GPS Tips

Learning to use a GPS receiver on a motorcycle

Here are few hints that I have learned over the few years I have been using a GPS receiver.

My first receiver was a Garmin GPS III+ which I purchased in the summer of 2000 partly for marine use and partly for automotive. It was first used "seriously" for touring in May 2001. It had no auto-routing capability, the map coverage for Spain was pathetic, some areas of France were very poorly covered, the memory capacity for maps was (in retrospect) laughable and it took me more hours planning the route than executing it! However, I learned a lot. It also took Susie and I down to the Loire valley in September of that year in an undocumented trip.

The following year the receiver was the same GPS III+ but the mapping software (database) was better. A few hiccups but altogether a much less stressful event ... just as well as I had the boss on the back. It also got Daryl and I down to the Lot valley and back without any major hitches in September 2002

My second receiver was the Garmin GPS V, a present for Christmas 2002, which had first blood in May 2003. This unit has auto-routing, the memory capacity was marginally better and since it was the exactly the same in shape and size as the GPS III+ required no modifications to mountings. I soon learned about the weaknesses of auto-routing .... it is only as good as the map database you are using. What you have to remember is that by the time the map gets to your GPS receiver is is probably more than 2 years out of date and road priorities will have changed (especially in France), more roundabouts will have been built (especially in France) and more roads will have been built and the originals closed (especially in Spain).

The GPS V provided sterling service throughout 2003 and 2004. In the trip report of May 2004 I have taken the trouble to mention all the mistakes I made with GPS navigation, some attributable to human error, others due to the limitations of the device.

I found that the major limitation to the GPS V was the screen size and the 19MB memory limitation. The former made it difficult to read especially as it is is monochrome and the latter necessitated carting the laptop with me to upload new maps. Hence, in October 2004 I graduated to a GPSMAP 276C. This has voice prompting (it is plugged into my Autocom) and a huge screen which is readable even at night in torrential rain and unlimited memory capacity since it has removable memory cards.

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