Hi all
I’m am planning to map a few gravel roads and to date have been using my phone. It works fine but it drains the (not new) battery pretty quickly and i will generally have it in my pocket. It has the distinct advantage of being basically zero additional cost.
So I am considering getting a dedicated gps device that can mount on either bike, that will have a display I can see while I’m riding.
Question 1…is there a DR650 of GPS devices that dominates the market? Or dies every one use something different. I’m moderately tech capable but I don’t need anything flash or feature laden.
Question 2…. If you are using one of these does everyone run a power lead to it so its charged off the bike? (Cos if I’m going to do that I could just use the phone)
Thanks for any comments
I’ll add that I have actually looked at them, but there are lots and lots of options. I’m trying to narrow the field a bit.
Do you put the phone into flight mode to save your battery?
I just use an android phone with NZ maps loaded. The pro version so you can cache maps. A usb and 12v plug is a cheap and simple addition to your steed.
I’m quite interested in the Nomu s10 or s20 to use as my bike GPS with the added bonus it goes ring ring. They look like the business.
If you are buying a dedicated GPS get one made by Garmin, if you are getting an app to run on your phone make sure it supports the GPX file format.
I own a Garmin Zumo 595 and also bought a tomtom rider 400 to replace my wife’s older Garmin 550 when the power button just fell off one day. Both essentially do the same job.
I have tried running my phone mounted to the handlebars powered using a usb socket however in bright sunlight it was almost impossible to read.
You might like to have a look at the myroute app/ website which is much easier to use than Garmin’s basecamp and prepared 1.1 GPX files which run on either platform.