GPS

[djh3]

My buddy and I rode a route a couple years ago I would have been in a ditch or something somewhere if I wasnt going by the GPS. I had direction in the tank bag but it had alot of road changes in a few spots that were um lets say Kentucky DOT wasnt up to the task.

Many of us that have rode for years, we never had a GPS back in the 70-80's and beyond. So maps were it. GPS does make it just that much easier. But your right even if you lay out your own route with software, you had better check you work. lol I did a route and it ran me 20 miles or so in a loop to go across where I was. I think now you can do your route on Google maps and inport to a Garmin, dont know about other makes.

If you do get a GPS look into a RAM mount for it.

 

I decided to not go the "lifetime map update" route. My reasoning, how often do they really build new roads? Heck they cant even fix the old ones.

Edited March 21, 2013 by djh3

[Skid]

I agree with going with a Ram Mount. They may cost a few bucks, but it is a very clean and easy way to mount your GPS. I have a pic of mine on a previous post in this thread. I've ran mine from Florida to Pennsylvania and Washington DC to Missouri and never had a problem. With a GPS you can never get lost. if you miss a turn, its just recalculates a new route to go a different way.

[reddevilmedic]

im using ram mounts on both bikes..google and mapquest both load to garmin

[Miles]

I have to agree with several of the members here, that the use of a GPS is simply a tool...and nothing more...and that a rider still needs to use their own brain, their own sense of direction, and their own common sense when it comes to route planning, and riding.

 

I have learned a lot of lessons over the past (...oh sh*t...it is snowing outside right now)

16 years of using a GPS. After those 16 years of GPS use, and probably close to 650,000 miles during that time, I have learned to input a route into my GPS, and let it be a guide, but do not believe everything that GPS tells you. There are many horror stories of people driving off cliffs, going into rivers, getting caught in the wrong side of town, etc, etc, etc.

 

More Importantly...I think that a GPS is inherently dangerous on a motorcycle, until you learn how to competently use it, and...to ignore it.

 

What that means is...I always tell every new GPS buyer...for motorcycles...to NOT mount it on the bike until they have learned all the functions (snowing harder now ) and have learned how to operate it without riding off the road. I tell all the people that when you first buy a new GPS, use it while walking around the outside of your house. Walk up and down your street, become a competent user while...walking, or sitting on your front porch.

 

Then, when you "think" you know all there is to know about it, then install it into your car or pickup. Re-learn how to use that new GPS while driving on 4 wheels. You will find it to be a distraction. Much worse than a cell phone or eating all the ice cream cones that Big Tom enjoys. A moveable screen of the GPS will attract you like a new toy, and you need to learn to get past that. After a couple MONTHS in the car...then you can move it to the bike.

 

If you think I am being silly...it is YOUR life on the line.

 

Once you mount it on the bike, try to set as much of it as you can while STOPPED.

There will be times in the future when you make changes or adjustments while in motion, but...PLEASE try to learn the GPS well before you make changes while in motion on a bike.

 

I have "tried" to learn to ignore mine, and use it simply as a tool. Yes, I do now make changes while riding at speed. It is safer to make changes at higher speed, then at lower speeds, and in town. Try to make changes only when in 5th gear, and traveling at a sufficient speed that you do not need to make any other changes to the BIKE, while messing with the GPS.

 

I have had several close calls, all because of the darned GPS. Lessons are hard learned, but I still like my GPS, as a TOOL. Quite frankly, I can ride to almost anywhere in North America with NO maps and NO GPS. I know the majority of roads that well. But the GPS, when used as a tool, can calculate things faster than I can (I know...hard to believe, eh?), and it can show me alternatives to where I am going.

 

Bottom Line, just be careful when using a GPS. Few people will admit that the GPS is what distracted them, and caused the accident, but it happens everyday.

 

Let's all be careful out there. (snow has stopped falling:()

 

Miles

[Miles]

Okay, I was trying to send these pics in a PM to Barrycuda, but...since we are on the subject of GPS and XM radios, I thought I would take some pics, and post them here, for your entertainment value.

 

The GPS is a Garmin Zumo 550, waterproof, and equivalent to the Hummer H-1 for a bike GPS. I have used this same one on many different bikes. Probably 400,000 miles on that GPS unit.

 

The XM/Sirius radio is an old...roady2 unit, that a friend gave me. It was new...but probably 5 years old when I got it. It works great, and it is mounted on the JM Corp.

http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=SRMK-UN02, which allows me to mount the antenna on the flat plate, and power it all through the bike, and sound via the JMCB2003 unit, to my helmet.

 

The CB unit is a JMCB2003 unit, very ubiquitous to bikes that do not have a factory installed CB unit. They work well, and I have had many of these over the years. They don't woerk as good as a stock GL-1800 OEM CB, but...it works. I can plug any accessory item into it, and listen to that item via the CB unit. BTW, the small black switch mounted just below the CB unit, is the on/off switch for my "amber" driving lamps, with PIAA bulbs.

 

And last, but most important, is the Valentine One radar unit. Never leave home without it...enough said. I have that Valentine One sealed inside a radar detector box, which makes it waterproof. I also have the tarnsmitter unit to send the radar signal to a small red LED light to my helmet, with HUD, in my line of sight.

 

 

 

[ATTACH]74938[/ATTACH]

 

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A lot of farkels, but they are all necessary from a ride from Seattle to New York City, in under two days. TOOLS...but I still need to keep my eyes on the road.

 

[reddevilmedic]

where did you get the radar mount and led alert?

[Miles]

where did you get the radar mount and led alert?

 

 

The HUD unit for the radar detector is from LegalSpeeding.com, and here is the link:

http://www.legalspeeding.com/HARD-System.htm

 

It works quite well, but the unit attached to the helmet is battery operated, small weatch type batteries, so on a,loonger trip you would need to carry an extra battery.

 

The mount for the radar and for the GPS are both from the same place: Techmounts.com

and...here is the link:

 

http://www.techmounts.com/products/index.php?page_function=browse_search&mount=bar

 

I hope this helps

 

[adventurer 08]

Garmin zuma 550 on the bike and in the cars.

[djh3]

WOW they still use radar out there. Lazer is THIER new tool of choice. Cant slow down fast enough when they flip the switch on that bad boy.

[Miles]

Well...a Valentine One detector is both a radar detector, and a laser detector. It also has front and rear facing receivers, and alerts the rider to directional locations as to where the scan is coming from.

 

There have been many, many tests done by independent labs, and 99.314159 % of the time, they say that the Valentine One is the best radar/laser receiver the money can buy.

 

I can honestly say that my Valentine One has paid for itself...993.14159 times.

 

Edited March 23, 2013 by Miles