I did a search on the forums but found nothing so I will ask the question. I need to know who makes a GPS that I can use when I drive from San Antonio to Panama. I have seen a video before and can not find it of a guy who had a GPS and you could click on his link to see the route he is taking and where he is at the present time. Any reviews or experience would be cool. Thanks in advance.
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Motorcycle GPS which one do you recommend
- Thread starter opismath
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Dahveed
0
iPhone with Gaia app. Download the maps before you go or at the hotel each night.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yep that one or copilot. You can get both for about the same price as a barrel of oil [emoji23]
Dahveed
0
Maps.me is also free. But you often get what you pay for. I have a couple different options. Plus I gave a Garmin unit as a back up.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Spotwalla for your phone will show your track and position.
spotwalla.com
Before I bought an inReach I used it satisfactorily. For a trip like that I'd probably want a GPS and a phone. You can spend about as much as you want for a gps.
SpotWalla Home
SpotWalla is an online personal location management system with support for both satellite-based tracking devices as well as cellular phone applications.
spotwalla.com
Before I bought an inReach I used it satisfactorily. For a trip like that I'd probably want a GPS and a phone. You can spend about as much as you want for a gps.
JT
Forum Supporter
I am not particularly fond of Garmin, but the Montana does everything I need in a gps including having a reflective screen that can be seen in direct sunlight. The brighter the sunlight, the more contrast you see on the screen. I have never seen a phone that could be read in direct sunlight. It is also waterproof and incredibly tough. I accidentally ran over it once with the rear wheel of my DL1000 while the gps was face down on an asphalt parking lot, not scratch on it. Another advantage to the Montana is the powered cradle for motorcycle mounting.
For a trip like this, I would also have OSMAND downloaded to my phone and a small tablet with gps capability as backup.
For a trip like this, I would also have OSMAND downloaded to my phone and a small tablet with gps capability as backup.
I use a old Samsung Galaxy S6 with no cell service (wifi only) running CoPilot. I purchased the North America map through the app ($10 I think) and it includes lifetime updates. If this phone ever dies I can buy another or something similar for cheap on the used market - the lifetime map will follow my account to whatever device I install it on.
You can use whatever route maker you want, and then export the file for use in CoPilot (I use Furkot because it exports files in the CoPilot format). Since the Galaxy is Android based you can dig into the file structure and place the route you created into the correct folder for CoPilot to load.
It's a cheap solution that allows me to keep my nav functions on a separate device from my regular cell phone.
You can use whatever route maker you want, and then export the file for use in CoPilot (I use Furkot because it exports files in the CoPilot format). Since the Galaxy is Android based you can dig into the file structure and place the route you created into the correct folder for CoPilot to load.
It's a cheap solution that allows me to keep my nav functions on a separate device from my regular cell phone.
I have the tom tom rider 500 and I like it so far. I've only had it a couple of months. So far I haven't had enough riding to really test it out, but it did have some dirt/gravel roads that I found on google. Lots of people seem to like the garmin stuff though.
Dahveed
0
Of the dedicated GPS units I've owned, the Montana 600 is probably the best. But, it's difficult to design a route on it in the field unless you have a computer and then it's still a massive pain.
With the Gaia app on my phone and tablet I can easily draw a route in the evening on the tablet and then it shows up on my phone via the internet and I can have the phone out on the bars and follow route. The bad thing about Gaia are 1) it doesn't give you turn by turn 2) the road map could be a little nicer. If there is a perfect solution for ME out there, I do not know what it is. But I've basically found a workable solution that I'm happy with.
With the Gaia app on my phone and tablet I can easily draw a route in the evening on the tablet and then it shows up on my phone via the internet and I can have the phone out on the bars and follow route. The bad thing about Gaia are 1) it doesn't give you turn by turn 2) the road map could be a little nicer. If there is a perfect solution for ME out there, I do not know what it is. But I've basically found a workable solution that I'm happy with.
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I'm sure it's me but using phone-based routing has always been impractical for me. The screen is so difficult to see in direct sunlight, the apps chew up battery power so needs to be plugged in and that whole setup isn't really waterproof. It's been a while and a phone ago, but I used to have issues with the phone overheating in the direct sunlight.
I have a Garmin Zoom 595 now that I bought lightly used on this site. I've had it many years and it's been brutalized with more falls than I care to admit to and has even been underwater at a river crossing but still works perfectly and is in excellent condition. While the screen is brighter than a phone screen it can still be a bit of a chore to see when in direct light if you have a tinted visor but is still way better than the phone. If it had one of those new TFT screens like on the new BMW's and KTM's it would be a huge step forward.
One of the Cons of the Garmin are the cradles. They can be overly complex and expensive. I modified mine and got rid of most of the old-technology wiring and made it easily transferable between bikes. But the BIGGEST con of Garmin is the insanely infuriating routing application you have to use, BaseCamp. Holy B*lls is that thing a ***. I've used it for years and am pretty decent at it now but even then it's SO much more work than it needs to be by today's standards. I have some tips/tricks I use to get the route down that help but keep the kids out of the room when I'm doing it!
I was hoping someone would drop in here and enlighten us on the new big thing in GPS that is easy to see in bright sunlight, easy to wirelessly accept maps hastily created in common mapping applications and has simple and affordable cradle setups.
Fire away.
I have a Garmin Zoom 595 now that I bought lightly used on this site. I've had it many years and it's been brutalized with more falls than I care to admit to and has even been underwater at a river crossing but still works perfectly and is in excellent condition. While the screen is brighter than a phone screen it can still be a bit of a chore to see when in direct light if you have a tinted visor but is still way better than the phone. If it had one of those new TFT screens like on the new BMW's and KTM's it would be a huge step forward.
One of the Cons of the Garmin are the cradles. They can be overly complex and expensive. I modified mine and got rid of most of the old-technology wiring and made it easily transferable between bikes. But the BIGGEST con of Garmin is the insanely infuriating routing application you have to use, BaseCamp. Holy B*lls is that thing a ***. I've used it for years and am pretty decent at it now but even then it's SO much more work than it needs to be by today's standards. I have some tips/tricks I use to get the route down that help but keep the kids out of the room when I'm doing it!
I was hoping someone would drop in here and enlighten us on the new big thing in GPS that is easy to see in bright sunlight, easy to wirelessly accept maps hastily created in common mapping applications and has simple and affordable cradle setups.
Fire away.
GPS city ran the Garmin 396 LMTS on sale last June for $249.99 with free 2-day shipping so I picked one up . Seems decent but twice I’ve run into problems that it cannot find an address. Oddly, both times were when looking for an address on hwy 90 (first time in Gonzales, and the second time was alt 90 in Sugar Land). I suppose the various abbreviations and different ways of inputting it throws the search. Not sure if this is a Garmin issue or a me issue for not knowing how to correctly enter the destination. I was using my cell phone up to that point but I was having problems with glare and it would over heat at times. Ease of use, the std maps that’s pre loaded on my phone gets the nod. For readability and durability, it’s the Garmin
Joerg
0
Have a Garmin GPSMAP 64s with rechargeable battery pack and RAM cradle. Was going to use it for more off-road oriented stuff but never came to it.
In the city I just use an old Garmin nuvi 55LM. PM me if interested in the 64s.
In the city I just use an old Garmin nuvi 55LM. PM me if interested in the 64s.
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J
Jarrett
Guest
Not a recommendation, but just another option. I use cycling computers on the motorcycle.
I have this one:
It's about the size of small phone, so not a huge screen. It doesn't have have a complicated mount that has to be wired in or anything. It's a quarter turn twist lock that is mounted on the handlebars and can be taken off in about a minute with 2.5 hex wrench.
I have one mount on each bike and move the unit in between them. I've crashed with them on the bike more times than I want to admit and they have never fallen off. The mount looks like this:
It charges on USB and lasts about 10 hours before going into battery save mode. I've never run it to zero even when it its battery save mode. They make a battery for that doubles the time, but I haven't found that I've needed it for my trips. Then I just charge it overnight at the hotel and its ready to go the next day.
The thing I like about it is that it is built to use pre-configured maps instead of forcing you to use its route. With an app on your phone, you can create routes on the fly and send them instantly to the GPS. Or you can create routes ahead of time on the tablet/computer and have a list of them saved to use. You don't have to use their app, it just makes it a little easier. I think you can enter an address and have it guide you, but I never use it that way. I like drawing my own route and riding that.
It also tracks the entire ride and automatically uploads it to an online database. I have literally 1,000+ rides stored there from the last 6 years. You can go back and look at all the ride info from rides years ago. They look like this:
You can literally drill into any stats you want from the ride and create routes from them. So if you follow folks through a new area. When you get home, you have a GPX file of the ride to use later if wanted.
I have a Zumo, but its in a box somewhere and I just use this thing now. If you are doing 10+ hour rides or need to create tracks to go through somewhere without roads, this probably isn't the right unit. Or if you are camping without power. But for everything else, it seems to work well. I just have a mount on each bike and move the unit from bike to bike as needed.
It also doesn't eat up your phone battery. You can keep that in your coat pocket charged up for emergencies. Oh, just thought of another thing. It provides tracking info to others. If you share the ride, they can watch you real time and see where you are on the route. If you crash, it alerts them and shows your location. If you want, you can send an emergency distress message out as well, but those features all require phone service and don't work with satellite like a Spot or something.
Again, if you aren't too remote, this works well and I use these functions all the time. It gives my girlfriend and daughter a little peace of mind to see where I am on long rides. Though sometimes I wonder, "Were they watching just then when I ran it up to 135 mph? Hope not."
I have this one:
It's about the size of small phone, so not a huge screen. It doesn't have have a complicated mount that has to be wired in or anything. It's a quarter turn twist lock that is mounted on the handlebars and can be taken off in about a minute with 2.5 hex wrench.
I have one mount on each bike and move the unit in between them. I've crashed with them on the bike more times than I want to admit and they have never fallen off. The mount looks like this:
It charges on USB and lasts about 10 hours before going into battery save mode. I've never run it to zero even when it its battery save mode. They make a battery for that doubles the time, but I haven't found that I've needed it for my trips. Then I just charge it overnight at the hotel and its ready to go the next day.
The thing I like about it is that it is built to use pre-configured maps instead of forcing you to use its route. With an app on your phone, you can create routes on the fly and send them instantly to the GPS. Or you can create routes ahead of time on the tablet/computer and have a list of them saved to use. You don't have to use their app, it just makes it a little easier. I think you can enter an address and have it guide you, but I never use it that way. I like drawing my own route and riding that.
It also tracks the entire ride and automatically uploads it to an online database. I have literally 1,000+ rides stored there from the last 6 years. You can go back and look at all the ride info from rides years ago. They look like this:
You can literally drill into any stats you want from the ride and create routes from them. So if you follow folks through a new area. When you get home, you have a GPX file of the ride to use later if wanted.
I have a Zumo, but its in a box somewhere and I just use this thing now. If you are doing 10+ hour rides or need to create tracks to go through somewhere without roads, this probably isn't the right unit. Or if you are camping without power. But for everything else, it seems to work well. I just have a mount on each bike and move the unit from bike to bike as needed.
It also doesn't eat up your phone battery. You can keep that in your coat pocket charged up for emergencies. Oh, just thought of another thing. It provides tracking info to others. If you share the ride, they can watch you real time and see where you are on the route. If you crash, it alerts them and shows your location. If you want, you can send an emergency distress message out as well, but those features all require phone service and don't work with satellite like a Spot or something.
Again, if you aren't too remote, this works well and I use these functions all the time. It gives my girlfriend and daughter a little peace of mind to see where I am on long rides. Though sometimes I wonder, "Were they watching just then when I ran it up to 135 mph? Hope not."
Last edited by a moderator:
I love my Zumo 396. I was really happy with the 660 I had before that, but it didn't survive a crash (neither did the bike).
My bike hit a tree, handlebars first, at speed. I was lucky enough to no longer be on it, though I still got hurt badly. The frame was bent and everything in the vicinity of the bars was destroyed. No fault of the unit or it's ram mount. Those mounts are super solid.
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NX2000
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Since I largely hate the Nav on my Harley, and my Wee Strom I know the speedo is never right, after looking at this thread and doing a little research I ended up getting this refurb from Amazon. I'll see how it works.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G4J9QJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G4J9QJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Hi, Jarrett. Which specific model is your Garmin?Not a recommendation, but just another option. I use cycling computers on the motorcycle.
I have this one:
It's about the size of small phone, so not a huge screen. It doesn't have have a complicated mount that has to be wired in or anything. It's a quarter turn twist lock that is mounted on the handlebars and can be taken off in about a minute with 2.5 hex wrench.
I have one mount on each bike and move the unit in between them. I've crashed with them on the bike more times than I want to admit and they have never fallen off. The mount looks like this:
It charges on USB and lasts about 10 hours before going into battery save mode. I've never run it to zero even when it its battery save mode. They make a battery for that doubles the time, but I haven't found that I've needed it for my trips. Then I just charge it overnight at the hotel and its ready to go the next day.
The thing I like about it is that it is built to use pre-configured maps instead of forcing you to use its route. With an app on your phone, you can create routes on the fly and send them instantly to the GPS. Or you can create routes ahead of time on the tablet/computer and have a list of them saved to use. You don't have to use their app, it just makes it a little easier. I think you can enter an address and have it guide you, but I never use it that way. I like drawing my own route and riding that.
It also tracks the entire ride and automatically uploads it to an online database. I have literally 1,000+ rides stored there from the last 6 years. You can go back and look at all the ride info from rides years ago. They look like this:
You can literally drill into any stats you want from the ride and create routes from them. So if you follow folks through a new area. When you get home, you have a GPX file of the ride to use later if wanted.
I have a Zumo, but its in a box somewhere and I just use this thing now. If you are doing 10+ hour rides or need to create tracks to go through somewhere without roads, this probably isn't the right unit. Or if you are camping without power. But for everything else, it seems to work well. I just have a mount on each bike and move the unit from bike to bike as needed.
It also doesn't eat up your phone battery. You can keep that in your coat pocket charged up for emergencies. Oh, just thought of another thing. It provides tracking info to others. If you share the ride, they can watch you real time and see where you are on the route. If you crash, it alerts them and shows your location. If you want, you can send an emergency distress message out as well, but those features all require phone service and don't work with satellite like a Spot or something.
Again, if you aren't too remote, this works well and I use these functions all the time. It gives my girlfriend and daughter a little peace of mind to see where I am on long rides. Though sometimes I wonder, "Were they watching just then when I ran it up to 135 mph? Hope not."
J
Jarrett
Guest
I can't recommend this Garmin anymore. It crapped out on me about a month ago and despite having a support ticket open with Garmin, they are unwilling to do anything about it. My 396 LMT is dead in a box somewhere as well. I'm fed up with Garmin products at this point.
My latest test is an inexpensive phone like the Blackview BV5900 with no SIM card running RideWithGPS for reliable turn by turn nav and Google Maps in offline mode for everything else.
My latest test is an inexpensive phone like the Blackview BV5900 with no SIM card running RideWithGPS for reliable turn by turn nav and Google Maps in offline mode for everything else.
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Thanks. I will try that or maybe upgrade and try Rever Pro.
Another Montana user here. I've had it a long long time (so it's the really basic model) and I'm still happy with it. The battery pack it comes with is pretty good but I've ran it off of AA's a lot too. AA's don't seem to last as long? As previously mentioned, the Montana's screen is excellent even in direct sunlight and it can show tracks and navigate routes. Many GPS units have a limit on how many points they'll read on a track but the Montana basically doesn't care. The only time that's been an issue is if I'm sharing tracks with someone who has a lesser GPS.
I cut off all but the power cables from the little Garmin charging cradle it locks into and wired the power to a two wire SAE connector. This makes for an essentially vibration proof charging mount that, combined with a RAM mount, is easy to take on and off the bike. USB charging is unreliable at best on a motorcycle so this system has been a real benefit. I even bought one of those little locking RAM mounts to really secure it while at gas stations and such. But these days, who's going to steal a dedicated GPS unit? I suppose it could still happen but it's less likely than in the past with all the cell phone technology.
I cut off all but the power cables from the little Garmin charging cradle it locks into and wired the power to a two wire SAE connector. This makes for an essentially vibration proof charging mount that, combined with a RAM mount, is easy to take on and off the bike. USB charging is unreliable at best on a motorcycle so this system has been a real benefit. I even bought one of those little locking RAM mounts to really secure it while at gas stations and such. But these days, who's going to steal a dedicated GPS unit? I suppose it could still happen but it's less likely than in the past with all the cell phone technology.
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JT
Forum Supporter
Scott, here is one site I use,
www.gmaptool.eu
You will sometimes have routing errors. Always preview the route, you'll catch some ridiculous errors.
USA OSM Auto | GMapTool
Road map of USA for Garmin devices based on OSM data. Compilation September 2024.
You will sometimes have routing errors. Always preview the route, you'll catch some ridiculous errors.
Yet ANOTHER reason I like a GPS unit over a cell phone. Geez. I've lost count now!