GPS and Motorbikes

TriumphBiker · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 2

I have been looking at getting a GPS system for use on my motorbike. I have decided to use an Orange C500 Smartphone based system. The idea being that the GPS unit can be mounted on the bike and the Smartphone used with either an earpiece or an in helmet speaker. The reason for using this setup is that I did not want a PPC mounted on the bike, a Triumph Daytona 600, having to remove it and carry it around every time I got off the bike. Does anyone use this setup and have any comments?

I have looked at the reviews of Copilot and Tomtom mobile and have decided to wait for the new version of TTM5 but have a few questions:

1. Is it possible to plan routes on the computer and download them onto the Smartphone?

2. When using the POI for safetycameras when an alert is flaged do you have to make a physical responce on the unit by hitting a button? As the unit will be in my pocked while riding it would not be possible to interact in this way.

Skippy · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:43 pm Post subject:

You can plan routes on your PC with CoPilot and upload them but CoPilot has so many other problems that it's NOT worth buying. You should consider alternative systems.

The speed camera alerts clear themselves after a while, you don't have to ack them.

I think you will want to see the display on your phone when you are riding, the spoken instructions aren't good enough (in my opinion). Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The GPS application can also crash or go silent leaving you driving off into the sunset blithely unaware that you aren't getting any more instructions. :x

You should also consider Garmin's Quest. The screen is a bit bigger than the C500, it has 243 Meg of memory (all the UK is about 140 Meg), it comes with maps for ALL of Europe on CD (not just the UK), you can create and upload waypoints/routes/tracks on your PC, it's waterproof and you can use it with a RAM mount on your bike. About £360 from http://www.gpsw.co.uk/details/prod2504.html

Compare this to CoPilot at £130 for the program & UK maps + £100 for full European maps + £100 for a Bluetooth GPS = £330.

The biggest problem is that the Garmins don't do speed camera alerts very well. Crying or Very sad

Planning your route on the PC is definately a fantastic feature to have, especially when you want to take an interesting "scenic route" rather than the motorway. 8)
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Skippy · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:48 pm Post subject:

Oh yes, there is a TomTom Rider coming out for bikes (waterproof and bluetooth) soon too which might be worth considering. Not cheap though. Confused

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Tadpole01 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 2

TriumphBiker · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 2

Thank you both for your reply's. It's useful to get feed back from other riders. I was thinking of the smartphone route as it's one less thing to carry around with you especially if I’m wearing my one piece as there’s not many pockets in it. I think it’s going to be TomTom Mobile 5 when it comes out on my smartphone. The phone is also smaller that a PDA as there is not much space on the Daytona 600 to mount a PDA. Was thinking I could Velcro the phone on the bike so I could see it.

Cenobite · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 11, 2005 Posts: 7

Im a biker too, in my enthusiasm I stupidly brought a GPS bluetooth device but didnt realise that TT do not sell the software on its own...

If anyone knows of any other good software that will work on the C500 without the need to buy a package let me know ;)

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