Sat Nav for Bikes...?

Can anyone recommend a Sat Nav for use on bikes?

I had a TomTom Rider v1 a while back when they first came out and thought it was a bit pants, also the fact that I had endless amounts of issues with it!!

I am looking for something reliable and reasonably priced as well ideally. :slight_smile:

Put sat nav in the search tab youā€™ll be busy for hours :wink:

I use a map :stuck_out_tongue:

I have a Garmin Zumo 550 which is OK, recalculates quite quickly when you deviate from route, is water proof etc, but the screen is fragile. Mine fell off my dashboard in the car onto the gearlever and is now sent back to Garmin with Ā£120 for a new screen :angry:

surprised at your experience, have a tomtom go 700 for the car, best gadget i have ever bought, used it all over europe

was thinking of getting a rider v2 and sell the 700 as i am onto bikes now

Iā€™ve got a TomTom One Europe which I use in the car and is slim enough to fit inside the clear window on my tank bag:cool:

Not quite sussed the earpiece bit yet, I have a bluetooth ear thingy but havenā€™t sussed out how it pairs up yet. If anyone knows , please let me know;)

sometimes bluetooth devices can be picky on connectingbest search for your brand of earpiece and tomtom one on the net to see if anyone has had probs

if no probs reported, its just cause your a muppet :smiley: :Pmind you i think the car based tomtoms are designed to connect to phones and act as a hand free, rather than connect to earpieces, you might have to go with a rider to get that

I also use the TT One in a clear topped bag method. Mine is the original black version that has an earphone socket so hearing the instructions is not a problem.

Probably:P

Garmin 550. Great piece of kit in my view. I donā€™t bother with bluetooth. I get my instructions through a pair of Shure E3C in-ear phones and also have tunes on an SD card which slots into the 550.

My only problems have been to do with the tunes:
The unit often hangs for a few minutes when I first switch on. Doesnā€™t happen if I donā€™t have the SD card loaded.
The ā€œrandomā€ play feature always plays the tunes in the same order!

if you have a mobile running Symbian 60 you can get tom tom loaded up and sync it with a bluetooth reciever in your tank bag or anywhere openish to sky. Plug your headphones into the phone and simply listen to the instructions, that way you arent looking down away from where you need to be looking

i find voice instructions more distracting than a quick look at the map every now and then, usually have the sounds turned off

the symbian idea is good, might try that on me Nokia N82, cheers

just a shame navigation software doesnt seem to be allowed to use the nokia built-in GPS yet

Hi,

Iā€™ve got the TomTom Rider 2. I used to have a TomTom Rider 1 and like you say had problems with it. The TT2 has been re-designed and has a completely different mount, (which was the source of the problems).

The ā€œin your earā€ earpieces of the TT1 has been replaced with a Cardo Bluetooth earpiece. Thereā€™s good and bad news here though.

The sound from it is good and can be heard at speed because its speed sensitive, the volume increases relative to the speed you are travelling. I sometimes errm, inadvertently you understand, exceed the speed limit, by accident of course and I can still hear it ok. I have to admit though I would still like it louder.

Thatā€™s the good news, the bad news is that the Cardo device is supposed to fit to the outside of your helmet! It does this by using a clamp which grips the bottom edge of the shell of your helmet, between the padding and the outer shell.

The speaker then goes inside the helmet and Velcroā€™s onto the padding next to your ear.

Apart from any increase in wind noise that this may cause, by having this thing stuck on the outside of your helmet, personally, I think it looks like a tw@t. Oh and thereā€™s this boom microphone that is supposed to be positioned inside the chin guard. All in all its a bit Heath Robinson if you ask me.

That said the TomTom performs well and I love knowing exactly where Iā€™m going, especially abroad.

Iā€™ve worn the earpiece with the speaker in the helmet and the rest just hanging by the wire and tucked into the neck of my jacket. The only problem their is that if you stop and need to take off your lid you have to remember to open your jacket and remove the Bluetooth gubins!

If anyone wants to know anything about the TT2 Iā€™d be happy to tell them.

While we are on about sat nav and Bluetoothā€¦ Dainese have just released the new Infinity D-NECT Bluetooth helmet. Which sounds like a great device, it looks good tooā€¦ http://www.dainese.me.uk/engine.asp?SMID=398

Can anybody confirm if the TomTom Rider 2 will pair with and work with the new Dainese helmet?

Thanks

garmin 550

Garmin 550 all the way, mine gets used mainly in the car but has a set up for one of the bikes as well. I had a problem with it recently e-mailed Garmin then sent it back, a replacement was with me in about a week. Top service:)

Just bought a cheapo car SatNav - Ā£80 from Argos + Ā£30 for an adapter/charger (which I am sure I couldā€™ve got for a fiver somewhere else) - sits in my luggage and a earpiece relays all the instructions. Charges overnight.

Halfords were quoting me Ā£300+ for a specialist bike one.

At the best of times in my job i drive hgvā€™s for the British Army, usually up to 9 horses. I stopped using the TOM TOM when the stupid infernal profanity took me down a track road 6 miles long and came to a dead end. Yeh i had to reverse without a banksman all the way. Furkin thing. Garmin is better and more reliable but the trusted map is the fail safe.

I have TomTom in the car and Garmin 500 on my bikeā€¦ tbh, the TomTom is much better peice of software. For example, the other night I was getting sent round in circles by the Garmin, as I couldnā€™t tell it there was a closed road. In the end, I got my XDA out with TomTom on it to finish the job off.

Also, the 500 to 550 difference is to do with Europe maps right? But its something like the 550 has Europe loaded for you, 500 gives it you on a discā€¦ seems like a waste to buy the 550 to me.

Donā€™t you need to pay for the access code to get the maps to work on the 500?

Tbh, I canā€™t remember what I did, or even which set of maps I have on my 500 right now, but on the box it says ā€˜Deluxe version has full unlock European maps on discā€™. The Deluxe version was around Ā£90 less than the 550 and all I have to do is install the maps onto an SD card I believe.

If that is the case then there is no real difference!