Just laid a deposit on an adventure bike. Anyone recommend a good sat nav, hopefully one that can store multiple routes as I’m off to Northern France soon for a tour of WW2 sites. I usually just follow my nose when out and about in U.K., but don’t want to waste our time navigating by map. TIA
A motorcycle specific nav. I preferred Garmin over tomtom rider units. But now using tomtomGo app on phone. They will all store routes. Depends which you like using. Success really depends on how careful you have been designing the route (mostly waypoints accuracy..) your experience designing the routes and also getting the settings rights on the nav. It is too easy end up with navs re-calculating if there are not adequate waypoints. Would suggest MyRoute-app for routing if getting serious. The routes can be downloaded to any nav or smartphone with a decent nav app. If you just want ‘get me there’ the tomtom routing is ok, but basic. Garmin has basecamp for planning routes, I never got to grips with it and never had any success despite wasting days and weeks on it! what adv bike?
Thanks for your input, maybe a map might be a better option. Nothing fancy a 2014 Triumph Tiger 800 xc, been looking for a lightweight bike for wet weather riding a little light off roading and touring and out of the options available Triumph have built the right bike for my needs.
Googlemaps on the phone is rather handy, just viewing the screen or hearing instructions the issue to resolve. Will need data....
I’ll be buying a SIM card from gift gaff or such, no way will I be using my Vodafone network in Europe. Might be an option.
I leave my aging tomtom rider in a drawer now, as Scenic on iphone is - imho - the best compromise of all apps and units. Tomtom go app is great for point to point nav and cities etc (as is waze) but I find planning using MyDrive a pain, have heard good things about myRouteApp as mentioned above and that can sync to your MyDrive account. If that sounds like a faff try scenic, it’s all in one. A lot depends on how you like to plan I suppose.
I've branded myself with garmin for both my bikes & two dash cams for work. They even do a cheaper refurbished (recertified devices) service & its usually just units people couldn't handle the learning curve of. I've brought a scuba gear container for my phone which is for my kayaking, lots of people seem to be relying on phones now. Thought about doing a phone mount & using an app??
One of the reasons I went back to Android. Zero issues with heat, even running nav in background AND gmaps, with bluetooth switched on. Wireless charging (mine in a BMW cradle,) does away with the charge port connection issue too.
I did a post on my set up, but this could be easily adapted to use a different wireless phone mount. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/navigating-tomtom-app-and-bluetooth-connected.91777/
Garmin Zumo XT. Best screen on a sat nav, absolute doddle to use and plan routes on the actual device on.
My Route App and Garmin xt is my preference. Just take a while to work through the tutorials on MRA. Put your first waypoint 100m down the road from your start and then a waypoint 100m after every big junction or on the far side of a major town and it should keep you on the right route. Ps don’t instal Garmin Explore, but use Garmin Drive to transfer your routes.
Waypoints are the key. Take care, zoom right in to double check they are on the road and if on a dual lane road…the correct side! Consider splitting big routes. This can reduce heartache if a big section of road turns out to be closed, you will still have some of the planned route/roads available….
What he said. However, buying a new sat nav and expecting to ride off on a tour without getting to know its foibles is plan asking for trouble. Especially the case if you've not used one before. Frankly; likely to end in frustration and you blaming the device when in reality it's down to garbage in, garbage out.
However, the ‘skip waypoint’ button is still used on occasions! It’s one of the most useful features most people don’t use. I’m indebted to @steveb123 for showing me how to add and display the track as well as the route, this allows you to ignore some of those ‘shortcuts’ the Sat Nav thinks you should take (this is also why you don’t install Explore as this kills the function).
tagging onto Ducatiscud thread - so apart from most useful navigating features, how about ease of fitting any of these aftermarket Sat Navs to a motorbike? I've yet to ever fit one, but see this as a priority (maybe unnecessarily) because ease of attaching to different bikes appeals to me.
