Motorcycle GPS Vs. Tablet??
 

Ladies, Gentlemen, Scoundrels:
I am looking at a motorcycle GPS. Their cost ++ the costs of map coverage for travelling has me wondering if a GPS enabled Tablet would be a better choice [ battery life, other capabilities, etc.]. Has anyone have opinions or experience using a tablet[ with suitable waterproofing and mount] on their bikes. Was it relatively easy to set up or not for a Luddite?
Thanks in advance .

I would use a proper GPS mounted to a bike, not a Tablet. A GPS I would say is far more robust than a tablet and easier to mount on the bike
As for battery life, my Garmin Montana lasts between 16 to 18 hours before it needs charging. I can however charge it on the hoof.

There are lots of mapping apps available for phones and tablets and there are threads about this on here.

Maps for GPS..you can buy the proper maps from whoever you get your GPS from, Garmin etc but a lot of folk use the OSM mapping, again there is a large thread on this kind of mapping and how to use it.

Wayne

For me, I want a GPS that I can use both on and off the bike, so it needs to be hand portable (walking) and water proof (riding in the rain). A tablet would not suit me.

'Free' maps tend to be what people use - especially on a world trip where the costs of maps tend to be high for the amount of use you would have. OSM tends to be the source of these free maps in various forms - on a GPS, a 'smart' phone, a tablet. While you might see the app called 'maps.me' for example .. the base data is OSM, only the way in which it is presented and the amount of data used changes from one app to another.

I used an iPad mini for navigation round the USA last autumn but not mounted on the bike. It was kept in a pannier and brought out as and when I was lost (quite often!). Even if I could have found a stable cradle it would have been way too big

I have mounted it in a cradle inside my Land Rover and used it as a regular sat nav and it works ok, but no better than a normal sized dedicated one or even an iPhone. There's plenty of free app based sat nav software around.

In reality unless you're navigating somewhere really tricky you don't need the screen working all the time. Just turn it on when you've no idea whether to turn left or right (or slightly before that point anyway)

In your position I'd buy a second hand car sat nav and either buy a cheap waterproof case for it or put a plastic bag over it in the rain.

Not using a dedicated GPS anymore. Not sure about a tablet, nor luddite but the android platform has loads more options. Main weak point is bypassing the USB gremlins. Also an issue with some dedicated GPS units though. USB was never designed for high vibration and outdoor use. Doesn't hold up to serious off road for sure. Phones have cradle options that can bypass this issue though with a USB port on the mount that can be hard wired easily.
My fav app for riding is Locus. Others like OSMand. Depending on your needs there may be a learning curve. Although basecamp isn't easy for some either.

No such problems with the Montana in an AMPS cradle. Used in the car, road bike and dirt bike.

I think you would be better off with a dedicated motorcycle GPS, rather than trying to kludge a tablet onto your handlebars.

With a dedicated GPS, you don't need to worry about waterproofing, readability of the display in sunshine, ability to operate (tiny) buttons while riding with gloves on, a user interface that was not designed for ease of use while controlling a vehicle, getting spoken directions connected to a Bluetooth helmet without an electrical engineering degree, etc., etc.

Personally, I use a dedicated GPS (a Garmin) while riding, and a small laptop computer for constructing routes and doing navigation research when not riding. It is true that some of the Garmin units are quite expensive, but there are other manufacturers of motorcycle-specific GPS navigators - such as Tom-Tom - who provide similar capabilities at a more attractive price.

Michael

I tried once with my ipad and rode approx. 5000 km Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria.Trust me my friend it is not comfortable. Also it is very dangerous cos where you mount your ipad should be on tank but when you need to look at your route your look drops and you loose your consantration. I recommend you to put a motocycle navigation and mount it up not down. I mean 10-20 cm down where you look for riding.

Last thing when you put ipad or iphone in a waterproof case it reaches the max heat and the device shots itself down. Then you have to wait for 15 mins to gets it cold.. Not easy to use...

The bigger the screen, the more power is drawn to make all those millions of pixels do their stuff.
I've settled on a 5" screen "water proof" (nothing is water proof) android phone for now, and it does the job without any tendency to get even slightly hot - I guess this depends on how hard the processor is working, so more recent phones should not be working too hard when used solely for navigational purposes.
I have also experimented with a nexus 7" screen tablet but I use that only when on 4 wheels nowadays.
Some people have written in here about using a tablet mounted in a tank bag, but that would be a pain with the issue mentioned above.

My Garmin nuvi car-type GPS must have a flat battery by now. :innocent:

I spent a long time using smartphones for navigation and moved on to a Garmin 590LM on my current bike.

Ultimately it was worth the expense, it's a better solution. The phones tended to overheat and at the time few were waterproof. The Xperia I have now would probably be better though and can be charged with the magnetic port, staying waterproof even when charging.

What remains an issue is screen clarity in bright sunlight and control in gloves. No tablet or phone yet invented is very easy to see in direct sunlight, which is a massive pain in the ass on a bike. I never found a good solution for making a normal touchscreen work with thick gloves.

The Garmin I have bypasses all of those problems, it plays music, can stream it from my phone, it accepts OSM maps gladly when I leave Europe. It's just a better all round package. A luxury item, no doubt, my GF won't be forking out on one, she's happy to use her own Xperia, but I'm glad I got mine - right tool for the job.

I think the Garmin users are sticking with the method of use Garmin project. Programme the box, clamp it to the handlebars, spend all day with the septic tart on some slide show telling you you are " off rout" and need to " make a ewe turn" .

As I don't want woodwork and farming advice all day I don't do this. I memorise or make a rough list each night and bimble along enjoying the scenery or music. At the afternoon tea break I switch phone batteries and if faced with a city centre etc. Turn on the GPS and listen to advice via headphones. My 14 quid app, 20 quid charger, 10 quid second battery and 2 quid headphones modified with a tenners worth of earplug putty are lighter, smaller, cheaper, multi functional etc.

The question would seem to be how controlling against useful you ( and it is a personal choice unless your mates all insist you leave gang if you don't have the right Touratech bits to hold your GPS and spare GPS and GPS tracker ) find these tools to be.

Andy

Now you're talking!:thumbup1:
Though some will need a translator.

It's all good feedback in here so far regarding the technological side of things.
Replies have dealt with the tablet aspect quite readily but, thereafter, are varied because no one knows enough about your philosophy toward navigation and what you want to get out of the different possibilities.

For the :offtopic: "benefit" of those divided by a closely related language:

Septic; mockney rhyming slang, septic tank, yank, a US person of the the loud and chequed trousers (pants) variety.

Tart; I should look up the origin of this one. I suspect it is Georgian slang referring to something you can buy on street corners. As a reference to a female person it suggests a lady of negotiable virtue.

U-Turns are not made on this side of the Atlantic. This would require men in orange jackets and a lorry load of tarmac. We turn around instead.

Rout (pronounced rowt) is either something armies do after they get their arses (small donkies) kicked, or the action of using a sort of electric chisel to cut slots in wood. A route (pronounced root despite the Australians sniggering) is followed.

Had I purchased a Garmin in the US this would all make more sense, but it was Bradford doh

Andy

Interestingly, or maybe not, sat nav units have just been removed from the goods used to calculate UK inflation. We aren't buying so many, so they join nylon slacks and domestic coal supplies in the history of stuff whose prices once increased.

Andy