Hey, i’m absolutely useless when it comes to map reading or general finding my way around, i want a sat nav but dont want to spend £500 like all the motorcycle sat navs that i have seen so far, but i have heard its pretty simple to set up a car sat nav to your bikes battery and just sit it in ur tank bag with a pair of headphones; is this a good idea? if so which sat nav would be good for around £100
thanks
You shouldn’t need to spend £100. Any sat nav with an audio socket will do. These will tend to be older models, but many can be found reconditioned online, and even a second-hand one can be reconditioned yourself with a new battery on ebay etc.
Personally I use the original black model Tom Tom One with a Givi Satnav bag. The original One is more or less the same device inside the plastic but will not broadcast instructions over bluetooth.
I don’t have it wired in, I use a rechargeable battery extender which between them give more than ten hours use between charges.
I just bought a Garmin 660T for for about £130. Its a reconditioned unit. It has the TMC and stuff and a later chipset that is better able to find satellites than our current Nuvi 310T. I have used the 310T in a polythene bag taped to my leg and in a tank bag as you suggest.
The volumes was too low with just a cheapo headphone set from Tesco’s (£0.99 
), but with an Autocom its fab!
My car has Heat Reflective Glass all around and that inhibits the 310T’s reception. I have not yet tried the 660T but it should be better in case you intend to use it in the car?
The 660T is from here:
one questions, what is reconditioned?
2nd hand one thats been overhauled 
I was told when i went to have a look at twatnavs that i should go for Garmin as the software and customer service is better and that it is more reliable than the Tom tom.
Reconditioned normally means it has a new battery, and possibly a new touch screen, but the internal electronics, memory, casing etc are secondhand. As the battery is normally the only thing that ages - repeated recharging means they eventually stop holding a charge as long - reconditioned means they are virtually as good as new.
Even a secondhand one you buy on ebay is OK as long as the screen works as the batteries are usually easy to get on ebay and easy to replace. I recently replaced the batter on my TT ONE.
As above, quality in ear headphones - the ones like earplugs are good - are necessary on a motorcycle as cheap ones you simply won’t hear.
I’d vote for Tomtom over Garmin. Better value and better user interface. I use a Tomtom rider 1st ed – great kit but naff cradle. 2 mates got Garmi Zumos, and 1’s now changed his for a Tomtom rider 2nd edition. Just much easier to use, and better software. E.g. this is a great bit of freeware to plan trips in advance using Google maps and then upload to your Tomtom: http://www.janboersma.nl/gett/index.php
I also started using headphones but quickly found that glancing at the screen with its large rendering of key info (distance to next turn and orientation of turn) is as good as. Depends on your bike and where you can mount it I suppose.
HTH