Over the years of travelling abroad on the bike, I have always
used a good detailed map and a highlighter for the finer art of
navigation. This has always worked well and I'm a bit of a Boy Scout
when it comes to maps, I love 'em. But, after a few trips, your
map can become covered in so many coloured lines you're not always
sure which is which, add to this the frayed edges of a map, the
folds tearing and having to stop at the end of a page to turn it
over and reinsert it in your map pocket and things can get difficult.
A
couple of the guys have been using SatNav for a few years now, either
TomTom maps in a PDA or a Navman style GPS unit, stuck in the map
pocket of a tank bag. As others in the group have been taking care
of GPS navigation on the bike trips I didn't bother to get a bike
mounted GPS, I couldn't see the need.
But I bought a TomTom One last year for the car and have come to
appreciate the benefits of GPS as well as the problems they can
cause, but on the whole the pluses far outweigh the cons and I thought
that maybe it was time to look at using it on the bike.
First off was power - the battery is fine for an hour or two but
I'll need longer than that. I fitted a 12 V fused lead from an Optimate
for the battery end and then bought a car cigarette lighter from
Halfords, and wired it up to ensure I had a permanent power feed.
This worked well and the female part of the cigarette lighter is
secured with Velcro underneath the rear seat.
The next thing was where to put the GPS? First I tried to use it
with it sitting in a map pocket on the tank, but my tank is angled
from the head stock backwards and angled in the wrong direction,
so the GPS is at an angle that is tilted away from your view. To
read it properly whilst on the move requires your left hand to shade
the GPS (too much glare on the screen), and lean forward a bit more,
so you can see what it is instructing you to do. Not an ideal solution,
but at least the GPS would be waterproof.
There
are now bike friendly SatNavs available but these ain't cheap, and
as I already had mine... So, I did some research and came up with
a firm called Telferizer. A chap called Bob runs the show and is
one of the most helpful guys I have had the pleasure of dealing
with for many a year. On his website he shows many variations of
the Ram mounts he can produce but, alas, there wasn't one there
for my bike. I mailed him and advised the situation, he got back
to me very promptly and followed this up with a phone call. I sent
him some pictures of the cockpit area of the Blade and he came up
with a solution that seems to fit the bill nicely.
It's based on the concept of ball fixings and a suitable clamping
arrangement so that there is lots of adjustment of position available
but a firm fixing once the clamp is tightened. The main idea for
sports bikes seems to be to replace the top yoke centre nut with
a modded one incorporating the so called 'Ram' ball head. This then
allows a very neat direct fixing for the SatNav carrier plate.
But the current Blades have their electronic steering damper covering
the top nut so a bit of imagination is called for.
The
mount uses one of the existing 5mm threaded holes in the top yoke
that the small front cover of the HESD damper unit attaches to;
it is situated just below and left or right of the ignition switch
on RR4 to RR7 Blades. The mounting setup can also work for those
like me who don't have the HESD and plastic cover in place. Having
this 'Ram' mount to screw into the hole securely gives you your
starting point. Attached to this is then a 3" arm that picks
up on a similar ball mount attached to a plastic cradle designed
for my TomTom One. This lets me have the SatNav sitting in line
with my view from the riding position at about the same eye line
as the speedo cluster, therefore far better than having it on the
tank.
I fitted it all the day I received it and it really does take no
more than 5 minutes, it is advisable to thread lock the initial
Ram mount into the top yoke as you don't want to over tighten a
steel bolt into an ally thread, for obvious reasons. I have the
GPS offset to the left of the ignition sitting just underneath the
lip of the screen. Turning from full lock left to right will tell
you if it is OK and not fouling anything, if it does touch anything,
it's easy to move about using the 3" arm.
This weekend I actually got to try it on a ride and I also got
to find out if my power cable (TomTom supplied in car charger),
was long enough from the power feed to the Nav unit (TomTom One's
only have about 2 hours of battery life), which it is. I rode for
about 70 miles with the GPS sitting it it's very secure cradle and
it was fine. It faces me more than it used to in a map pocket and
a quick glance down is all that's needed to ensure you are headed
in the right direction.
There is one thing a TomTom One doesn't have though, an ear plug
socket. But the way you can set your screen info up on the Tom Tom
is sufficient to understand what's going on; how far until the next
turn, what that turn is, a roundabout, a junction etc. and the road
you are on, so all in all, it seems like Bob has come up trumps
with this mount I now have.
All I have to do now is ensure my TomTom is waterproofed, nothing
a small plastic bag won't take care of. Who likes riding in the
rain anyway.
If you need a GPS mount for your bike, give Bob a call or drop
him a line, he's a top bloke and bloody helpful.
SatNav
and slurry
It's
a rather odd place, the northern bit of France and Belgium when
you leave Calais and head inland towards Brussels. Not wanting
to do any motorway much, but needing to get to Brussels to blag
a bed for the night and team up with a riding partner, I had
to cross this bit of Euroland rather than take the much better
route south where the roads are not at all bad.
Flanders field is very flat, covered in farms, bisected by
endless canals and irrigation ditches and pongs rather a lot
... the farmers like natural manure. Bit like glue sniffing
I guess.
The
roads, for such we must call them, range from back lane rough
through farmyard gravel to driveway pavoir. They are narrow
and mostly straight. Due to the lack of any meaningful route
a satellite navigation system of some sort is a must. I am still
using my Navman 510 with it's original maps, now at least 2
updates out of date. Not too many problems though. As any seasoned
satnav user will know, you must have a half reasonable idea
of where you're going anyway to avoid the more nonsensical instructions.
Having said that, most of the instructions you will get on
these roads seem nonsensical as you skirt canals and farms,
accompanied all the time by the gentle pong of rural Belgium.
And
for some inexplicable reason the place is full of wegomleggings.
There you are barrelling along a country road and you realise
you're passing a sequence of increasingly meaningless temporary
road signs which indicate something awful is going to happen.
Eventually you get to the steel fence, missing level crossing,
large hole in ground or huge mound of rubble - anything to prevent
you getting past. If you're lucky it's just a bunch of blokes
with a tarmac machine.
Circumnavigating some of the larger roadworks can be impossible
even on a motorcycle, so a quick reprogram of the GPS is needed
to avoid the area. If you're unlucky it just sits there for
a while and then pops up with 'no route' or some such negative
intimation of doom. If you're really unlucky it comes up with
a ludicrous detour through farmyards and over 3'0 wide canal
bridges plus the odd dead end just to keep you attentive. Yes,
'shortest route' is always a laugh, but 'quickest route' will
often go off and hunt for a bit of distant motorway. 'Course,
if you've got TomTom you can select 'avoid motorways', which
comes up with something else, presumably not motorways.
There is some small relief when one reaches the southern bit
of Belgium, Wallonia; here the detours are just as bonkers but
as we're now speaking French rather than Dutch we are faced
with Déviations, somehow more soft and friendly to a
confused tourist.
Lately
we have noticed that the roadworks are getting more challenging,
and we wonder if this is a concerted effort by the fractured
Belgian government to actually pull together on a policy and
stop us getting past their road closures. The last couple were
surrounded by metal fencing, set in concrete bases. Bearing
in mind that often the affected road is the only one for miles
around going in the direction you want, serious un-wegomlegging
may be required. This is of course where the faithful SatNav
is invaluable .. or is that unavailable?
That's the other slight problem with the portable GPS units,
the signal. A grey, leaden sky or an avenue of leafy summer
trees overhanging the road, or perhaps tall buildings in a city
centre, all of these can result in loss of signal. The first
you know of it is Madam goes very quiet on you, the confident
'at the roundabout take the second exit' is replaced by total
silence. So for a while you refuse to believe she's packed up
and carry on getting lost for a while until you stop, pull the
SatNav from under the scratched and cloudy cover of your tankbag
and have a good look at the screen. No signal, great. And it
normally happens when you need guidance most, especially in
heavy rain of course
This is where Tet's new mounting system should help - keeps
the screen easily visible.
But however much you will slag your SatNav off for being useless,
it is a million times better than a map when the roads get small
and twisty and even in the darkest, wettest times you've always
got a comforting 'please perform a U-turn when possible' to
keep your spirits up.
A
couple of the guys have been using SatNav for a few years now, either
TomTom maps in a PDA or a Navman style GPS unit, stuck in the map
pocket of a tank bag. As others in the group have been taking care
of GPS navigation on the bike trips I didn't bother to get a bike
mounted GPS, I couldn't see the need.
There
are now bike friendly SatNavs available but these ain't cheap, and
as I already had mine... So, I did some research and came up with
a firm called Telferizer. A chap called Bob runs the show and is
one of the most helpful guys I have had the pleasure of dealing
with for many a year. On his website he shows many variations of
the Ram mounts he can produce but, alas, there wasn't one there
for my bike. I mailed him and advised the situation, he got back
to me very promptly and followed this up with a phone call. I sent
him some pictures of the cockpit area of the Blade and he came up
with a solution that seems to fit the bill nicely.
The
mount uses one of the existing 5mm threaded holes in the top yoke
that the small front cover of the HESD damper unit attaches to;
it is situated just below and left or right of the ignition switch
on RR4 to RR7 Blades. The mounting setup can also work for those
like me who don't have the HESD and plastic cover in place. Having
this 'Ram' mount to screw into the hole securely gives you your
starting point. Attached to this is then a 3" arm that picks
up on a similar ball mount attached to a plastic cradle designed
for my TomTom One. This lets me have the SatNav sitting in line
with my view from the riding position at about the same eye line
as the speedo cluster, therefore far better than having it on the
tank.
It's
a rather odd place, the northern bit of France and Belgium when
you leave Calais and head inland towards Brussels. Not wanting
to do any motorway much, but needing to get to Brussels to blag
a bed for the night and team up with a riding partner, I had
to cross this bit of Euroland rather than take the much better
route south where the roads are not at all bad. 
The
roads, for such we must call them, range from back lane rough
through farmyard gravel to driveway pavoir. They are narrow
and mostly straight. Due to the lack of any meaningful route
a satellite navigation system of some sort is a must. I am still
using my Navman 510 with it's original maps, now at least 2
updates out of date. Not too many problems though. As any seasoned
satnav user will know, you must have a half reasonable idea
of where you're going anyway to avoid the more nonsensical instructions.
And
for some inexplicable reason the place is full of wegomleggings.
There you are barrelling along a country road and you realise
you're passing a sequence of increasingly meaningless temporary
road signs which indicate something awful is going to happen.
Eventually you get to the steel fence, missing level crossing,
large hole in ground or huge mound of rubble - anything to prevent
you getting past. If you're lucky it's just a bunch of blokes
with a tarmac machine.
Lately
we have noticed that the roadworks are getting more challenging,
and we wonder if this is a concerted effort by the fractured
Belgian government to actually pull together on a policy and
stop us getting past their road closures. The last couple were
surrounded by metal fencing, set in concrete bases. Bearing
in mind that often the affected road is the only one for miles
around going in the direction you want, serious un-wegomlegging
may be required. This is of course where the faithful SatNav
is invaluable .. or is that unavailable?