sat navs

Owners Lounge
1

hi all,

im concidering buying a sat nav for the bike and would appreciate any views on which is best,

cheers
pete

2

dig deep Pete, a lot of money for a sat nav with earphones or blue tooth , they are all pretty good just bloody expensive

3

Hi Pete, first question ? Do I go for a pricey pukka bike one or a £100 car one. In terms of navigation you’ll get about the same but at over twice the price for the bike version. However, with the bike one you get a proper docking station with power and waterproof. Having said that I’ve been through fire and brimstone with my car Garmin and she stayed fine probably because she was mounted behind a low RS fairing. The car ones you need to physically connect and disconnect the power cable each time you get on / off. The car ones tend to prefer bikes with handlebars rather than the VF type mounting to the fork tops and this can make things a bit Heath Robinson when mounting.
The other serious consideration is Bluetooth in helmets is so good now and inexpensive its popularity is growing. You should investigate whether you’re ready for this yourself. For example if you’re out with your mates at the weekend ( or Scotland in May ) and they have a Bluetooth intercom then chances are you’ll be able to talk to them up to 2.5kms away if you had one. They are very compatible with most other brands. However, the same can’t be said for them and Sat Navs. I was very disappointed to find out that my Sena intercom doesn’t ( and will not ) talk to my car Garmin sat nav. I was hoping I could keep my eyes on the road approaching busy road junctions and have the Sat Nav talking to me with directions rather than keep glancing down at it. This is not a major issue for me - just a bit irritating.

So there you are - if you simply want a system that will guide you from A to B occasionally and which you can move from bike to car then a £120.00 car sat nav is fine but if you’re looking to invest in a modern system that can stay the course for several years to come then its a serious look at a bike system. Regarding Garmin verses Tom Tom, everyone swears by their own choice but for me they are much of a muchness once you take the emotion out of it.

4

I picked up a garmin sat nav for £125 on eBay.That didn’t include the Scala headset which pairs to my better halfs headset too.
I have used a tomtom in the past and would say it was more user friendly.
Both were bike specific and had the proper mounts,I tend to navigate by the verbal prompts rather than looking at the screen.
Regards Bif

5

thanks for the replys chaps,
im sort of swayed towards the tom tom v5 or v6, and as there hasent been an avalanch of people shouting garmin i think thats where my hard earned dosh will be heading… i think this year will be an expensive year, i noticed at the back end of last year that my biking trousers had shrunk a little, after trying them on last week ive found that they have shrunk even more… :frowning: