What GPS are you guys using if you have one and why? I'm trying to decide whether I should even bother when I have an iPhone that's perfectly capable of giving me turn-by-turn directions - just without the sexy lady voice.

tomtom rider2 got it cause it was a good price had bike for 1 summer now and its never been mounted to bike yet lol the wiring is run for it. besides when riding its fun to get out on road and get lost you eventually come across a major road somewhere along the way. ive been looking at the tank mounts on ebay just havent bought one yet prob before riding weather.

Have you ever been on a long trip with it? Any issues with it misguiding you?

I have the zumo 550 with the bike mount and have used it on a long trip from calgary alberta to the coast in victoria then down to bodega bay along the pacific coast then inland to vegas and north to home in calgary

took it on a 600 mi trip in the car and it worked fine. its blue tooth also so cell works with it ear piece and mouthpiece that attaches on and inside helmet

Thanks!

I have a TomTOm one XL . I use a stem mount from Ram Mount as it easy and secure from moving . Its ok and cheap as in $100 to find one refurb and new is like $20 more . works fine and I dont ride in the rain if I can help it . works great and I have big bucks left over for tars and gas to ride more

I have a TomTom 1 and the mount is a modified mount that came with the GPS. I chopped off the extension rod and turned down the plastic stub that remained. I turned it with a slight taper in it so that it got just a little larger at the top. Took a dead blow and whacked it into the stem hole. Works well and stays mostly dry.

I kind of agree with scott, cause I've seen many things I wouldn't have if I hadn't made a wrong torn. In Alaska you could go for an hour or more before you realized you had made a wrong turn. That's how I discovered the Matanuska glacier. LOL
I've debated whether to get one or not. It would have to have Bluetooth though. Hearing the direction would be the best part and I wouldn't want to be wired down!
I gave my wife one for her birthday. She has trouble reading maps. She loves it. And I don't have to worry about her finding her way home. But if anything ever goes wrong with the marriage I can always recalibrate it to be 100 miles off...

Sharkey, I agree that making that "wrong" turn can lead to some great sights, but it is also nice to know where the nearest fuel is when you have no idea where you are. Where I live in NY, there are thousands of these secondary roads running all over the Catskills and you can get pretty far away from everything. With the TomTom volume at max, I can easily hear the directions at up to 70mph. After that, it gets a bit muddy.

redtrace tom 2 rider comes with bluetooth ear peice that velcros to the inside of your helmet also connects to ur cell so you can talk while you ride lol geez maybe ill hook it up to the bike this yr

Garmin Zumo 550!!!

I have the Garmin Quest. You can buy them (factory repackaged / factory refurbished) for under $100 on Ebay. They are waterproof and small enough to fit between your handle bars. I use the hole in the center of the steering column to mount it. I bought a holder for the unit (one with the electrical connections) and made a little metal adapter to secure the holder to the center steering column.

Spyglass

I finished my GPS mount for my ZX14 this weekend. I wanted a mount that would not alter or manipulate the bike in anyway. I wanted it to be strong yet light. I used the opening in the steering column. It is the perfect position. I had a similar mount on my ZX11. It puts all the information in your viewing range (small head movements)

Quest GPS mounted on my ZX14

I turned the insert section from a stock of 1" round aluminum on my lathe. I welded an aluminum plate to the end of the shaft. I used rubber O-rings to secure the insert in place and prevent any rubbing or wear. I also added an O-ring at the top of the insert just under the shoulder of the stop crown to cushion and prevent wear. The O-rings dampen vibration and isolate the insert.

Insert (before O-rings)

Insert (after O-rings)

I mounted the adapter that came with my GPS cradle to the aluminum plate.

The cradle fastens to the adapter.

Different views

Tomorrow I am going to trim the aluminum plate smaller and follow the footprint of the adapter. I think I may paint just the top aluminum plate black. I have an etching primer and a special black rubber coat product. The vertical column looks decent and matches the steering column. I coated it and polished it with a marine wax to help protect its surface.

I was thinking about turning some more of the vertical column inserts c/w shoulder crown & O-rings. People could create their own top plate based on their individual device and have it welded on by their local welding shop (or do it themselves with a MIG).

Thanks for looking,

Spyglass

* Last updated by: spyglass on 3/22/2010 @ 12:45 AM *

Yo, spy! That's wicked!! You could market those things. I might kike one myself.
I have a friend who invented the "Stop-n-lock" system, used primarily on cruisers. He is now a millionaire.

I have used a Quest for a long time.

Check out Staples. I picked up a TomTom One 130 for $50. Yea, it was a quick sale but the regular price is about $75. I also got an XL330 for my wife for about $88 including tax... used a 15% off coupon.

I also ordered a RAM mount.

* Last updated by: ZXSyko on 3/22/2010 @ 12:43 PM *

Thanks Sharkey,
It is always cool when you have a project that makes you feel you are moving one step forward. I am working on a camera mount that will slip over the rear passenger foot peg. It will offer 2 mods (self leveling X,Y, or X&Y, and fixed position / angle X & Y) I think this would be fun. It could easily be swapped between bikes during a day out riding. I am working on modifying a small transmitter and receiver (cheaper to modify than build from scratch a lot of the time). I would like to have the shutter release / start button as a velcro fastened thumb switch (momentary action). Hopefully I will finish it in the next two months before all the good weather roles in.

Hey ZXSyko,
It sounds like you got yourself a great deal on that Tom Tom ($50 buck... they are almost giving them away). I would love to pick up a weather proof, gloved compatible, touch screen...... but they are asking the big squid for those models. I picked up a couple of these Garmin Quest units and have been happy with them. I threw one in each vehicle I own so that I would become fluid with them. I can live without the bigger screen size, and love the fact that I can take the quest off the bike and walk around with it.
I have heard a lot of good things about the Tom Tom units.
I enjoyed having a GPS on my old ZX11 (liked to know the next twist the road had in store for me, time to next point, or lunch). I got stuck the other day on my ZX14 and needed to find a decent alternate route. Needless to say I managed to find all the dead end and twilight light zone roads. Talk about a good motivator to get home and into the shop to finish a project - LOL

I bought a Ram Mount (still have it in a box). The one I purchased essentially had two balls (one on the GPS end and the other on the mounting end). The balls allowed the unit to be angled and positioned. The interconnecting segment housed the balls at either of its ends in socket like concave depressions. Because the segment was made up of two halves, tightening a thumb screw would sandwich the balls between the segment halves. Nice easy design and concept (been used in photography for years).

I found that the Ram Mount would be great to mount on an exposed handle bar of a cruiser where real-estate is in abundance and you actually need to create dramatic angles to get the screen of your GPS facing you. On the ZX14 there are not a lot of places to mount a GPS that will, not block sight lines to gauges, that with fall within the normal forward range of view, and not get in the way on the handle bars and spoil the ride.

I was originally going to use the Ram Mount (balls and segment) on my ZX11 and the mount I made for it. But the overall height would have blocked my line of sight to the gauges. There was also the risk of the Ram mount getting knocked and catching my tank bag and interfering with steering.

After making a few thin sheet metal mounts with various heights and angles on my ZX11. I found that the rider position of these bikes demands for the GPS / information to be nestled into a convenient space. (We can call this the cockpit). The goal is to have it fall below the line of your gauges, be able to be seen over top of a tank bag.

Just some thoughts,

The ideal would be a hologram above the gauges so you could keep at least one eye on the road. ;-)

Thanks again for looking,

Spyglass

* Last updated by: spyglass on 3/22/2010 @ 7:42 PM *

Sweet setup spyglass get a patent on that mount it is a great design , id buy on for shure