Tested: Motorcycle GPS units

Dedicated motorcycle GPS systems aren’t cheap so when considering one it’s best to think ‘what am I going to mainly use it for?’: urban riding, trails or that big adventure trip. Multipurpose devices are another consideration – so they can be used in the car as well as on the bike, or even walking or boating.

Statistics show that around 860,000 units were sold in Australia over the 12 months to June 2010, an increase of two percent over the previous year, yet retailer revenue from those sales declined by 15 percent -- which means Australians are buying more units at cheaper prices. Shopping around can get you a fully featured car GPS for only $100. But the niche bike GPS market starts around $500 upwards so it’s worth trying to justify the money.

What you’re buying is a ruggedized unit built to withstand the vibrations and knocks of bike riding. I know guys who strap car GPS units to their handlebars and hope for the best but would you want a unit failure at the back o’ Bourke or on that big adventure trip? Which reminds me – going bush without serious planning and depending solely on a single electronic device is recipe for disaster. I generally use detailed maps combined with the GPS and as backup. I also have successfully used the iPhone’s inbuilt GPS with mapping.

When looking at a unit you ideally have a play with it and ask the sales person to show you around the menus. As I found out during my test of these units, a lot can change when the system is strapped to the handlebars and you’re desperately poking at it in vain with gloved hand to find that next part of the trip.

So consider screen size, touchability, backlighting and look at the connections for robustness. Most of these units can plug into a 12-volt DC socket on the bike but how the interface works is critical. How about sound quality, internal speakers, wireless headset use and even entertainment? These units offer a variety of all that so express your preferences.

Data input can be important for off-roaders so check that common file formats are supported, such as GPX, and waypoints can be inputted from your PC. Also route planning from Google Earth is a great way to plan trips.

Finally, RTFM is the rule with these systems if you want to get the best out of them – read the flippin’ manual – or you’ll simply miss a lot of useful features. Like the proverbial iceberg there’s a lot going on below the surface, especially on the high end units like the Garmin and Magellan.

Garmin’s Zumo 660 GPS is its top-of-the range model in a line-up that also has the 220 and 550 models. What distinguishes the 660 is its big screen, at 4.3 inches (9.7cm) making by far the largest display among the systems looked at. This proved ideal on the road for gloved fingers to operate.

Installation was easy with the sturdy RAM mount kit attached on the handlebar. The power cable ran under the tank, secured with cable ties and connected onto the battery.  A positive locking mechanism secured the Zumo 660 to its base plate as well.

Switching on, the unit quickly gained a satellite fix and the setup choices were made – the Zumo has modes for pedestrian, car, off-road and motorcycle.

Mapping is for Australia and New Zealand as standard, and WhereIS maps have been used.

Operation of the Zumo also proved easy, thanks to an intuitive menu system – you simply hit’ Where To?’ on the sensitive touch screen and large single letter soft keys allow quick input of address details. Plugging ear buds into the connection and choosing your vocal guide – I chose Australian Karen’s soothing tones – gave good sound. Alternatively, a Bluetooth headset can be used.

Route setup is worth spending time on with fastest, shortest and off-road modes and customisation of routes, to avoid a particular junction say, or avoid toll roads are all important. For adventure bikers latitude and longitude coordinates can also be input – ideally via PC USB connection to the Zumo.

Clear screen graphics in both 2D (map view) and 3D (forward looking) modes  gave me precise information on junctions, roundabouts and street address information with very little GPS lag showing. GPS lag, the speed of update from satellites, can mean indecision at junctions as the unit scrambles to keep up.

The loudspeaker was powerful enough to use on the bike and clearly heard up until motorway speeds, so a headset is not always needed. Taking the Zumo into the bush on an adventure ride gave its chassis a severe vibration test which it passed with flying colours. Useful here is the Trip Computer screen which has a compass showing heading to the destination, fuel indicator gauge and customisable fields. Map references showed major dirt roads but minor ones didn’t show up on my particular route.

The Zumo connects to your mobile phone via a Bluetooth headset so is ideal for bikers making hands free calls. Clever features include the optional FM traffic news receiver giving real time updates for traffic routing. Enduring those long trips can be eased with the unit’s MP3 player and talking book setup and there’s even an FM radio.

Overall the Zumo is a very high specified motorcycle GPS with the only downside perhaps being the high retail price of $999 but street prices can be significantly less.

Specifications

The Rider Pro looks very like my own Tom Tom, a car version with similar dimensions, including the 8.5cm screen but the Rider Pro of course is made to be waterproof: rated at IPx7. A standout feature of the Rider Pro is the Bluetooth capabilities combined with mobile phone hands free use.

The Rider Pro comes with a comprehensive list of gear including the excellent Cardo Scala Bluetooth headset, sturdy RAM mounting kit and mains charging cables. Setup of the headset went smoothly after it was charged for a few hours. The Rider Pro Options menu guided me through the Bluetooth connection of my Nokia 5800 smartphone as well giving me hands free control and access to my phone’s contact list. Good stuff, indeed.

A clear touch screen main menu inviting me to ‘Plan Route’ or ‘Browse Map’, couldn’t be simpler to operate. But inputting data was a bit prolonged due to the three letters per key operation. Route planning offers a sliding scale of winding roads to major roads, always a good question for us bikers who enjoy the bendy bits. Input options also include moving a cursor on the map which allows the Pro Rider to create a route there and a good thing for adventure riders is latitude and longitude inputs as well.

Daylight viewing of the screen is good and battery life proved long – most of a day’s riding could be done but the option to connect to the bike’s battery is there as well, via the mini USB connection. Gloved hands proved a challenge for the Rider Pro, even with glove friendly mode on, though and that is it’s only failing.

Also some GPS lag was encountered when approaching junctions at speed. Another limitation I feel is sound only available via a headset, rather than from the console as well. The Scala Bluetooth headset clips onto the edge of your helmet and two speakers use Velcro to attach inside the helmet. During road tests the Rider Pro worked flawlessly and also recalculated routes efficiently when I chose to disagree with its advice.

The Rider Pro is simple to use but has hidden depths with plenty of smarts such as a handy compass in driver view, a speed camera subscription service and route recording that outputs a GPX file. This file can be viewed by Google Earth, so ideal for off road riders, but a limitation might be the Where Is mapping, rather than detailed survey maps. Another smart feature is calculate alternative, which choose different roads for your chosen destination and travel via lets you include a particular spot on your trip as well.

Overall, the Rider Pro proved a user friendly bike GPS and a good value for the price.

Specifications

Magellan’s eXplorist range was a favoured navigation tool by adventure bikers, including famed individuals such as the late Tony Kirby, who swore by them because of their detailed mapping. However Magellan actually dropped the range to sell an unsuccessful model for a short time only to reinstate the famous marque in September 2010 with the introduction of the eXplorist 510, 610 and 710.

These units are complex GPS navigators intended for use by walkers, mountain bikers and off-road vehicles in general, as well as kayakers. The main reason for choosing the eXplorist is to use the detailed mapping because they are preloaded with Geoscience Australia’s Nat Map 1:250,000 raster map.

In addition, optional SD cards are available to add more detailed Topo Maps (DiscoverAus Topo). The eXplorist can also superimpose these detailed maps over the street level base map. The 610 model is a compact unit with its three inch touch screen allowing it to fit neatly into the palm of an average hand and the waterproof case is sturdy with a useful lanyard hole.

Mounting the eXplorist securely on my Tenere wasn’t possible because the mount wasn’t yet available so I used cable ties to hold it. A car kit is included as well as a 12-volt cigarette lighter power connection.

The eXplorist uses a touch screen combined with two hard keys (that are programmable) on the unit’s side. The four corners of the rectangular screen have softkeys which reveal a myriad of functionality – way beyond what an average motorist would need.

For instance the raster mapping shows national parks, state forests and other kinds of land use and water features illustrated in shaded patterns.
Waypoint input can be via the touch screen ’Add Waypoint’ option or via a computer interface. Another quick way for waypoint creation is in Pan Mode; done by sliding a finger across the screen to pinpoint your destination.

The eXplortist’s versatility allows it to be used for many purposes and for us motorcyclists its probably best used by stopping and referring to it, rather than using cumbersome gloved hands to vainly poke at the tiny menu options. In town its complicated mapping worked (via Navteq’s street maps) but you wouldn’t buy this unit for urban driving, rather get out on the State Forest fires trails and explore those quieter stretches. But buyer beware – do your homework via detailed paper maps for safety reasons. Sunlight viewing worked well enough on the eXplorist and the two AA batteries did last up to the 15 hours as the detailed manual stated. But the cigarette lighter connection would be the best power option for adventure riders, to ensure you didn’t lose you tracking.

Reading the extensive manual is essential for this complex unit as the eXplorist is like the proverbial iceberg with most of the substance well hidden. Its four corner touch menu system accesses layers of functionality that is aimed at a host of outdoor pursuits, but for us bikers useful information includes altitude and a compass. These, along with a range of customisable fields are available on the handy Dashboard Screen.  Also customisable are two of the hard buttons, so handy for using in gloved hand mode.

Other navigation features include five differently coloured navigation lines including Track and the Point Destination Line, which is the direct way to your destination, so you know how far off you might be.
Viewing can be done in 2D or 3D which is especially useful for understanding gradients and combined with the colour coded terrain graphics is excellent for off-roaders.

Another good feature is the integrated 3.2 mega-pixel camera along with the microphone-speaker which helps bikers as well as geocachers. The small camera operates via a hard key and worked well on test, and the results can be uploaded to your favourite navigation sites including blogs and the ubiquitous Google Maps using GPX file format.

Specifications

The Strike Genius is an Australian product and looks quite similar to the Tom Tom with a similar looking ruggedized casing. The Strike Genius looks to be a fully featured bike GPS.  WhereiS maps are used for Australia and New Zealand and operation is touch screen.  According to the user information available the unit supports all the common features for navigation such as Shortest route, Fastest route and avoidance of tolled roads.

The display looks sufficiently large and clear to be effective but as mentioned we were unable to test it on the handlebars for sunlight viewing and general usage.

Communications is via an internal speaker or FM headset which is included as well as compatibility with third party Scala headsets. Battery power looks a bit limited at 3-4hrs but external DC power is available.

Specifications

The ever popular iPhone comes with inbuilt GPS and Google maps so is a very useful navigation tool. But the real power comes with all the apps that are available, and dedicated motoring apps are aplenty. The sharp screen pixilation of the latest iPhone 4 has allowed me to use the device for overland dirt bike trips with free Memory Map software being especially useful.

But dedicated apps for motoring are available and range from a few dollars to around $100. These include Tom Tom, Nav 4D, Destinator 9, Mocal and many others. Just check out the iTunes store.

The Achilles heel of the iPhone is its fragility – my mate dropped one on his carpet the other day and its screen shattered – so protecting it in an Otterbox case, Pelican case or similar is essential for rugged work.

Alternatively a GPS dedicated box, such as the Magellan Toughcase. The ToughCase comes equipped with a SiRFstarIIII high sensitivity GPS chip set that enhances the accuracy of any location based and navigation app and plugs into the iPhone.