Sat Nav Options - Once Yearly.

Mobile phone, in waterproof case own the bars or somewhere up front, about £20 from eBay. Or a cheap car satnav, waterproof cover and bracket for about £30, mount same.

If you need power, its easy enough (and for about £20) to get a power cable with usb outlet, put that somewhere at front and if dry wire the phone/nav in: if not plastic bags.

Cheap. Cheerful. Functional.

 

i use an old tomtom in a waterproof case from eBay or amazon cant remember which, on a telferizer RAM mount. I use a cigarette lighter plug wired to battery routed back to rear under seat. Works fine. Only thing is some of the road layouts have changed as its a really old Satnav and im too tight to update it. Never been an issue though.... yet.

 

Zūmo 660, good kit bright screen. Bike ready aka waterproof

Zūmo 595LM (2018), dodgy anti-glare screen (reflects hi-vis clothing). Bike ready & connects to all sorts of online apps & services through you're phone.

--Not bike ready below--

Snooper DB8500, good kit used in car & lorry/motor-home.

2019; Garmin Dezlcam 785 with built in dash-cam. My use of this will be future trucking guidance as I want to get away from snooper kit. Snooper assigned to motor-home with rear camera reversing kit.

My brother has used car gps in a waterproof case with no problem. However I have coaxed him to get dedicated satnav for bike. As its more safer & you can relax when trying to find petrol stations.

 

Most new phones are waterproof now. I use a quad lock mount for my phone and use Waze. My wife also has the same case and that way we have one mount in the car too.

 

Those using phones, do you use offline mapping and if so which one?

I use a cheap but powerful imported mobile and it's definitely not waterproof but should I end up with a snazzy one I'd be interested in using it.

 

Most random mid thread ad ever while responding to this....

 

I understand that many mobiles can now withstand relatively brief immersion in water (and some are better than others) but can they resist water ingress given the sort of pressure created at motorway speeds?

 

At motorway speeds I actually find very little even gets on the phone. The wind blast over the screen keeps it away.

As El T has said too, you can get a quad lock slip on cover

 

Google maps is good enough IME, and by far the best if you want traffic alerts

 

Old tomtom from eBay bluetoothed to headset.

Or waze on your phone.

 

I use my mobile with Tomtom on it - sometimes google maps but data consumption and signal issues mean I can’t really get away from tomtom backup. I use a waterproof case but as others mentioned most phones are now waterproof but case is handy if you drop the thing when you are at petrol station with gloves on. If you go down the phone route you have to take care with the sun as they can overheat. Quite often though I just put my phone in my pocket and use directions in my intercom from phone and don’t bother looking at it...

 

S8+ with RAM mount (quad lock i think some call it) and co pilot. Not had the chance to try waze yet but heard its good.

 

Quad lock and a waterproof phone has done me well for the last few years, local rides and 2,000 mile trips. You will need a USB charging port though as it depletes the battery at a good rate.

Waze is the best point to point navigation app in my opinion, but I also use Scenic for route planning and uploading GPX/ITN routes.

I used Waze offline for a week in Costa Rica, it worked perfectly.

The interface on my phone is so much better then the archaic stuff you get with a dedicated Nav.

 

I've been a long time Garmin user and rate them for absolute planning, guidance and fit for purpose on-bike use. However, given the short duration you need a sat nav the smartphone option is definitely the way to go. You will need the following:

Power supply as GPS function will run the battery in your phone flat in around an hour, two at most.

A waterproof case is a good idea unless your phone is waterproof to start with. Having said that my best mate runs a regular phone near the clocks of his 996 and has never had a problem with water ingress despite us riding in some pretty heavy rain whilst on tour. He did blow out the charging/data connector port on an iPhone due to vibration though. Something like an Ultimate Addons case would protect you phone from the elements and also support the charging cable. Does add bulk and inconvenience in getting your phone in and out though.

As to software; this depends on your navigational needs and also data roaming allowance. For point to point navigation (get me from here to where I want to go, app decides route giving you maybe an option or two) Google Maps is hard to beat. You'll need data roaming which you will have by default in almost all of Europe and sufficient data. I reckon 5-10GB should be more than ample depending on how far you're going. My mate with the 996 uses Copilot which has onboard mapping (you'll need 2-3GB of free storage on your phone or installed SD card) so no data roaming is required. Using this you can plan detailed routes in advance on your PC and decide exactly where you want to go. Also he tends to rely on me for route planning, I convert my Garmin route to the Co Pilot TRP format using ITN Converter and it runs the same on his phone, with maybe a slight difference here and there, to the route on my Garmin Zumo.

 

Not these days. I have a Three UK mobile with roaming in many countries (inc. US, HK etc.) in the package... I just crack on and with the odd exception most countries I visit are included these days.

 

RAM is one kind of mount and Quad Lock is another. Both very good. I have RAM for my GPS mount and Quad Lock for the phone.