Hi All !

I've mounted a Garmin Street Pilot GPS on my Electra Glide. Nowhere in the manuals can I find if it's weatherproff. I'm assuming it's not. Has anyone created a way to shelter one or wrap it to guard against the rain ?? I can always take it off when it rains, but it would be nice to just ride and not worry about it.

 

I have tested GPS systems for the USMC and found none that were actually waterproof. In a light rain, it should be no problem, especially if its behind a windshield on a bike. In a heavy rainstorm, you might lose GPS signals anyway, so you might as well take it off then.

Oh BTW, when it tells you to find the nearest road, trust your eyes, not the GPS :~)

 

Thanks Thud, that clears up the waterproof issue. Asside of wrapping it in plastic, I'd say taking it off in the rain is the ticket !

 

Just some clarification: Waterproof means exactly that. You are correct, there is very little in the electronics realm that meets this level of water survivability.

Water Resistant: Many new GPS units meet IEC 60529 IPX7:

Complete submersion in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes tells me that it should be fine on a bike in the rain.

Take a look at GPSnow.com at their matrix for GPS features towards the bottom: http://www.gpsnow.com/gmsp2610.htm

You will see that Garmin 26xx and 27xx series GPS units meet this requirement. Having used Garmin products for years, and specifically a 2610 for the last almost 3 years on my bike I can wholeheartedly endorse them. And I have bought 3 units from GPSnow.com with nothing but great service and pricing.

 

Wow !! That was a seriuos reply ! Thanks for the tip ! Let-R-Rain !!!

 

You notice Slacker has a windshield, that will protect the GPS from the water pressure that is applied during heavy rain and a vehicle at speed.
I did mention something about a windsheild in my response. I agree with Slacker, of the commercial GPS units I have tested, Garmin and Magellan are the best in my opinion. I have owned 3 Garmin and I am on my 2nd Magellan now, I have been using GPS for a very long time. I keep upgrading as the technology does and I do not trust GPS units that have a hard disk drive (yet) that are used in vehicles offroad or simular jerking or vibrating conditions, they will fail. With a large softail style crusier, they will probably be fine. I prefer the units that have solid state memory cards to load the maps. They can be a pain in the a$$ and slow to load on the Garmin units, but the new Magellan has a lot faster download system and you can buy preloaded memory cards if you don't want to load your own. Inputing data on the new Magellan is much easier than the Garmin Street Pilot series, you can trust me there. I have both. Now if I can only get my Magellan to avoid toll roads when I tell it I will be happy.

The only unit I will bad mouth is the one from Delphi, their support is horrible and during initial marketing they were advertising that they would have maps of the world. Now they say they only have maps of the US and will eventually provide maps of Canada but never Mexico and Europe. Downloading maps into the Delphi is slower than the Garmin, much slower. Anyone want to buy a Delphi cheap?

My advice is to check out the Garmin, Magellan and TomTom units and choose the one you like best. Make sure you think about the mounting hardware for motorcycles, both by manufacturer and aftermarket. I have no experience mounting GPS on bikes, so I can not help you there. I use the suction cup mounts for my truck and wife's new Mini but use velcro in my '63 mini on top of my rally computer. (yeh I am one looney gadget freek)

 

Garmin units will mount with RAM MOUNT systems which you can get from http://www.cyclegadgets.com/.

And I will second the information about buying a unit WITHOUT a hard drive. No matter the bike, you WILL have hardware failure due to the excessive vibration. It isn't IF, it is WHEN.

 

WOW, they have mounts for everything, thanks slacker, you're no SLACKER.

 

Thanks again Thud ! Good info ! I do have the 2720 Street Pilot from garmin. I have mounted it with a Ram Mount. Hard wired it into my accy. switch on the fairing. Play the audio through the aux port in the radio. So far so good. Thanks guys !

 

When you get the GPS check out the Harley Dealer POI database I created after ripping the addresses from the HD site.