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Posted: **04 Dec 2006 08:02**

Sister and I are thinking of getting my Dad one for Christmas this year. he is retired and is now working for a dealer transporting cars from dealer to dealer and buying cars at auction. By transporting I mean 6-7 guys following the leader in a pack of cars. Not a semi transport.

It's not needed for the above, but him and Mom go to Georgia, Florida and usually my Dad has to take detours from the easiest route to see things like Builtmore mansions, HGTV giveaway houses or a gator pit

Also he might use it on the boat, but I highly doubt that since he has fished that part of the Mississippi for the past 25 years or better and knows it like the back of his hand.

In reality I do not think he needs it. Sister had this brilliant idea. She wants color also.

Oh and Mom and Dad do not own a computer so it has to be able to be loaded with everything I would imagine.

Posted: **04 Dec 2006 16:55**

There have been some good deals on the Garmin Street Pilot 27xx models in the papers. WalMart had an online offer that was an excellent price. These models came preloaded with all the City Navigator v8 maps which are the latest.

Posted: **04 Dec 2006 18:46**

I got into GPS when my wife wanted a compass. So we now have a Garmin Street Pilot 330 and she still doesn't have a compass.

I love it! It is a touch screen and is very user friendly. I take it on all my business trips and it has saved my a$$ several times. It will not only find an address, but it will find hotels, restrurants, gas stations, air ports etc...

My GPS V will do the same thing, but I have to load the maps and requires several key strokes to find stuff. The Street Pilot is just an easy platform/user friendly. I would also consider the TomTom, but with Garmin being a local company I would go with a Garmin. This is just my 2 cents.

Daryl

Posted: **04 Dec 2006 22:39**

Bones wrote:She wants color also.

You want color. Much easier to read.

It would ruin the surprise, but perhaps taking dad to a place like Cabelas that has quite a few GPS units and have him try them out.

Posted: **05 Dec 2006 07:31**

Dad is in Iowa. This is kind of a son, daughter and wife present for Dad since he is a PITA to buy for. He always buys stuff before the holidays and then can;t think of squat that he wants except a new boat or motor. I'll get on that Dad!

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 16:42**

Santa brought me a garmin vista 60 CSX, I'm still figuring out what all it does. That darn Troy has one and I have to keep up with the times. The Ozarks fall colors tour has went to a self guided gps format, no more roll charts.

Cabelas has them for around 380 with a $50 rebate, normal retail price is 499. I got mine online for a little less. If it were in my budget something along the lines of a 276c would be nice, might get by without the bifocals.

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 16:55**

...and I got the idea for the 60CS from Safirimike who taught me all I know about GPS.

Although the 60CS is about a perfect fit for dualsport, handlebar mounted usage, it is a poor choice for Chris' dad. For a purely car-based unit and something to load ALL the us maps on without need to ever connect to a computer, the 60CS is not a good fit.

I don't have a recommendation, but the 276c is probably a good option. The darn things get really expensive fast--as I'm sure you've discovered, Chris.

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 19:42**

Troy, pardon the off topic, I guess I need to get the garmin mapsource topo disc to load detailed maps. Is that correct? Thanks, Dean

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 19:53**

Correct. There are several Garmin MapSource products you could use, but Mike taught me that for dualsport adventure, you most likely want the "United States TOPO" product.

If you also want to do a lot of city to city driving and want all the POI (points of interest) data such as restaurants, hotels, all the street names, etc, then I think you want the "City Navigator North America" product.

A good source for the Garmin Mapsource products that is very dualsport motorcycle friendly:
http://www.cycoactive.com/gps/gmap.htm

Cycoactive also has all the handlebar mounting and electrical wiring stuff you'll want. Btw, I went with the simply plastic mounting cradle and am very happy with it. Others spent $100+ for the super-duper metal cradle with additional shock absorbing...but my sub $30 plastic one is doing great.

You'll also need Garmin's "Trip & Waypoint Manager", but your GPS should have come with that. It is a bit confusing at first, but just know that you use Trip & Waypoint Manager to interface your GPS. You load the Mapsource maps within Trip & Waypoint Manager.

Also, the Trip & Waypoint Manager CDROM that came with your 60CS should include the necessary device drivers to make your computer recognize the GPS unit.

If you have trouble (I did at first), let me know. I can come up and help you with it sometime.

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 20:06**

Also, anybody who buys any multi-cdrom Mapsource product may appreciate this tip -- you can copy the cdrom content to your harddrive, then install from your harddrive. This way, you never have to use the CDROMS/DVDs. Us midwest people really appreciate this because you'll find the TOPO maps are split into East and West---and the dividing line is about Topeka! So you have to swap cds back and forth--yuck! Installing from harddrive eliminates this hassle.

Garmin Tech Support wrote:Hello Troy,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International, I am writing to you in
regards to installing US Topo on to your hard drive. Below are some
instructions on how to install your US Topo software from the computer hard
drive so that it does not prompt you for the CDs:

1) Since you have the US Topo already installed you will have to remove
the current installation. To do this, follow the below steps:
2) Click on your Windows Start Button
3) On the right hand side, click on the Control Panel icon - if you are
running Windows 98, go to the Settings option and then click on the Control
Panel
4) When this window comes up, locate the Add/Remove Programs option and
click on it
5) When the Add/Remove Program window comes up, locate the item that
states "MapSource - US Topo" - click on this and remove this program
6) Once the Topo software has been removed, then you can close out of
all of the windows and go back to your Windows Desktop.

Copying files from the CD-Rom to the Hard Drive:

1) Click on your Windows Start button
2) On the right hand side, click on the My Computer icon, if you are
running Windows 98, skip step 1 and double click the My Computer icon on
your Desktop
3) When this window come up, double click on your Local Disk (C:)
4) When this comes up, locate a folder that is labeled Garmin, double
click on this folder
5) Along the top of this window, in the upper left hand corner you
should have a File pull down menu, click on this and select the New option
and then choose Folder. This should create a "New Folder" item - change the
name from "New Folder" to "US Topo".
6) Once you have this new folder created close this window down
7) Place Disc 1, the US West CD, in to your CD-Rom drive - if it
autoruns and tries to install the software, close out of the installation if
it comes up
8) Click on to the Windows Start button again, click on the My Computer
icon on the right hand side. This time, locate your CD-Rom drive, right
click on the CD-Rom drive and choose the Explore option
9) When this window comes up, along the top you should have an Edit
pull down menu, click on this and choose the "Select All" option, once you
have selected that then click back on to the Edit pull down menu again and
then choose the "Copy" option
10) Click back on to your Start button again and click on the My
Computer icon, then double click on the Local Disk (C:) option, then double
click on the Garmin folder and then double click again on the "US Topo"
folder.
11) Along the top, click on the Edit pull down menu, choose the "Paste"
option - this should copy the files from your CD-Rom to your hard drive
12) Repeat steps 7 through 11 for the other 2 CDs.
13) Once the above steps have been completed you should be read to
install the software from your hard drive.

To Install US Topo from the Hard Drive, follow the below steps:

1) Close out of all of the windows
2) Click on your Windows Start button
3) Click on the My Computer icon on the right hand side
4) Double click on your Local Disk (C:) item
5) Double click on the Garmin folder
6) Double click on the "US Topo" folder
7) Locate the Setup.exe file - double click on this and it should
launch the setup program to install the US Topo software. Walk through the
installation wizard and you should be all finished and ready to go.

Best Regards,

Vanessa C
Product Support Specialist
Garmin International
1200 E. 151st Street
Olathe, KS 66062
Phone: 1-800-800-1020
Fax: 913-440-5488
http://www.garmin.com

Posted: **21 Dec 2006 20:38**

A sincere Thank You Troy! I'm planning on a RAM mount, a bike power cable, and the topo disc. Thanks for the offer of help, once I get the disc if I get stumped I may take you up on it. I already installed the trip and waypoint manager.
Things are pretty slow at work so after tomorrow I'm taking a voluntary furlough until Jan 2nd, Larry's working.

Merry Christmas, Dean

Posted: **22 Dec 2006 08:38**

troy wrote:Cycoactive also has all the handlebar mounting and electrical wiring stuff you'll want. Btw, I went with the simply plastic mounting cradle and am very happy with it. Others spent $100+ for the super-duper metal cradle with additional shock absorbing...but my sub $30 plastic one is doing great.

I have the $100 cradle and told Troy to stick with the $12 one ... If you buy a kit from CycoActive you will get the plastic RAM cradle, extension bar, and handlebar mount fro around $30:
http://www.cycoactive.com/ram/default.htm

Individual mounting parts are at: http://www.cycoactive.com/ram/parts.html

In terms of wiring you have several options. Simplest is buying a garmin cable and direct wiring the input end to your battery.

I bought a battery charger cable and wired that to my battery. Then I attached a similar two-prong SAE end (available in the trailer parts section of auto parts stores) to the Garmin cable. WalMart sells a 2-prong SAE to cigar lighter converter for $3 or so which then allows you to connect other devices.

Posted: **23 Dec 2006 06:01**

Thanks Troy and Mike, I have the mount and hardwire kit on the way from cycoactive, the topo discs were $25 cheaper from another place.

Posted: **28 Dec 2006 10:00**

MapSource install option 2:

If you don't want to use a bit over a 1GB of HDD space (see Troy's instructions in a post above)

AND

you don't want to swap between CDs

you can copy all the MapSource CDs onto one DVD-R. You will still have "spin-up" time delays as MapSource signals the DVD drive to spin up for data access.

The file structure cannot be changed for this to work. Thus when you open the DVD-R you should see folders for Alaska, Hawaii, East, and West, etc. These folders cannot be placed in a root folder as MapSource won't find the maps. You accomplish this by dragging the entire CD contents over to the DVD (using your burning software ...) without creating a root directory.

Posted: **30 Dec 2006 16:01**

Thanks guys, I got the topo discs yesterday and installed mapsource. I ended up taking it back off and installing like Troy said. all to hard drive except Alaska and Hawai. I've been working with it and finally got east loaded to the SD card. I have a hard time telling what's what but I'm getting there.
When it starts to be a pain, I get away from it for a while. I loaded a tour route to google earth and overflew it, that was cool! Dean

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