Gps or phone app? What do you use? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Gps or phone app? What do you use?

C

Clutt-225

Well-known member
So what is your method for navigation?

I was looking into a Garmin mostly because Touratech has a beautiful combo. A lockable clamshell with a Garmin Gps wired directly to the bike. My bike came to me with a very nice mounting plate made for this set up. Unfortunately the clamshell and gps is quite pricey and will have to wait.
I don’t really venture that far and can get buy with my iPhone and a decent app.
I’m trying one now called Scenic. It seems pretty good it lets you upload your rides and search out others rides. So far does not look like many from this area are using it. Or at least making there rides public.
 
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Motorcycle Navigation

So I'm planning to do some longer trips on a new bike in the upcoming season. Lot's of road and offroad miles is likely. I want to work my up to doing something majorly offroad like the "Great Continental Divide Ride" within the next 2 years. Currently looking into trip planning and navigation...
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Tried Scenic for two summers. Gave up and bought a Zumo and never looked back.
 
I suppose if you have a spare phone that you could dedicate as a gps then it would neat to try out all the various apps. The user interfaces of the phones nowadays are so nice and smooth compared to the dedicated GPS's, but maybe the newer GPS's have improved. I would definitely be very nervous to use my primary phone on my bike with all the crazy bumps and vibrations. I literally had a GPS fly off my bike along Southwood Road while moving at 80kmhr and I watched in my mirrors as it bounced many times along the road. I'd be more upset if it was my primary phone.

I have the original Zumo 550 with a hardwired, lockable clamshell mount and the Nuvi 550 which goes into a basic RAM mount. Both are a little clunky to use and don't have traffic updates, but the Nuvi has around 300,000km of use and survived the above mentioned flight and a few impressive crashes.

It depends a lot on what you want out of it. All I want it to do is have the ability for me to plan a route out in my computer and then load the route into the GPS. Anything more than that is a bonus.
 
I have an old Zumo 550, which I bought unlimited maps for. I've replaced the screen on it once, and it still works. It doesn't use the newer software, and the maps are a pain to upgrade, as they default to being locked, and I have to contact Garmin each time to unlock them.
 
ReSTored said:
Take a look at this Zumo. It's relatively inexpensive and many on the ST site are giving it good reviews. LMT as well.

Garmin 010-02019-00 Zumo 396 LMT-S, Motorcycle GPS with 4.3-inch Display, Rugged Design for Harsh Weather, Live Traffic and Weather : Amazon.ca: Electronics

Garmin 010-02019-00 Zumo 396 LMT-S, Motorcycle GPS with 4.3-inch Display, Rugged Design for Harsh Weather, Live Traffic and Weather : Amazon.ca: Electronics
www.amazon.ca
Click to expand...

Thats the one I have. No complaints
 
Phone.

New phones like the iPhones are waterproof, much easier user interfaces, and less is more approach. That alongside a papermap of the area, and I don't see the point of fiddling with ancient GPS units. I carry a Garmin inReach with the Garmin app that uses satellite, in the event one does get lost without cellular you can use the Garmin app with their maps on the phone. However, with the ability to download offline maps on the phone, not really needed. I do carry an extra phone for backup in case the main on glitches, breaks, or gets lost.
 
How much is a new waterproof iPhone?
I would be down with that, but would never do the ziploc bag thing over a device.

Any info on their ability to handle repetitive vibrations?
 
shanekingsley said:
How much is a new waterproof iPhone?
I would be down with that, but would never do the ziploc bag thing over a device.

Any info on their ability to handle repetitive vibrations?
Click to expand...

They've been waterproof since the iPhone 7, from being full submersible a couple feet. I've stuck mine in a lake to take underwater pictures, comes out fine. Check the apple website, the new ones (iphone X+) are even more water tight, prices are $700-1800, depending on internal GBs and screen sizes. I've been using my iphone 7 on the bike and bicyle for around 4 years, through rain and all, still kicking. From off-road, mountain biking, was even mounted on the bike during my accident, still using it, vibrations are no issue. I use a quadlock mount
 
I use my old iPhone 8 in a life proof case. When mountain biking its in my pocket.
when on the bike I have it in a Ram mount X. I’ve always had the phone there but just started using Scenic App. So far I really like it.
I want the touratech gps & mount like this but it’s pretty pricy for what I would use it.

 
For me, the main advantage with a Zumo is everything is easy and accessible while on the go with gloves on. Need to add a waypoint or change route? Easy peasy. Check weather radar? No problem. Change music streaming from your phone? No problem, though admittedly the Garmin music UI is a total PITA. Spotify? Yup.

Garmin, also has the GPS UI and features nailed down a lot more compared to the phone GPS'. Multiple and modifiable information fields on the main screen? Yup. Altitude chart for current route? Yup. Reasonably easy to modify route to avoid certain roads? Yup. etc. etc.

The above is based on my Zumo 595. The new Zumo XT is cheaper and better with the one caveat is that it's missing the TPMS option for some reason.

Also, any particular reason for the lockable GPS mount? It's only one button to remove the Zumo from the cradle when leaving the bike.
 
regder said:
Also, any particular reason for the lockable GPS mount? It's only one button to remove the Zumo from the cradle when leaving the bike.
Click to expand...
In the past I used to always remove the GPS and throw in my jacket or whatever.
I like the lockable mount because most of my daily needs for the GPS is for looking for shortcut roads in the city when there is traffic. So, I leave the GPS on the bike 24/7. The only time I ever take it off the bike is if I'm going for a fun ride and want to preload a route.
I'm also pretty forgetful and would often leave the GPS on the bike when I stop somewhere - just lucky it hasn't been stolen.
 
shanekingsley said:
In the past I used to always remove the GPS and throw in my jacket or whatever.
I like the lockable mount because most of my daily needs for the GPS is for looking for shortcut roads in the city when there is traffic. So, I leave the GPS on the bike 24/7. The only time I ever take it off the bike is if I'm going for a fun ride and want to preload a route.
I'm also pretty forgetful and would often leave the GPS on the bike when I stop somewhere - just lucky it hasn't been stolen.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. For my usage, there are few times and places I don't feel reasonable comfortable leaving the GPS on the bike. Only times I take it off is when parking downtown out of eyeshot in Toronto or other cities, or when parked in a hotel/motel parking lot. Stays mostly on the bike the rest of the time.
 
What I like about the touratech mount is a nice clean set up and better positioned than handle bar mount like my phone is now. I do also like the idea of the zumo 396 which they have as a kit as well. Just need to make sure it will bolt up to the mount I have around my gauges like the video I linked. I don’t like it all on my handlebars.
But for now I’m unemployed and dreaming.
 
Clutt-225 said:
What I like about the touratech mount is a nice clean set up and better positioned than handle bar mount like my phone is now. I do also like the idea of the zumo 396 which they have as a kit as well. Just need to make sure it will bolt up to the mount I have around my gauges like the video I linked. I don’t like it all on my handlebars.
But for now I’m unemployed and dreaming.
Click to expand...

Could be wrong, but I would imagine the bar as shown in the video would fit a standard RAM handlebar mount which is included with the Zumo.
 
I've just been through a rather intense "GPS" research project preparing for an upcoming ride and the answer is "It depends on how much control you want (or need) need over your routes".

What I found, over and over again, was that smartphone apps usually looked better than a Garmin and had way more "bells and whistles" but lacked the most important feature: The ability to easily program complicated routes at a computer and send them to the smartphone AND have the smartphone actually follow the route. The one exception is "Ride With GPS" which has it's own online route planner and a separate smartphone app which will execute the routes accurately. The downside is that it has a monthly charge for this feature.

So, in essence:
  • If you just need a GPS to get you from A to B to C and don't care about the specific route then a smartphone GPS app is all you need.
  • If you need to program complicated routes and it's critical that the GPS takes you on those specific routes then you should consider getting a newer Garmin GPS and learn Basecamp. You can get a Garmin really cheap and it's easy to waterproof them.
Some of the smartphone apps I tested:
  • Sygic
  • OsMand (This is the only App out of the 4 that I could send a GPX file to but I didn't test how accurate it is)
  • Google Maps
  • Ride With GPS
 
BMW RT1200 with a BMW Motorad Nav VI (Zumo 660, I think) all controllable through the wonder wheel, and a iPhone 11 Pro with touch enabled gloves on the handlebar.

The Nav VI is really used as a visual aid, don't even stream music through it, The iPhone is the primary device, better Bluetooth, better maps and traffic notifications through WAZE. all through the iPhone to the helmet. If I get into a no cell area can always switch to the GPS.

Programming routes through Garmin Base camp is overly complicated and near useless, in my opinion.

My 2 cents.
 
ScorpionT16 said:
Phone.

New phones like the iPhones are waterproof, much easier user interfaces, and less is more approach. That alongside a papermap of the area, and I don't see the point of fiddling with ancient GPS units. I carry a Garmin inReach with the Garmin app that uses satellite, in the event one does get lost without cellular you can use the Garmin app with their maps on the phone. However, with the ability to download offline maps on the phone, not really needed. I do carry an extra phone for backup in case the main on glitches, breaks, or gets lost.
Click to expand...
We dowloaded a 15$ app and used a new iPhone to navigate while riding in the woods last week, it was incredible accurate and recorded every movement faithfully unless you went in tight circles, that messes it up pretty good. Used it to confirm the location of a corner post and it was right on the money. You can even overlay your trail onto a goole terrain map, I don't think you can do that with a regular GPS.
 
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