GPS systems for organized rides
Welcome to CycoActive. We are your complete source for GPS for motorcycles.
Basic elements to use a GPS on your motorcycle:
1) GPS. We like the GPS models which display detailed maps. eMap, GPSV, GPS76s, GPS176 and StreetPilotIII. We don't like the eTrex series for motorcycle use.
2) Mount. It's far more useful to have the GPS mounted to the motorcycle such that you can see the display and use the buttons.
3) Power source. Under vibration, many GPSs have difficulty with "vibration shutdown". This is from the batteries disconnecting repeatedly under vibration. If you have a 12v source, it's worthwhile to use it to power the GPS. Some motorcycles have only AC power, for these it is a little more effort. Some GPSs run on 12vDC thus all you need is a simple cable (g10085, cut end and wite to battery). Other GPSs run on 3v. Onee problem is that the 12v to 3v converter from Garmin is not reliable, and under failure they can give your 3v GPS a shot of 12v (this is bad). For these GPSs we recommend using a remote 3V battery supply such as "gce3Vc".
Adding the extra features:
4) Software to add maps that show on the screen of your GPS. It's possible to get virtually every road in the US to show on the screen of the GPS, even overgrown dirt tracks, and some even shows singletrack trails.
5) Datacards Some GPSs have their map storage on datacards (sizes from 8Mb to 128Mb) an average 'State' in the USA is about 8-16Mb in size. See some examples of map areas held by the different datacards.
For more info see our GPS comparison page.
See some suggested GPS setups below. We will show some more options as we get time.
