Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Greetings,

I don't use either on the bikes but in the car I use my 'phone in preference to the onboard system.

The system used is called WAZE and it gives real time updates to traffic, etc. Free too.

TTFN

Hugh.

Interesting thread…

My TomTom is giving up now after 10yrs, so looking similar for options.

So far google maps have bn fine, but issue on roaming costs when across to France. That and need a bit of ruggedness, especially when riding in the rain.

Looking at DMD and looks like the rugged tablets are pretty good alternative to a TomTom or garmin… especially since can use other android apps and keep phone nice and safe.

How good are the tablets with gloves and in the rain when wet??

hennieontanks wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:48 am So far google maps have bn fine, but issue on roaming costs when across to France. That and need a bit of ruggedness, especially when riding in the rain.

Do you know that you can download off-line maps to your phone?

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/ ... %3DAndroid

Oop North John wrote:

hennieontanks wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:48 am So far google maps have bn fine, but issue on roaming costs when across to France. That and need a bit of ruggedness, especially when riding in the rain.

Do you know that you can download off-line maps to your phone?

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/ ... %3DAndroid

Thanks

Think my issue is still when in the wet. My phone does not work nicely when the screen is wet. Starts not complying or doing its own thing… Also seems a bit too small to use with gloves…
But has bn a good back up till now.

hennieontanks wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 12:00 pm Think my issue is still when in the wet. My phone does not work nicely when the screen is wet. Starts not complying or doing its own thing… Also seems a bit too small to use with gloves…
But has bn a good back up till now.

There's an App called "Touch Protector" that'll stop rain from buggering it about....

D

Thanks Boys, all good stuff.

I use Waze too as it’s real time. Mapsme works the same in some countries.

We tried using offline maps in Canada back on 2019 but, trying to get back to Toronto airport was a nightmare as it was always about 50m or so too late so we kept missing junctions.
We now try and buy a local SIM and stick it in the phone. It only cost £35 for 28 days in the US last year and worked brilliantly. The nav worked great and the car had carplay so it displayed on the massive tv screen dash. Saved us a fortune when BA cancelled our flight home 24 hours before and we had to spend ages trying to rebook as their online system was useless.

My Norden should have free basic nav that syncs to the Husky app on the phone but I’ve not had a chance to try it yet.
Until the last couple of years I had never bothered with bike nav but I am starting to lean towards using it now. Old age or complex roads…whichever.

Gaia GPS is supposed to be very nice trip organiser and sat nav.

Gaia GPS, is that a satnav unit or an app?

I’m leaning towards a phone up front with a new chip for different countries.

We used Gaia in Colombia on a smartphone, it worked really well and you can save areas and data for offline use which helps with battery life.
We tried using it in Portugal as our maps are very old and had plotting route issues where it routed a long way around routes that I knew went through. It may have been user error, I need to look at it again in the comfort of my home PC.
The great think about Gaia is that you can have it on multiple devices that sync if you connect to wifi/data.