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Which GPS ??? Which GPS ???
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Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 23 Jul 2005
*Touring Ted*'s Avatar
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Which GPS ???
Hi guys
Im planning a 6 month tour of south america...

anyone suggest a good motorcycle GPS. I hear garmin are good but there are soo many models to pick from. which are best for map resorces, reliablilty etc.

id love to hear from people who use gps.

Thanks,ed

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  #2  
Old 23 Jul 2005
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Garmins: the etrex are prone to failure if mounted on a touratech set-up (unless you fill them with silicon and sort the mounting)

the garmin 5 is more reliable. I've not looked into S.Am mapping, but if you can get it for a 5 then it'll serve you well on a touratech mount. don't forget to fit the power supply so it won't chaff.
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Old 23 Jul 2005
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Allot of bikers are telling me that the Garmin Quest is very good. 20hrs battery etc. The only downside is that it has limited memory.
On the other hand the garmin 2610 has infinate memory but no battery...

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  #4  
Old 23 Jul 2005
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Ted,

Would be easier if you looked in the correct forum.........

http://www.horizonsunlimited.c om/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Navigation+-+Maps,+Compass,+GPS&number=42&DaysPrune=365&LastLo gin=

The 2610 does not have an infinite memory, it has an expandable memory. It comes with a 256mb CF card which can be replaced with a 2gb card to enable the downloading of the whole of Western Europe. If portability is not important to you i.e. walking around a city, then the 2610 is the way to go.

Garmon 276c is portable but uses Garmins own expensive memory card which tops out at 256mb.It is portable though.

Quests bought in the US come with 128mb memory, whilst European version comes with 256mb. The European version, like the 276c, is non-expandadle. I don't think you can upgrade a US Quest from 128 to 256mb?

Quest II is due out soon & looks good, much larger non-expandable memory + a couple of other features I think?

I use a Nav.II which is a 2610 rebranded & repackaged for BMW. Main benefit is that the mounting cradle comes with an extra button pad that duplicates the Touch Screen features, useful when wearing winter gloves.

[This message has been edited by Steve Pickford (edited 23 July 2005).]
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  #5  
Old 24 Jul 2005
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I use a Lowrance iFinder H2O. For a pocket size gps this has a huge screen, is waterproof, plugs into your 12volt, has good internal battery life, uses common memory cards that you can either buy preloaded, or you can create your own using a program called map create.

My wife and I do a lot of geocaching and love the H2O for wayfinding and searching as well as traveling.

Rick B
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  #6  
Old 28 Sep 2005
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Hey,
I did a 4 months trip trough the andes and Brasil. I had a simple Garmin GPS III Plus. I took some russian military maps with me and that was all. I could navigate easily even when there were jsut dirt roads an no villages or similar for ages. I never had any problems. Certainly the GPS did not tell me at every corner which direction I had to take, but with a bit knowledge of navigation it tells you everything you wantand need to know.
Don`t spend too much in a High tech GPS. Take a proven one and take a compase with you in case the GPS does not work anymore.


in case you need more info about the compas let me know.

Enjoy your trip
Burnout1
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  #7  
Old 28 Sep 2005
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I have the Garmin 76CS. So far I like the size of the unit, waterproof around 15 feet in case you drop it in a river etc, screen quality in the sun light, battery life, 12volt adapter, storage capacity, light weight and portable for trekking if needed. I'm using the Touratech handel bar mount which seems to be good.

*Good Luck...
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  #8  
Old 26 Feb 2006
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I have a Garmin 60c, which comes with a more rugged case than the Quest, tho I think that either one is fine. If you buy it in the States is comes with a N and S American base map; Euro models do not.

But I agree with the poster who said that an older Garmin III or V will do the trick for a lot less.
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  #9  
Old 3 Apr 2006
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I used a Garmin eTrex Legend for the trip across West & North Africa , the bike mount was the cheapest possible - a couple of velcro strips onto the bike dash ( Harley MT350 ).
The thing stayed in place fine , the only niggle was having to change to batteries - but since a freshly charged pair of AA's lasted all day it wasn't too much hassle.
It would have been nice to download maps of the areas as we needed , but I didn't have time to find them , not even sure they exist for the areas we went to....
Mainly we used the thing for compass bearing and plotting our position on a paper map, so any simple GPS would have been fine.
The screen is nice and big and detailed enough, and you can select BIG DIGITS if you need to use the thing as a speedo ( as I did when the bike one packed up ). Also it's cool to know your total distance, average speed etc...

Ray
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