Well, at the mercy of the FOAK, me muvver wants a GPS (gawd knows why, it's not like she'll use it herself) [1] We were in PC World yesterday, and tbh got totally confused with what they did have on offer. And half of what they had advertised on the wall wasn't there to play with. So, what does the FOAK recommend for a not-too-expensive, but reliable (and any other things I haven't thought of, but could be important once you buy one and discover it has drawbacks)? [1] Ergo, one that would be useable on the bike would be very advantageous.. -- Lesley CBR600FW SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster) BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12 BONY#54P BOB#18 Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally
Ah - if you hadn't had [1] I would have the new Garmin I3 - approx £199 and seems to do everything you'd need - very very tempted to get one for the car. http://www.garmin.com/products/spi3/
For mum: get the Tom Tom 300 - its about £369.00 - I got mine at Halfords 'cos the guys at PCWorld know very little about computers so what they know about GPS I dread to think! It great it like Ronseal - It does what it says on the box - straight out of it. No messing just touch-screen and away u go. Tom Tom also do the Tom Tom Rider for motorcycle - I think it is the same thing only waterproof?
Tom Tom 300/500/700 to suit your budget. FiL uses one no problem. I'm tempted to get one for my dad, despite my long time Garmin ownership. Ah, Garmin 2610.
Well, at the mercy of the FOAK, me muvver wants a GPS (gawd knows why, Ask a man wot knows Darren Griffin http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ Sometime poster on here too. Also seen much on alt.satellite.gps HTH -- Robbo Trophy 1200 1998 BotaFOF #19. E.O.S.M 2001/2002/2003/2004/2005 B.O.S.M 2003, 2004, 2005 FURSWB#1 KotL..YTC449 PM#7 ..
Ooh, ta. I'll forward the info on to her ) -- Lesley CBR600FW SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster) BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12 BONY#54P BOB#18 Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally
The reviews I've read say they're actually cracking bits of kit - do everything all you actually need for a price that's bloody reasonable.
As long as you reckon it's safe to leave it in the glovebox. I have a voice nav system in car. When I stop, I stick it in my pocket and use it for email via the mobile and showing photos/mp3's to folk. It's a small games-pda running palmos. The matchbox size Bluetooth GPS can go up hills without a 12v supply too. I can display 1:25,000 OS mapping and log waypoints on foot or on the bike at any time interval. But yes, I'd like to test Garmin's £200 dedicated car box. I wonder who's system it uses for the voice-nav. Watch out for cameras and the apostrophe police. I've got them as poi's in a file with an avoid warning.
I use one of these both in the car and on the bike. Excellent and uses cf cards for memory, so bags of capacity.
SP was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever: Both WUN and myself have Medion MDPNA100s - I bought mine after he recommended one - and so far, it just works. It's a PDA so you can make use of all the PDA functionality as well, plus it does come with maps for Western Europe which is a bonus as you'll find that a lot of the other systems come with UK maps and you have to pay additional money for the rest of Europe. It's also got a nice big screen and is rather reasonably priced. AFAIR I paid 349 for mine. An alternative more suited to the bike would be a Garmin Quest. Small, waterproof, comes with maps for Western Europe again. Cheaper than the Medion but then again this is a pure GPS device. Support and map updates are probably better than for the Medion but OTOH if you don't like the Software on the Medion you can replace it... Well, the Medion does come with a bicycle mount and a splashproof cover. I haven't been brave enough to use it on the bike yet but AFAIK WUN does. Plenty of bike mounts available for the Garmins.
I can second (3dr, 4th) the Garmin suggestions, great quality GPSes. I use a 2610 myself in 2 cars and on a R1100RT and rain or shine it's never failed us . The 2610 is fully rugged and waterproof More economical, indeed the "i" series, cute, on Amazon's a picture of someone holding it in his hands it's really tiny, still the reviews seem pretty good so they must put that small screen to optimal use, and it's got an internal speaker. (not waterproof, not shockproof) For an "easy" GPS I'd go for the "C" series, my wife uses the 2610 fine but my mom would be a bit daunted by all the options, she's very happy with her C330 that just takes her from A > B. (again, not waterproof, not shockproof) (ps. Garmin has a good comparison page on their site: http://www.garmin.com/mobile/compare.jsp)
Depends on what you're after, really. Simple direction-based stuff, or full blown turn-by-turn navigation? I've had a lot of the more ancient offerings, and in my mind, they really provide a cheap way to get into the whole thing. Either the Garmin GPS12 or the Magellan 315 are insanely cheap (eBay), rugged as all get-out, and really easy to mount on a bike (with either Ram mounts or Touratech's offerings. The Touratech's lockable ones are pretty good). But, they aren't colour and don't do routing. I can recommend the Garmin GPS60, as a newer version of the above. Colour, decent memory, almost indestructible. Doesn't do voice, and doesn't have expandable memory. The CS series has a pile of sensors (altimeter, digital compass) as well as GPS. Again, easy to mount, easy to read. I think you might do well to consider two different GPS units here. The bike one should be rugged and weatherproof, the car one should look good and stick to the windshield. One thing to note - mounting a GPS on a bike, always use a 12v adapter. Batteries tend to shake around the battery compartment, and not only provide intermittent power, but ruin the contacts with carbon scoring.
