Got a GPS on your F800GS Let's See it

[EdOriginal]

Never a good idea.

Very tired after a 700 mile ride in the rain...dismounted a heavy bike,
lost my balance on wet dirt and managed to land on my chest and crack my "sternum" with a cell phone in my top left coat pocket.

The bone that protects the heart....could not breath well for 2 months, $3,000 in medical bills (chest xrays, drugs, etc) and very painful to sleep. There is nothing that can be done for a cracked sternum.

I never carry cell or gps in my front pockets anymore.

[bigtex]

...but it looks like my simple mount idea would work as well. Nuvi 500 (waterproof), RAM mount and attachments:



and simple sheetmetal bracket to hold the base ball mount:

[The Griz]

To each his own. All I know is that I'm going to keep my SPoT close to me in the event of an off, so that I can actually use it. Not mounted to the bike that I'm going to get ejected off of!

Peace. Case closed on this for me.

[DiabloBlanco]

I agree, we certainly hijacked a thread
But that being said, I have always carried my cell phone in one of the breast pockets of my riding jacket but now, thanks for some insight Gents, I'll keep those pockets relatively empty (even though they're so tempting and convenient!)

[outpostbabu]

I've got my Nuvi 350 on the SW-Motech mount. Looks like this:



Yes I know the power adapter is ugly. I haven't had time to devise a new power cable for it. In fact, I haven't even tried the GPS on the road yet. Just installed it this weekend.

Here's what the mount looks like by itself:



I like the touratech mount too but this one looked like it would be more out of the way. The GPS sits to the right-hand side and I still have a view of the speedometer and odometer though the lower portion is slightly occluded.

[JRWooden]

I still think Sysie's got it...

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=432364

I may drill a small hole thru the side of my windscreen and use a screw instead of the suction cup ... to keep my fears of it falling off at bay, but I think that's an ideal location............

[WoodWorks]

I got tired of peering around my GPS to see the tach, so I moved it onto a RAM mount and replaced the wing nut and hex bolt with a less-easily stolen metric hex-key bolt and nylock nut. Then I mounted my Spot on a flat piece of aluminum I fabbed up to work with the old Touratech bar mount. It's velcroed onto the plate, and then wrapped in a velcro strap. It's not going anywhere. I can see everything at a glance, and the Spot is optimally situated for tracking.



David

[DolphinJohn]

Originally Posted by WoodWorks

I got tired of peering around my GPS to see the tach, so I moved it onto a RAM mount and replaced the wing nut and hex bolt with a less-easily stolen metric hex-key bolt and nylock nut. Then I mounted my Spot on a flat piece of aluminum I fabbed up to work with the old Touratech bar mount. It's velcroed onto the plate, and then wrapped in a velcro strap. It's not going anywhere. I can see everything at a glance, and the Spot is optimally situated for tracking.



David

Why did you mount your spot on the bike?









































hehe that was, that was a little joke (in Eric Cartman voice)

[WoodWorks]

Originally Posted by DolphinJohn

Why did you mount your spot on the bike?

I know you're just funnin', Fishman, but I did give this some thought. What swayed me was this: if I'm incapacitated enough to be unable to crawl back to the bike to activate 911, what makes me think that I'll be able to reach around to a pocket and pull the unit out and activate it? What if I suffer a spinal injury and I'm paralyzed from the neck down? What if I'm unconscious? Having the Spot in my pocket does me no good in that situation. So the tracking feature is my bottom line fallback. Even if I'm unable to move, my wife will be able to find out where the last tracking signal came from. And if she doesn't get the end-of-the-day OK signal, she'll at least have a starting point to send out the cavalry. Without tracking, I could be anywhere. So that's the priority. I have no way of knowing whether or not I'll be able to pull the unit out of my pocket and hit 911. But if the tracking is good, there's at least a chance that I'll be found.

Eventually.

David

[chadams]

Garmin nuvi, it is not water proof, but a 2c zip lock bag will take care of that. I'm using the standard cage mount stuck to the side of my screen. The velco strap is to stop it bouning off. For $210 AUD for sat nav and power socket (directly to battery) I'm pretty happy.

[lawe]

Originally Posted by DiabloBlanco

That said, I plan on getting a spot for my big upcoming trip with it's main reason/use to be so that girlfriend/friends/fam back home can track my progress, and since the chip in it isn't high sensitivity, it needs to be mounted somewhere on the bike (or taped to the top of my helmet? Not happening).

Don't forget to take a look at gpsed.com. I use it with the little GPS unit that came along with my SE p1i cell phone. Works great. I have mounted the small GPS unit (http://dailymobile.files.wordpress.c...9/bild-881.jpg) on the bike, so all I need to do is to start the tracking application on my phone when I take off. gpsed.com works with a lot of different cell phones. And it's free!

[Lindeberg]

Okey, here is my setup. RAM-mount together with Touratech.

[Lost Rider]

I have taken a different approach... mounting the GPS to the quick release tank box I made.

Garmin Nuvi 5000 in a Aqua Box:
















An aluminum plate I bend and drilled out holds the Aqua Box then covered with black gaffers tape.









Garmin Colorado 400t:









Garmin StreetPilot 2820 w/XM:

















I've rotated through the StreetPilot, Nuvi, and Colorado and only the StreetPilot really gave me the options and control I need for my adventures... The Nuvi was the worst, gave me the most trouble, and the Colorado was OK, again just not flexible enough.
Tired of screwing around with consumer GPS's a Garmin GPSMAP 478 is getting installed this week using the marine mount on my tank box. Pics to follow.



Here's the version 2 tank box DIY thread:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=402092


Version 1 tank box thread with more quick release mount info:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255186

[Baldy]

I moved most of the brain splatter to head explody to try and save this thread.

[shleppy]

Here's my Garmin Zumo 450 mounted to the bars using the standard mount kit that comes with the zumo.. It ends up in the perfect spot. The zumo peaks up over my tank bank when installed, but doesn't obscure the intrument panel.