Archive for GPS
GPS stuff and preparations for the Autumn Equinox Rally
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a whole year since i went to Wales with the ADVrider.com folk for their Autumn Equinox Rally. I made some good friends there and have enjoyed riding with them since, especially in Italy this year. I am going to take the TTR on my new trailer this time and I set off tomorrow morning. It’s the ideal bike for greenlaning and as my wrist is sore, I shall appreciate the lighter bike to handle.
Stemming from my promise to lead some of the Knobblies crew along the Kent lanes, I have been investing a lot of time and money on maps and GPS stuff. (OK I am a gadget freak and I know a real man would look at the clouds, the sun and find his way anywhere but I need all the help I can get and I just love the neat stuff that’s available now. After toying with several ideas, I finally plumped for a Satmap Active10 GPS unit to use off-road. It’s the only one to display real OS maps on a screen that is of a decent size. You can plan routes and track your position on the screen just as if you were working with a paper map and it’s bloomin’ marvellous. You can program routes on the PC and retrieve tracks etc as with most units and this works perfectly with the included software – provided that you have a Windows PC. There is no Mac software for it yet but I find it works just fine with Windows running under VMware. It’s not a cheap unit and the maps are expensive, especially in the 25k series but it beats the Garmin offering hands down. Garmin Topo maps are crap in comparison and whilst one could happily navigate with the Satmap as one’s only aid, the Garmin requires a paper map to make sense of its screen presentation.
An ancillary purchase has been the Columbus V900 GPS data logger that can record umpteen million track points. I got this because it was very well reviewed and I was fed up with my regular GPS units (Tom Tom and Garmin Street Pilot 2820) losing data as they filled up. The Columbis is tiny and is small enough to fit in a breast pocket and remain quite unnoticeable.
I shall try to find time to write up my conclusions about this stuff properly and in more detail as I think they could be useful to someone and I did spend a lot f time and money on the hardware I have bought and the time taken to investigate what was available and useful. This weekend will be a good cgance to give the new purchases a workout and please don’t blame me for taking a bunch of OS paper maps that I also bought recently – I have always been a bit belt and braces when it comes to travel.
Finally I got my map and other good news.
Posted by: | CommentsWell TomTom came through in the end although the communications through their web site still drive me potty. I had to create a new email address and set up a TomTom Home account in the new name, then the company switched my map authorisation to the new mail address and I was able to to download it. It seems like a needless palaver to me, caused basically by their desire to a) make their products secure from piracy and b) use a system that is designed for people who don`t have a clue about computers. Good intentions and roads to hell come to mind..
I also got a phone call from Chris at Adventure-Spec from whom I ordered crash bars and a bash plate. He says they were being sent off today so with a bit of luck I should receive them tomorrow. I ordered these as a replacement for the SW Motech bars that I had so much trouble with when trying to fit them ( and which I sent back to Nippy Normans for a refund). I sure hope the new ones fit! I do have a bashplate already – the BMW one but that has cracked as a result of some darn rocks jumping out at me and in any case I wasn`t sure if the new bars would fit around the BMW bashplate. Also the Adventure-Spec plate looks more robust than the BMW one. I shall try my hand at welding that up with my little MIG welder, it’ll make a useful spare for someone.
Still No Joy From Tomtom
Posted by: | CommentsI have had a couple of emails from TomTom in response to my moaning, with a promise to do something – so far that represents absolutely nothing. I am getting very cross with them. After all, they have been sitting on my money, surely it`s easy enough to let me have the maps?
TomTom Woes
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are thinking of getting a Tomtom GPS unit, my strong advice is not to bother. They are inherently less capable than Garmin units, notably in their inability to be programmed via a PC for routes etc. and Tomtom`s convoluted update process using the most awful piece of software this side of PC hell (Tomtom Home) is enough to cause you to lose the will to live.
Being at some stage naive, I bought two of these bloody units – a Tomtom Rider for the bike and a Tomtom Go 910 for the car. I no longer use the Rider, having switched to a Garmin on the bike but I still use the Go 910 in the car. As it is now a couple of years old, I decided to buy a new map for the 910. It turns out that I can pay for the map over the web that`s nice.. but I can only download it through the Tomtom Home program and then only if it recognises me. Well it kind of recognises me but only as owning a Rider unit so it won`t let me download the map I paid for using an email address that is associated with the Rider unit.
I spent an age trying to find out how to email Tomtom support but they are one of these companies that deliberately set out to make it hard to email them unless you have been through every bit of irrelevant useless “online” advice that they have hidden under various icons more suited to TeleTubbies than thinking adults before finally emerging on the other side a gibbering idiot.
I have managed to use their contact form which was finally revealed to me after a sort of D&D quiz, to ask for help. An automated reply tells me to expect a response in 2 business days. Well, I understand they have more important stuff to deal with but I am naturally concerned about the £60 I just spent with nothing to show for it.
I`ll keep you posted!
Changed the SatNav
Posted by: | CommentsI got fed up with not being able to sync the Tomtom Rider 1 with my Scala Rider bluetooth headset and also with the somewhat flaky track recording that depends on a third party app that I installed to the Tomtom. So after swearing to avoid doing business with Touratech if I could avoid it, I went back to them for a bracket and cradle for the Garmin 2820 that normally lives on the Goldwing. Initially. following the TT instructions I found that the 2820 competely obscured the speedo and the rev counter from view. However, after reversing the handlebar brackets I am now able to see the speed and the top half of the rev counter which is acceptable.
Now all I need to do is to get a pair of specs that will enable me to see the thing clearly. After some experimentation using reading glasses I am going to get a pair of bifocals with a smallish area devoted to the near focal length – large enough to cover the instruments and nothng else basically and have booked a sight test for tomorrow.
Italy 2008
Posted by: | CommentsBack from a marvellous tour of Umbria, Tuscany and the Marche courtesy of Beach”s Motorcycle Adventures.
I was riding a brand new BMW 1200GS equipped with a Garmin 276C GPS (great system – miles better than my Garmin 2820 I reckon, at least for my uses) that was filled every couple of days with lots of routes all well researched by Rob Beach. He has found wonderful motorcycling roads, twisty, scenic and if you want them dirt roads. Umbria was spectacular – rugged scenery, mountains with snow and at times cold winds, as I found out when my brand new bike succumbed to an “immobiliser incident” at the top of a pass. The bike had to be transported to a dealers some 60 miles away so for a couple of days I rode a BMW F 800 ST – showing the value of the kind of back up provided by Rob – also the wisdom of using a simple old-fashioned bike if one wants to do a RTW trip!
A few pics
It was particularly nice to be with my friends from the Patagonian trip – Brian and Shira, even Mr Happy made it!
More photos are here.
Bluetooth drives me barmy
Posted by: | CommentsOK I don’t understand Bluetooth but then it’s supposed to just work isn’t it? On the Goldwing, I hear my GPS and other stuff (radio, CB etc) through a wired connection and the bike’s built-in intercom system but on the GS I have been using custom earplugs with built in speakers connected to the original Bluetooth dongle that came with my TomTom Rider 1. Those earplugs can get uncomfortable after an hour or two and and it”s a rather fragile wire that”s connected to them so I have been looking for an alternative.
My first thought was to put all my wishes in one basket and look for a Bluetooth flip up helmet with a retractable sun visor. Nolan make one but it doesn’t fit my head – like many flip ups it seems very short from front to back and presses hard on my admittedly big chin. OK so now I have to choose between a sunvisor and built in-bluetooth. The latter seems as a rare as rocking horse manure but there is a Viper RS101 helmet which I have not tried. I am perhaps perversely rather put off by its low price – £94.99 seems unlikely to buy very much head protection or quality and in a helmet I want both.
So, I decide to stick for the time being with my BMW system 5 and try to fit a Bluetooth headset to it. Accordingly I got a Scala Rider Q2 and managed to wangle it into the helmet with less difficulty than I had feared. The lump that sits outside the helmet is in the wrong place to use the microphone, being far too far back on the side of the helmet (forced there by the flip front) but as I want it primarily to listen to the GPS and its built in radio, this is not too much of a problem. Next job was to sync it with my GPS. I knew there might be a problem with the Rider 1 so I tried first with the Garmin 2820 on the Wing. It took me ages to learn how to put the headset in pairing mode. This was owing to a combination of not reading the instructions properly and impatience. When I had understood the unit must first be switched on before pressing the same switch again for an extended period to set it looking for marriage partners, I did eventually pair with the Garmin. But why oh why can’t we have a simple on/off switch instead of these stupid press it and pray type things that take forever to do something?
Next I tried and failed several times to pair with the TomTom. After several bouts of cursing I eventually succeeded by dint of understanding that the darn thing was trying and failing to pair with its original headset because that is what I was telling it to do in response to a rather ambiguous Yes/No query in its menu system. Finally in frustration, I realised I had to tell it to be more promiscuous and go and look for another partner when, thankfully it found the Scala Rider that had given up and gone home, or at least had stopped trying to pair on many previous attempts.
With the popularity of flip up helmets, sun visors and Bluetooth, I cannot understand why every helmet manufacturer is not in the game – ah well, that’s life at the bleeding edge I suppose..
Having a Ball!
Posted by: | CommentsOn the new bike. I am riding around all the twistiest hilliest lanes I can find and it’s behaving impeccably. My 600 miles service is booked for the 31st March which means that I have to be a bit careful not to put many more miles on it. I am planning a longish rideout with other GSers on the 30th and need to keep some miles in hand for that.
I have now rigged up leads for my Gerbings heated jacket liner and for a TomTom satnav. I connected the heated jacket direct to the battery via an inline fused lead but for the TomTom I plumbed it in via a Canbus connector to the spare Canbus socket under the centre trim panel. I now need to think about how I connect up my iPod. At present I am using custom earplug/speakers for the TomTom connected to a little Bluetooth thingy. But I need to multiplex the iPod somehow. I am not at all sure I can do this with the current Bluetooth gadget and I am not sure if the TomTom will recognise others. It’s the TomTom Rider 1 and it doesn’t for instance, recognise the Jaba bluetooth thing I use for my mobile.
Unlike the Goldwing, I have no built in electronics for this sort of thing, so I might just install an autocom and possibly, use my Garmin 2820 from the Goldwing, instead of the TomTom
Anticipation…
Posted by: | CommentsJust spoke to the dealer (South London Motorcycles) about my order for the F 800 GS. All seems to be in order and he’ll ring me next week with the reg so I can insure it. I have already anticipated the big day by putting a promo picture of it in the side bar, as well as retitling the side bar to My Bikes – plural. Until I sold the ZZR that had been true and it will be true again in just over a week but right now it’s strictly My Bike and the one I put a deposit on 
I have been thinking about a GPS and other stuff I might put on the new bike. I think I shall probably get a Zumo. I have the Streetpilot 2820 on the Goldwing but I am not entirely happy with it as I find the screen too small and some of its menus are frankly horrible – I much prefer the old Tomtom in this regard.
Fabulous Weather!
Posted by: | CommentsI had a marvellous day riding out in the Kent countryside today. It was a crisp autumn day (frost in the morning) with a crystalline blue sky and leaves turning gold and red (early this year). The sun was so low that it made riding difficult at times, especially exploring the small lanes I travelled where I was plunged into darkness under the trees periodically, leaving me completely blinded or a moment or two.
I was giving my new GPS a workout by telling it to go the shortest route from one place to another. Well it certainly knows some tiny roads – the kind with grass growing up the middle and gravel on every bend! Navigating these unsighted was quite exciting.. Still, to make up for the terrors of sliding off the gravel onto the grass and back again, I came across some wonderful sights – beautiful houses and farms some very large and imposing, others just quaint or with quaint names like one, “Stubbleweed Farm” that took my fancy.