Tom Tom Rider and other GPS

[moonwalker]

GPS systems for motorbikes are still a niche market, but I was wondering if anyone here had a Tom Tom Rider? It came out here in the UK at a whopping £600 (in excess of $1000) last year, but the price has since halved and I'm tempted to get it. My main concern is that the way the unit is positioned at the centre of the handle bars, would it obscure the neutral light on the GS500?

Can anyone else comment on the general functionality and usefulness? thanks.

[jen_]

I mounted my Garmin e-trex vista-c on the handlebars of my gs with the little mount thingie they sell.  It worked for about 30 minutes, then turned off, never to turn on again.  I don't think it appreciated the vibration...

[Stephen072774]

I've been using my garmin vista c on my handle bars for several thousand miles.  The garmin mount attaches to the battery compartment, thats bad news.  I got a RAM mount... it mounts with an arm and by mounting it perpendicular to the cylinder plane it eliminates vibration.

As far as usefulness... Its pretty cool.  I save the map and trip data and plot it on Google Earth.  The trip data is very handy while riding... My Vista has a "big numbers" mode, so the speed, max speed, and odo are easy to see at a glance.  Its always useful to have a speedo thats correct.

[Cal Price]

I notice that the local Old Bill and the Ambulance service use a handlebar mounted one here (Kent-UK)It is normally mounted next to a scrolling text device.

I was chatting to one of the Ambulance guys, was about to ask your question when he got a "shout" and whizzed off---next time perhaps.

[arcsecond]

I have a Garmin iQue 3600. It's one of their PalmOS PDA based GPS units. Has a nice big color LCD screen and decent battery life and I've loaded most of LA county into it. I keep it in the map compartment on my tank bag. This seems to act as a decent shock absorber as I'm sure it's not sturdy enough to be hard-mounted anywhere and it's certainly not waterproof. So while I can't comment on the specific model you're looking at I can say it's gotten me out of many a lost "I have no idea where I am" situation. I wouldn't want to go exploring without it anymore, especially not at night.

Hope this helps.
-James

[Codger]

I've been hauling an old ETrex Mariner velcroed to the tank bag.
It doesn't have any mapping, so I just load an address lat/long and follow the arrow.
It recently started eating batteries in 4-6 hours. 
I'll probably lean toward another etrex with mapping and a charger line on the bike.

Stephen, seeing your bike, I miss the flight data computer on my DRZ.

[tussey]

I've been using my garmin vista c on my handle bars for several thousand miles.  The garmin mount attaches to the battery compartment, thats bad news.  I got a RAM mount... it mounts with an arm and by mounting it perpendicular to the cylinder plane it eliminates vibration.

As far as usefulness... Its pretty cool.  I save the map and trip data and plot it on Google Earth.  The trip data is very handy while riding... My Vista has a "big numbers" mode, so the speed, max speed, and odo are easy to see at a glance.  Its always useful to have a speedo thats correct.

I'm jealous of your setup. I wish I had GPS like that to go offroading, shaZam!, I wishi I had a dirt bike to go off roading.