TomTom sent an email I couldn't pass up. Seems they were offering a
pretty big discount to previous TomTom owners, and offered the Rider 550
for $240 bucks. Got it updating now, and so far I like it. I think it will do exactly what I want as far as being able to plan awesome routes,
and can easily do it on it's own if you're just out and about without
having to worry about reading old school directions. I'm pretty pleased
to have it.
Drinks on me!
On 12/11/2022 5:12 PM, sticks wrote:
TomTom sent an email I couldn't pass up. Seems they were offering a
pretty big discount to previous TomTom owners, and offered the Rider
550 for $240 bucks. Got it updating now, and so far I like it. I
think it will do exactly what I want as far as being able to plan
awesome routes, and can easily do it on it's own if you're just out
and about without having to worry about reading old school
directions. I'm pretty pleased to have it.
Drinks on me!
A shot of Jack for me, please!
I never had GPS on the bike, and just a couple years ago I got a late
model used Jeep with GPS. The Jeep was my first real experience with
GPS. Kinda like it, too. I found that the lady in the GPS begins to yell
at me if I stray from her path, and sometimes she insists that I take a certain road that I don't care to take. My fix? As I'm at home preparing
the route for the GPS, I get the longitude and latitude of a random spot
in the middle of a road that *I* want...but one that she mostly likely
will protest about...and poke that in as a way-point. She shuts up and
lets me go that way then. The long and lat system is easier than trying
to find an actual address, especially if it's out in the boondocks where
no one lives.
For MC rides I think I'll stick with plotting a route in the 'puter, and
then writing the directions on paper and taping them to the tank. I
developed a type of short-hand for directions in order to keep the piece
of paper from being as big as a road map! I type them up in Word and
print them out, trim to size and laminate it. This link is to an example
of my trip from north of Martin TN to Bryson City, NC.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WLJdifkMwgMdzkv59
New roads to take are green font and underlined. Red italicized in
brackets are details about the intersection. SS=stop sign, RT and LT
mean right turn and...you guessed it...left turn. MON = "middle of
nowhere," meaning no real landmarks to ID the intersection, "T" means a T-intersection. A red X with a number denotes the exit number on a
highway. I'll note a store or business at an intersection as a landmark,
too. There are others shortcuts, but you get the idea. Seems to work for
me.
I do most of my riding with a couple of friends...one local and one from
St. Louis. They both have GPS on their bikes, but they prefer to have me
do my thing with Google Maps and a piece of paper so they can just
follow along. When I get us lost (not *if* we get lost, but *when*) one
of them pokes a close destination in their GPS and gets us back on the
route. Getting lost is part of the trip if you ask me, and you ain't
good and lost until you are creeping down a shabby alley behind an
abandoned sewing machine factory with a handful of ne'er-do-well types eyeballing your bike and taking inventory, thinking about which of their friends could use all those MC parts.
OTOH, I live near Olathe KS, which is the World Headquarters for Garmin.
My son used to work there, and he has friends that still do. They can
get Garmin products for 20% off, and are encouraged to buy things for
their friends and family. They can only buy a certain number of items
each year, though. I might hafta see if they have a GPS unit that I
might like for the bike. I might get dragged into the 21st century yet!
I'm kinda thirsty again, so the next round is on me.
Andy
On 12/12/22 2:49 PM, Frank Xzarhadjizamtheopolous wrote:
On 12/11/2022 5:12 PM, sticks wrote:
TomTom sent an email I couldn't pass up. Seems they were offering a
pretty big discount to previous TomTom owners, and offered the Rider
550 for $240 bucks. Got it updating now, and so far I like it. I
think it will do exactly what I want as far as being able to plan
awesome routes, and can easily do it on it's own if you're just out
and about without having to worry about reading old school
directions. I'm pretty pleased to have it.
Drinks on me!
A shot of Jack for me, please!
I never had GPS on the bike, and just a couple years ago I got a late
model used Jeep with GPS. The Jeep was my first real experience with
GPS. Kinda like it, too. I found that the lady in the GPS begins to
yell at me if I stray from her path, and sometimes she insists that I
take a certain road that I don't care to take. My fix? As I'm at home
preparing the route for the GPS, I get the longitude and latitude of a
random spot in the middle of a road that *I* want...but one that she
mostly likely will protest about...and poke that in as a way-point.
She shuts up and lets me go that way then. The long and lat system is
easier than trying to find an actual address, especially if it's out
in the boondocks where no one lives.
For MC rides I think I'll stick with plotting a route in the 'puter,
and then writing the directions on paper and taping them to the tank.
I developed a type of short-hand for directions in order to keep the
piece of paper from being as big as a road map! I type them up in Word
and print them out, trim to size and laminate it. This link is to an
example of my trip from north of Martin TN to Bryson City, NC.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WLJdifkMwgMdzkv59
New roads to take are green font and underlined. Red italicized in
brackets are details about the intersection. SS=stop sign, RT and LT
mean right turn and...you guessed it...left turn. MON = "middle of
nowhere," meaning no real landmarks to ID the intersection, "T" means
a T-intersection. A red X with a number denotes the exit number on a
highway. I'll note a store or business at an intersection as a
landmark, too. There are others shortcuts, but you get the idea. Seems
to work for me.
I do most of my riding with a couple of friends...one local and one
from St. Louis. They both have GPS on their bikes, but they prefer to
have me do my thing with Google Maps and a piece of paper so they can
just follow along. When I get us lost (not *if* we get lost, but
*when*) one of them pokes a close destination in their GPS and gets us
back on the route. Getting lost is part of the trip if you ask me, and
you ain't good and lost until you are creeping down a shabby alley
behind an abandoned sewing machine factory with a handful of
ne'er-do-well types eyeballing your bike and taking inventory,
thinking about which of their friends could use all those MC parts.
OTOH, I live near Olathe KS, which is the World Headquarters for
Garmin. My son used to work there, and he has friends that still do.
They can get Garmin products for 20% off, and are encouraged to buy
things for their friends and family. They can only buy a certain
number of items each year, though. I might hafta see if they have a
GPS unit that I might like for the bike. I might get dragged into the
21st century yet!
I'm kinda thirsty again, so the next round is on me.
Andy
next round on me, sipping a short glass of kirk & sweeney 23 yr rum.
garmin has always had good stuff, check out the zumo xt motorcycle unit resists elements and has live trafic option if linked to cell
phone for data.
i've been using my cell phone with blue tooth yelling to my helmet to
let me know i missed the turn... i tell phone where i want to go
and click option to avoid highways & toll roads.
the garmin would be an upgrade, maybe santa will fork over one..
john
how about a 15 farad capacitor to the frame
as an anti theft device....
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