mlh

Yeah, I couldn't justify the cost of a dedicated GPS for the bike so when I bought the GPS for our travels here in Europe, one of my criteria was that I could get a waterproof case as an option. I ended up getting a Navigon 2500 for 125 euros and purchased the waterproof case for another 25 euros. The GPS unit is pretty basic, but works very well in the car and does all that I need. The route programming can sometimes send you through some interesting roads, but it always gets me where I want to go... On the bike, I made a simple bracket out of 1.5mm aluminium sheet that mounts off the tank bolts and also hooked up a simple USB car charger off one of the accessory ports on my VFRness. The waterproof case is made out of neoprene rubber with a clear plastic window at the front which still allows the touch screen on the GPS to work. The case comes with a couple of different quick release mounting clips (one for your belt and one for a bicycle handlebars) which attach to the hook on the back of the neoprene case. I glued the belt mounting clip to the top of my mounting bracket on the bike, and ran the USB cable from the charger up next to the bracket (I can tuck the USB jack under the edge of the tank to be out of the way when I'm not using it). Attaching the GPS in its case is a simple matter of clipping it on and sliding the USB jack through a small hole I made in the bottom of the case in line with the USB port on the GPS. It comes off just as easily. I wasn't too sure about how waterproof it would be, but because it's mounted behind the screen it doesn't see a lot of water even in heavy rain. The acid test was when I was coming back from my last trip to the UK... I was riding for 8 hours in pretty much constant heavy rain (took 3 days for my wet weather gear to completely dry out) but the GPS was completely dry at the end, so it works. I haven't used a dedicated motorcycle GPS so I can't compare it to that, but for me I find it works really well... the only downside I would say is that at certain sun angles, the reflection off the plastic window makes the screen hard to see sometimes. But for the cost I'm really happy with how it works. The nice thing is that I don't have to learn two different systems for the car and the bike. Here's a picture of the mounting bracket (bike's a bit dusty atm as it's packed away in the workshop for winter ) Here's what it looks like with the GPS on.

It really is a beautiful area even in a car... can't wait to get there on the bike. PS: I thought I was the only one to find the Ausfahrt signs a giggle... glad to see that I'm not the only one . Cheers, Michael.