Been riding lately with this guy from my neighborhood on Sat.'s... He has a Bergman 650 (don't roll your eyes, the guy is 6'2" & about 220 & the scooter is still hard to keep up with in the twisties and I never care what the other folks are riding). That said I like two things he has on that bike, one is the electronic windshield (which I won't be able to have on my Fatboy) the other is a Garmin GPS unit!
He has the 785T mounted to his brake res. on the bars. Even with the thick leather work gloves he wears (giant scooter riders seem to wear gear like an Alaska Dog Sled Driver) the touch screen works fine, it's quick enough not to slow him down when checking the unit at a stop sign or red light; and he has mapped out routes that have used every freaking back road in 4 Counties.
I would like to be able to have the same ability to "Map on the fly".
When I started looking at the units (Ebay) they are all different, his 785 is discontinued... I was leaning towards a 1450. It sounded like it would do all that I wanted, butdidn'tinclude all sorts of extra stuff I didn't want or need.
Then however I started to wonder about the "Mounting brackets"...
They have Ram mounts, strap mounts (bicyles?) suction cups, brake res., U-bolts, cradle brackets and swivel brass or rubber ball mounts. It's a couple of hundred bucks for the unit & mount so I figured I'd post here first & see if they was a few folk with experience as to the units or the mounting systems.
Suggestions?
Any constructive thoughts would be welcomed; any bad "Scooter Humor" or other insults will be ignored

 

I have a 1450 using a "Ram Mount" on the handlebars of my Deuce. Does anything I could ever want to do in reference to riding my motorcycle. It is not waterproof but in light misty rain it is behind a windshield. Heavy rain/downpours I take it off in 2 seconds or put my handy ziplock bag over it. The H-D (Garmin) are way to expensive and seem to be about the same except Harley dealer locations. Oh, I think the Ram mount is absolutely the best mount.

 

Ram mount's are the ones with the "swivel ball"?
Do I need to have any other hardware than the unit & the ram mount?
Thanks

 

You need the ram mount that attaches to the handlebar plus a gps cradle (holder) for your particular GPS.
http://www.ram-mount.com/Products/Mo...8/Default.aspx
I prefer the Tom Tom units myself... they include an audio out port so a coiled cord can be plugged into the "aux" port on a harley radio.

 

Tech Mounts is the other mount hardware seller that I believe ranks up there with RAM mounts (I have both).

As you will soon hear, there are dozens of threads on here answering your questions. I think the RAM mounts are best for dedicated GPS units, but techmount (http://www.techmounts.com/) has some awesome hardware for smartphones etc.

I'm one of the folks who started out with a TomTom Rider, and decided to use my SmartPhone (IPhone) as my GPS unit. Much better than carrying two pieces of hardware. The App that I use on my phone is called GPS Drive and it equals my GPS unit. If I was going to drive in an area with no cell phone coverage, I would take my dedicated GPS unit with me also.

Good luck!

 

Also using a Ram mount (U bolt to handle bar) and a Nuvi 765 that snaps into the mount. The Ram has a lifetime warrenty and looks pretty indestructible. Regardless of unit and mount, you will also need an accessible quick disconnect power supply. Having been in some all day, boot drenching rains, I can attest to the zip lock bag water proofing scheme. My biggest complaint is that the glare from the screen on most days makes the unit basically unseeable. I suspect most mount locations and GPS units would have the same problem.

 

Wal Mart sells in their "boat section" A marine grade 12 volt power outlet (5 to 10 dollars)I wired it directly from the battery, fused. I then plug GPS into the power port. No problems with the poweport for three years.

 

On my old TomTom Rider and it's replacemet, a Zumo 220, I've used the RAM mounts attached to my Clutch side hand control pod. On the other side I have another RAM set-up to hold my HD Digital Video Recorder.

 

I have the garmin 765t and I just use the suction supplied w/the unit and attach it to the speedo on my flstc. The unit tells you your speed, so covering the speedo is fine. easy to read, and access as well as being easy to pop off and take w/you when you leave the bike.

 

I've had a number of GPS units on a number of different motorcycles and they have all had their advantages and disadvantages.

After trying a number of different mounting solutions, the ones that worked best for me were the ones that mounted the GPS closer to the line of sight, meaning I did not have to glance down to the handlebars to see the screen.

On one of my bikes, I had the GPS mounted in the center of the dash on the fairing. On my current bike, I have the factory mount. See the picture below. This type of mount/location works best for me.