Or…. The never ending story.

TL:DR I want a hybrid navigation device, that has the hardware of a Garmin device, but the software of an Android device. I found a Chinese device that seems promising, and I want to test it. What do you have, and what do you wish you had?

Everyone has different requirements of a nav solution, and there are a lot of opinions out there. Personally, I utilize two types of navigating. Point A-B, which I use mostly use Waze for, and track based navigating, which I use Guru maps for. On a few of my trips I figured out that Phones aren’t perfect for full time motorcycle use. Rain is a problem, due to charging issues and display issues. My waterproof iPhone’s charging system fails in the rain. The cable gets wet and stops charging. In addition rain drops make the iPhone screen jump around and hard to use. Add in that gloves are hard to use with modern phones, and it had me looking for a more stable solution.

I added a Garmin Montana (BMW Adventure Nav) to my bike, so that I wouldn’t run in to those issues again. The Garmin Montana is a very aged device, but its really good at a few things. It doesn’t fail in the rain, it can stay on my bike all the time locked in with a security screw, and its really good at tracked based navigating. I set up my iPhone on a mount right next to the Montana, and used both devices.

The problem I noticed is that I end up only using the iPhone, and the Montana is just there as a backup for extreme weather or as a safety net. The software on the Montana isn’t great, the screen is small, and its not bright enough. Other more “modern” Garmin Nav’s are not good at track based navigating, especially when it comes to displaying waypoints/bookmarks. The Montana will show the waypoint name on the map, where other Garmins do not. In addition, Waze or Google maps are always better than any Garmin based navigation.

So I got bored and started searching. It turns out there are some really cheap Chinese Navs that are meant for motorcycles, and run Android 6.0. They include some interesting features that make them appealing.

It comes with motorcycle specific mounts, and power leads.
It has a security screw to lock them in place.
It comes with resistive type touch screens just like the Montana, meaning you can use them with any gloves.
It runs android meaning they can run Waze and Guru maps. I can also install Apple Music on it and run it through my Bluetooth.

I haven’t purchased this yet to test, but at roughly $125, I’m definitely going to try it. I imagine that it’s not going to be perfect, but nothing is right now. Phones are great, but are hard to use with gloves and don’t have waterproof charging. Garmins are a premium product that are dated no matter what they do. I wish someone made a premium hardware android navigator, or even an Apple CarPlay display with a resistive screen, that integrated with the BMW wonder wheel. Actually, BMW should just give us CarPlay and Android Auto. Is there a downside to doing that? I believe some Honda’s have it (goldwing?)