sat nav for bikes ?

[G Beale]

I hope this isn't a silly question but I'm planning on getting about a bit on my bike in the new year (better weather) and was wondering how hard it would be to rig my navman up to the TRX ? I've become very lazy since owning it (satnav) regards paying attention on long journeys & I think I'll be lost without it ! Gedit, lost ? D'ya like what I did there ?
Ahem, Anyway I'm thinking it would just be a case of rigging a push in cigarette* lighter socket or similar from a car using 1 live & 1 earth then mounting it somewhere out of sight but easy to access for my navman cable. My only problem then would be the size of my unit It's a wide screen jobby with built in camera so a bit bulky but I'm sure I'll think of something ?
So, a silly idea or does anyone already do it ? I know Paris Dakar bikes had built in sat nav waaaaaaayy before it became available to the likes of us so not totaly outrageous surely ?

* Edit; would you believe I typed F A G (as one word) instead of cigarette and got this, man better looking/dressed than me !!!! What IS the world coming to ???? Besides, I'm the best dressed man I know !

[Corners R Us]

Easiest way I've seen done is to buy a cigarette lighter to plumb in from the battery and leave socket under the seat (for sale on the Bay of Evil for £10) - power - sorted.

The get a magnetic map holder for the tank (£15?), buy some reasonably dense foam, cut a suitable sized sqaure in it, place NavMan in space, run power lead to socket under seat and your done.

Drawback - is your NavMan waterproof? Probably not but it should be ok in the map holder. You'll need to stop to reprogramme? You won't be able to hear it unless its got BlueTooth. Other than that a cheap solution.

Alternative - buy a TomTom Rider or one of the other bike specific solution. Think they've dropped to around £350 form their initial sky high price!!

I'm sure others will be along with their solutions.....

Corners...lifes an adventure, leave the satnav at home!

[G Beale]

Mine has bluetooth but I'm not bothered about hearing it, the screen is clear enough alone for me. I was looking at mounting it below the speedo for protection from rain but as I say, it's quite a whopper so not sure it will even go there. I'm not forking out for another one at those prices ! Mine was £200 and that hurt a lot.

[Kayla]

Whatever happened to gaffa taping a map in a plastic foldery thinger to your tank? I dunno. Kids these days, etc... Or just make sure you've got a full tank, plenty of money and a charged phone and head off vaguely in the right-ish direction

[Jak]

just tear a page out, stick it in your jacket and go exploring

[handsomejackuk]

got a sat nav mount on both of my bikes, bouht tem from maplin... check out maplin.co.uk....

the sat nav i am using is a navigo sy-895 widescreeen purchased from ebuyer... cost me £68..

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146674

i got my sat nav hacked to run wondows ce ibterface, and have tom tom, igo version 8 , and miomaps on it.. also have a good selection of other software on it.... mediaplayer, for playing mp3's and videos, large digital speedo, 0-60 mph appliation, word, excel powerpoint viewer etc....

check out my link on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25719146@N06/

As for powering it up, i use a cigarette lighter / usb power adaptor bought mine from poundland, also available on dealxtreme.... link here..

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.688

get a pair of poundland ear bud headphones, stick a 4gb sd card with your favourite music and nav software on it and you are sorted...

hope this helps...


Alun

[handsomejackuk]

hi,

oh yes, and as for using the touch screen, i got a nintendo ds pen taped to my index finger.. works a treat.....

and waterproofing, dont go out in rain, or keep a poli pocket in your bike boot and stick it over it (can be substituded by condom, cling film etc......

Alun

[fantic125]

No problems for me - I have people always telling me where to go!

In (South) Oz, rain is not an issue, being able to see the screen above the glare is. Best bet - one with voice, blue tooth and an earpiece so you don't need to bother with the visuals.

Oh! And maintain common sense. In the news last week were the people in Rio who took the shortest direct route - and recieved a few bullets as a bonus. GPS does not replace thinking. (in most instances!)

BTW - I have a Navman S35 - no frills, good unit.

[Tarwetijger]

Although I agree with the ladies in this topic ; a good map always worked for me,
I'm quite happy with the possibility to use my mobilephone (from work) with TomTom on the bike. I made some interesting routes on the PC back home and then just ride from corner to corner, works great! Well, untill TomTom knew a shortcut that is...

I used a carholder for attaching it to the bike, stuck it to the speed gauge (the speed was shown on TomTom screen). No, it's not waterproof and with the sun shining on it, it is difficult to read the screen but it costs me almost nothing.

[Jak]

(the speed was shown on TomTom screen)

Is the speed shown on satnav accurate? I borrowed my dad's satnav a while back and it showed quite a different speed to the speedo (in the car).

[HolerTogni]

Hi Jak!

As long as you go on a plane the speed on the sat nav is more correct than that shown on your speedo (the speedo has to show more than the actual speed by law - in Germany at least).

If you're on an inclining or declining road it may differ (naturally if you think on it).

I use a O2 xda Orbit (the same as a HTC Artemis) TomTom 6 pre-installed



with a wave case



mounted crosswise (not as in the picture) with the swan neck for bicycles to the frame part which holds the sub frame for the fairing (don't know what you call it ... and got no pictures of it yet ... ).

It's mounted such that it doesn't hide the speedo or something.

As for the speech output I use a bluetooth headset (Jabra BT320s) - works perfect!

You can even listen to the music (8 GB micro SD memory card ) while navigating if you like!

Ideal greetings from Munich!

[G Beale]

Thanks for all your suggestions/advice although some are way to technical for my brain ! I'm not much up on giggle-bytes, usb dongles etc. I tried to update my navman via their website & all I managed to do was un install all the voices and then every time I tried to use the camera it just rebooted so I took it back to the shop & said it was dodgy ! Mine is a Navman S90i wide screen thingy so a bit OTT for the bike but as a few people have pointed out, they all have built in speedo's which I'm guessing are as about as accurate as they come so think I just need a way of mounting it on the bikes speedo. My tinted screen should take care of the sun reflecting off it to a degree & it will be fairly well protected from the rain.
I have a blue tooth ear piece wotsit but it used to give me ear ache after a while & it's way too big to fit inside my helmet so not sure how to get around that one unless I butcher the padding in my helmet a fair bit ? Maybe I'll see if I can dismantle (break) it to make it smaller.
Found the 12V adapters on ebay cheers corners.

[FNTIM]

what about getting a tank bag with a clear map pocket... and stick it in there

[Glyn]

I'm working on getting an old TomTom integrated with my digital speedo and installed sometime (if I ever get any time at home again). Best argument for satnavs apart from not having to carry maps is that, when you don't know the road, the satnav will tell you how sharp a bend is, ok it can't warn of negative camber etc but it does mean being less likely to stuff it into a corner at a speed you can't get round with, as opposed to going in over slow just in case it is a right angle.

As long as you go on a plane the speed on the sat nav is more correct than that shown on your speedo

I took mine on a plane and went through a gatso at 520mph on the way back from France last year. is this a record?

[G Beale]

I think he meant not up or down hill, on a flat or level plane Glyn ?
Bike speedo would show zero on a real plane wouldn't it ?