550 more?

lol, I can do w/o all that....




Otherwise, does anybody know how these models do off-road? Are they strictly for on-road?

I might join a local Dual Sport club here in mid Tenn. So I'd like to know. I might have to end up getting the E-Trex, which I know nothing about.

 

[VFRMAN]

I don't think they do the offroad stuff very well but I'm no expert.

My Tomtom can't find my house in a subdivision since the roads are brand new.

My Sporttrak does the offroad/hunting spots/fishing spots etc very well. That Zumo for $350 would be my choice. That seems like a great deal.