Goodbye Garmin? Maybe the App has finally arrived?

[Steve]

Probably not, Bob. I carry a GPS, a paper map AND some notes on the tank bag.

.

[Sandy]

So....
Am I the only guy that still just looks at a paper map, writes down the route, and sticks it in my tank bag pocket?

Not at all. I do usually have a GPS with me and maybe use it for some route planning but it rarely is actively running while I'm riding. Besides, I like sticking to mostly back roads and GPSs usually don't like that. They're good at telling me where I've been but generally have no idea of where I'm going. LOL.

[cowboyup3371]

So....
Am I the only guy that still just looks at a paper map, writes down the route, and sticks it in my tank bag pocket?

Nope, I still do that for all of my rides. I will look at the phone if I think my written directions might be wrong as I have forgotten some important parts - like turn right on hwy # but it's sign posted for "whatever rd"

[Sandy]

My Samsung S6 Active (running Locus to act as a GPS) would like to disabuse you of the notion that phones have to be delicate little Faberge eggs... It's really too bad there aren't more tough, waterproof phones. Even if I didn't use it as a GPS on my handlebars, I'm klutzy enough that a waterproof phone is the only way a phone could hope to survive very long in my world.

The only issue in the rain is that raindrops sometimes make the phone freak out because it thinks it's being touched all over the screen. Enough forward velocity can keep this from happening unless it's really heavy rain. Or just throw a Ziploc bag over it.

When the phone was released, there was a "rain" setting for the screen sensitivity, but that disappeared somewhere along the way in one of the Android updates.

I experimented with a wireless (Qi) charging setup on the bike, but the amount of power used by the phone screen and GPS in continuous use and the heat generated by the inductive charging to keep up with demand led to overheating.

Have you tried the OSMAnd app and if so how does the Locus compare? I assume Locus uses all the free open source maps and can run offline. I noticed the free version has advertising but you can get a paid version for cheap. Is there any other features on the paid version? Interested how well it works offline because we've been using a tablet without a SIM slot in the RV. OSMAnd works pretty good but it's not 100% user friendly, a little quirky but works great offline. OSMAnd allows a reasonable number of downloaded maps and modules before you need to buck up. Haven't hit that limit yet. It also has available the use of topo maps and a contours module which we use for planning hiking/biking routes, we need that more than the nav part.

[Spiff]

Im in the market for a GPS to take with us on vacations. We often rent cars overseas and have used the iPhone but the data rates get expensive. Any suggestions for one with Europe maps?

Lots of apps have offline maps, google maps is one, among the better are HERE for example. With offline maps and route planning.


I have a couple of Sony Xperia Z series smartphones which are waterproof. And one shouldn't be messing with a phone or a gps while driving a motorcycle anyways so stopping and taking of my glove is no problem. I do have a set of short gloves with a patch on the index fingers for touch screen operations, so problem solved. There are several manufacturers with touch screen compatible gloves in their collection.
Some android phones also have a "glovemode". I've also seen people buy sowing-thread with silver in it and sown in some threads in their thumb and index finger :P

I use a RAM-Mount on my SV1000 V-twin, haven't ruined my phone yet with all the vibrations that bike has

[Dogma]

Nope, I still do that for all of my rides. I will look at the phone if I think my written directions might be wrong as I have forgotten some important parts - like turn right on hwy # but it's sign posted for "whatever rd"

I do the same. The phone is fine for turn-by-turn, but it never seems to show me enough to see where I am in relation to everything else like a paper map does. I'm not completely sure why I think I want to know that. If I could find an e-ink tablet with GPS to act like a scrolling map in my tank bag's window, we'd have a shut up and take my money situation.

[Gorminrider]

If I could find an e-ink tablet with GPS to act like a scrolling map in my tank bag's window, we'd have a shut up and take my money situation.

excellent point, the "e-ink". sunlight viewable, non reflective screen...

.... never seems to show me enough to see where I am in relation to everything else like a paper map does

As to getting the overview, you can't beat a paper map because it's so large . and folds up! versus Screens which are at their best, like viewing a paper map through a pair of binoculars.

Still, I've used Opencpn ( a marine chart navigation app) on a tablet to help with the "overview" but I had to go to the considerable trouble of converting Canadian topographic "tif"s to ".kap" format... and it still suffers from poor visibility in full sun. Also decent: the OSMand maps on a tablet where you can zoom out....changing OSMand's view to a "topographic" view (white background) helps visibility a bit.



..Osmand on 7" Tablet

Still the vector format tends to lose too much detail zooming out without a good software that allows tweaking detail to suit the user, (where Garmins somewhat fail) On the other hand, Raster format (kaps) has too much and needs several scales of the same area to be really useful and as an aside, can't do "Turn by turn" without the user laying in waypoints at each turn.

The old green screens of the garmin hiker gps had slightly better viewability I think...I am almost tempted to fiddle with this GPSmap76 I picked up but the maps are not nearly so good as my other maps.

[Gorminrider]

OpenCPN on a 7" tablet. "Raster format" at scale 1x zooming in too close pixelates it, but not badly. Certainly not as badly as this screenshot! But there is no routing algorithm(?) easily available that keeps you "on a road". (It'd have to be colour sensitive I guess)

[skateguy50]

I use a magnetic tank bag for all my longer trips and has a waterproof "map" cover on the top. I put a real map in that with my cars gps on top. I use GPS as first option, paper map as backup, and phone as last resort. My issue with using the phone for anything but a phone like music and gps is I don't like charging it on the bike if I can avoid it and want that to be my fail safe. My GPS and my IPod are not very good at calling for a tow truck or ambulance.

However for car driving I never use my gps and just use Waze for everything, it is so much better at live traffic updates and getting me around the daily traffic that can only be done with something like that.

I never really do "route plans" I put in the destination, look at the route and go how I want and let it recalculate accordingly

[Gorminrider]

^^^

I don't like charging it [phone} on the bike if I can avoid it and want that to be my fail safe

also a good point....some of the car-type adapters can be pretty funky and then too, so can Suzuki charging...if there's ripple in the charging output or big surges it can blow some of these up. Garmins are pretty sturdy. And dont mind being on while you restart and so forth.

[850 Combat]

Delorme Streets prints out a nice one. There are a number of formats and scaling that can be selected.

So....
Am I the only guy that still just looks at a paper map, writes down the route, and sticks it in my tank bag pocket?

[850 Combat]

^^^ also a good point....some of the car-type adapters can be pretty funky and then too, so can Suzuki charging...if there's ripple in the charging output or big surges it can blow some of these up. Garmins are pretty sturdy. And dont mind being on while you restart and so forth.

I have a Battery Tender lanyard on my bikes battery. Battery Tender uses an SAE connector. I have converted all my electric vests to that type of connector. My touring bikes have SAE pigtails to a mini inverter from Harbor Freight which also has a built in USB charging port. The inverter came with a cigarette lighter plug which I changed to an SAE connector. I can keep that in either the trunk or in the tank bag. The inverter will charge my laptop if I want it to, and it has.

The charging problems on GS are related more to bad connections and grounds than to a lack of capacity in the design. If you are getting your 14 volts at the battery, you are fine to keep stuff charged, in my experience.

[80GS850GBob]

My Samsung S6 Active (running Locus to act as a GPS) would like to disabuse you of the notion that phones have to be delicate little Faberge eggs... It's really too bad there aren't more tough, waterproof phones. Even if I didn't use it as a GPS on my handlebars, I'm klutzy enough that a waterproof phone is the only way a phone could hope to survive very long in my world.

The only issue in the rain is that raindrops sometimes make the phone freak out because it thinks it's being touched all over the screen. Enough forward velocity can keep this from happening unless it's really heavy rain. Or just throw a Ziploc bag over it.

When the phone was released, there was a "rain" setting for the screen sensitivity, but that disappeared somewhere along the way in one of the Android updates.

I experimented with a wireless (Qi) charging setup on the bike, but the amount of power used by the phone screen and GPS in continuous use and the heat generated by the inductive charging to keep up with demand led to overheating.

I've got the S8 and wouldn't worry about water, but constant rain drops and lack{?} of screen detuning for sensitivity would make for a mess.
I'd never try an inductive charger on a bike...your a brave man...they seem to be too sensitive to positioning going by my wifes set up at home, and a motorcycle is far from a counter top in the way of moving around.

[80GS850GBob]

I tried google maps today...had a work function to go to an hours drive away, and was impressed to a degree....."audio" directions were fine {in my car} but it wasn't following the actual positioning of the car on the map. Unless you could use a helmet speaker to listen only {blue tooth helmet or hard wire}...it'd be a miss on a bike - imho.

[Gorminrider]

I have a Battery Tender lanyard on my bikes battery. Battery Tender uses an SAE connector. I have converted all my electric vests to that type of connector. My touring bikes have SAE pigtails to a mini inverter from Harbor Freight which also has a built in USB charging port. The inverter came with a cigarette lighter plug which I changed to an SAE connector. I can keep that in either the trunk or in the tank bag. The inverter will charge my laptop if I want it to, and it has.

The charging problems on GS are related more to bad connections and grounds than to a lack of capacity in the design. If you are getting your 14 volts at the battery, you are fine to keep stuff charged, in my experience.

I should have been more specific ...It's those dollar store CarPlug-USB adapters it's so tempting to use...when you start the bike, voltage can drop quite a lot and this seems to kill poor adapters on a bike or a car... Good ones, (that garmin seems to use) do not suffer this. Garmin power cords I have, actually output a lower 4-5 vdc and might even be suitable phone chargers if you can adapt the ends...