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GPS recommendation


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Guest branthopolis
Liking my Garmin Montana 650 pretty well..
 
Screen is a little smaller than some other moto-specific units, but I find it to be big enough for my purposes.
 
Doesn't come with city navigator installed so you have to purchase that separately..or you can easily use open source maps.. I find the open source maps to be pretty good for navigation and are updated often enough.. and are free.. Their weakness is the included minimal POI database.
 
You can wire a cradle to the bike for constant charging, but battery life is easily 12+ hours with the included li-ion battery and you can also use AAA batteries in a jam so I just pack my charger and charge it overnight on multi day trips.. After a couple months use in this manner, I don't feel the need to wire it to the bike.
 
I use a RAM mount and cradle to hold it on the bike and find it very stable and secure, yet easy to remove when I need to.
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Guest dmizer
I would say that it largely depends on how you intend to use it. For example: for simple point A to point B directions and finding and getting to POI, google maps is awesome. If you combine this with a bluetooth headset in your helmet, you don't even have to worry about the size of the screen. Just select your route, put the phone in your pocket, and listen to the soothing tones of google or siri direct you to your destination.
 
The thing that Garmin brings to the table is the ability to customize your routes. Before you take off on your ride, you can open up basecamp on your computer, lay down your desired route, upload it to your garmin unit, and be on your way. With some Garmin units, you also have the option of copying your route to an SD card so you can share it with other riders as well. If either of these two features are really important to you, then I highly suggest making sure you get a unit that supports SD memory cards, and supports bluetooth so you can listen to the directions instead of taking your concentration off the road to look at the map.
 
Because of this, I use both google maps and have a Garmin Zumo 550. I use a combination of Garmin (for route plotting) and google (for POI and finding interesting looking roads with street view) for longer tours. I use google maps and a hand written cue sheet in my tank bag for shorter day trips.
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  • Premium Member
I do much the same as dmizer but have recently upgraded to a zumo390 from an old faithful 2610. Base camp is not as intuitive to use as mapsource
This signature is left blank as the poster writes enough pretentious bollocks as it is.
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  • Premium Member
I dug up an old Garmin 2595LMT out of a box I had from my last move, and it works great with a RAM cradle and mount. It isn't waterproof, so I carry a large ziplock and some rubber bands under my seat in case the weather turns.
 
You can find refurbs online for under $100, and new they are @$120. It is a pretty decent GPS for the price.
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