Which GPS???

[wildebube]

I suspect that asking what GPS is the best for me is probably like asking what bike is best for me, but alas, here I am asking just that. I’m afraid that I don’t even know enough to know what kind of questions to ask.

Here’s what I’m thinking. Most every inquiry from new riders looking for a first bike gets the same answer: buy something cheap and used to learn on. Applying similar logic, I’m looking for something cheap and used/refurbished on which to cut my GPS teeth. I figure that I can use it for long enough to learn what features I use and what I don’t, what features I would like to have, and just to get a better idea of what’s important to ME when I go looking for a new one. For example, I’ve heard a lot of praise for the Zumo, but also complaints that it stores only one route and allows only one waypoint. Would either of those be a problem for me? I don’t know – I’ve never used one. One route and one waypoint may be all that I would ever use, but until I have one and start using it, I won’t know.

My requirements are fairly simple. Since this is basically my learner, I don’t want to spend a lot of money. Cheaper is always better, but I’m thinking that somewhere around $300~350 would be about the max. My guess is that that’s plenty when looking at used and refurbs. Powered from the bike rather than just batteries is a must. Waterproof would be nice, but isn’t required. Since I’m not used to having one now, I have no problem with removing it and putting into the good old Ziploc bag when the weather turns bad. The ability to also use it in the cage would be a nice bonus since this will probably end up in my daughter’s cage when I buy a new, slick, whiz-bang model for me. That’s about it. Oh, and what would you suggest for mounting your GPS of choice on the bike?

TIA

[FJR Bandit]

I would look for a Garmin GPS V. It well be cheap and is good enough for the bike and car. You can run it on batteries or plug it into a 12V source. The main drawback IMHO is that the memory is small so you would have to download the areas you are riding or driving through.

[mjacks]

I like my little Garmin Quest. Can be hard wired or runs on internal battery. Cheap and waterproof.

http://www.garmin.com/products/quest/

There is the quest and the quest 2 which has the whole US in memory. They can be found pretty cheap on the different retailer sites.

[WoodButcher]

You are right about comparing it to asking which bike to get. I'm just going to throw out some thoughts and comments.

1. Zumo stores more that one route and waypoint. It does virtually everything all the high end Garmin units do. With the latest firmware updates the only thing folks are still complaining about is being able to turn off the auto-recalc of routes. and there are ways to work around that.

2. Zumo is one of the more expensive ones, so before you go looking at it you need to be sure of how you are going to use a gps. Otherwise you will get sucked in by the bells and whistles.

3. The basics I would look for in a first gps are the ability to auto route (ie put in a destination and the gps figures out how to get you there). Support for maps for where you ride. Newer chipset (Sirf3) with fast satellite acquistion and good under cover reception. Good color display.

4. I'd also put battery use so you can use it as a handheld for geocaching or hiking. That's good practice for using it in the car and on the bike.

5. Memory expansion is good to have too.

6. Go to a store that carries some and kick the tires. Fry's electronics, Academy Sports, REI, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's all carry various units and you can fire them up and touch them.

7. I have a Zumo and love it. Have an old eTrex Vista (monochrome) and loved it, but it was slow to display and had little memory for maps. Went everywhere with it though.

8. Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx (60CSx) or 76Cx (76CSx) are excellent units that fit all of my suggestions. The S in the name means sensor and they have electronic compasses and barometric altimeters. Those use more battery power, but have some advantages.

9. When pricing a GPS, take into account all the extras you may want/need. Many only have a built in base map that doesn't have much detail. So you will need to buy detail maps (Garmin City Navigator for example). What sort of mounts does it come with? Power cables for the car and bike? Memory cards? That was one of the pluses for the Zumo, it had all the maps, cables and mount I needed. Which made it closer in price to the 276c that I was looking at because I would have had to buy a mount, cable, memory and maps.

10. Check prices on the internet before you head to the stores. For example, the Zumo list price is around $1000. From reputable internet dealers, around $750. From high discounters/low service types, under $700. Similar for other units. I like http://www.tvnav.com because the owner it knowledgeable and helpful. GPScity seems to be good too, but I've only ordered RAM mounts from them.

Hope that helps.

[sherob]

If you decide you would like a Garmin GPS V, let me know... I have one that I will let go for a song and a dance :trust:

I have GPS in the Wing, and a Zumo ;-)

[wildebube]

The GPS V sounds fine - like I said, this is a learner. I don't dance very well though, but I assume you'll take cash, no? PM me with details. If the weather looks decent, I plan on going to New Ulm. We could get together down there.

[stinky93071]

i just picked up a Mio didgi walker from Frys, its everything I was looking for in a GPS. And for only $200, here is a list of things that it has..
All maps pre loaded
touch screen
MP3 Player (I put in a 1 gig sd card for them)
I will play MP3s and rout me where I am going at the same time.


I am still playing with the thing (only had it 2 days now) have not tried to do much with it other then mark where I am and where I am going and play mp3 so far very happy with the 200 I spent on it.

[bones]

I got a lightly used Garmin 60cs recently on ebay for $200 with a ton of extras. I like it a lot thus far. Easy to use, COLOR screen and load/unloading maps is simple. Another $100 for software and I dig it with a shovel.

It's a discontinued model the 60csx took it's place and has expandable memory and maybe some other perks.

[euromedic]

Quite happy with my Garmin Streetpilot 2610 i got off Ebay :clap:

[face scrape 2001]

thanks fellas, you're a mine of information, thanks for the research you've done and are willing to impart to us.:ponder: :confused:

[brutus]

I have a Zumo 450 which I bought off eBay NIB for $500. It's excellent, no downloading maps, can route from one end of the US to the other and when you are looking for a motel, gas, hooters or whatever it will tell you where the closest one is, how to get there and the phone number of the place. Ridden with it in the rain and it had zero issues and when my bike broke down the GPS happily told me how far I need to push (2.8 miles) and how fast I was pushing (2.6mph) as well as the shortest way to get home. Another nice feature is that you set the tank capacity in miles and when you get down to about 20 miles left a little gas icon pops up, you touch it and it tells you where the closest stations are.

It comes with wiring and bracket and took minutes to install the bracket, the wiring was however long it takes to get to your battery for the ghetto install. The harness is fused so I wasn't worried.

The software package that comes with it is excellent, you can create a list of waypoints and download them to the device if you choose and the methods for creating them is all over the place.

And the screen was visible with polarized sunglasses behind a shield in the Arizona and New Mexico desert at high noon.

Oh and it plays MP3s and you can store pictures, etc on it with a add on memory card (it does have some memory available, don't know how much) but the cards are super cheap at Micro Center.

[DANNYROTH]

when my bike broke down the GPS happily told me how far I need to push (2.8 miles) and how fast I was pushing (2.6mph) as well as the shortest way to get home.

I had never thought of having a device that would give you feedback on your efforts at manual propelling! That is just space age high tech!:clap:

[brutus]

I tell you this, I think that a GPS could actually save your life, especially out west where there are large distances between anything. Getting up and just popping the GPS into it's mount and having it tell me how to get out of someplace I have never been without consulting a map is priceless. I like to ride, not circumnavigate Chicago to figure out how to get out of the city and out to where the riding is! Buddy of mine always says that the best use of money is buying back your time. If you have ever been on a trip and got caught in circles trying to figure out where you are and how to get out of it then you can appreciate the usefullness of one of these.