What's a good GPS that I can suction cup to my windshield that has a long battery life. I might just be ignorant, but I'm pretty sure my Softail Custom doesn't have a place to plug one in.

I figured this community would have plenty of collective GPS experience. So, I'm asking before I waste my money on something stupid.

 

No to suction cup...must be a rigid mount to the bars or tank. Take a look at the Garmin site..the Zumo range is very good and has small form factor. You will need to wire the mounting hardware to the battery with a suitable fused link.

 

A good affordable GPS is this Garmin nuvi 255W. I bought the Garmin 855w because it had a built in MP3 player but the 255w will do everything you need.

A good mount is this one made by RAM. It's what I use and it works great. Solid.

A good power supply (provided you have a battery tender pig tail hanging from your battery) is this one from Powerlet. Use zip ties to run it up under your tank, zipping it to existing wires. That'll also give you the ability to charge cell phones and anything else using a cig lighter charger.

 

I use a plain old Garmin automotive GPS. It costs much less than the bike specific ones. Whatever you buy, don't use a suction cup mount. As suggested above, go with a rigit mount. CycleGadgets.com offers a large selection.

 

Tom-Tom Ryder II is made for a motorcycle. Waterproff and vibration resistant and Comes with a good handlebar mount and blue tooth mic. and speakers for your helmet. It's a simple job to plug into your wiring harness and is very affordable. I've had one for over 2 years now and love it.

 

Thank you so much for those excellent links!

 

Just got a Garmin 1350T and it is a pretty nice unit. Mounted to handlebars with a RAM mount and I'll be wiring it to a switched lead with a power cord from GPSgeek.com. Battery life in most of the units I looked at was only about 4 hours which could be more or less depending on how bright you set the screen and how many times you fiddle with it. My son has been using one on his Ultra for quite awhile now and had no problems. You can also use it in the car if you've a mind to.

 

Though it is not waterproof or motorcycle-specific, I have mounted the Magellan Roadmate 1700, which has a large-format touch-screen that is very easy to use while wearing heavy, insulated gloves. It was on sale for $200. I just tapped a hole in the upper handlebar clamp and mounted a handmade stainless steel bracket; this photo shows it mounted using a stage I mod of the original plastic bracket, whose vibration-induced excursions left it nearly unreadable. The new mount has no discernible vibration and feels rock-solid.

BTW, Magellan is said to be soon introducing a new bike-specific GPS. Garmin is also very highly regarded. Any non-specific models will likely not be waterproof, but a zip-lock is all many of us use.

Power is through a cig-lighter-style adapter, plugged into the battery-tender pigtail.

A big negative on the suction cup.

 

I hardwired mine into the console to the ignition. Make sure you put an inline fuse though.

 

I followed this almost to a T. Instead of the Powerlet you suggested I got the one with the chrome handlebar mount. Thanks.