Do you want audible directions Andy or just a standard GPS type thing? You are welcom to borrow my GPS3+ for an extended evaluation if you want.

Or to borrow my IPAQ navman.

I've got a Garmin Street Pilot III which is a self contained GPS system - it's the same unit that BMW and Ducati sell in rebadged form (although it's just been superceded). I got it several years ago when GPS on PDA's wasn't really a big thing. It is a portable unit that has different mounting attachments so that it will transfer between my car or my wife's car very easily. It would also fit on the ST, somewhere on the top yoke. I bought a spare power cable to wire it into the ST's loom (since you can always tuck the unit's power plug somewhere out of the way when it's not on the bike) but I've never got around to finding a suitable mounting kit for the bike.

Upsides are that it has worked perfectly for about 3 years, it has a few quirks (like not recognising that a roundabout is a roundabout unless it has a kerbed island - it treats mini roundabouts that are just painted on the road as if they're an ordinary junction). It got confused when I was in Ireland, but then again the Garmin website does point out that the Ireland map only has partial coverage. Other quirks are that it (if you use it locally) it will take you by a logical route and not necessarily the way you would normally take, you have to assume that it does this in every locality so it doesn't navigate like someone with local knowledge would, but it always gets you there even if a road is closed it quickly recalculates.

The navigation view is pretty good, colour screen and audio prompts as well, although if you wanted to use audio on a bike you would need to have all the gubbins, earpieces in the lid would be a minimum, it would work OK although it would work best if you ran it through an Autocom or summat like that (getting a pricey deal then though)

Downsides, battery life is limited so rechargables or plugging it in to the vehicle are are must. The updates that you can download from the Garmin site are always a bit of a faff (I do them so infrequently that I forget how to do it between downloads) and there are two sorts of download - one for the maps, one for the firmware in unit. Other downsides are that they use a system of licenses and unlock codes for the map regions, you get an unlock license when you buy it, but buying more regions is very expensive. The memory chips are also very expensive, they're only the same technology as a digital camera chip but because they come in a proprietary shape and size they cost a comparative fortune (I think I paid about £120 for a 256Mb? - could be wrong it was a while ago). Obviously the bigger memory chip you fit, the more map regions you can load.

Having said all that, I think that the latest versions come with the biggest memory chip as standard and free unlock codes for the whole of Europe.

[Edited on 2-1-2005 by Jools]

What Jool's said re: Garmin Streetpilot III. Brilliant, done loads of trips, UK and Central Europe with it. This year, flogged it on the web (inside two hours) and upgraded to Garmin 2610. Touch screen (even works with wet gloves) was doubtful about value of upgrade but It's truly loads better. Faster processer means it re-calcs on the fly much, much faster. This is a must have when you have just missed a junction in the middle of fast moving, town traffic (Obviously not in UK, LOL)

Can't say enough good things about it.

Oh, yes; mounts easily on the BMW or the 888.

Rgds, Rob

Mmm, interesting thread. I've just ordered a nice little setup that should be with me by next week. Gone for an iPaq HX4700 and TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver. Will be running TomTom Nav 3 with the usual POI's added.

Went for the BT version so the receiver can be placed in the best spot in the car. Also makes it handy for moving to other vehicles as I use my mums Shogn for trackdays. Can also be used on foot if need be, maybe good for visiting other towns on holidays etc (also have most European maps too).

Not sure I'd trust a PDA-based system on a bike, it's probably not robust enough. Also, TomTom say they won't offer a mounting kit for their new "Go" system, as it's not weatherproof! A friend of mine has used a Garmin Streetpilot III on his FJ1200 and Monster S4R - gets him to the far end of Spain fine. The newer model 2610 is supposed to be ven better (as Rob says above)

Andrew

Garmin 2610 going for £610 on ebay. Bargain compared to tottenham court road...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...0578 005&rd=1

For me iPaq 5450 + TomTom 3

Wired antenna in the car, bluetooth on the bike. So bluetooth would be the best option for you in this case. TomTom annually update maps etc and it costs around 40 euros to update. There's lots of plugins (like postcodes from www.didgitools.co.uk )

On the bike stick the pda in a tank bag along with the antenna and it works like a charm. You can plug in an earpiece and get the voice directions as well if needed. I've used it a few times on the bike without any problems. I'm also thinking of getting a RAM mount to use it on a mountain bike too.

Some of the bluetooth recievers are a little "flakey" and have battery issues. Possible the best one at the moment is the Fortuna Clip or it's clones. It's got 2 modes of use and uses Nokia phone batteries whilst not being much bigger than a pack of matches.

This is an excellent site for more info

http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/

I use a Pocket PC PDA running Medion Navigator software with POI's for cameras-it works very well, does occasionally lock up but shutting software and re-starting always cures it. It uses a wired recever which is a bit of a pain as you have wires draped all over the dash-I haven't tried it on the bike yet but putting it in a tankbag should work fine. The screen is very bright and clear and the voice directions very good-re-calculates routes as you go if you miss a turning, and doesn't ask you to do a 'U' turn on a motorway. Oh yes, and I got mine secondhand for £100...............

John

I am running a Dell Axim X30 with a wired tomtom reciever and tomtom 3 and it works a treat even behind a heated windscreen in the focus.
If you want cheap then have a look at macro, a full PDA system with sat nav and car kit for £279