Less stress and security. I'll buy that for a dollar.

I can see it being very helpful in some scenarios. Crossing the Sahara, trying to find a hostel in Cusco...

Markharf touched on what I want to avoid. The overland biker with more gear than would fit in the bed of a pick-up giving full attention to the blue tooth speaker linked to a GPS...

Thanks for suggesting the Garmin Trex. I'll have to look in to that and swing through a few pawn shops/online markets for used models.

First thing first, is a few shake down rides in unfamiliar areas to get a feel for relying soley on papermaps.

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West Virginia University 2006
Beta Theta Pi - Beta Psi
Ride Report: TAT...and Beyond

Sounds like a plan!

Before I had a GPS, I wrote the directions on the windshield of my bike using a whiteboard marker. Then used an old sock to erase them. Kinda like a poor-mans heads up display.

I might write:

RT S Hwy 34
LT N Hwy 55
RT CR-5316

daryl

ha! That I can appreciate.

__________________
West Virginia University 2006
Beta Theta Pi - Beta Psi
Ride Report: TAT...and Beyond

I agree with alot of the points raised here, but find it funny that some think that a GPS takes the "adventure" out of travelling...I find that many of my best rides have been made possible by the GPS: basically every morning I take out my paper maps (gotta have them!), pick out a destination and a couple of way points that take me off the beaten path, set the GPS to "shortest route", and off I go. The GPS has taken me down many of tiny roads that I probably would never have taken otherwise, because they didn't look like they go anywhere. And I prefer to keep moving rather than stopping to look at a map every 10 minutes. Finally, in many cases, having a GPS is no guarantee that you won't get lost, because the maps are a bit squirelly--you always have to stay on your toes.

It works!

Whatever you decide to do or take, falls under 'Riding Your Own Ride!' Find out what works for you and stick to your guns.

You can't beat a good map for sitting down at the end of the day with people to talk about where your've been and where your going. It gives you a much larger picture, no pun intended, of your goals.

daryl

It all depends on what digital maps are available for your area.
Paper maps are fine but how many paper maps can you carry ?
The garmin 60cx and 76cx both can hold all of the US and Canada road maps on a 2GB card.

Maps.. to see where and you want to go..

GPS.. to get you there (and back)

Both invaluable..

The people I have met who don't like GPS, have either never used one or have not bothered to learn how to use it correctly..

Never a truer word ever said on this forum !!!

My good friend bought a garmin Quest, never once looked at the manual, bothered to check or install maps, learn how to use it etc. He had never ever used a GPS before.

He mounted it to his bike and set off around the country. He got completely lost "Because the Garmin didnt tell him where to go" , when he hadnt even told it where he wanted to go !!

He expected it to read his mind, take him down scenic back roads and take it back to his campsite when he got lost without even setting a waypoint or marker.

I think a lot of people expect a GPS to be like a local navigator whispering short cuts and local knowledge into your ear and get very anoyed when it isnt ! It's a navigation aid but useless if you don't bother to learn how it works.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I sort of recognise the "friend" Ted mentions. Anyway I now have a Zumo 660. I would not leave home without it as my sense of direction is useless even with maps. As far as I am concerned unless a map has a big X on saying you are here whats the point! You may as well look at a sheet of sandpaper with Sahara written at the top.

I totally understand that most people do not need a satnav and are fortunate that they are intelligent enough to read maps, sadly I do not fall into this catagory

PS the garmin quest is the single most useless piece of junk it has ever been my misfortune to purchase. Garmin, sue me if you want it is still utter cr*p but the zumo is great!!!

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www.frothandflames.com
2012 Kawasaki W800
1997 NX 650 Dominator

HAHAHAAH ! I was waiting for you to see this !


The Quest is a nice little piece of kit but yeah your Zumo is nice too

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I use a Zumo 660 works great, GPS is like if you haven't got one, you don't
know what your missing, but when you get one you think, shit I should of got one years ago !!!!!

Paul

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

This year I bought a Garmin 1640 wt.
It could not find my home. (every other device I tried does)
It could not find my friends village.
It does not know many villages in France although it works well in the UK.
After spending near 60 hours downloading updates both here and at my friends house because she has a faster adsl link. It left me with the camera database locked out.
You could easily spend 10 minutes trying to get a destination in as often it spelled it differently to real life and my Michelin maps. Not something I want to do at a crossroads.
so I am back to paper.
I wanted something that would navigate me through towns without putting me on the Peages. The peages will cost less than the annual updates.
So in Two weeks time I am off across France, Italy and Austria to eastern Europe with a £12 map.

What I want is a device that will navigate me to a destination, avoid Peages and recalculate the route if I stray from its preferred route. Without the need for days of online downloads.

Does such a device exist ?

in a word... yes!

(but if you mean you have the Garmin GPSMAP 640 ? - have you switched to automotive mode from marine?)

Every £50 entry level sat nav that you can buy from Halfords will do exactly that. It's exactly what they are built to do.

I'm running TomTom software on a PDA (Mio P550) and it has taken me all over Europe doing exactly that. You start it up and in a minute or so it knows where it is. Tell it where you want to go - you can enter a postcode (I only have the UK postcode database), an address or you can click on a point on the map. It will then calculate a route - either the shortest or the quickest (you choose) and if there are toll roads it will ask you whether you want to use them or not.

If you stray off the route it will recalculate automatically without getting in a strop and with a few free add-ons it'll tell you where just about anything you want is and take you there - stuff like hotels, supermarkets, landmarks etc - including speed cameras. It will do this all over Western Europe, or other places if you have the maps. It cost me £70 for the software (I already had the PDA).

If you decide that the routing function makes things too easy you can switch that bit off and just have the "you are here" moving map bit on the screen. At night or in poor vis you can use that part as a poor mans night vision system. You can see when the sharp bends are coming up on the screen long before you can see things in the headlight.

Biggest reason for me is recording where I have been. I have a Garmin 176C, It has no maps for where I am in Slovakia at the moment.

I use my recorded track for syncing my photos to the map, which is a cool feature. So I have photographic maps as such.

It is also usefull for all the other reasons people say. For me it also useful so I can find out what day it is and what time it is!

Cheers

Dan!

In Valkov

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Cheers Dan
gettinglostagain.com