My Navigation

I choose my way, GPS finds and remembers it.

En route by motorcycle I 'navigate' by means of (preferably 1:200000 Michelin) roadmaps, compass, road-signs and 'instinct'.  Nowadays a GPS receiver has been added. Generally I  avoid big cities and major roads because  I have a strong preference for the smallest and twistiest roads across interesting landscape. When driving, highlighting a route on the map by means of a yellow marker pen helps to quickly re-focus the  eyes to the right place on the map.

I find it most suitable to place the roadmap on a solid aluminum plate of about A4 size on top of the tank bag. A transparent plastic-sheet protects the roadmap from rain. This keeps it drier than a closed transparent container because it does not form condensation from inside.

The whole assembly is held on top of the tank-bag by means of elastic ropes, the compass and the GPS receiver are also fitted to the same plate.

This method to 'carry' a GPS unit, compass and roadmap allows to quickly transfer all from one motorcycle to another. For a coffee-break indoors the whole assembly is simply taken off and taken inside, this is safe (avoids theft)  and it's convenient in case I wish to create or review the next route. The tank bag absorbs any high frequencies from the engine and the heavy shocks from pot-holes in the road.

The GPS_receiver operates on rechargeable 1800 or 2000  mAh accu's for approximately 15 hours (GPSMap60CSx), depending on light-setting, temperature and degree of previous charge. A spare set of accumulators (rechargeable batteries) is charged overnight by a 'self-made' charger attached to the side of the tank-bag. A pair of incandescent bulbs serve as a current limiter (charging current is +/- 180 mA) and as a light-source at the same time. The last feature is very practical to find my tent and things around it when camping in real darkness. I fitted additional power sockets on the motorcycles, e.g. pic3. And yes, with the trip-counter of the R1150GS over 450 kms it's standard tank is practically empty. Normally I achieve around 400 kms per tank stop (avg 1 liter for 20 kms) when keeping the engine warm all day.

Click on below pictures to see an enlargement:

                     

Be aware: In case of a collision the metal plate could either act as a protective shield (if flipped-over vertically) or as a knife. 

I made my first GPS experience with a borrowed Garmin Etrex during a motor tour through Slovenia and Croatia. That basic model provides all essential information. But soon I wanted to have more 'luxury' and at present I'm very satisfied about my Garmin GPSMap60CSx (in between I owned a 60C). The 'electronic compass' function of this model is not very useful on a motorcycle because the unit must be fitted in a non-horizontal position to see the screen well. In such non-horizontal position the compass does not work, moreover the iron/magnetic environment of the motorcycle may cause severe disturbance. But the 'Vertical Profile' and 'Barometer' of this model are nice to have. Unfortunately today's GPS receivers generally don't calculate (scenic) routes matching my preferences and for that reason, and to keep the indispensable overview, good roadmaps remain essential to manually program the desired route.

Leading a larger group I prefer to use the 'autorouting' option of the GPS_navigator because making U-turns with a larger group isn't always that easy nor safe. However when driving alone or with few people I often use the 'direct routing' method of the GPS and I go from waypoint to waypoint. I just enter the geographical co-ordinates of such waypoints, being either the centre of small villages, the entry- and exit streets of larger towns or a point on a specific road-segment, into the GPS_r and while choosing the roads that appear attractive to me I try to remain more or less 'on course'. Of course it then sometimes happens that I have to turn around when the road ends or becomes impassable. 

This method results in enough surprises to keep traveling interesting, such as passing by places you don't find when following the road signs. In case of meeting a river, a railway or any other obstacle which I can't pass I make a detour until I can turn to the right direction again. If wanted, several routes can be prepared at home and stored into the GPS-receiver before departure, either as 'direct routes' or as 'detailed routes converted to tracks'. This kind of use does not require any map-storage capacity of the GPS_r. Extending or altering the direct routes is done by using place-names found on the built-in base map of the GPS_r and/or by inserting waypoints calculated from the paper-maps.

Even more simple, but very adventurous, is to orientate on a single "far-away waypoint" (>100km) , when that waypoint is almost reached (<25km) another next waypoint is entered. 

The GPS confirms that I drive in the wanted direction. In practice this means that I need to concentrate much less on a roadmap and that more time remains to look around. In the urban world the GPS_receiver's  "auto-routing feature"  is a perfect additional tool, this however does require the relevant detailed maps and route-calculation data to be downloaded into the GPS_r.

Sometimes I use Garmin's MapSource program to create a route, then I convert this route to a track. The track is loaded to the 60CSx and 'manually' followed, just as I would follow the highlighted route on a paper map. The advantage is that on the GPS_receiver I do see my exact position relative to that track, while my position on a paper map is a bit more complex to establish and to follow. As well known the 60-models do always recalculate a loaded route and usually that results in, more or less, deviations from the original route. That's why I often use the track method rather than the auto-routing method. In fact this track method is nothing more than an enhanced direct-routing method. There are just many more 'via-points' and these are automatically created in stead of entering them manually. When using the GPS 'tracback' function it's even possible to get a pointer and distance-to-next  indication, but that adds little additional information.

 

In short, I mainly use the GPS receiver to:

  1. determine my position
  2. go to a waypoint (stored in memory or calculated from the paper map)
  3. track the direction to and distance from a waypoint
  4. keep the off-course distance within reasonable limits
  5. keep record of camp-sites, interesting places, etc
  6. see a short trail of the followed track (set to 100 or 200 visible trackpoints)
  7. record and save track information
  8. collect waypoints
  9. find an address
  10. explore a city or area

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