I must admit, although I am not a technophobe, I had never considered getting a GPS; paper maps had always served quite well. Until, that is, I visited a friend in South Africa. He demonstrated his Garmin GPSMap 276c, which he had installed in his Land Rover. I then realised that one of these devices would be a very useful item to have on the bike.
Now my friend JC and I have a similar outlook on things. Quality is important, as is doing things properly. So it was not really a surprise when I did some research and found that the most suitable model for my own purposes would be the model he had chosen. It's actually a marine chartplotter unit, so being in a semi-exposed position on the bike is not a problem as it is waterproof. (I've even tested it on a friend's boat in the Solent; I haven't linked it to a fishfinder yet though!)
The buttons are easy enough to press even when wearing gloves.
Although this particular model was no longer available new, (just like the ST1100 itself!) I found a second-hand unit in pristine condition on Ebay.
I had already installed a
dashboard shelf so that took care of the mounting platform; I just needed a bracket. Once again, I made one myself from some scrap steel:
Using the Garmin automotive kit, I took power for the GPS from the Auxiliary Fuse Box and wired the GPS into the Autocom unit so that I could hear the spoken directions.
It's also a fairly useful item for checking road speed; I found that the ST1100 speedometer tends to over-exaggerate slightly.