GPS

[Deleted User 287]

My phone doesn't even have a camera.
I'll bet Chuey's phone still has a cord!

[Zombie Master]

My phone doesn't even have a camera.
I'll bet Chuey's phone still has a cord!

I'll bet Chuey's navel still has a cord!

[ontic]

I use a GPS in my car, for work to find random addresses in unfamiliar territory, and as a speedo (because my BJ42's speedo is out of wack and hard to read), and for a speed camera warning device. For the last use alone it has paid for itself over.
I use the same GPS on my bike. Mostly I will just give it the destination I want and then try to find my own way there anyway, with the program constantly re-routing me.
My GPS (a cheapo ALDI one) is a waterproof motorbike unit that came with an earpiece. I've never used the earpiece. Last thing I want is that yapping at me constantly, particularly as I like to take my own routes and ignore it for lengthy periods. I just look at the screen when I want to. I also mostly use the map quite zoomed out as more of a general route planner, giving a rough idea of upcoming turns.

On my last ride over Christmas (6 weeks, about 6,000Km) I found it really really useful. On a paper map I could work out the rough way I wanted to go. Then when the paper map indicated only (boring) main roads/highways between point A and B, lets say East for 80 Km's then North for for 100Km's, I could insert destination B and choose 'shortest route' (rather than 'quickest route') and it would often come up with a new diagonal route of superb minor roads (often with dirt stretches) that the paper map did not have the detail to show, or just simply ignored. In this way on the whole trip, I managed to almost completely avoid the main freeway and highway drags and instead meandered through endless KM's of superb empty roads I would never have known about (unless I had a backpack full of heavily detailed maps, and the time and inclination to study them).

In short, I find a GPS a most excellent thing for riding and exploring. It doesn't stop you getting lost if you want to, it just helps you find your way when you are tired of being lost. One of my favourite things to do on a lazy weekend ride is just point somewhere and go. All new roads, left right whatever feels good. Keep going until I have no idea of where I am. Then at some point, I just hit the 'home' button and off we go, and I learn some new roads.
Occasionally it will lead you into some funny situations. You don't want to always rely on it, but there have been many occasions where it really has saved my ass. For one example, finishing a long day ride at night through the flooding rain and lightning trying to find an address that I NEVER would have found with a paper map, having to turn down invisible roads because of oncoming traffic lights, then down un-signposted roads, then 20Km's down long flooded dirt roads (one of them literally a goat track) and creek crossings, no signs again, etc, etc, on and on. On this night the GPS took me right to my Aunties front door, a new-to her rural property I had never been to before but had simply had the coordinates text-messaged to me. In the dark, torrential rain, in the middle of nowhere. With the GPS telling me to just keep on going, I could make it and never worry that I was getting lost. Without the GPS I would not have made it.

So take your maps, but take the GPS IMHO. Try to get someone to give you a tour of the machine and its software. Then try to use it and adapt it to your type of riding.
Gotta run,

[Zombie Master]

So take your maps, but take the GPS IMHO. Try to get someone to give you a tour of the machine and its software. Then try to use it and adapt it to your type of riding.
Gotta run,

Thanx Ontic. I'll give it a go. It was important for me to read that you don't have to listen to the machine.

[Duane Ausherman]

I too don't have the voice enabled. I just look at it when needed. It is my laptop, so I have a "laptop desk" mounted in my cars. That is impressive, as it has gotten me through security a few times. They want to know if I am police.

Me!

[Steve in Golden]

I am a GPS luddite; I have no GPS and have to rely on good old fashioned maps when in an unfamiliar place. And real men don't ask for directions either; they just figure it out.

And here we have the story of a woman and her husband from Canada who relied a bit too much on GPS. On a trip from Penticton BC to Vegas, they decided to take the scenic route. Blindly following the directions of their GPS they got stuck in the mud on a remote forest service road in Nevada, 20 miles from the nearest pavement. The woman spent seven weeks in the van and somehow survived; the husband set off on foot to get help on Mar 22, never to be seen again.

Perhaps if they had been navigating the old fashioned way, with a map, instead of blindly following the infallible GPS, they might not have gotten themselves lost like that. This is not the first time someone has gotten themselves in trouble with GPS either.

Canadian woman found in Nevada wilds says she knew end was near

[Zombie Master]

I am a GPS luddite; I have no GPS and have to rely on good old fashioned maps when in an unfamiliar place. And real men don't ask for directions either; they just figure it out.

And here we have the story of a woman and her husband from Canada who relied a bit too much on GPS. On a trip from Penticton BC to Vegas, they decided to take the scenic route. Blindly following the directions of their GPS they got stuck in the mud on a remote forest service road in Nevada, 20 miles from the nearest pavement. The woman spent seven weeks in the van and somehow survived; the husband set off on foot to get help on Mar 22, never to be seen again.

Perhaps if they had been navigating the old fashioned way, with a map, instead of blindly following the infallible GPS, they might not have gotten themselves lost like that. This is not the first time someone has gotten themselves in trouble with GPS either.

Canadian woman found in Nevada wilds says she knew end was near

I really can't understand why anybody would want to go to Los Vegas. It really sucks.IMO

[Steve in Golden]

I really can't understand why anybody would want to go to Los Vegas. It really sucks.IMO

I agree, Vegas is a hellhole and about the last place on Earth I'd go for vacation. Well, on second thought, I'd rather go to Vegas than a whole lotta other places on the planet. Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, or any number of other horrid Muslim countries, comes to mind.

[Deleted User 287]

I really can't understand why anybody would want to go to Los Vegas. It really sucks.IMO

I agree, Vegas is a hellhole and about the last place on Earth I'd go for vacation. Well, on second thought, I'd rather go to Vegas than a whole lotta other places on the planet. Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, or any number of other horrid Muslim countries, comes to mind.

The Star Trek Experience was neat. So was the M&M store.
Pretty little Russian girl selling breaths of flavored oxygen.

But I don't ride crazy roller coasters, and a casino is the easiest place to keep my money in my pocket!

[bbelk]

I am a GPS luddite; I have no GPS and have to rely on good old fashioned maps when in an unfamiliar place. [/url]

Here is a thought for you. They used to issue trig tables, log tables, interal tables, and slide rules to every freshman engineer. Try and find one of those today. They have not been printed or manufactured in years.

With every mom and pop using a GPS these days (its so simple even an Airhead can do it) - how long do you think it will be profitible to print road maps and sell them at the 7-11. The maps that are available now are not as good as the ones you could once get for a dollar and I suspect they are not up to date.

I get new maps on my GPS two or three times a year and they still don't keep up with road building in Texas. On the same GPS, I have the BlueChart marine maps for the Texas Gulf coast where I fish often and I just bought the Florida Gulf coast charts for a trip I have coming up in June. It wasn't cheap, but it was WAY cheaper than a set of maps that would be as comprehensive.

Just saying