Uncle_Pollo
Soy Pollo. Eat me.
80 is downright chilly on perforated leathers
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Garmin vs Phone
- Thread starter DSquared
- Start date
I rode a good portion of the TAT with a guy using a phone. He wound up giving up navigating, probably due to lack of experience using the app, and had to follow close to stay on track.Garmin 680c myself.
Reasons:
Profiles (this is huge and why the new XT is nosale for me)
Best mounts
The best hardening (water, dust, impacts, etc)
Never overheats
Vultures...
I just can’t into this phone thing. When I’m alone exploring. I’m banking on a device that’s purpose built.
Not getting eaten by vultures because some damn phone os flakes.
I rode the Heart of the West (about 3500 miles of dirt) with a friend using an iPhone, it kept overheating and turning off. He would have to follow close enough to not miss turns and stay on track.
Having a Garmin for decades now, I'll stick with what I know. Plus I can pan, scroll, and make changes with my gloves on while riding which is nice. Although, as I get older and my eyesight fades, a tablet's big screen is becoming attractive.
Garmin Montana for me- nice and stupid, no cell service needed, as reliable as an axe. Maps are great compared to my previous one which was ages older. For navigating I frequently review the route in google maps to find the key landmarks and turns and particularly the day-of. Being of visual orientation I find street view is a big help. General review of areas around the chosen route also help to recover from missed turns, sometimes the ad-hoc plan B ends up more fun than plan A.
Rule# 1 Never mention "Cell service" when debating Garmin vs Phone. It's a "Trigger" subject.
lol, sure hope to keep folks off ledges.. where I like to go I tend to lose cell service anyway. Tried offline maps with android auto in the cage... they work I guess. But phone == work, and if I'm out roaming then the horrible thing is off and in my jacket pocket. Plus I find google maps on the phone so extravagantly ridiculously wrong and clumsy theres no way it would be practical. That key in-the-moment scale change on the Montana I have a fair chance with a couple quick finger pokes- try that on google maps and it will be off in the weeds doing silly crap shortly followed by me and the bike.
Dr Love
Tacos, Beer, Bikes
I’m assuming this “No phone on handlebars” thing applies to dirt riders? I’ve been using my iPhone with Waze on my handlebars for years (street only) and have never had a problem.
Punkinhead
Well-known member
I wouldn't hold Android Auto up as the gold standard for offline navigation. There are others (eg. Locus) that are much better. And I'm not sure why the issue of cell service comes up. Cell service hasn't been necessary for many, many years. It's not a factor in whether to choose a phone or a dedicated GPS.
I'm glad its not needed so much.. i was thinking of maps and waze et al needing data to ram ads down my throat and display traffic. i also like an easily replaced relatively inexpensive and so disposable gadget on the bars instead of the phone....
That don't bode well if it's your only communication and your street bike bucks you off and runs away.
Punkinhead
Well-known member
No shit. I remember that time my FZ09 threw me off in Tennessee and skipped town to Colorado. The bastard.
Actually I wouldnt mind changing from google maps on the phone for use in the cage if there a less annoying replacement; eg something that can display traffic when i want it, lock north up at all times under all circumstances and all helpful features including social media, voice integration can be turned off never to be even hinted at again. Ie, just a slightly smarter dumb gps which can do directions sometimes. +1 if it doesnt need an account...
google maps is just barely not annoying enough to push me over the edge to find something different, but maybe some here might have good candidates?
google maps is just barely not annoying enough to push me over the edge to find something different, but maybe some here might have good candidates?
That's why I never ever let my bikes read ride reports, or let friends recover and "store" my bikes.
Punkinhead
Well-known member
The whole experience almost put me off Yamahas for life. The nearest approximation of civilization was a strip joint in a double wide down the holler. So now I was not only phoneless, but broke.
Dr Love
Tacos, Beer, Bikes
LOL, I feel like you’ve been watching too many cowboy movies.
Hey, at least I didn't bring up the strip joint in the double wide... I'm searching for that movie now.
Norton AV keeps popping up warnings.
flamingm0e
Give me all your eggs and bacon
Have a look at OsmAnd+
Nice app and adding traffic looks reasonable if clumsy, but no street address search. it will find roads and towns, presumably other mapped features. So its almost a replacement, sure looks and acts better than google maps though.
Last edited:
flamingm0e
Give me all your eggs and bacon
Yeah. The address search is a problem.
This is the workaround for me.
Address to GPS - Apps on Google Play
AddressToGPS II - conversion address to GPS coordinates (Address to GPS)
You type in what you want and it will open the location in any app you select and then you can use that app to navigate there.
Nener
Well-known member
Yeah. The address search is a problem.
This is the workaround for me.
Address to GPS - Apps on Google Play
AddressToGPS II - conversion address to GPS coordinates (Address to GPS)play.google.com
You type in what you want and it will open the location in any app you select and then you can use that app to navigate there.
It says it's based on Bing search. I mean why not, but if you have to use some connectivity to do the search, then you can do it straight from google maps (search in google maps then share and choose your navigation app)
Or if using locus, search directly in the app, selecting Bing (or Google), available by default.
If out of nowhere without connectivty, the PSM offline POI database can help, although not as complete and uptodate as the devil google search..