Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

On another forum tonight, I had a bit of a spray about technology......does anyone think my response was a bit harsh ??

Unknown Noob wrote:......So what do you guys do for navigating around unknown areas? In a car it's fairly convenient to glance at a map, but what do you do on a bike?

Handlebar mounted GPS? Tank mounted? If you use this, what brand/model?
Something like a magnetic tank mounted map holder?......

My response (after a heap of posts about TomToms, etc ) went like this.....


If I *really* don't know where I am going (which BTW is fucking never), then I might print out a Google map of the main route, and keep it folded in a back pocket.

If its some shitty address in the middle of Shitney, then definitely take a Google print-out of the streets from the closest main drag.

Personally, and yeh this is old school - all this bullshit with GPS, Sat-Nav, Blue-tooth phones that dial your arse and tell you when to take a shit......fuck me its a crock. We had to look at a map and work it out years ago - now all you Gen Z fuckers want a voice from your phone telling you when to turn left, when to turn right, when to take a piss. Its Bullshit.

Harden the fuck up and look at a map. It ain't hard !! You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich.

I don't reckon its too bad ???

imo i agree i not that old but when i go on the dirt maps are the best....they don't cost heaps to replace, you can update them with interesting things that you find along the way and they give you a chance for a breather.....it might have been a bit harsh for the softer type of people but then again you can't please everyone all the time....that my 2 cents anyway

Nah mate you're on the money. Young wankers. I had a (20ish) mate over this arvo who was giving me shit- "In ten years time you'll have to ride a bike with ABS, injection and GPS.' Nah I'll probably still be riding my carby ZRX. I've been riding a 80 Z440, 82 GT750 and 86 GT550 lately and they all look like going another ten years anyway. Don't need all that crap.
When I was in Canberra last, I was riding Neil's Beemer and he was on my CB400. He buggered off on me leaving me with the GPS. Handy but I can live without it. Distracting on a bike too.
I'm going to Byron this weekend after work. Just been looking on whereis to plan the trip but won't need a map to get there!

Ya grumpy old fecker

if you put a few smileys in after 'gen z fuckers' it might have lightened the tone a little so that people know your just having a freindly go at the technological generation (unless you wernt having a freindly go, then i guess you succeeded )

Did you used to have to walk to school? In the snow? About 30 miles away?

Feck, you'll make a good "granpa"


Printouts and maps are feck all use when you have your trip planned, know exactly where you are going, and then, like happened to me last week, about 2 k's from your off ramp, you find half the city shut down, only one way to go, and it isn't anywhere you've ever been before (thank feck for the bluetooth phone thingy). Maps are fine and dandy, but useless when you've got nowhere to pull over and look at the thing...GPS much better - just works out a new way to get you where you're going...

But if I'm just going for a ride/drive, getting lost is just another word for "adventure"

I dont reckon its too harsh... But then again you just make yourself sound old

We are having them installed (albeit slowly) in the fire pumps at work but already there are issues such as the system sending a pump into Sydney's M5 tunnel to a house fire with it saying "you've arrived" when they were 10m underground. Luckily they always send 2 pumps to those calls so the other crew were already there and had in under control. I always read the map and the device is only a secondary backup...

Felix wrote:But if I'm just going for a ride/drive, getting lost is just another word for "adventure"

Couldn't have said it any better!

Gosling1 wrote: Harden the fuck up and look at a map. It ain't hard !! You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich.[/b]

roflmao...

I don't need a map, never mind a GPS....I just follow Gos

I thought the donuts were for direction. Once you ate all 5 of them, you realized you were lost and no longer had any food, and to find the nearest piece of civilization to help put you in the right direction

Gos, you bitter old Cahhn !

I agree about the not needing it on the bike, if your on the bike you should research your route prior to leaving..but if it can be done, it can be done..

But, in the car I use it all the time, especially in my job where I go all over the country side, and it is almost unnaceptable NOT to have one these days, I dont have a spare 30 mins each morning researching my destinations for that day..The Tech is there why not use it..

You have to remember Gos, the road sytem has changed since the early 70's , where you didn't have the congestion, the speed cameras, the toll roads etc etc..so they do come in handy when planning a route.

You might have made some of them cry Gos!

I'm with you though... but my only experience with GPS type systems are:

1) riding up to Paxton - we had 4 people and we split into groups of 2 as someone had gone past the corner we were marking and we didn't know where he ended up... I was relying on the map and took the nice fun road to Wollumbi getting to Paxton in good time. The other group followed a GPS which promptly took them to the freeway and the boring way into Paxton and they arrived heaps after us.

2) another ride, heading to Bright. A mate on his Ducati was following his GPS - it took him onto a road that included 60km of dirt and he arrived some 3 hours after the rest of us.

3) riding to Tottenham NSW. My map showed a particular road through Trangie as dirt. Another mate had GPS and it kept trying to make us go onto this dirt road, even when the sealed route was straight ahead of us and much shorter - for some reason it wasn't shown on the GPS system (Google Maps doesn't recognise that road either) but it was there on my map and it was good

So I don't trust those GPS things! I'll take my trusty map and dodgy handwritten instructions anyday

Yup, I couldn't be stuffed mucking around with one on a bike, but in the car Tom Tom's etc are brilliant. I spend a fair bit of my life in other places these days and you save a shitload of time and money by just hiring a car plugging in the GPS and getting where you're going without stuffing around.

Mind you if you get lost gos you could just use your mobile ph..... oh that's right, another bit of unnecessary technology

You're getting too old you fart, go get a ZRX.......

love it Gos. Good work

But what's this shit with maps? hey?
Many a time I've navigated home by the Sun. Don't know where I am, I'll just got south east until I recognise something.

Glen wrote:You're getting too old you fart, go get a ZRX.......

I am with Gos on this one, my most favourite experience ,NOT, with GPS was when the lady in the dash told the driver to turn off the freeway into Melbourne well before we should have, we were bokked into a hotel in the middle of the CBD, and then proceeded to take us on a guided tour to anywhere, I convinced the Zgens I was with to turn around and get back to where she turned us off and in the process the lady in the dash realised her error and irected us to make an IMMEDIATE left turn, only problem was we were in the middle of an over pass across the freeway at the time, after I guided the Zgens to our accommodation, they thought all was well and relied upon the lady in the dash to get us to Philip Island the next day, all was well until Dandenong when she decided that Frankston and Portsea were the way to the island again the old fart took over and we arrived at our correct destination, for those of you who disbelive I can guarantee that the Zgens had followed the directions for inputiing destinations etc to the letter but the lady in the dash just couldn't cope, and now of course all you young pups will not have the opportunity to buy the bike god rides the mighty REX becuase the big K ain't making them anymore and those of us who have them will never part with them. The best use of modern technology is the Google maps but even they struggle to cope, have had numerous experiences of streets not being where google said they were. Maybe all you young uns should HTFU and learn that the sun rises in the east sets in the west, that moss grows on the southern side of trees etc and instead of drinking your lattes, yakking on you mobiles, doing your makeup etc pay attention to where you are going and where you have been and you wont need to rely on the lady in the dash. I must go now Jeeves has finished warming up the Model T so I can get to work.