non motorcycle specific GPS

[leadbelly]

Just looking for some opinions on current Non motorcycle specific GPS units that can handle the vibration and can be seen in daylight.

[flavor]

Tom Tom rider. Better software and customer service than the garmin/zumo.

[hammer]

Those are motorcycle specific units and very expensive.

I know a lot of folks who use auto GPS on their bikes with no problems at all. There are ways to cover them from the rain and mount them to isolate vibration. I am looking right now and like some TomToms and Garmins, have studied the reviews and got feedback from those who use them know a lot about them. So far, for me, Garmin has the lead but I think it comes down to personal choices.

So far the Garmin 255W and the 265W are great units and great prices. The first does not have bluetooth but that's not a biggy for me. I may hold out for the 765T. I could care less about the traffic alert stuff but the later versions of this unit have bluetooth AND and a headphone jack.

The headphone jack is a great feature for riders and is hard to find. A headset, ear buds or whatever and you can clearly hear the turn by turn instructions while you are in a built up area and are looking for an address. You don't want to be fixated on a GPS screen in that scenario. It also has MP3 capability if you want the unit to handle tunes. It has lots of other features too. I would go to the Garmin site and do a side by side compare. Same for the TomTom as they are also good.

[borto1990]

i have the garmin nuvi 750 and like it a lot. However, I also have the garmin quest and quest II, both motorcycle units and fully water proof. I honestly miss not having the ability to just slide the GPS into the craddle and not have to "plug" it in or worry about it in the weather. the only real downfall to the quest II is screen size. I might actually switch back to it and keep the nuvi for the car. plus, it can be had on ebay for like 100 bucks. can't beat that for a fully water proof GPS

[cactusjack]

Garmin Nuvi 550. It's considered "motorcycle friendly" and is waterproof and the touch screen works with gloves. I have one and it's great.

[redjay]

I also have a Garmin 550. I can hear the mp3 player up to about 50 mph on the bike and the GPS is an added bonus. I use it more as a GPS in the car.

[kpmhspirit]

+1 for the Nuvi 550. Waterproof and easy to download your own maps to.

Pete

[skiman]

I have used a navigon 7200t on my bike with the windshield mount worked fine never seen it shake. But now I'm putting the fairing on with a stereo so I want a gps that I could use with bluetooth so I got the tom tom rider 2 it comes with the bluetooth headset with one speaker and will send the directions to the headset and I can make calls with it and still hear my stereo

[nomadbehappy]

I have had a garmin nuvi 260 on the bike for the last 2 years now and no problems. I transfer it between the car and bike all the time. I use the high tech waterproof method (ziploc bag with elastic) and havent had any problems. I ran a power outlet to the windshield for it and mounted it with a RAM mount. the RAM mounts have universal balltype joints and then a specific mount for individual units. They are easy to use and cost me around $30 cdn at radioworld. The nuvi 260 is easy to use and you can download mapquest/goolge maps using Garmin Communicator (free). The only downside is it just downloads the end destination unless you download it as waypoints and then it creates each waypoint as a separate map, not ideal. I will replace it at some point with one that will download all the points on my route into one map but I am too cheap to do it when this works fine ... oops did I just drop it :-)

[roox]

I use a tom tom 930 on a ram mount. Works great and and a fraction of the cost of a motorcycle gps,

[petenomad]

For Garmin car units, the nuvi 550, 750 and 755 products will let you download routes from your computer, while the 200 series don't support this. The 550 has some GeoCaching features. The 755 is very similar to the zumo 660.
There is a relatively new unit called the 1690 that has a GSM chip (think cellular data chip) built in and can get some weather, use Google searching and download waypoints and routes (indirectly) from some mapping web sites. One interesting feature is that it can send your position to some friend finder web sites like Gypsii. I think this may be a fairly interesting feature for those who ride alone. Of course newer units aren't as heavily discounted as some others.

nuvi 1690 connected services

[sonny]

I have a Tom Tom One with a RAM mount on the handle bars. I have made 6 or 8 trips of 200 + miles with one in the rain and no problem. Mine has the smallest screen, I think the next size up would be nice, but I'm getting long in the tooth. The Wally World price on the Tom Tom One is about $100, the RAM was about $60 but the base hold other items too...ie XM.
Thanks for your time

[schoeney]

Originally Posted by nomadbehappy

I have had a garmin nuvi 260 on the bike for the last 2 years now and no problems. I transfer it between the car and bike all the time. I use the high tech waterproof method (ziploc bag with elastic) and havent had any problems. I ran a power outlet to the windshield for it and mounted it with a RAM mount. the RAM mounts have universal balltype joints and then a specific mount for individual units. They are easy to use and cost me around $30 cdn at radioworld. The nuvi 260 is easy to use and you can download mapquest/goolge maps using Garmin Communicator (free). The only downside is it just downloads the end destination unless you download it as waypoints and then it creates each waypoint as a separate map, not ideal. I will replace it at some point with one that will download all the points on my route into one map but I am too cheap to do it when this works fine ... oops did I just drop it :-)

This is pretty much what I did too except I have a Garmin Nuvi 360. No problems and lots of miles...knock on wood.

[pagemastr]

Tom Tom One and RAM Mounts also, a great and inexpensive GPS and no problems with it. I will add they want to rob you on the map updates. Sent me an e-mail for a 18 month update service for $40 which is good, but they wanted another $40 to update to the most recent map first...NOT!

[cyclecat]

I have the Garmin 765T with a 4.3' screen. It has an FM transmitter, audio book reader, mp3 player, blue tooth to hook up to my I-phone, and headphone jack. Brian has the newest 1490T with the 5" screen - he is getting old and the icons are bigger on the 5" screen so it works better for him. We each have a Kuryakin Power Point mounted to the handlebar, and Brian made the mounts that fit on the handlebars. I haven't noticed any vibration and I've had mine for almost a year.

Running the gps in night mode helps a bit for the glare in the day time. Water proofing is a baggie or put away in the saddlebag.