radio and gps

[builderwill]

First off let me start by saying I'm new to this farkling stuff, techo-challenged and cheap. However, I would like get some gps and also upgrade from my little AAA powered MP3 player with POS helmet speakers. Could barely ever hear anything above the wind noise.

So after some review of alot of good stuff on this board I'm leaning to install this radio along with a nuvi 750. The 750 seems reasonably priced and has the mp3 player with navigation voice prompts that overide the music. I was planning to pug the output of the 750 into the aux input of the radio. I'd then run the output of the radio to these things. I wouldn't be able to listen to FM while navigating, but I can live with that. I'm also not interested in any other audio. The phone gets shut off while I ride and I've never much trusted radar detectors.

I'd appreciate anyone's comments, particularly with the gps as I've never owned before. I'm estimating I can get all this for about 350 plus whatever the auxillary electrical components would be.

 

[Reaper]

I think you should get the Hot Pink ones, or maybe the Purple ones.

And thats about all the eletrical help I can give.

Also techo-challenged!

 

[wfooshee]

By the time you buy another Nuvi and then another one becaue the vibration and weather on the bike is tearing them up, you'll realize you should have coughed up the Zumo money in the first place. You might find a refurb Streetpilot out there still, but I don't know which ones have MP3.

 

[Geezer]

Well, it looks like you are spending the big bucks, relatively speaking, on a rugged waterproof radio, and skimping on a GPS that is not waterproof. Personally, I dislike having to pull over to wrap a baggie on my electronics every time it starts to rain.

 

[builderwill]

I'm seeing the radio on ebay and for about 120 supposed new and in the box so I wouldn't say its 'big bucks'.

I don't see a problem throwing the gps in the tank bag for rain, but didn't think about the vibration. Are standard automotive gps that delicate?

 

[FJR Flyer]

The Jensen radio has been working really well for me, with a set of helmet speakers. Tried the Iasus XSound speakers, and they sounded great, but were too damn thick. Currently using Motocomm Thumpers. They do pretty well, but I have to run a boosteroo when I plug the iPod into the aux jack on the radio. The wx band on the radio has come in handy several times.

 

[sergeantnic]

I'm seeing the radio on ebay and for about 120 supposed new and in the box so I wouldn't say its 'big bucks'.
I don't see a problem throwing the gps in the tank bag for rain, but didn't think about the vibration. Are standard automotive gps that delicate?

No they are fine. I've got a Nuvi 255w I think. Can't remember the model but it's just the regular old car gps wide screen model and I've got a fair amount of miles on the bike(s) with it and a Magellan car gps and it does fine.

No routing or anything fancy but I just use it to see road names and what not and it works great. Never had a problem with either of them as far as vibration goes.

 

[Gramps]

By the time you buy another Nuvi and then another one becaue the vibration and weather on the bike is tearing them up, you'll realize you should have coughed up the Zumo money in the first place. You might find a refurb Streetpilot out there still, but I don't know which ones have MP3.

Although the Zumo & Streetpilot are bike specific and probably have a ton more features, I can say from experience that my Nuvi 750 ($149 on Ebay) is working flawlessly. And yes it's not waterproof but a plastic baggie kept mine dry in a 2 hour downpour (this would be a better waterproof choice). Not saying the Nuvi is the way to go, it's just my preference. Oh & the MP3 player works great.

 

[builderwill]

Thanks for all the info guys. I think I'm going to proceed this route. Really seeing some good prices on the 750 today so getting my order in.

Flyer - what kind of antenna are you using? I was hoping to use a hidden antenna with a powered amplifier, but web bike world did not give that type a very good review.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Thanks for all the info guys. I think I'm going to proceed this route. Really seeing some good prices on the 750 today so getting my order in.
Flyer - what kind of antenna are you using? I was hoping to use a hidden antenna with a powered amplifier, but web bike world did not give that type a very good review.

I wrote the WbW review and have tried a couple more antennas since then.

The hidden antennas just did not pull in the stations that the others did and the powered one sucked no matter where I tried. I even put it along the windshield to make sure it was straight, high, and away from anything else that could create interference. I've forgotten the brand, but somebody wrote in about using a hidden antenna common among the Harley crowd, so I borrowed one last year. (Hence the lack of memory) It did better than the hidden antenna in the review but not as well as the rubber ducky. If you're just commuting and there are a lot of strong local stations, a hidden may do ok for you, but it's basically less efficient than a regular antenna and is highly installation specific. Another potential problem to be aware of, is that with most of the places available to hide it, it can pick up a lot of ignition noise in the fairing.

The full automotive whip clearly had a higher count of stations that it could pull in than anything else. However, I got tired of whacking it and looking like a cop wanna-be. The automotive rubber antenna didn't get the number of stations that the whip did, but we have so many in the Baltimore Washington region that absolute range isn't paramount. In a rush one night, I literally threw the rubber antenna inside of my 52 liter Givi topcase and most of the time it worked so well that I left it there for a couple of months. (I have a hole in the bottom for the antenna cable and lighting wires.) Since then, I made a bracket that the right mirror mount sits on and the rubber antenna sits on that pretty unobtrusively. If I were to go for a long cross country, the full length whip could easily be put in its' place. ymmv

Checks

 

[Fred W]

Any GPS for use on a motorcycle must have the ability to upload and share routes, IMO, otherwise it is pretty useless.

The nuvi 750 appears to have the ability to store up to 10 routes, but from reading the owners manual it doesn't look like you can upload them from Mapsource and / or import them as .gpx files. You have to create them on the GPS itself by selecting an end point and then selecting via points. edit - It does say in the owners manual that you can upload route files using a USB cable and using Mapsource, so that is good.

Another important feature is track logging so that you can see where you've been after the fact, and convert that into a route for later re-use and sharing.

Waterproof is also a pretty important feature to me. Yes, you can put a baggie over it, but that is a PITA and will eventually still allow water in and mess up the instrument. I hate having to do this with my Radar Detector, but there aren't any decent waterproof ones out there.

A bluetooth phone interface is also very useful even if you don't plan to make or receive calls, just so you can see who is looking for you. MP3 is nice, but probably the least important feature to me. The 750 has them both anyway.

Having an integral battery for power is good so you can mess with your GPS in a hotel room or restaurant while on the road.

All of that said, the Zumo 550 starts to become a good value for having all of those features and more. Waterproof, route uploading, track logging, blue tooth to the phone and bluetooth to your headset (should you want to go wireless to helmet). It has the ability to play MP3 from generic, inexpensive SDHC cards and can be upgraded to XM radio if you want it. You can buy them from reputable places for ~$600 and it comes complete with a quick release, ram ball motorcycle mount, which would cost you at least another $60 or more for any other GPS.

If you can find a refurbished Streetpilot 2XXX, they are also very good, but like the nuvi 7xx series have been discontinued and are getting harder and harder to find.

 

[builderwill]

I'm still in awe of all the expertise on this site. Based on what you're saying, Checks, I'm going to start with cheap rubber antenna and work my way up if need be. I'm contemplating a shelf instead of individual ram mounts and might be able to mount a short antenna on that. First I need to just get the main gadgets and play around with where and how I want them mounted.

 

[GreyGoose]

I'm still in awe of all the expertise on this site. Based on what you're saying, Checks, I'm going to start with cheap rubber antenna and work my way up if need be. I'm contemplating a shelf instead of individual ram mounts and might be able to mount a short antenna on that. First I need to just get the main gadgets and play around with where and how I want them mounted.

I just purchased the 765t and it works well for the application your referring to. I'm going to give a tank bag that holds a gps (or a baggie when tankbag is not in use) before spending the big buck on the zumo.

i will say that the zumo does have some nice options other than waterproofing such as the ability to turn off auto recalculate.

i would recommend the 765t over the 755 just becuase the price difference is really small and the bluetooth is great for when you transfer this thing to your cage. you also get lifetime free traffic with the 765t (but the jury is still out on its usefullnes). Amazon has got them right now for 199 bucks. Its hard to go wrong.

GreyGoose

 

[FJR Flyer]

Thanks for all the info guys. I think I'm going to proceed this route. Really seeing some good prices on the 750 today so getting my order in.
Flyer - what kind of antenna are you using? I was hoping to use a hidden antenna with a powered amplifier, but web bike world did not give that type a very good review.

I'm using a "hog-tenna", IIRC. Got it as a package with the radio from a Forum member. It fits nicely inside the side panel, and yes, its powered. Does a pretty good job of bringing the stations in.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Thanks for all the info guys. I think I'm going to proceed this route. Really seeing some good prices on the 750 today so getting my order in.
Flyer - what kind of antenna are you using? I was hoping to use a hidden antenna with a powered amplifier, but web bike world did not give that type a very good review.

I'm using a "hog-tenna", IIRC. Got it as a package with the radio from a Forum member. It fits nicely inside the side panel, and yes, its powered. Does a pretty good job of bringing the stations in.

(For those who don't know the relative basis used in the WbW article, there are so many radio stations in the Washington-Baltimore area that I counted how many stations each antenna could pull in solidly on the bike's Jensen radio, compared to the factory installations in a Chrysler minivan and Ford Escape, then used the relative numbers to compare. If you happen to have a test range or anechoic chamber in your basement, I'll be happy to defer to a better test method.)

I think the borrowed antenna I tried was one of those "Hog-Tenna" dealie-jobbers and it did work. I simply had it taped across the top of my VStream windshield, finding that it pulled in more stations than the auto parts store powered hidden antenna and nearly as many as the rubber antenna from the car parts store.

Again, if staying in an area rich with radio stations, even the crappy cheapo worked. But all of the shorter antennas give up the natural advantage of length that the long whip has. The reason for the specific length of the whip is that it's related to the frequency of the radio waves that it is trying to capture.

Not the best photo, this is at the Delaware/MD corner marker from a Photo-Tag game. You can see the antenna mounted at the base of the right mirror. The mount is a simple piece of .080 aluminum cut to match the bottom of the mirror and with one bend to give the antenna a flat base. Nothing fancy but it works. fwiw, one reason I use the rubber antenna up there is it's less likely to impale me or scoop my crotch out if I have an accident.