GPS

As an aid to navigation, the GPS has to be better than the method I used in the "good old days"- that of pulling out a soggy map from under my waxed cotton Belstaffs and attempting to read it by the side of the road with the aid of my headlamp!

BTW The GPS III+ in these photos has now been replaced with a GPSMAP276C which is the ultimate (so far) for bike touring. The voice prompting can be fed into the Autocom ... more about how to do this as soon as I get time to produce the page.

If you are really keen then there are a few GPS links here.

The first Ram Mount I first used was supplied by Cycoactive. The Ram Mount is actually manufactured by NPI (http://www.ram-mount.com/) and their web site shows a whole raft of mountings and applications. Cycoactive are a US motorcycle-biased dealer/supplier and are very helpful and shipping US to UK only takes 3 days.

However, a couple of years ago I discovered GPS Warehouse, a UK supplier of the NPI Ram Mounts and various other GPS related products. Actually, the Ram Mount side of the company is now a separate entity at Ram UK.

In view of the shipping, customs and handling charges imposed in getting items from the US they are a better bet for UK based purchases. They were also extremely helpful and I received very prompt attention from them.

Ram UK continue to be of great assistance and are very knowledgeable regarding motorcycle applications (alright, Steve, will that do - can I have a discount now?).

Ram UK will also shortly be providing a 3rd party lead for Quest owners wanting to get audio output and bike power their units.

At the moment it seems to be a toss up between the Quest and the GPSMAP 276C for motorcycle use. The 276C is bigger and more expensive but does take the Blue Chart maps without limitation and is a capable combined Automotive/Marine unit in one. It also has removable memory.

The screen size on the 276C is 3.8-inch diagonal, 480 x 320 pixel, 256-color TFT screen with adjustable LED backlight.

The Quest it is 2.2"W x 1.5"H, 256-color, high resolution, transflective TFT (160 x 240 pixels) with backlighting.

The bottom line is if your near-vision eyesight is getting old and worn out and you have a use for a serious marine chart-plotter then go for the 276C otherwise the Quest will probably do all you want.

More recently I have obtained a device that will input air temperature into the GPS as an NMEA stream. The input is saved with the track log and is therefore yet another piece of information that may or may not be useful to you, See Tours/Spain 2005 for more details on this

GPS III+ or GPS V

	Garmin GPS III Plus mounted on ST - using a Ram Mount from Cycoactive (see above) A minor repositioning of the clutch lever assembly by about 2-3mm towards the bar end (left) was required to give enough space for the U-bolt (11mm nuts). The usual 800x600 view is available by clicking on the thumbnail but a 1600x 1200 view is available here. Having played about with the Garmin GPS III Plus a bit in the car, now I would recommend the top view as the preferred page on this model when riding a bike (i.e. minimum information/large figures). The map display, I feel, is too detailed to countenance its use on a m./c (i.e. you would have to take your eyes off the road for too long) but there is no reason why you can't stop/slow to a crawl (provided no traffic - usual disclaimer etc) to switch views (haven't tried this with my winter gloves yet!). The next picture shows the screen with the larger compass and has four fields available but smaller than the fields in the upper view. Again, for a large image with the alternate 'compass' view click here.

	Side view of same. Large view is here
	Now showing just the mount with the safety cord attached.
	Once the mount is removed for a quick blast up roads you know, or when parked in the supermarket car park what's left is quite unobtrusive (well almost).

	Wiring the GPS using a cigarette lighter adapter. Full description can be found here.

Etrex Vista
	The Garmin Etrex Vista mounted on Neil's bike using a Cycoactive Ram Mount.

GPSMAP 276C
	GPSMAP 276C in Touratech mount 01-065-0088-0
	Rider's view.
	Using the tank bolt and mirror base RAM-B-253, short arm RAM-B-201A and round base RAM-B-202. All supplied by Ram UK
	Side view

Quest
	Mounted using the tank bolt and mirror base RAM-B-253 and normal arm RAM-B-201 and Quest cradle RAM-HOL-GA15
	Side view