There are not very many GPS's that are built to handle the vibration of a bike. Also, the $79 models will not be water proof. If you never ride in the rain, you may be able to buy 2 or 3 of the cheap ones if they break before you reach the cost of a Motorcycle GPS. For Garmin, the 660/665 is exactly what you want. There is a newer model just a couple of months ago, but I am not familiar with it.

As for being old, depends on how old! My 85 year old father could not even handle any GPS. He just can't keep the sequence of pressing 3 buttons in his memory. I try and try to remind him, and he still comes back and asks again how to do it. I was trying to get him to learn how to use his emergency cell phone recently. Pressing "menu" 2, 2, OK was not working for him. Even when I had him read the menu items 2 label of "contacts". He was not understanding that there was a "highlighting" on the screen that he had to use to choose items with. I was sad to see him struggle through that.

So, assuming you are not quite that old and that bad with technology, any Garmin GPS is pretty good. What you need to decide is if you want it water proof or not.

 

A GPS gets it's signal from a set of satellites in space. At any given time you need signals from at least 3, but the GPS may see as many as 11. There are very few times when that does not happen. A downtown kind of area with a lot of buildings may do it. But trees and such do not block the signal. That signal comes from above your head. Those satellites are always moving and they come from various parts of the sky. The GPS will switch to another one as they come and go through your ride.

A Cell (or smart phone) uses a "cellular" signal. It is called that because each cell is about 5-6 miles around. The farther you are from the center of the cell, the more power your phone must expend to maintain the signal. Before you get out of range, you should be handed off to another cell that overlaps that tower. If you get in an area that does not have towers close enough to each other, you will loose that signal. The signal comes from the horizon, so anything, including leaves on trees, can block the signal or distort it enough to make it unusable. There is also a lot of "reflections" of signals where there are a lot of buildings making the cell phone see the same signal multiple times in milliseconds which can cause it to not stay in sync.

There are also multi-user concerns.

The GPS is gets a broadcast signal. There is no need to respond and every GPS uses the same signal. That means there is no interference from other GPS's near you trying to talk back.

A cell is shared by how ever many devices there are in it's signal radius. If you have that tower all to yourself, your ability to send and receive will be perfect. However, as more and more users are trying to share that signal with you, your throughput will go down. You may have 4 or 5 bars of signal, but you only get a small slice of time to use that signal and you could loose the connection if that slice you are getting gets to be too small.

The cell tower has a much more powerful transmitter than your phone, so you may get the signal from the tower, but your phone may not be able to talk back. Unlike the GPS, you smart phone needs to talk to the source of the mapping software while you are using it. Even if the tower can send you the data from the website, you may not get it if your phone can not confirm the connection status.

That is why a GPS is more reliable than a smart phone. Not saying you can't use a smart phone. Just trying to explain why some people don't trust them.

 

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Just did over a 4000 mile 10 day trip using the garmin 600 (paid 550) It worked flawless!! Rode in rain a few times, never missed a beat. I loaded some mp3s on it and had it plugged in to my radio so had the directions visually and verbally playing thru my speakers. I miss turns rather easy so the audio helped me a lot. Its very easy to use once you get going. I also liked that I could take it off the bike and take it inside with me to plan other stops or look up another place near by. Its also easy to read in the daytime sun. The only negative is the price..

 

Cell phones still use GPS along with the cell towers known as AGPS or Assisted GPS. The GPS works fine in a cell phone without a cell connection, it is just more accurate and faster calculating with a cell connection.

However most stock GPS apps in cell phones require the cells data connection to download the map data. The GPS still works without the cell connection, it just doesn't have the map data to show you where you are. Google Maps on the iPhone can download and store map data on the iPhone however I found it works for small areas and it is not enough of an area for touring. I am not sure how well Google maps works on Android phones.

There is also many third party GPS apps on the iPhone, and I assume Android as well, that can download and store a large amount of map data to make cell phones useful when there is weak or no cell connection.

 

I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. The OP wants something simple and easy. Just turn it on, it works no matter where you are, and go. No worries about downloads, doesn't work in large areas, connection issues, 2-year contracts, etc.

Don't mean to rain on anybody's parade. Many probably prefer a smartphone and others a dedicated GPS. If I read the OP's question, the OP wants a dedicated GPS.

To the OP, the Garmin 2557 may have more features than you need, however, the map also has where the nearest gas stations, ATM, restaurants showing on the map. Those will come in handy. Also get the 2557LM. The LM means you get lifetime maps, so the updates are free. The 2557 also has a faster processor, so it'll be a bit faster than the 50.