Electronic Wizardry

[nick crisp]

Just been wondering whether or not it's worth allowing myself to be dragged a bit further into the modern age for my planned Euro tour. I've read quite a lot on how sat nav would be especially handy when arriving in larger towns/cities to help find hotel locations etc. Also, there's a last-minute bookings site that might be useful, so internet could also be very helpful (plus staying in touch on the forums I use). Not to mention keeping track of the weather to help with contingency planning on the fly.

Soooo, what kind of system should I be looking at? I really have very little experience of all this gadgetry, even my current mobile phone is something from the dark ages! What kind of cost? (this could well be the point which decides for me which system I might plump for, or indeed, whether I get anything at all). If it means more than one unit, I'll probably give it a miss entirely. If it means replacing my current mobile, I'll consider it, but also would want to keep any monthly payments pretty low.

If answering, please bear in mind you're talking to a gadget-dimwit, terminology needs to be basic or explained!

Cheers

Nick

[ChristoT]

I had a lot of success with a £20 chinese satnav bought off ebay, stuffed in a tankbag with a 12V lead from the battery. If you remember, that was the satnav I punched to death before my ill-fatd ride. Then again, it had lasted nearly a year and a half - a lot longer than I thought it would, and for that price, you can't complain!!

[red98]

Hi nick.....if its cheap your looking for, I use my pay as you go mobile using free wifi.great in built up areas towns etc...not too good in the mountains  :'(.......got an samsung ace paid about 130.00 for it...got a 5mp camera .most of the pictures I post on here are taken with it........oh... and as a bonus your able to make telephone calls with it    :lol

[rustyrider]

If your mobile is on a contract, see if you can get an upgrade.  I've got a Nokia Lumia 925 which is a Windows phone but gives internet, satnav with free for life map updates and works pretty well as a phone too.

[locksmith]

A good smartphone would fit the bill, but you'll need extras to run it as a waterproof sat-nav and the monthly tariff will be anything but cheap and while abroad it'll cost you to use the internet if you haven't got a wifi connection.

[nick crisp]

Just been warned of costs of using t'internet abroad. Up to £500 bills racked up for 10 mins is one horror story!  :eek  Internet cafes?

[Mattsplat]

Ive covered over 30 countries with my sat nav, wouldnt leave home without it because Im geographically incompetant!

Ive got a Garmin Zumo 660 but thats the 'all singing, all dancing' version and not cheap, actually its foccing expensive but I do travel.

Poor mans version (I set this up for my mate who was travelling in the Himalayas with me this summer) is a Garmin Nuvi 310. You can find em on ebay for about £20, its has a earphone socket (3.5mm jack in) and it will take music, if thats your thing.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/garmin-nuvi-de...20dd35c16f

Wire it into the battery, 2 wires, one red, one black, obvious where they go...
Then buy a £12 waterproof GPS holder bag thingy (ebay) thats waterproof and attaches to your handlebars.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/K5M-Motorcycle...5af6695238

I recommend Garmin over everything else because you can 'get' (not buy!!!!) maps off the net that will go straight into your machine. You can also use Garmin Basecamp to plan your routes on the computer and upload them to your GPS ready for your trip.
Basecamp (its free) - http://www.garmin.com/en-GB/shop/downloads/basecamp

Map uploads (make a backup and read read read before you do anything mapwise) - http://www.noeman.org/gsm/garmin-maps/10...chart.html

Give me a shout if you want more info

[Punkstig]

Mobile phone is the easy all in one gadget to go for, get a cheapish one that's unlocked then when you get into Europe buy one of their pay as you go sim cards from a petrol station or similar- all usage costs will be cheaper than using your English one, and it'll be impossible to overspend!

[Farjo]

If you are a gadget-dimwit then would you be able to use a laptop / smartphone? There's no point me bringing a state-of-the-art toolcase on holiday as no matter how good the tools I wouldn't know how to use them!

[adeejaysdelight]

Hi Nick,


I'm delighted to hear your taking the eurp-plunge next year. Good on ya'. As you may remember I did a tour of Holland, Germany, France and Belgium in September. I went to the Nurburgring yi know  . Anyway, I used the sat-nav in my mobile phone (Nokia lumia 900) which worked about 70% of the time. The problem there is, when you turn your sat-nav on its because you need it, so %70 is not good. It resulted in me double monkey punching my tank with both fists. My friend had tomtom on his phone too, but also lost the signal a couple of times. It seemed to happen in down-town city streets or the middle of nowhere.


As a result, I am going to buy a dedicated device. I have a tomtom xl one with full Europe maps which I used last year whilst touring in the car with the missus. It was amazing. The days we used it it worked perfect, every time. No stress or hassle. I am going to sell that one only because I want a sat-nav with bluetooth that can work with my intercom. 


Sat-nav makes a huge difference on your travels. It means you can ride about all you like, but when you want to get to your digs, a petrol station or landmark, you can without dicking about. And there will probably be at least one occasion when this will happen. Another thing to consider is planning some of your route before you go. Try bestbikingroads.com (I have a few posts on there myself) to get an idea of recommended roads by local bikers. You can then load them into your device before you set off, that way you know you are not going to miss any wee gems. I drove this great road in the Alsace last year in the Saab. It was like a rally stage. We never passed another car for over an hour. We would never have found that area without the sat-nav.

[richfzs]

My Tomtom took me over some fantastic roads in the eifel mountains last year, that I would never have found otherwise. It's great to be able to say "give me twisties" when you want them, and still be heading towards your destination. Then when you start to get towards the end of the day, just hit "quickest route, and there you are, at your hotel.

[andybesy]

You don't need a satnav for the major routes between places, but it'll help you estimate journey times which is useful.

Where you really do need it is at the end of a long day when you just want to find your camp site or hotel it'll save a lot of messing around. After all you are meant to be on holiday!

I'd also suggest that if you want to do the impulsive thing where by you figure it out as you go along rather than plan everything to the last detail before you leave then mobile internet access will be very handy.

For example you might want to lookup somewhere nice to go for lunch, or somewhere to go for a beer in the evening, or you might want to look at tourist attractions along a route you've chosen.

So if you can only take one device then I'd suggest a smartphone with internet and Google Maps or similar would be best. It's not as good a sat nav as the garmin, but it does everything.

In respect of cost it's come down a lot within the EU due to new rules. I'm on a £7/month sim only contract with 3 and was automatically enabled for roaming as I got on the ferry. They do an offer where by you pay a fixed rate of £5 day for unlimited access, but because we were using my brother's Garmin fixed on his bike for main satnav I didn't bother. We just used my phone for looking stuff up as discussed above and a little pedestrian satnav etc and it came to around £20 for eight days. If I were using it more heavily or as main SatNav I'd have done the £5/day thing. I do use it as satnav within the UK with headphones and it works ok.

The trick is getting the Android phone yourself so you only need to buy the sim only contract, then it's only a few quid a month on a rolling monthly contract that can be cancelled any time. I might be able to lend you an android phone if you need, but I would need to check if I can find my old one and if it works. And remember, there's nothing wrong with hand-me-downs if you have a mate who wants to sell their old one!

Andy

[Mattsplat]

Dont trust Google map routes 100%!

Experience has taught me that Google maps will make almost unrideable tracks appear as roads.

[Mattsplat]

Google maps sent me here, off road, 5000 meters up....

Higher than Everest Basecamp, no wonder I was a bit breathless  :eek

[nick crisp]

Head is already starting to spin...... :lol

[richfzs]

Google maps sent me here, off road, 5000 meters up....

Well it does say off road, can't really see your problem!

[Mattsplat]

[quote author=Mattsplat link=topic=11118.msg118259#msg118259 date=1388154443]
Google maps sent me here, off road, 5000 meters up....

Well it does say off road, can't really see your problem!
[/quote]

Google maps said it was a road, my Zumo realised it wasnt.

[nick crisp]

Google maps sent me here, off road, 5000 meters up....

Higher than Everest Basecamp, no wonder I was a bit breathless  :eek

Everest base camp approx. 17,500ft.
Summit of Mont Blanc (highest point in the Alps) approx. 15,500ft.

Just sayin....... :lol

[richfzs]

Where were you?

[Mattsplat]

I went higher than Everest basecamp, just sayin