Maps & Legends: Which Offers a Better Riding Experience: Maps or GPS?
H-D Forums members share their proven tips and experiences about what works best when planning road trips: maps or GPS?
If you’ve been a member of the H.O.G. community for a while, you were undoubtedly ecstatic when the GPS was introduced to the consumer market in the awesome Eighties, immediately making riding your Harley-Davidson motorcycle on long-distance journeys much more of a breeze than it is when you had to pull your bike over and look at a map every twenty minutes. Then again, there’s just something to be said for using maps for their accuracy, large display, and just for the nostalgia of feeling like a pirate setting off on new adventures — on a Twin-Cam or Milwaukee Eight rather than a rickety old ship. So, nowadays when it comes to taking a long trip on your Harley, which do you prefer: a physical map or GPS?
That’s the topic being discussed in the H-D Forums in a thread aptly titled “Physical Maps vs. GPS.”
Although forum member TriGeezer shared a captivating image that perfectly conveys what it’s like trying to read a map on the side of the road, it’s his comments that really captured our attention:
“Maps are a bit more difficult to use at speed,” says the San Diego-based H-D Forums Supporter-level member. “Yeah, ya get a better big picture for overall planning. But, I prefer GPS in real time…plus it doesn’t get blown away.”
Outstanding HDF Member LQQK_OUT offered another option: “I’ve found the Butler maps useful for mapping out a ride or adventure.”
And when it comes to maps and GPS, Club Member BuzzCap7 says, “Did both. Definitely GPS for me.”
We have to commend Outstanding HDF Member Son of the Hounds, who provided a very well-presented opinion post about his experiences using GPS and maps together:
“I use maps for planning and the big picture,” says the Idaho-based member. “You can take in a whole state or part of a state in a single glance. [And] scrolling in and out on Google Maps or Google Earth is great for details, fine tuning a ride.”
“Maps vs. GPS: they are both useful, but there is something else [as] useful: my Doppler radar app. Twice we have missed huge thunderstorms and hail going over passes because I looked, and timed our crossing to ride between storms. In Wyoming, I pulled over headed to a mountain pass, we could see the lightning ahead. I told my partner, let’s just sit here for 25-35 minutes. Some adventure bikes passed use about 10 minutes later. That evening when we met them at the motel, the said they had to follow the tractor trailer truck tire ruts into a truck pull-off because the hail was three inches deep and golf-ball size. Twenty minutes later, when we rode over the pass, the road was bare and wet and the shoulders still buried in ice. As we slipped down the pass, the next big thunderstorm was just hitting the pass. Perfect timing. Happens if you use the Doppler app.”
“…I could plan a trip without a paper map or atlas,” adds Son of the Hounds, “but it would not involve as many fine two-lane motorcycle roads as one planned using state maps, premier motorcycle road websites, an atlas, and Google Earth. GPS is what we call an ‘active location device,’ while maps, atlases, and Google Maps and Earth or ‘passive location devices.’
So, what’s your preference? When you’re out riding, which provides a smoother riding experience: GPS or physical maps? Join the conversation in the H-D Forums now!
And if you’re looking for some suitable road tunes, may we suggest…
And, of course…
Photos: H-D Forums
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