Fifty Plus (50+) - You can put your car GPS on your bike

Whoulda thunk?

I was reading some posts in Touring and found this...

http://www.ram-mount.com/Products/BicycleMounts/tabid/3303/Default.aspx

and then I ordered a bicycle mount for my TomTom.
If you don't tour, this may not be of interest. But we do, and
the Edge 800 is just too expensive, IMHO.

So I'll trade a few extra ounces and save several hundred.

Let ya know if it actually works.

Whoulda thunk?

I was reading some posts in Touring and found this...

http://www.ram-mount.com/Products/BicycleMounts/tabid/3303/Default.aspx

and then I ordered a bicycle mount for my TomTom.
If you don't tour, this may not be of interest. But we do, and
the Edge 800 is just too expensive, IMHO.

So I'll trade a few extra ounces and save several hundred.

Let ya know if it actually works.
The problem will be battery capacity if mine is anything to go by. I get about a half hour on the internal battery if the external power source is lost.
(Garmin Nuvi 465T)

My last GPS (TomTom One XL) had a very short battery life. My new GPS (Garmin nuvi something) also has a very short battery life. That's why GPS units that are made to be used in vehicles come with a charger.
Maybe you can get a solar charger for yours and hope for sunny rides.

I agree with the battery capacity being an issue. I have bike mount for my Garmin that I purchased on Ebay more out of interest than anything else. If I leave the unit on it takes about 2 hours max to go from fully charged to no charge. I rarely have a ride that is less than 2 hours -- making the mount less than useful. I still take the GPS on rides but use it more as a backup to a paper map.

I have a Garmin 478 that I use in the truck, AND on the boat AND bike! Battery lasts for about 12 hours. I have a ram mount for the boat/bike. It is a lot bigger than the micro thin units, but it meets ALL my needs. I use it primarilly on the tandem, as we can cover a lot of miles in a day and usually meander a bit. It gives us the capability of finding campgrounds, resturants, bike shops, etc at the touch of a button. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Best regards
Bob

Hey, get this; you can use a cycling gps in a car! I did it on a EU trip.

Depends on what you want it for. With a bike GPS you can download published rides and follow them. You can also record and upload your ride track, time/speed/distance/elevation/heart rate/cadence, etc.. Bike GPS's also have training features for keeping track of training zones, doing intervals, tracking laps, etc..

If you just want to know where you are, a smartphone usual does the trick if you're in an area with data coverage.

I've been using a car-oriented GPS both for navigation on tours and also for recording my ride tracklogs incl. the elevation profile, comparing speeds vs. previous rides, etc. Works fine for that and also replaces the normal cycle computer functions such as speed, odo, time, max./ave. speeds.
Here's an example from my ride earlier today:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1116682
The slide show comes up as the default but you can switch to a display of the elevation and speed profiles by clicking the jagged-line button on the lower right corner of the map display.

As mentioned, with many car GPS units battery life can be an issue. Many will run on USB power and all can use 12VDC so one approach is to get a secondary battery supply that puts out the appropriate voltage for the GPS you have. Another limitation is that most car units are not waterproof. So be prepared to cover the device in a plastic bag if you encounter a rain shower.

Build yourself a large capacity battery pac for the unit. Check out the RC (remote control) model sites for batteries and various components. Check out the voltage and ampere requirements to match your needs to components.

just turn it on when you need it

I have a Delorme PN-20 handheld GPS and a handlebar mount for my bike. The latest Delorme is the PN-60 and comes with a topo program and street maps for the whole country. I subscribe to their site for $30 per year and you can download any of USGS quad maps or color aerial photos to your computer. You can then download this maps/photos to the handheld for the area needed. Of course the screen is pretty small.

Two words: smart phone.

Two words: smart phone.

+1 Youngest son is working at a store that sells the latest in smart phones. I now own a Droid smart phone (mini computer is a more accurate description) and it does things I find hard to believe. It even has a built in GPS that gives me a choice between car/bicycle/hiking in terms of suggesting routes. I understand there is also an app that will work with my heart rate monitor chest band.

+1 Youngest son is working at a store that sells the latest in smart phones. I now own a Droid smart phone (mini computer is a more accurate description) and it does things I find hard to believe. It even has a built in GPS that gives me a choice between car/bicycle/hiking in terms of suggesting routes. I understand there is also an app that will work with my heart rate monitor chest band.

Two things about the Droid as far as navigation. The battery drains pretty fast with the GPS on and you will have no maps if you don't have a cell signal.

Two things about the Droid as far as navigation. The battery drains pretty fast with the GPS on and you will have no maps if you don't have a cell signal.

I tend to ride in places where I almost always (90+%) have a cell signal. Generally, the use is for when I go exploring and need to get back to some familiar roads. So, it's not on all the time.

And then there's that $30 per month per phone data plan with Verizon so that you can fully use your too big to fit well in a pocket smartphone. Not for me, at least not yet. I've quit saying "never" as two of the three bikes in my sig prove that things can change.

My best friend recently aquired a free iPhone 3gs from a friend at work that just upgraded to the iPhone 4. He bought some cheap $3 app that works virtually the same as my dads Garmin GPSMAP 60C and then jail-broke it just to turn of its cellular receiver to give it better battery life. The iPhone has a built in GPS so it doesn't have to have cellular signal to triangulate your location. He's used it every time we've ridden since and it has worked flawlessly for tracking our trip and calculating out speeds and distances and will be great when we go down to KY Land Between the Lakes to do the Canal Loop Trail. He hasn't got a bike mount for it yet though (but they do make them just for the 3gs and 4).

And then there's that $30 per month per phone data plan with Verizon so that you can fully use your too big to fit well in a pocket smartphone. Not for me, at least not yet. I've quit saying "never" as two of the three bikes in my sig prove that things can change.

:lol::lol: I hear you. I felt the same way until work and my son's new job merged to create a new learning curve that I needed to deal with.

Interesting topic. I have a Nuvi (don't know the model number) and just recently I noticed that somewhere in the settings you can set it for walking and/or bicycling. Can't really remember which, but I would think that anything you can do in a bicycling or walking mode you could do in the other.

But I haven't checked out the battery life. I'm going to check that out. Around where I live there's absolutely no need for a GPS other than to track rides for fun, but I often rent bikes and/or wander about while traveling and having the GPS might be handy or at least fun.

I've been using a car-oriented GPS both for navigation on tours and also for recording my ride tracklogs incl. the elevation profile, comparing speeds vs. previous rides, etc. Works fine for that and also replaces the normal cycle computer functions such as speed, odo, time, max./ave. speeds.
Here's an example from my ride earlier today:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1116682
The slide show comes up as the default but you can switch to a display of the elevation and speed profiles by clicking the jagged-line button on the lower right corner of the map display.

As mentioned, with many car GPS units battery life can be an issue. Many will run on USB power and all can use 12VDC so one approach is to get a secondary battery supply that puts out the appropriate voltage for the GPS you have. Another limitation is that most car units are not waterproof. So be prepared to cover the device in a plastic bag if you encounter a rain shower.

Okay so this is off the subject. But I liked checking out your link. Your route circled around where we used to live in Dublin. We had a home on Crossridge Rd 13+ years ago. Its great to be able to go back and check out an overhead of an old neighborhood.

The Garmin eTrex Vista HCx gets pretty good reviews for ruggedness and long AAA battery life over at http://crazyguyonabike.com .

I've used it on tour to get unlost and to find points of intrest like motels, campgrounds, and restaurants, or other special places I've loaded. Routing with mapsource is ok for daily (under 60 mi) distances. I generally prefer routes selected by the road routing option rather than the bicycle routing option.