RBR: a tale of two days, a dead GPS, several top tips and a few observations. Long.

It all started so well. Never a good sign.

Set off just before noon yesterday, traffic around King's X was even
more mental than normal, and it took an hour to get to the start of
the Westway.

Filled up at Park Royal, then off up the A40/M40.

More traffic mayhem on the motorway, due to an "accident" on the hill
down to High Wycombe. A LardRover, towing a BFO boat had managed to
end up on its roof. Rubberneckers had conspired to create a tailback
almost to the M25 junction. Of course, on a bike this was no problem,
except my filtering progress was delayed by a couple on an enormous
BMW Rockster, and then another couple on a massive Pan13.

Eventually they got the message and I was able to continue at more
than 20-25mph.

Then the problems started.

The GPS had a "route calculation error". No worries: Pull off M40 at
J6, and <find/waypoint/goto>. Simple. No. Well, sort of. It found the
way point, and it calculated a route. "Go north". i.e. no roads.
Several attempts had the same result. Hmm. Tried other waypoints. No
joy. Checked that all the maps were loaded. Fine. Check pannier for
road atlas. Arse.

Turned round, and set off for home.

Awful lot of sports cars out today: several Ferraris, an E-type,
Countach, Aston DB5 and DB-S. Oh, and a brace of Corvette Stingrays.

Lots of bikes going north on the M40: wonder why?

GPS wouldn't even find a route to "Home". Luckily, I'd been there
before, so knew the way.

At home tried to make myself useful. Got mower out. Grass box kept
clogging, so I resolved to mow without it.

Top Tip #1: if you do this, don't do it with the "exhaust" pointing at
the washing line, unless you fancy a good nagging at.

To get out of the firing line, I went shopping. When packing the
groceries, noticed something behind the CD changer in the pannier.

Oh, lovely. A five week old pack of sliced corned beef. It was mostly
liquid. I didn't open it. Ew.

Got home and watched the TT stuff on ITV4. Reloaded mapsets, waypoints
and specifically a "route" from the PC into the GPS. Early kip.

Woke up at five with a rather unpleasant bout of acid reflux. Ick.

Decided to make an early start, so set off once more, around 6:30.

GPS seemed to be fine, into town, up Regent Street, and along the
Marylebone Road to the Westway. Which was closed. Arse.

So, off through Ladbroke Grove, and rejoined the Westway at Acton.

I notice they've finally got round to the Acton Bridge widening
project. It was going to happen "soon" in 1988 when I bought one of
those flats behind the construction site.

Another accident on the M40 this morning too - a small car on its
roof. No tailback though - presumably insufficient traffic at that
time of the morning.

Found landmark one for the day [Boarstall Tower] quite easily, but
it's only open on Wednesdays. Still, I can take a picture anyway.

Back on the road, and the GPS was fine, as long as I wanted to follow
my route: if I went off course, it had a tantrum.

Still, it was workable, just, and, in a fit of imbecility, there still
wasn't a road atlas in the pannier.

Landmark #2 was the Wellington Aviation museum at Moreton in the
Marsh. Typically, it was closed. Just as I'd finished, and had
remounted to set off, the curator turned the sign on the door to
"open". Subtle.

Still, it was a lovely ride out in some wonderful countryside.

From MitM it was on towards Droitwich. This landmark had proved tricky
to locate, but local knowledge proved invaluable, and I was soon
pointed in the direction of the plaque commemorating the restoration
of the Droitwich Canal.

A short blast up the M5 was remarkable only for a complete lack of
caravans upside down on the hard shoulder. There always has been one
every other time I've ridden on the M5.

Into the delightfully named village of Lickey End, and I located the
Edward VII coronation memorial pretty easily. I filled up for the
second time, and headed off up the M42, then peeled off onto the M40
towards home.

At J12, I turned off, and collected my fifth and final landmark of the
day: the village pump at Kineton.

Back onto the M40 at the same junction, and settled into the long slog
home. Off the Marylebone road at Park Crescent, and down Portland
Place into Regent Street. It was here that the traffic was held up,
while some vacuous tart in a silver Merc (reg no T4RA P) performed a
right turn at an "ahead only" junction. Yes, it was the scrawny
halfwit, I checked before giving her some well-chosen advise on her
driving, inter alia.

Back home, finished off the lawn properly, and watched some more TT
stuff on ITV4.

Another Top Tip: if you put your name down to go to the TT, don't back
out later, like some spineless arse, or you'll regret it.

So, in summary, the RBR's back on track, my GPS is dead, and the lawn
is nicely mown.

Recommendations for a replacement for my GPS V ? I've refreshed the
software, changed the file type to .gps and still it says "go up the
M4 to some point, then head south". Not very helpful.

Zumo's any good? I'd prefer Garmin, as I'm used to the software. I am
of course assuming it's the same on these new fangled items.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..89520../..24457.../..31896.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 10 Pts:0180 Miles:0653

 

I have a 550. I like the way it works and I'd buy it again. It comes
with a mount for the bike and one for the cage too.

PS. As always, I like reading the RBR reports and seeing the pictures.

 

Will it take a RAM mount? Does it need wiring in?

You are the wind beneath my wings.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..89520../..24457.../..31896.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 10 Pts:0180 Miles:0653

 

It comes with a simple RAM mount. I just put it on my existing mount.
You need to (or at least should) provide power to the mount. There are
audio out and Mic in jacks on the mount too.

 

Anne has a Zumi 300 with which she is happy.