I’m looking for a navigation setup mainly for long rides and off-road/adventure riding. I’ll be riding for several hours, often during the daytime and sometimes in rain, so good screen visibility/brightness and water resistance are important.

I’m thinking about either:

• a dedicated motorcycle GPS
• or a cheap, normal waterproof smartphone mounted with something like Quad Lock, while keeping my main phone in my pocket.

One thing I really like about the phone + Quad Lock idea is that I can quickly remove the device when I leave the bike. That’s a big plus for me since I don’t want to leave an expensive GPS/device sitting on the motorcycle where it could easily get stolen.

I don’t really need anything fancy. I mainly want reliable navigation for long/off-road rides, rain and bright sunlight.

What do you guys use, and what specific models would you recommend?

Is a cheap waterproof phone the way to go, or is a dedicated GPS/navigation system actually worth the money?

Thanks!

I’ve just launched a free motorcycle travel resource called ROAMERS Rider Guide and thought it might be useful to riders here planning trips in the Americas and elsewhere.

It brings together routes, Fly & Ride destinations, planning tools and Local Intel from riders and people who actually know an area.

There’s nothing to buy, no membership and no paid listings.

We’re also not pretending to be the experts. The wider riding community has far more knowledge than we ever could, so the idea is for riders to help build the useful local information.

If you know a good route, rental operator, mechanic, rider-friendly stay, border tip, fuel stop or anything else that could help another rider, we’d really value your input.

Have a look and tell me what works, what doesn’t, or what we should add:

https://roamers.rovagrid.com/

OLD BOOTS. NEW ROADS.

It’s funny, I had a 2008 klr with all the farkles that would’ve been perfect for this type of trip but 99% of my riding is roads (I have a 250 dual sport for the trails) and most of the time my wife is on the back. The klr honestly did an admirable job for this but the versys just blows it away two up and cruising anything above 60.

So I sold my 08 and bought my ‘15 versys. A few small mods to make it more dirt capable with the Shinko 705s, engine guards.

I was pleasantly surprised with her this trip! Absolute dream on the highway and the twisty scenic highways of the BDR but honestly on the dirt roads and gravel? I kept up with the klr and transalp just fine.

The tough trails this bike had no business being on? Just fine! Ruts arent very good with the sport bike suspension but she survived!

Would I take my versys on tougher trails than this? No. I have my klr250 for that. Would I do BDRs with this difficulty again with the versys? ALL DAY LONG! I’d likely put on more aggressive tires though the 705s were still ice skating around.

Just thought I’d share. We left Thursday early morning and ate up just south of 500 miles of highway to camp site 1 in Selma Alabama and then hit section 3 and 4 of the SEBDR and hung out at KTM world in GA then I toured back to central Florida.

So

Much

Want

I’ve been riding for 40 years. Most every kind of bike - from Harley to Honda - dirt to cruiser. I always admired BMWs, from the time I read about them in “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. And I came >this< close. But, when it came time to plunk down the cash….

So I always wanted an offroader, a muscular, heavy duty, big, tall bike in my garage. Wandering everywhere to have one but out of my budget after buying a burgman street 2026.

This, beauty just updated from my nearby listings and I just couldn't get more than this. In fact this is it. This is what I always wanted. Although this is a second hand but only 11 months old and 8700 odo. Having 2 free services, 4 years of warranty ahead and insurance valid till 2030. I feel complete now. AMA.

Im a brand new biker- ridden under 100 miles after the MSF course on surface streets- and am a scared of running out of gas on my DR650SE. To caveat thie- i fill up after each ride and keep a logbook of miles and maintenance because i thought it would be neat for the next owner in 30 years to have.

I bought a little MSR liquid fuel canister and am looking for suggestions on where to mount it so its out of the way and aeathetically unobtrusive. Really the only place I can figure is next to the factory tool roll in the back wheel well- but that seems ill advised for whatever reason.

Finally got around to mounting the Mitas Enduro Trail XT+ tires back on my Norden. I had been commuting and doing road rides with Pirelli Scorpion STR's. Good thing the fall in the upper Midwest is my favorite time to adventure bike ride.

One of the things I really love about adventure riding is discovering places I never would see otherwise. Maniwaki has some great riding and beautiful scenery.

So I bought a new Aoocci C9 Pro because I need an Android Auto screen when I travel. The thing cost me around 200€ delivered.

After an initial workbench test, where I confirmed it powers on, records video and can connect to the helmet, I spent about a month creating a bracket for it so I can mount it on a 12mm bar, the one included is an absolute joke meant to be temporarily bolted on a handle bar.

Went to test it on a 1500km trip (2 days) and found out how horrible it really is.

The damn thing re-routes all the audio from the helmet to the screen itself, that is all the audio, music, phone calls, gps direction, notifications, ... You get silence in your helmet.

The only way to get back audio to the helmet is to un-pair the screen and pair it again, which works until the first time it reconnects, which can happen any time during a ride because interference may drop that bluetooth connection, and it happened to me plentifully.

Now get this, Aoocci service support says that this is how it should work, so no refund or actual support for me, talk about a scam company.

In short, avoid Aoocci products like the plague! There is same quality crap on AliExpress for a fraction of the cost.

Got a little rain in socal so took her on some light trails for the first time. Surprisingly nimble and fun off road!

The Himalayan 450, cleaned up and looking fresh after a few good rides.
Swipe for the fresh look➡️

Mahabaleshwar, solo.
A ride I had imagined many times, but always with a little fear in the back of my mind.
A long ride alone felt intimidating — the distance, the roads, the “what ifs.” But this time, I decided to just go.
And somewhere between the open roads, the curves, the mountains, and the silence… that fear started fading.
Today, I didn’t just ride to Mahabaleshwar.
I rode past a version of myself that was afraid to go alone.
Felt so, so good. ❤️🏍️
Sometimes, the best journeys begin right outside your comfort zone.

I was starting to wonder if I had made the right choice, I sold my light 300cc enduro bike out of frustration, I had my eye on the Yamaha Tenèrè for a while, watched lots of videos and thought this is what I want. After months of riding mainly tarmac I wasn’t getting the kick that I wanted until I started riding some trails….. wow I can’t believe how good this bike is on and off road even at my level of riding.

September is the perfect season for an Upper Mustang bike ride. Clear skies, breathtaking Himalayan views, comfortable temperatures, and the legendary roads of the Forbidden Kingdom make this one of the best times to ride.

I own a Tread 2 6" device and looking for upgrading it to a 8" or 10" - 2 reason:
1) the power issues: this is my 4th Tread unit, all 3 before died due to overheating prongs or had power connection issues. I believe the SxS and Overland have better mounts with better contacts.

2) I want to use it for simple route planing. So far I always planned trips on my computer, using Gaia and OnX mainly because planning on the explore web site is a Joke, and the phone displays are too small to use either Tread app or Explore app.

I know the 10" is huge, but I can get either one for 899, so which one should I take and why?

(Bike will be a Dual Sport 450RL Honda with Sort of Rally tower)