GPS First ride

[ohgood]

Plopped the tomtom 125 to the tank, hoped it wouldn't take a dive, and blasted into new territory. Nothing like not having to look for road signs. The gps is actually loud enough to hear over wind noise at 80 mph, and never missed a street. Now to make a box and proper mount for it.


( N 33 29.464 W 87 19.778 )


TomTom 125 (us version, 130 is US+Candaniaiaiaiaian maps)

Indicated speed = 100 mph / GPS speed = 89 mph (niiiiiice ticket buffer !)
missed turns = zero
speed traps encountered  = zero
POI's passed up for more curvy road = about 3
bbq passed up = 2

The only complaint I have so far is not having a waterproof box for the unit. This particular tomtom isn't motorcycle specific, so it's to be expected. I've loaded a mp3/video player onto the unit, so sitting around at work will be more interesting now. I'll also be fitting a 12v plugin to the gs this weekend, and hopefully a set of clipons. Eventually the plan is to illiminate the dash all together, with the exception of the OIL light, and just use the gps. It's not like I speed anyway.

[beRto]

Cool! Sounds fun. Thanks for the review and the picture!



If you mount the unit in a waterproof box, you may have trouble hearing the voice commands?

[ohgood]

Cool! Sounds fun. Thanks for the review and the picture!



If you mount the unit in a waterproof box, you may have trouble hearing the voice commands?

i'd bet you're right.

i'm thinking a plexiglass box, with a soft plastic front and rear portion. we'll see what comes

[gearman]

I've never used the voice feature on the bike, more of a reference for what's over the hill. I have used it in the cage in white knuckle, rush hour traffic on unfamiliar roads and I can honestly say it was worth every penny in those situations.

[loki7714]

I love my tomtom but right now its mounted with zip ties lol. If you come up with some cool waterproof mounting post pics/ instructions please

[Majorhavoc]

Cool! Sounds fun. Thanks for the review and the picture!



If you mount the unit in a waterproof box, you may have trouble hearing the voice commands?

i'd bet you're right.

i'm thinking a plexiglass box, with a soft plastic front and rear portion. we'll see what comes

Ohgood, you probably know that Garmin makes a GPS unit specifically for the motorcyclist: weatherproof housing and bluetooth enabled for a helmet speaker for the voice directions.  But at around $800US, it's about $650 too rich for my blood.  I'll leave that for the BMW crowd.  I'm with you on the affordable TomTom.  That's amazing that you can hear the voice commands at speed.

Funny, but I never really saw the point of GPS's outside of adventure touring.  But now that I'm getting back into riding, this techology actually makes a lot of sense for the motorcyclist.  Paper maps + motorcycles = pain in the a**!

OK, I have to ask: west of Birmingham?  Bankhead Lake maybe?

[jt_234]

Ohgood, you probably know that Garmin makes a GPS unit specifically for the motorcyclist: weatherproof housing and bluetooth enabled for a helmet speaker for the voice directions.  But at around $800US, it's about $650 too rich for my blood.  I'll leave that for the BMW crowd.  I'm with you on the affordable TomTom.  That's amazing that you can hear the voice commands at speed.

Funny, but I never really saw the point of GPS's outside of adventure touring.  But now that I'm getting back into riding, this techology actually makes a lot of sense for the motorcyclist.  Paper maps + motorcycles = pain in the a**!

OK, I have to ask: west of Birmingham?  Bankhead Lake maybe?

Still too rich for my blood, but the Zumo 450's are going for $362 shipped on Amazon.  Also, the Nuvi 550's are waterproof just the same as the Zumo's and you can find those in the $250-300 range.

Now that I have one in my car, I feel dependent upon it.   

[ohgood]

Cool! Sounds fun. Thanks for the review and the picture!



If you mount the unit in a waterproof box, you may have trouble hearing the voice commands?

i'd bet you're right.

i'm thinking a plexiglass box, with a soft plastic front and rear portion. we'll see what comes

Ohgood, you probably know that Garmin makes a GPS unit specifically for the motorcyclist: weatherproof housing and bluetooth enabled for a helmet speaker for the voice directions.  But at around $800US, it's about $650 too rich for my blood.  I'll leave that for the BMW crowd.  I'm with you on the affordable TomTom.  That's amazing that you can hear the voice commands at speed.

Funny, but I never really saw the point of GPS's outside of adventure touring.  But now that I'm getting back into riding, this techology actually makes a lot of sense for the motorcyclist.  Paper maps + motorcycles = pain in the a**!

OK, I have to ask: west of Birmingham?  Bankhead Lake maybe?

Yep, west of Birmingham. You know, I was talking with a friend, he said it was a river...  Bankhead Road, I think, right at the end. There is a dive called "The Point" right next to where I was. If you plug the Lat / Long into maps.google.com, it will get you there. Pretty cool stuff, I'm going to start including the lat/lon with the rest of my pictures on the bike now. Figured if I ever get wiped out the kids will be able to go to the places I liked.

***edit***
Ya, I knew about the cooler waterproof units. They're -very- pricey, and should I drop the bike, that would be the thing to go first. The more pricey units seem to suffer from feature creep, where the simple functionality is caught up in OPTION Z. That, and I'm a cheapskate

Coolest part about the gps is I can get lat/lon coordinates to EMS folks in two shakes on my cellphone. Already used  it once when another cager hit my truck and ran. On the bike, lat/lon could be lifesaving.

Being able to concentrate on the traffic instead of looking for exits seems relaxing too. Let them fight over lanes, I know where I'm going

[ohgood]

More gps fun...

Took a shortish ride this past Sunday with a ex500 rider local. Apparently there are quite a few good roads around here, quiet towns, and MORE HAIRPINS ! Weeee !

Suctioning the unit to the gs's tank seems to be good enough. I now have around 400-500 miles with the gps unit mounted this way, and haven't thought twice about it falling off. I will come up with something better for mounting. Will be a while though.

Coolest part is being able to (at a stop sign no less) add a Favorite to it's database and know the street names, exact location, etc. This is going to come in handy for when I"m by myself and shooting a few pictures.

Really digging the "I don't care if I'm lost, I'm just riding!" feeling. Not watching for road names means I can keep allot more focus on the scenery.

Schweet !

[philward]

Ram make a product called Aquabox.  It was originally designed so you could use GPSs and fishfinders on boats, but you can get all sorts of bits for bikes now.  A friend of mine runs a car GPS in one on his bike and loves it.

[blooton]

I am quite happy with my Etrex Legend HCX (bought Canadian Tire 1/2 price on sale $179.00cdn) as well as a RAM mount specific for this model ($20cdn both pieces at the recent bike show here in Toronto)
Gps is waterproof and portable and mount is quick release. I was looking into hooking up a 12v outlet for it, but I have tested it with 2 rechargable nicad AA's and am getting 30 hours runtime, which would be quite a trip. Seeing that I have a dozen sets of the batteries that I use in my digital camera, I don't think I need to install any wiring for it.
This has prompted me to look into geocaching for a hobby 

[Susuki_Jah]

exactly how are you attaching it to your bike again? do you have any pics with it mounted on the bike?

[ohgood]

exactly how are you attaching it to your bike again? do you have any pics with it mounted on the bike?

just putting the suction cup on the tank- i'll take pictures, post tomorrow

[Susuki_Jah]

exactly how are you attaching it to your bike again? do you have any pics with it mounted on the bike?

just putting the suction cup on the tank- i'll take pictures, post tomorrow

oh wow and it holds ! very trusting of you !

[theUBS]

Be sure to go online and download the Yoda voice.  A guy that towed my car once had that--endlessly amusing. 

[Danny500]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHA69BKlYWU

I can only imagine.

[loki7714]

I have sean connery from his james bond days and the sexy brit lady