I need some advice on this one, I’m not a phone teki & I’m definitely not interested in getting the latest phone just because everybody else has, I’ve got an I phone 5se, it’s mine it works, but all the systems, at least what I’ve seen anyway need a smart phone to allow it to work. ? Isn’t there something you can wire into your bike that just shows you how to get to where you wanna be ? Or is that just tooo easy
Afternoon mick. I’ve got Google maps, so I can just tap in my destination & off I go but as I said it’s an old IPhone & I doubt if there will be much battery left if any or even lasting long enough, plus A holder & waterproof! Plus charging, which I’ve found out you can’t just wire directly to the battery cos it’s only about 5 or 6 volts charging so another complication.
I’ve downloaded vevtech and calimoto!between the 2 calimoto seems the better version of the same thing. Cheers people just a phone holder & some kind of low volt charging system to figure out.
If your gona do any serious touring your best bet is a dedicated bike sat nav, that you can do your routes as tou want them on a computer nd upload to the nav. Ive tried google maps, here we go phone apps, even tried a car sat nav in a waterproof ish cover but in the end i bought a bike tom tom and never regreted the cost
I use TomTom sat nav with lifetime updates of maps and cameras plus inbuilt SIM card which gives life traffic updates and re-routes to avoid road closures etc. I have a mount for each bike which is hard wired through to bike battery and switches off power when sat nav (satellite navigation) not on.
However, Garmin and several others all recommended.
I have one sat nav which I can switch between two bikes so stuck with TomTom for now.
Paid garage to wire in for me as not good at that and probably cost £500 all in for sat nav, mounts and wiring. However, it saves me the cost of wasted fuel going wrong way or getting lost which I often do- I got lost in a Tesco car park once (it was huge). 🤣 Travel 2000 miles across Europe each trip then weekend trips so this is best set up for me and always get there and back.
If you are using your phone as a sat nav then you might want to get a usb charge point on bike and a tank bag with clear pocket made for phones with slot for cable. The old iphones lose battery quite quick when using apps which is maybe a reason to upgrade to iphone 13 (£1500). You can get apps that detect a crash and send alerts plus lots of navigation apps available that plan routes and share the route with friends.
Google maps is good for basics of getting you where you need to be but switch on privacy if you are worried about your timeline of travel being made available as it tracks places visited. I found out mine was being sent to an ex!
So - lots of options to consider cost, how frequently you will use/number of miles/UK or Europe/Worldwide coverage.
Not sure on the price Malc probably around 300 but you can get them cheaper on ebay, mine a Garmin and the mount has a connection that connects with the back of the satnav and wire that connects straight to the battery, there's loads of different mounts available to fix almost anywhere that you just clip the satnav in and unclip it to take with you
Call me old fashioned but what's wrong with following road signs, that's all I do, quick look on google maps first for the general direction and which roads and that's it, rest is all done via road signs, yes sometimes I end up going wrong but that is half the fun 🤣
After the 'quick look on Google maps' I print a brief list of direction of turn and road numbers and towns to head for and then fit it in the clear phone slot on my tank back.. If I mess up I can always stop and look at my phone (which will be charged up in my tank bag😁)
If you just want access to road maps on your phone have a look at OMN3, it runs on most things including Apples, although if your phone is too old you might struggle. It's not a sat nav system, but it's how I prefer to roll.
I have used Calimoto a lot, and used a Mountain bike bag/phone holder secured onto the handlebar, or put in a tank bag map window. I also used a backup battery to keep the phone charged (using as SatNav drains the battery quickly), rather than wiring the phone to the bike. You can get small phone sized battery pack with built in solar panel which will keep the battery charged enough (if you start the day with the battery fully charged) to give you enough juice to run the phone SatNav all day.
![Digital map systems - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![Digital map systems - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
