thank you Pete that is very kind of you! I may yet take you up on that. If I went with a car one, would the touch screen be useable through the plastic cover? Would it need to be? Do car ones have Bluetooth to link to my head set? So many questions!
I plonked the car one on the bar clamps with velcro and just looked down at it occasionally, became second nature in the end, and was cheap as chips
Not sure mate, I did'nt bother, just looked down every so often to see if I was still on track, not the best, but it worked fine. If ya get real stuck, can borrow my Garmin if ya need, where you going ? If it involves sailing from Portsmouth, you're more than welcome to borrow mine
I do that with my tank bag. Car satnav behind the map window, cable outlet to the 12v socket. No sound but on my cheapo Garmin its barely worth having anyway since 90% of the place name pronunciation is gobbledegook and in any case the visual directions are clear and uncluttered. Not sure the bag is fully waterproof but while moving it never gets wet behind the screen. Even cheaper still:
I had a Tom Tom rider on my last bike and it was good, on my Multistrada I went with the Garmin 595LM and it's great, works well in the sun and the maps and the various ways you can set up the display are excellent. It has the life time maps and came with two Bluetooth adapters for the wheels that monitor the tire pressure. It's hands free control of of so many things great as well. I saw one mounted above the dash which allows you to view it without having to take your eyes off the road so I built then powder coated a braket to mount mine above the dash and I love it.
Yes it is possible to use the touch screen through the plastic cover, just about. But if you are not very careful you can find you have pressed the wrong bit of the screen. It's good enough for selecting an option already programmed in, but not good enough for complex inputs using the on-screen keyboard. You need to take the unit out of the container for that. As for bluetooth, well some do some don't. If it's a thing you really need, get one that does. I think I have a miscellaneous collection of RAM ball bits and pieces which you would be welcome to have - it may not be simple to contrive something which fits.
hmmmm... Lots of options now! Will mull it over for a few days I think. I do have a tank bag with window.. I also have and old gen tom tom rider and mount which I have managed to link to my head set but it's quite crap and needs European maps loading back on.. I don't know if I trust it though as it's very slow and loses signal often hence the thinking of an upgrade.. I'm pretty sold on a car one with Bluetooth I think... thanks to all for the help and suggestions so far!!!
OK, I'll be there at 12 noon or so. And I'll bring a bag full of various SatNav related stuff with me.
heading to misano for the gp. Going through germany to see doogleman on the way and check out his bike ( he bought an engine offa me so it will be cool to see it running!) I did look at going from Portsmouth originally but too pricey and the plan changed to catch up with Roy so will be Eurostar ing it. very nice offer though mate, thanks for that
For Misano you needn't set off for another four weeks or more, so still plenty of time to sort all this stuff out.
cool! I may or may not end up using bits but that's would be excellent. guess i better put the brake back on the ss in the morn then!
Forget tom tom and garmin. If you've got a smart phone just download the waze app and away you go....
yeah, leaving on the 2nd of sep so I have a good month. That said it will take me that to work out how to use the bloody thing!
Get a dedicated gps; you can travel europe Chizel & locate fuel stations nice & quickly. The quicker you get it the more settled you'll feel with it imho.
Thanks Loz, that works a treat. I'd looked at that very thread previously and missed the bit about the SD card. Strange how it will import a .itn file from a card but not from the computer via a USB connection. You'd have thought that TomTom would have sorted that by now.
yeah sound advice. I'd would like to get something sorted with a few weeks in hand... Bit of a pussy really, I could just go old school with a map but I do think I'll enjoy myself more if I don't have to worry about getting lost and confused!
Nothing wrong with maps. Take both. Satnavs are great for telling you how to get somewhere but less good for finding out exactly where you are or whether there's somewhere more interesting you'd rather be. And devices can always go wrong. You are never really lost if you've got a good well-detailed paper map. A map, note book, pen and plastic window are fail safes in an emergency. In fact I like to plan my routes from paper maps, especially in the UK when I use largish scale OS folders. Unlike Googlemaps, the real things offer proper physical and topographical detail and you get adept at reading the landscape off the paper which gives you a good picture of what a route and an area of country will look like before you ride it.
