Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

99coconuts wrote:okay, i'm probably be a little negative here they ARE convenient and they CAN get you out of a quick spot of bother, but for me, it just wasn't right in the end. i reckon $20 for a recent melways is money better spent....

WTF can you get a Melways <10 years old for $20?? Even a brand new one is cheaper than a GPS, give you that but I wanted a GPS primarily to map back roads taken on motorbike then upload map to pc, still getting that nutted out but looks like i've found a workaround

Well me & Shell got back from a slightly long trip using a Navman 330i as our guide. The two biggest problem i found was a crappiness with locating numbers on the street. But that's kind of expected as we went to a few pretty farfectched rural areas enroute.

The other major problem was the weird weird shortcuts that it took us through. To go to Mount Buller from out west took us through some of the weirdest half assed backroads. I mean it didnt get us to backtrack through some major roads and then continue on our way. it had a preference to send us down backroads just to take us down the shortest route. I have a feeling ive got to set some configuration options on the gps to stop this though....

All those glitches aside, this thing took us through a 3500km journey and got us home intact. The other thing i can recommend is pn any major trip, plan your fuel stops a far in advance as you can. Especially if you've got a fuelcard like we did $500+ in free fuel in a '06 hilux :):)

Wait for the discount sales Neka... I read officeWorks brochure few weeks ago they were selling GPS units with map for $199 !

I found my garmin not too reliable for backroads, I trust that $7 explorer map more. But for city/suburb addresses yeah.. went to sydney typed in the address and voila ! I'm there.

I also now turn off the waypoint tracking. It's evidence !

haha thanks for the tip Andi..

yea mike they often give u options..like "easiest" route, or "quickest" route.... sumtimes easy ends up being twice as far as quick tho...

mick_dundee wrote:

99coconuts wrote:okay, i'm probably be a little negative here they ARE convenient and they CAN get you out of a quick spot of bother, but for me, it just wasn't right in the end. i reckon $20 for a recent melways is money better spent....

WTF can you get a Melways <10 years old for $20?? Even a brand new one is cheaper than a GPS, give you that but I wanted a GPS primarily to map back roads taken on motorbike then upload map to pc, still getting that nutted out but looks like i've found a workaround

maybe its been a while since i bought a melways i think my last one was around 2000 and that was $20.... what do they sting you these days?

in any case, i still find my 2000 melways to be more accurate and to able to get me places faster than my spankin new GPS. the GPS is funky and convenient for sure but they have major mapping and route planning issues at this stage in the game.

99coconuts wrote:

mick_dundee wrote:

99coconuts wrote:okay, i'm probably be a little negative here they ARE convenient and they CAN get you out of a quick spot of bother, but for me, it just wasn't right in the end. i reckon $20 for a recent melways is money better spent....

WTF can you get a Melways <10 years old for $20?? Even a brand new one is cheaper than a GPS, give you that but I wanted a GPS primarily to map back roads taken on motorbike then upload map to pc, still getting that nutted out but looks like i've found a workaround

maybe its been a while since i bought a melways i think my last one was around 2000 and that was $20.... what do they sting you these days?

in any case, i still find my 2000 melways to be more accurate and to able to get me places faster than my spankin new GPS. the GPS is funky and convenient for sure but they have major mapping and route planning issues at this stage in the game.

The only issue i have is the wind at 100kph blowing hte pages away! For a bike a GPS is a God send!

Nath,
I use the MIO Digiwalker, seems alright been 12 months and haven't had any dramas as yet. The only draw back is a freeway over pass....."turn right to freeway" 15m higher

Most of the time it's pritty good. The missus had said that it was a waste of money until the trip to QLD. Punch in thae address and off we went. Coming out of a servo i went the wrong way and using the MIO found a drivway/Private road and did a U turn. The street you couldn't even see it at night but was on the screen.
The MIO isn't waterproof or designed for a bike but is totaly portable and also has a Battery so I couls use it if i was walking(Like thats gona happen ).

So where do you strap the melways ? On the tank or the fairing ?

javaman wrote:So where do you strap the melways ? On the tank or the fairing ?

hahaha im more wanting it for the car, and the mrs than the bike...if i need to go sumwhere i just write the details down, on a bit of paper and tape it to the arm of my leathers...

I use a Garmin Quest, had it for the VFR and now (properly) mounted on the 10.

As for expensive to fix, i suppose it's what breaks-but this Garmin fell off the ZX-10 at $1:70, hit the bitumen at that speed too.The outer casings were scuffed and slightly cracked, the aerial broke off. The unit was still on and working when i found it, only it couldn't navigate as the aerial had broke clean off.
I almost chucked it away there and then, i thought there's no way they'll fix this and if they do it will probably cost more than a new unit.

Not so, i had both casings replaced, even got a new screen put on it, new aerial-$230 for the lot and you would never know it was broken.

I've got a tomtom one,
damn good product, just waiting for the official release fo tomtom for the n95 then i'm all set:P

As with any electronic computer device the firmware can get corrupted too for unknown reasons Just last week my garmin stopped working lucky there are forums in the internet which discuss theses things.. Found out I had to reload the firmware and it's fixed. It's very tricky too how to do it, had to press this and that button etc. But otherwise if I had sent it to Garmin they will easily charge $200 for it

if you are not on contract with your phone go sign up for a 24 month contract and get the Nokia 6110, it has gps and comes with aus maps, know a few that have them and love them

yea my current contract runs out next month... but i recently bought a sony ericson w850 (or sumthin) after a halls gap "incident"...i love my phone, so i want a seperate unit..it will mainly be for use in the car neway...so the mrs can use it...

Is a group buy an option??
might be interested