I am doing an overland trip from London to Durban, Sa via the western route. i would love to hear from experienced bikers what their preferences are with regards to GPS's

Stay away from the TomTom Rider 2, in fact the 1 as well. I have had a number of these units and they all failed.

I can give no info on any other brands, but the ones I have used have been bike specific units.

I am still in negotiation with the repairers back home, they are very slow to respond, not what you need when on the road.


Cheers
TS

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www.travellingstrom.com

I went with Garmin because they have more maps available overall, and they have opensourced their technology such that it is easy for amateurs and 3rd parties to build custom maps for their platform.

When traveliing through China/Russia etc. I used their world map which gave me reasonable highway information but obviously no city maps - having said that, the maps were up to 20km off track in some parts of China but at least I knew I was heading in the right direction.

Once in Europe I was able to "source" a copy of the European map base and found this very good for getting me right to the front doorstep of most places I was targetting.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Recently purchased the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx and have been using an openstreetmap.org EU map (free, excellent for Europe, NOT routable) and smellybiker's wanderlust maps (for the time being only for the UK, they work but less detail than OSM stuff).

For a trip outside Europe I'm preparing (or in any area where the openstreetmap.org maps are patchy/incomplete) I'll use smellybiker's world maps (yearly membership of ~$50 required). I can send you screenshots of the smellybiker maps if you'd like to get an idea of the level of detail. They seem perfectly adequate to get you from A to B.

As for the unit, even though I like it as a product (design, features), I've already returned it to the factory and had it replaced for a faulty power on/off button, and have subsequently had a freaky incident last week when a waypoint I had captured decided to move a good 20 miles off the mark...

Alex

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2011-2012: 5 months in Chile
2009-2010: 5 months in Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India

I have a 2610 and a 60Csx, and they're both great units.

The 2610 is perfect on my roadbike with its nice big colour screen, though it has no bateries so can't be used without bike or mains power. It's waterproof, but not really rugged. It also gives good voice directions over my Autocom unit.

The 60Csx is very rugged, and battery powered, as well as bike or USB powered. However the screen is a bit on the small side, and it isn't touch sensitive, there are proper buttons to operate it. It also won't give voice directions, though it does have a built in compass and altimeter.

For overlanding I'm taking the 60Csx. For Europe I'd go with the 2610 (or 2720, it's newer and better)

Plenty of maps out there, including Smelly Bikers, Tracks4Africa and of course the Garmin ones - if you can afford them!

My 60CSx also had a faulty power button. I tried to get it fixed, but Garmin Taiwan(!) told me to take it 'back' to the shop in Singapore. I told them that I bought it in Thailand and that I was in Malaysia, but just got the same reply. ESRI in Thailand eventually fixed the button under warranty, but it is getting bad again.

If you consider buying this model I suggest saving money and buying the 60Cx, without barometer and compass. The former seems to decrease the accuracy of altitude measurements (unless you calibrate it daily - unlikely), I have never been able to use the latter.

Routable OSM maps can be downloaded here: Worldwide routable Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap (updated weekly).

I read that some people have done mapping work in SA on smellybiker's maps, so you may want to check them out.

===> if you want good free maps may I suggest contributing your track logs and POIs back to some of the projects. The data has to come from somewhere...

Cheers,
Peter.

Edit: corrected typo in URL. Thanks for pointing it out.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Dont count on getting much utility (usefullness) from Smelly Bikers maps. Its VERY inaccurate, and you are just as well off with Garmin world map. None of the roads and tracks on Smelly Bikers maps in areas I went thru last year (central Asia, Mongolia and Siberia) were even CLOSE to being accurate, nor were they any more detailed than Garmin World Map that I also had with me. At maximum resolution, the only stuff i could see that was more detailed than Garmins world map, was the rivers. Smelly Bikers had much more watercourse detail, and curiously, identical road details. The additional river detail added nothing to my navigation and was often an annoying distraction dominating my screen.

I have recently discovered the OSM stuff and have contributed a couple of tracks. I think this is much more useful because they are real tracks people have made. The Smelly Biker stuff is just scanned maps from what I can tell. Even the main highway across Siberia is nowhere near accurate and hundreds of people record that track every year. So you would think it should be spot on.

I was quite disillusioned with the maps to be honest. In fact, I would have been disappointed if they were free. I had wrongly assumed they were collated tracks of peoples travels, but they arent. ...and OSM actually is.

I will use OSM in future.

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Hard to go past Garmin ... they are the most compatible with various forms of customised data, and the easiest to find maps for.

I like to see the maps while riding so small screens like the 60CSx are no good for me. Fine if you are on foot, but doing 100km/h down a dusty bumpy road, you will not be able to read it. I have ridden with guys who have a 60csx and they always have to stop or slow right down to read it and manouevre the small buttons and controls on it with riding gloves. A bigger screen and bigger buttons comes in very handy - so you can read the maps, town names and control the unit while riding. Similarly a touchscreen allows you to scroll thru maps more easily while riding. Thats at least what the Zumo does. The 400, 450, 500 and 550 all have a screen twice as large and with twice as many pixels as the 60CSx, large buttons for gloved fingers and a touchscreen. The flipside is the Zumos are 25% heavier and more expensive.

I dont have any experience with the new 660 Zumo, but they have a considerably larger screen yet are lighter than the 400-550 Zumos.

I was surprised what the Garmin units still cant do. They have a very limited ability to plot predetermined routes into the unit. They have pitiful internal memories, and in many ways I have been disappointed with how they perform. But they are much more durable and rugged than any other brand out there and on a long bike trip, that counts for a lot. If there is one thing I was impressed with the Zumos, its how durable they are.

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Colebatch, You're assuming someone has already sent Bob those tracks- but what if they have not and he has no data?
Bob works hard on his Wanderlust world-wide map compiling project- you must rememeber that it is dependant on individuals sending him their own tracks-
In some places there is a huge amount of information, right down to street level details (such as in B. Ayres etc) and in others, where no one has either been/and/ or sent their tracks in, there will be little or no information. It is a very big planet!

I am guessing that the areas you mention are more off the beaten track Colebatch than others.

I hope you will not mind my making a constructive suggestion? could you get in touch with Bob and send him your tracks-- From what you say, you are obviously very knowledgeable about those areas and many Hubbers and others would benefit from your tracks contribution.

Thanks in advance in the hope that you will be willing to share and do so