Smart Phone vs. BMW Navigator II ?

[GoldenK9]

:clap:On my '05 R1200RT with the BMW Navigator II GPS, I found out

that Garmin no longer supports this model. In other words, my $1200 plus installation toy is no good, or, at least, cannot be updated.

So, I spend another $800 or so, plus installation, for the BMW

Navigator IV (a Garmin Nuvi) and how long will it be good for?

But wait! Why not use the super great GPS on my Verizon Samsung 4G

LTE Smart Phone? I used it in a rental car a couple of weeks ago in

Texas at the USGP F1 races, and I was blown away by the quality of

detail. Actual pictures of where I was and what I was looking at.

Up to date and accurate. Not a map or drawing, real pictures like I

was flying over my route in a chopper. Anyone have any experience hardwiring and mounting their Smart Phone on their '05 or newer R1200RT? or GS, or GT, or whatever? I like to get some thoughts on this.

 

[Effjay]

Maybe its just me but I don't get navigating "on the fly" on a rolling moto from an expensive smartphone. Yes those new Samsung units are cool as a recent demo by a friend showed but my suggestion on a budget would be to buy a newer used StreetPilot 2720 or 2730 unit which I think will interface with your existing BMW GPS cradle. The SP2720/2730/2820 are also discontinued but utilize newer mapping protocol which can still be updated (1-time or lifetime). If you find one used which has never been registered, Garmin will allow a free 1-time map update online when you do register the old unit!

[Heyfrank]

Google smartphone motorcycle mounts. Incredible amount of choice.

[Burt]

Will the phone withstand the vibration of being mounted on a bike, or moisture if it rains?

[lkraus]

A smartphone as a motorcycle GPS is doable, but has limitations.

 

The usual free GPS apps provided with a smartphone have a major drawback - you lose guidance when you ride out of cellular service. Also, those satellite views of your route can take big bites out of your data allotment. I bought an app called CoPilot Live Premium which stores its maps on the phone. Usually costs about $30, but the Play store had it on sale for $10. It works pretty well, provides lane and voice guidance. I can load routes into it, but this is not straightforward, usually requiring some fine tuning and conversions. It offers routing based on transportation method (car, cycle, bike, etc) but does not let you avoid gravel roads. This has been an issue several times when I ended up on what I think were fire roads.

 

My bike came with a RAM mount that replaces one of the handlebar bolts. The mount squeezes the phone on the sides and has a stop on one end. It holds better than I expected, but the phone shook loose once(one of those fire roads)and was saved by the power cord.

 

A homemade cigarette lighter adapter plugs into the BMW accessory outlet via a cord and plug borrowed from my Optimate battery charger. The lighter adapter and my auto lighter-to-USB adapter are in my tank bag, with the cords all exiting the left front zipper. I need to keep an eye on the charging status because the connection at the lighter socket tends to vibrate loose.

 

 

Glare on the screen can make it unreadable, but the mount can be adjusted stiff enough to hold position but loose enough to allow angle changes.

 

It would be nice to have a lockable mount so that I do not need to disconnect and remove the phone every time I park the bike.

 

The voice navigation is inaudible above about 30 mph. A Bluetooth headset would be nice(Santa are you listening?)

 

The touchscreen on my Galaxy S2 does not work with gloves. I prefer to pull off the road to change settings anyway, but taking off a glove each time is a real nuisance. I keep a cheap stylus tethered to the mount with a few inches of string.

 

So far, I've just put the whole thing in my tank bag in occasional rain showers. I do carry a plastic bag to cover it if I feel GPS is essential in rain.

 

So, it does work. I tried it because I found I had most of the components on hand and I like playing with the cool gadgets on my phone. If I have time to plan, I prefer navigating from a simple list of route numbers kept in the map window of my tank bag. This lets me spend more thought on the ride rather than on the gadgets.

 

[JR356]

Why not still use the Nav 2?

I still have one and its maps are still good for 99 percent of my travels.

I'm in CA too and travel all over the west.

 

If you want to update,there are plenty of minimally used Zumo 450/550 here and on ADVrider and other BMW sites for $350-500

and their mapping is still supported by Garmin.

 

JR356

[richs]

A few comments about your observations:

 

I have Sprint and have no data allotment. This is not an issue for some folks.

 

I used my Samsung S2 while traveling in Oregon and Montana this summer by car. I noticed that if I mapped my route while in cell service that it would download everything it needed. This did not work if I tried to map my route outside of cell service.

 

Another issue is that it would frequently lose gps signal for a brief amount of time and then get it back a short time later. I never could figure out what was going on with that.

 

Finally, on more than one occasion, the gps app would just hang in certain places. I would be traveling along with the gps updating the route like it should and at some point it would just stop updating. After having this happen several times I tried resetting the app and it still was hung in the same spot. I still do not know why.

 

I should note I was using the sprint supplied app telenav.

 

Other than the above issues, it worked well and got me to where I wanted to go on many occasions.

[Camhead in STL]

I used it in a rental car a couple of weeks ago in Texas at the USGP F1 races, and I was blown away by the quality of detail.

I did that one better for the same race... rode the RT down from St. Louis using my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" tablet running Google Maps... it's mounted on a RAM Tab-Tite RAM Tab-Tite using the Migsel Mount it was AWESOME.

[Gaston]

Camhead, What app did you use with your Nexus 7?

[Gaston]

Whoops, I meant to say Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" tablet...

[PCHRT]

The new google maps is pretty good so far from my experience but I'm still trying to figure out how to select it to be a route up display (i think that's the term on from the Garmin).

 

There are lots of apps to choose from out there that are free or cheap. Garmin is even offering an app for your iPhone for around $45. Telenav's free version won't voice prompt you, you have to pay extra for that. I've been using the new release of GoogleMaps for iPhone, free and give voice guidance. And there are others.

 

Biggest disadvantage I can see is weatherproof. In Cali it doesn't rain as much as it does up here so maybe not as big of an issue. I have a AquaBox for my iPhone to keep the water out but the problem with it and I would imaging any other smart phone is the amount of heat it generates and when the iPhone gets hot it shuts down to protect it's self from damage. I would wonder even in the hot south uncovered and open if this would also be an issue.

 

Also as someone mentioned above working the smart phone with riding gloves on doesn't work, at least on my iPhone. But that will also prompt you to pull over if you need to change your route or anything else which is MUCH safer than when you try to add a new destination while under way on your existing GPS. Don't ask...

[Camhead in STL]

It's actually not a Nexus..., but I used Google Maps (and tethered to my MiFi for data).

 

I also use Route-66 and the fully-downloaded maps (but it sometimes wigs out in "calculating"... they may have fixed that).

[GoldenK9]

Thank you all for some really good thoughts and first hand knowledge of my particular situation. I have since upgraded my smart phone to an HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE from my previous Samsung. Hey, it was free, what can I say?

I just use the Verizon Standalone GPS by Google (Google Maps), not

the Verizon Navigator which costs me more on my plan. I have a couple of Saeng mounts that I use for my Valentine 1 and my XM MP3

Radio, that work very well. I'll have to check into the RAM Mounts and others. I went to our new Dick's Sporting Goods and got some waterproof (clear) storage bags that I can slip over all 3 of my out in the open goodies for rain protection (if needed). They can be vented for cooling and not lose the water proofing ability. I've often wondered about the heat factor myself. Our 100+ temps for the past month or so could create a problem I suppose, but I haven't been riding much anyway. The basics on the HTC can be done with gloves on, but I prefer stopping to make any adjustments or calls, etc. It's much safer. All of my electronic toys route through my Baehr Ultima XL communication system to my helmet speakers, so no problem there.

Thank you ALL again. Much Appreciated!