Least expensive motorcycle GPS?

Can someone tell me what is the least expensive motorcycle GPS

No and btw no cell phones, blackberries, pda's or laptops.

available? I'm looking for something small with long battery
life. I saw a Garmin StreetPilot I3 Auto GPS for $200, but
it didn't say it was for a motorcycle.

look through this web site. It should give you an idea what's what.

Or here if you're in Canada...

Any hand held will do. 50 bucks?

I like the ones in the III, IV, V form factor. They also come with
handlebar mounts, and farkle-makers sell hebby-dooby mounts for bikes
that bounce around a lot in the dirt, like BMW R1200GS. Garmin GPS
receivers are easy to set up and switch between modes. The less you have
to screw around with it while riding, the better.

THIS is what you NEED:

Oh yeah sure. Mount it to the bike where you can't use it while riding. It takes
both hands! Would be nice while riding off road and you get disorientated. Where
to carry your charts though.

I think $300 for a factory-refurbished Garmin 2610 was fairly
reasonable. It doesn't use batteries, though- it only works
from an external power source. You can either use the included
cigarette lighter style cord or purchase a permanent wiring kit
at an additional cost. Feature-wise it's great, the only
complaint I have is the touch screen buttons aren't meant to
be used with gloves, unlike the dedicated motorcycle-specific
Zumo models which are more expensive but have more glitzy fun
features.

The 2610 comes with a remote!

Here's a reasonably priced one from Amazon.com:

You don't understand the fascination with GPS? It's simple -- You can
enter a destination, and the GPS will guide you there to within feet,
whether it's across town or across the country.

I know that. What I don't get is people who can't do it without technology. I
can do it with or without a GPS. It's not that hard even when in places I've
never been. What is everybody else's problem? Having an extra useful skill is a
GOOD THING. Why do people want to dumb down? I've lost all sat reception and
still got exactly where I was going. Got where I wanted to be didn't like the
sight and relocated 100m. Someone else showed up AFTER I got there commented on
the 100m offset from the original site and I pointed him up slope to where the
original site was and said "too much side slope like I suspected during the map
recon". All he said was "Wow you did that without a GPS?" Yes I did and without
a compass also...I mean it was only 20k cross country. The area was east of
Goldstone. 8^) not easy country.

Do you actually OWN a GPS?

For 10 years yes. I signed for it so I owned it. Nice little Rockwell number,
runs off of a battery or vehicle power. Very sweet set up, has all relevant map
surveys for the world including Antarctica.

I bet those map surveys don't have the address and phone number of all
the eatin' places and hotels in the next town down the road... My 376c
does. Sure is nice to be able to call ahead for reservations at the end
of a long day of travel. :)

I bet those map surveys don't come with an XM receiver. My 376c does.
Sure is nice to be able to listen to any kind of music (or talk) I want
regardless of where I go.

Yah, I can read a map and navigate using same. When I was a youngster
I'd start packing my stuff for a hike by putting the map at the bottom of
the pack. Then I'd navigate myself away from the house using "minute
hand navigation". Eventually, a few days later, I'd pull out the map,
figure out where I was, and go shortest/easiest distance home...

This was MY GPS. More properly called the PLGR. Started using it in 93-94 time
frame. Sweet little system virtually unbreakable physically and electronically.
I've never even heard of one failing, with the exception of one nimrod that
dropped a track block on it and then the case held up and the protective screen
cracked. That tweaked the display...if we'd have had the system they have now it
could have displayed on a vehicle mounted flat screen monitor. 8^) We pay allot
and get our monies worth.

But the big lesson I learned through years of use in every environment except
artic was that there is NO SUBSTITUTE for knowing how to use a map a compass and
a protractor. Knowing how to plot a route either on road or off and writing down
when to turn, what direction, how far between turns, whether there are route
obstacles to worry about.
Yes I take land navigation seriously. It is the difference between lost and
going places. I just have a proclivity for re-revising a route because I feel
like it.

So like I said at the top. I have and I don't now and most likely will never
have another. It was a nice tool and crutch. I don't need it anymore and a lot
less than I used to.

If that antique is what you're used to no wonder you don't like GPS.

I keep trying to get lost. But I like reading maps so I can pretty much
find my way anywhere in the U.S.

I never get lost everyone tells me where to go. When that isn't working I write
myself directions...the hard part is reading my writing at 80mph and keeping an
eye on the road.

I'd rather have heated grips.

What are those? I use bar end covers made for ATV's. I figure that way one more
punk has cold hands.

Plus I'm a Luddite.

You're use of a computer would belie that comment. I'd rather be called
"Technology discerning" 8^) I get what I want and not what everyone says I need.

Hallelujah. I cowtowed to popular opinion once and bought a Valentine
One radar detector. I haven't had a speeding ticket since, but one of
these days I might take it out of the garage and put it on the bike.

Send it to me. I'm 4 for 5 in accumulating tickets in countries I
visit.

But it's doing such a good job of warding off _my_ tickets.

The problem with GPSs is they tell you where you think you want to go.
They have a hard time telling you where you didn't know you wanted to
go. Big pictures are hard to show on tiny screens. Maps allow you to
scan for opportunities. "hmmm. I wonder where that squiggly little
road goes?"

Also, Reeky is rampant with stories of faulty GPS info. The mechanical
voice telling you to go the wrong way on a one-way road, hotels that
aren't there, not knowing about hotels that are miles closer than what
they want to send you to, etc, etc.

Yep. I was surprised by how many errors my GPS made on the Moab trip.
In Evanston WY, it said the Voyager motel was about 1/2 mile away from
where it really was. The laundromat it directed us to, was across the
road from the GPS's idea of where it should be. US 60 from Worthington
MN to Sioux City IA was a couple miles away at times, but that was a
simple case of the new road being at a different location from the old
road. There were other mistakes and getting the GPS to provide routes
that matched my riding preference was tricky at times.

None of which are the fault of the GPS, rather the fault of the
database vendor. Most likely NAVTEQ...

To become part of the solution (provide feedback) go here:

I've meade several database feedback's and many of them have been
incorporated into the next revision...

However-- with all its faults, the GPS is a fantastically useful tool.
It's just a good idea not to rely on it overmuch, but as an adjunct to
other tools, it's well worth the price and bother of fitting one to a
bike.

Some of the lesser features have proven to be the most valuable to me.
Having time and distance info available while on the road is cool.
Being able to see that big black cloud in the north west sky and after
scanning the gps map knowing the road will bend to the east around the
thunder cell is comforting. Knowing the gps is locked into your
ultimate destination allows me to take that little squiggly line on
the map confident the gps will recalculate my route back to the

Ah, but the best travelling doesn't have an ultimate destination.

But sometimes, such as Moab, we do have a destination.

Nothing better than taking off with a simple plan of, say...clockwise
around California. You get up to Norcal and late at night in a motel,
you throw the AAA Northern California Section map on the bed. There

We have similar choices for really cool loops through the Rockies and
into the interior of BC. Lots of choices allow us to explore the area
and rarely have to take the same route twice. You're bang on when you
say the simple plan is often the best.

are the old standbys of 299 and 36 that go between 5 and the coast,
but then you see all these little side roads that must be a gas. You
could spend a few days just wandering around. Sure, a GPS will get you

A few days? I've been doing that ever since I learned to ride a
bicycle. That's been a few years now (I can still vividly recall my
first collision with a car. That was more than 50 years ago).

Like a 100hp Walkabout on two wheels.

back to _somewhere_, but who cares where that somewhere is? Just
looking at the map gives me wanderlust. I mean, the Cecilville Road

Oh yeah. I look at a map and think: "Gee, I could be there in a couple
of hours. Maybe next weekend."

along the South Fork of the Salmon River in the Trinity Alps? China
Grade to Happy Camp? You can take Rattlesnake Road out of Peanut and
get to Wild Mad Road. (I think I know where I'm taking my next
vacation.)

We have the Going to the Sun, Highwood Pass, Shelter Bay Ferry, The
Columbia Icefields and anywhere you care to ride on Highway 3 or 3a.

You know almost everywhere I ride at one time or another I find myself
thinking this is the best ever riding road, only to be topped the next
time I get on the bike.

Maps are magic. A GPS has no soul.

On your next trip into the wilds, consider celestial navigation. I
certainly enjoy the time I've spent under dark skies...

Al Moore
DoD 734

While I can spend quality time perusing detailed road maps, my sense
is the truly spectacular riding roads we have been blessed with are
magic and how we find them is secondary.

Not only that with a map you can honestly say "gee I shoulda made that left in
albacorky" It's amazing the thing you see when you miss read. 450# heifers in
short skirts bending over revealing a...

THONG! I'm considering therapy for that trauma. It was awful, that was the
description. SWMBO saw and stole a cigarette from me...first one since 1998.
Helped her keep from throwing up.

Were you in Sioux City too?

No Helena...my poor wife. All she could say for an hour was "pppink thong" over
and over while chain smoking. She told me and well...SQIRRLLES IN MY
BRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

original destination once I am done exploring. When in a strange
location being able to call up all of the nearby restaurants so I can
choose where I want to eat adds value. Of course having a reliable
speed indicator should save me a speeding ticket or two, while
maintaining the maximum allowable speed.

I find the main use, routing, to be a pain in the ass. The available
preferences do not enable the auto routing to choose the route I want
to take and when I make a detailed route on the computer and download
it to the gps it will often change. Roads are always being upgraded
and modified making current mapping software and elusive target.

All in all I would not want to travel without one now, but I will be
keeping the paper map within arms reach too.

I hope you didn't spend too much time thinking that up.