garmin street pilot

what do you gps-owning folks think of this deal?

http://www.gpsw.co.u...s/prod3167.html

I know its an outdated model, but surely it will do the job ?

Edited by big dave, 23 May 2006 - 09:00 pm.

Its a good one Dave, I looked at that model before Igot the Quest. It depends what you want it for - the Quest covers a bigger area cos its gor twice the memory.........are there no deals on the Quest 1 around??

Hi Dave
They are refurb units as Dandy says they are good ones come with 128 meg memory so will only do regions of countrys by uploading from map CD supplied (Mapsource CN7) I have 2 pals who got them and are delighted with the deal they got as for me I am sticking to the Quest 2.
The Garmin Memory is expensive but if you look on ebay you can get 256 meg for about £40

thats exactly what I have on mine - but i paid nearly 800 quid for it...

can use the buttons with close fitting gloves.

screen nice and bright

speaker plugs into 2.5mm jack - so can convert a headphone to plug in easily.

waterproof

tough

slow compute / recalculate times

HTH

Anyone else have any thoughts on this item? I'm quite interested in it too. I know I was the one who said 'What's wrong with a good old map', but at that price I aint gonna argue (also I got my quartly bonus this month so I have a few extra quid to splash out on the bikes. The wat I look at it is it wasn't my money to begin with )

i bought the "quest" now theyve updated it surely there must be some good deals on them

i have had the same streetpilot 3 for about 2 years, and it really is a great bit of kit! used it to help me ride round the coast of Britain, used it in France, in the car on the bike etc. this was THEE sat-nav to own a couple of years ago and it is still a good one! the SP3 uses a pc based map and a base map on the device so you can pre program route information on the pc and upload and download yours/other peoples, or routes you have planned on the pc.
it has built in "quick find" button for nearest hotel or petrol station from wherever you are. a bigger memory stick is available with double the capacity of the standard one (ebay) as are loads of different cables and mounts etc. the software is updateable too so you can apply for the latest version (version 8) from Garmin for a fee, some of the newer cheaper satnavs cannot be updated
Garmin is the manufacture that BMW use for all their BMW badged sat-navs so they cant be bad eh, they used to sell this one for near £900
it has a big screen so its easy to glance at a junction layout on the move, easy search buttons, its waterproof, voice commands are clear etc.
on the downside
its quite big and heavy, it eats batteries so you must use rechargeables BUT you have to remove the batteries to charge em up, but its fine off the vehicles 12v. its refresh rate is fine most of the time but every so often it "isnt"

for £149 its a bargain.

i love my sat-nav........... i would be lost without it

dbninja

i see you didnt get the humor upgrade for it ...

;-) j/k


one of the hypermarts is selling TomTom Rider at bargain price... €599
thing that is keeping me from buying (straightaway) is
> have read here that cant use the puter to program routes
> doesnt keep track of your completed routes

ild want to see the software, see if it can store premade routes

Well I just bit the bullet and ordered one.

Hope it's delivered before my Euro tour.

As I said to my wife "it was a bargain love"

Ah, so that's why I couldn't reply a minute ago - someone has moved the thread!

Can you put in post codes with this unit?

I would like to get a Sat Nav but it needs to be easy for the good lady to use in her car, so needs to have post codes or street names while out and about without having to take a PC along too!!

Great price though

Oops, me too... the voices made me do it...

YES you can enter postal and postcode searches on the device and it will calculate a route to it. it will find on partial address information too. also enter road junctions/intersections or waypoints.you dont need to carry a PC with you. really handy when collecting ebay stuff
you can select fastest route or scenic route, put it in truck mode for hgv drivers then it plots a route avoiding low bridges and weight restrictions. opt to avoid toll roads.
you can just press the "home" button and it will plot a route home from wherever you are etc etc. if you find a place you would like to visit again you can save the place to your sat-nav as a waypoint so next time you want to go there it will calculate a route to it from wherever you happen to be.

s'good innit

dbninja
no i dont work for Garmin before anyone suggests it

no you cant go JUST by postcode.

It also has - imho - a major failing (over the one in my car):-

enter "bloggs street"

enter "Glasgow"

enter "number 17"

it will say no such thing found. yet blogg street exists, not bloggS street.

Similar with numbers - but it can find them - but has a %age match option. (ie no 18 bloggs street is a 90% match - 17 bloggs avenue is a 60% match - yet it still wont find blogg street ....)

Guy

I wonder ????, is the difference in functionality between db and guy due to the version of the software being used.

Don't know - but I have a Quest1 and it's loaded with the "latest" software 3.90 but it doesn't do postcode searches.

The PC software that comes with the Quest does - or at least partial postcode search but it's still pretty poor.

Great apart from that mind you.

Just visited : http://www.garmin.co...ct=010-00232-10

The StreetPilotIII manual says postcode searches are "optional" so that sounds promising, BD!

Edited by gazman, 27 May 2006 - 10:34 am.

here are some photos of the mounting arrangement for the StreetPilot III on my TDM850

first i made a simple bracket out of a spare handlebar clamp and a length of 8mm screwed rod




dbninja

then attached the touratech mount to it, looks nice i think

 mount3.JPG   64.98KB   122 downloads

Hi guys...bought one myself, good bit of kit..very rugged and the mount is top quality..heres the view of my mate whose a garmin veteren:

Dave (also copied Ltd Bike as it may be of interest/value)



Blimey - that’s a great deal. Jonathan’s right that it’s not the latest kit but IMHO it’s good enough.



If you go for it, the things you will likely come to regret in time are:



1) Proprietary datacard format. 128Mb is big enough for most of UK but if you ever want to travel abroad you’ll have to bring your laptop along to upload the maps (not a big deal really, I have 256 Mb card in mine and I could fit all of UK plus NL, BE and some of FR). The datacards are expensive in contrast to SD/CF cards but to be honest I doubt you’ll ever need more than the 128Mb.

2) No postcode search. On these units Garmin has this weird way of searching for addresses which to be frank, sucks big time. It often means you are better off finding the location on the supplied PC software (MapSource) and then uploading the waypoint to the device which can be a PIA.

3) Your wife/SO will probably bitch about it not being easy like her mate’s TOMTOM, Garmin products are typically designed for people who care to understand Navigation (no derogatory implications meant) if you just want to switch it on and say “take me here” then there might be friendlier devices that will be better for you. Conversely if you’re a sad gimp like me, you’ll love all of the extra data fields you can access and multiple displays etc (e.g. voltage, distance to next, trip computer etc etc).



The reasons why you’ll be glad you went for it will likely be:



1) Rugged design. Like all most of the earlier Garmin stuff (and unlike Garmin’s new car focused devices –i3, nuvo etc) these units are designed to US military grade. They are waterproof enough (i.e. can withstand being crossbar mounted in the rain and vibration “tolerant”. I’ve yet to find another device (GPS or otherwise) that can take the abuse as well. (I took my first Garmin unit on my GSPD on a 300 mile off-road trek across Labrador in North East Canada – it survived without a scratch – I didn’t…)

2) Price – 150 quid for all this? Blimey, if you wanted this with the current units, you’d be looking around at least 500 quid

3) Portability – this thing will be great on your bike and you can also very easily bung it in your car using the beanbag – the beanbag also means you can make the GPS completely disappear rather than leaving a cradle or suction “ring” as evidence that there’s something worth breaking into the car for.

4) Garmin support – even though this is a way old unit, you can still get maps, drivers and firmware for the device from Garmin. You’ll also find that it was a pretty popular unit so there’s a reasonable choice of 3rd party accessories for it too.


Things you should consider before jumping in:

1) If you think you only ever want to dabble with GPS navigation for your bike then buy this deal now. If you think you might be more serious about it’s usage, you might want to put the cash towards a more recent unit (although beware that GPS devices are leading edge and _whatever_ you buy today, will be old hat tomorrow). (Steve Beer found a good group purchase deal on the TomTom Rider – you might want to give him a shout if you’re looking for something a little more upmarket…)

2) The streetpilot is activated by buttons (sounds obvious I know) but some people have problems activating them with gloves on. On mine (admittedly a different unit but similar design) I have no problems at all with my summer gloves but I sometimes have to have a couple of tries to get the right one with my winter gloves.

3) I’d probably upgrade the maps at some point. V7 is pretty recent (2004/5) although v8 has just been released and includes quite significant revisions to the UK Points of Interest. This upgrade will cost around £50 quid.

4) This thing will likely suck batteries, I would seriously consider connecting it to the bike for a power source.

5) RAM mount – these are good for standard usage but aren’t really up to long (or bumpy) trips. They’re strong and relatively secure but in so being, they accentuate the bike’s vibration and will pass it all on to the device.



Finally, I have to caveat all the above with the fact that:



a) I don’t own a Street Pilot III

b) I’m a Garmin fan and so biased as hell ;-)

c) I’m currently on a GPRS connection so I haven’t been able to substantiate any of the claims made above, Your mileage may (and will) vary!



Hope this helps anyhow,

hopefully photos of my sat-nav mounting









dbninja

I take it they (bike versions) are completely waterproof? Downpour-proof?

Thomas
yes within reason, see llamamans post, these are well made for sure, you must check before you buy a sat-nav that it is suitable for use on a motorcycle, most of the modern cheap units available in "every-store" in town are NOT suitable. most are car ONLY units with a built in speaker and no audio jack to take the voice commands to a helmet mounted speaker. they cant take the vibes or the wet. you can buy a new (Car based) tom-tom GO for under £200, the tom-tom RIDER that is suitable for use on a bike is nearly £600. so buyer beware (tom-tom rider uses bluetooth to connect to helmet speaker... add another £80)
Garmin produce sat-nav systems for marine use and light aircraft use, these high-end devices are built to military specs for durability etc, with high prices to match.

dbninja