Do I Really Want a Garmin? The GPS on my cell phone is pretty good...

But does everyone have a GPS and a point that was missed?

 

The answer is of course "Of course not" then followup with " GPS is only a Tool useful when you need it, useless if you don't. "

For me have found it very useful. 3 years ago being a previous Naysayer was the last amongst my VFR riding friends to buy a Zumo, the VFR is a brilliant road bike to "discover" far away tarred country back roads which also happens to be my favourite type of riding ie on unknown iffy quality distant back roads. When planning a VFR group ride besides posting routes on google maps we share the Zumos GPS routes which mean we start on the same page and know where we should be at each re-group.

When going away with my regular Sports bike buddies find I'm usually the only one with a GPS but we tend to be less adventurous sticking to better known routes or when being adventurous have shorter regroup points and when stuck eg last year when touring another States back roads the route we'd planned was closed half way along due to flooding, it was either backtrack 40 miles then follow the boring main Hwy to our days end destination OR I pushed ALT route button on the Zumo which led us through 10 miles of "not on our paper road maps" interesting farming sealed back lanes which eventually linked us back to road we wanted to be on around the flooded causeway.

Pre GPS when following tank bag Maps for a 400mile day ride I found it hard to get the granularity right, too much detail and you're needing to swap maps too frequently for distance or too little and I'd miss turns. Being converted and no longer the Naysaying Ludite my Zumo sits easily seen in my lower peripheral and gives advanced visual and audio warnings of non obvious turns quickly coming up means it's much safer than having to take eyes off the road glancing down trying to decipher tanks maps or missing turns altogether like used to happen occasionally before.

 

My suggestion would be then to have Rainbow 7 tuck in behind you so he won't get lost again.

I hope this thread doesn't devolve into who has the biggest GPS and how to mount it.

 

It's damn useful when the popo are trying to say that they clocked you speeding but your GPS can prove that you weren't.

 

That happend once a few years ago when heading South between Ulladulla and Batemans Bay when 5 of us went past a Highway Patrol car, being Flashed earlier by a car we were under the Limit when the Smokey U turned around then pulled the leading VFR over...

Initially the Police officers was aggressive asking "do we know how fast we were travelling ?" luckily the leading rider ( a pilot ) had his aircraft grade GPS with Logging turned on so rewound the last 15 minutes proving we didn't at any stage exceed the limit. With us crowding round he suddenly changed his tune saying he just pulled us over to warn us they were doing a Blitz that day and to be careful.....

 

Great to have someone so equipped along but what of those who have GPS units that do not have logging? If there is an alternative method that could be used as evidence, sharing would be a good thing. IMO.