Garmin Nuvi For GPS Navigation - How do you hear the turn-by-turn instructions? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Garmin Nuvi For GPS Navigation - How do you hear the turn-by-turn instructions?

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How can you guys ride while hearing bloody GPS instructions throughout your trip? Its a no-brainer. When I use GPS on my bike I put the GPS on 2-D mode and it gives me a wide-angle area of my highlighted route, I don't have to look at it again if my next left turn is 15 km away. When I ride I'm listening to rock or calypso music.
 
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If you ride further than the nearest Tim Hortons the GPS often doesn't make a peep for long periods of time. Sometimes hours at a time.
 
Low tech approach:
You need a flexible plastic tube, fuel line works well, about 5ft long. Long enough to go from the device to your helmet without catching on everything.
Attach the tube to your device, at a 90 degree angle, over the speaker. Glue it on, tape it on...I don't know. I'm not your mother.
Put the other end in you helmet, near your ear, you'll hear the instructions.

Worked for Dyno Pete, of Iron Butt fame, for years.
 
bitzz said:
Low tech approach:
You need a flexible plastic tube, fuel line works well, about 5ft long. Long enough to go from the device to your helmet without catching on everything.
Attach the tube to your device, at a 90 degree angle, over the speaker. Glue it on, tape it on...I don't know. I'm not your mother.
Put the other end in you helmet, near your ear, you'll hear the instructions.

Worked for Dyno Pete, of Iron Butt fame, for years.
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Sometimes i get my best laugh of the day from you.Thanks.
 
To close this out I ended up buying and waterproofing a Garmin GPS for $40 and learned how to program routes using Basecamp. I'm just going to look at the GPS for the next turn, obviously, although they are very difficult to see in bright sunlight. I'll bring an old iPhone as a "backup GPS" if the Garmin ***** the bed.

I gotta say that I'm shocked that modern GPSs don't sync with smartphones to give turn by turn directions.

During all my research I've found that many of the smartphone GPS apps blow away the Garmin interface as far as features and design go. However, I also found that nothing really beats using a Garmin GPS with Basecamp to "program" custom routes. The only thing I found that was close was Ride With GPS but you have to pay a monthly fee for most of the "premium" features. Another big let-down was Google Maps which allows you to plan specific routes but fails when you send them to your phone and the phone re-routes you.
 
TheSentinel said:
Another big let-down was Google Maps which allows you to plan specific routes but fails when you send them to your phone and the phone re-routes you.
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There are two things that are annoying as **** with Google Maps and should be user adjustable:

- The helpful "We've found a faster route!" option that is anything BUT helpful when you've gone to great lengths to plot a specific route you want.
- The fact when you reach a waypoint it doesn't continue on it's own but forces you to push a button on the screen to continue.

FWIW plotting a route using Google Maps on your computer and then using the "send to phone" option works great but you must make sure that you use waypoints, not drags. If you drag the route on the desktop version of the map the drags don't get sent to your phone. Use waypoints instead to manually force the app to follow that route you want and it works fine...but you do have to touch the screen at each waypoint, as mentioned.
 
PrivatePilot said:
There are two things that are annoying as **** with Google Maps and should be user adjustable:

- The helpful "We've found a faster route!" option that is anything BUT helpful when you've gone to great lengths to plot a specific route you want.
- The fact when you reach a waypoint it doesn't continue on it's own but forces you to push a button on the screen to continue.

FWIW plotting a route using Google Maps on your computer and then using the "send to phone" option works great but you must make sure that you use waypoints, not drags. If you drag the route on the desktop version of the map the drags don't get sent to your phone. Use waypoints instead to manually force the app to follow that route you want and it works fine...but you do have to touch the screen at each waypoint, as mentioned.
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Thanks for the tip but I'll stick with Basecamp - Basecamp with a Garmin GPS does EXACTLY what you need it to do.
 
TheSentinel said:
Thanks for the tip but I'll stick with Basecamp - Basecamp with a Garmin GPS does EXACTLY what you need it to do.
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Probably 95 out of 100 rides I do are plotted out section by section as we ride, or at the very most, in the parking lot over coffee before getting ready to depart.

The process of plotting out something on a computer using a separate program and then loading it onto a card or whatever to transfer it to a GPS just seems arduous to me.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Probably 95 out of 100 rides I do are plotted out section by section as we ride, or at the very most, in the parking lot over coffee before getting ready to depart.

The process of plotting out something on a computer using a separate program and then loading it onto a card or whatever to transfer it to a GPS just seems arduous to me.
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I'm doing a 2,000 km solo ride that follows a specific, complicated route so I need to plot it on a GPS.

I'm aware that many people, like yourself, do not prefer the arduous task of carefully plotting routes on a computer. I'm gotta say I'm very happy that doing this trip forced me to devote an hour to mastering Basecamp - It's amazing what you can do with it!
 
TheSentinel said:
2,000 km solo ride that follows a specific, complicated route
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There's a good argument for it in that case. My routes on super long rides are seldom super complicated though so like I said, I just plot section by section at each stop.

I did learn Furkot a year or two back. Equally as complicated, but very powerful. Have never used the export options however - it's purely for coming up with the basis behind a complicated ride and then I just do the waypoint to waypoint method on Google Maps once we're actually moving.
 
+1 for basecamp, but it takes time and effort. For multi day trips great to plan route and timing for fuel stops, food stops and scenic stops it is very helpful. But you do need to learn with trial and error, when your gps does its recalculation and cuts you through the shaded part of town you will wish you loaded a few more waypoints!!.
I'm lucky that my wife rides and I don't need to wing it and say "there must be fuel up ahead somewhere". She trusts me, but she trusts the gps more!
 
Basecamp sucks. You need a lot of patience to use it. Very antiquated how it works, and searching barely works. What takes seconds on something like GoogleMaps takes much longer with BC. Yes is does a decent job and you will eventually get the results, but it still sucks!
 
sburns said:
Basecamp sucks. You need a lot of patience to use it. Very antiquated how it works, and searching barely works. What takes seconds on something like GoogleMaps takes much longer with BC. Yes is does a decent job and you will eventually get the results, but it still sucks!
Click to expand...

Basecamp is awesome - It does exactly what it is supposed to do and blows away Google Maps for serious navigation.
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