Last night I had a nightmare. After riding the 225 miles between my hometown & Daytona Beach (to participate to Biketoberfest), I was at the International Speedway exit filling up gas. Next to me were parked 2 nice Bobbers worth a closer look. Shock: both had a small GPS attached to the left side of the bars. It’s when I woke up. People are installing GPS on Bobbers and I didn’t know? No, it can’t be true. And no, it’s not true (please, don’t prove me wrong). It just happened that before going to bed for a few hours of sleep (remember, Biketoberfest is only 7 days away and of course we are running late with all our projects), a press release on my computer was talking about the advantages of a new biker GPS called the Tom Tom Rider! I love tech gear, but hate seeing people walking with Bluetooth earpieces, and I don’t want to see custom bikes harboring mini GPS on their handlebars. For what? To be sure that you are at Starbucks when you have a latte in your hand? To be sure that the place where you park in the morning is the place where you work? To be sure you don’t miss the next Cracker Barrel along the highway (if you don’t see the huge billboards well in advance, please don’t ride, you view is way too bad). I know there are those of us who are going to make the trip of their lives riding around the globe. But except these lucky ones, none of us should attach to their bikes anything they don’t really need. I tell you, a good map stained with coffee is still the way to go. I will compromise with Google Earth received on your cellular but only at one condition: don’t attach it to your bars, or anywhere else on your bike.
4 Responses to “Do Bikers Need GPS?”
- 1 Trackback on Feb 15th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
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Why do people have problems with GPS’s? I’m on my 3rd one. It’s great. You’ll find places you never knew existed that you’ve been by dozens of times. Not to mention finding routes you never knew about. I love going places different ways. Maps only show the main roads. I didn’t get a bike to be on the main roads. I want to be off the beaten path. Actually try one. You’ll love it.
Dan
It’s a ptetty good argument. I didn’t think about GPS giving you news paths to travel on. But as a custom builder, I would not like to see bikes equipped like the cockpit of a plane. About this, I guess I am somewhat old school…
A friend of mine does a lot of long distance riding and rallies, his bike could be described with the cockpit analogy.
He rides a ’04 Honda ST1300. We refer to it as the “bat mobile”