Looking for best GPS for under $250

[SkullDaddy]

Hi All,

I'm going on a several day journey through the Berkshires and NYS and thought it might be nice to have a GPS in case I get really lost or in desperate need of gas. THe TomTom Rider 2 is great but way more than I want to spend right now. Three things, I'm a newby to GPS gadgets, I'm a Mac user and I'd like to keep the price at $250 or less. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

Also route suggestions & restaurant ideas for the Berkshires and NYS to Rochester are kindly welcomed.

[woodyracing]

I've got a TomTom One that I like, its pretty simple to use IMO.  Not sure on the mac compatibility but I believe they are between $100-200 (mine was a gift, so not sure on exact price)
I used it for finding good roads for group rides in Mississippi and it worked very well.  I'll tell ya if it can capably navigate the backroads of Snell, Mississippi, it'll do just about anything. 
Obviously I avoid having to input anything while riding if at all possible but the touch screen does do okay with gloves on so if you need to change your destination or something while riding, it won't drive you nuts trying to do it with gloves on.

[The Architect]

I picked up a Garmin streetpilot c340 form buy.com.  I think it was about $130.  It works great.  It's simple and easy to use.  The newer models have larger displays.

I also picked up a mounting system from ram-mount.com. 

The garmin came already loaded with a map of the whole US.  You can go onto garmin's website to download any Mac applications.

[ute]

 gotta say plus one on the TomTom

just dd a 9000 km vacaton  did not  miss a  beat ...................lots of downloadable poi's to get as well ( point of iterest)

[Bick]

Just don't shut your shut your brain off when you power up your GPS:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080806/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_lost_convoy

I do like my Motorad (BMW branded Garmin), but that is just slightly more (4x) than your stated budget.

I have been very happy with TeleNav on my Blackberry.  Sure, if you are on your bike, it is not right in front of you, but it fits easily in your pocket.  An 8800 shoud be @ $100 as an upgrade.

[Pakhan]

Garmin Zumo 550 is awesome.  not in the under $250 range, but definitely the best for car and mc use.  list price is $1,000 but you can get it on Amazon for about $670
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-00567-00-3-5-Inch-Motorcycle-Navigator/dp/B000H2W4E6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1218138491&sr=8-1

[thejsnide]

I was at Sam's Club the other day and they had a couple of different options all under $250...  IMO the best one they had a was a Garmin NUVI for about $170...  I bought a TomTom for my girlfriend and it works well most of the time... sometimes it will tell you to stay left when the arrows indicate right or take the second left and there is only one...  Big advantage of the TomTom that appealed to my girl is that she can have Mr. T (and other celebs) yell the directions at her... Quotes... Don't give me no Jibba Jabba, Mr. T don't get no tickets, and he also growls occasionally... 

Personally, I would get a Garmin simply because they are extremely user friendly from the ones I have seen... The TomTom has lots of features that I hardly use...  Good luck and let us know what you end up with

[SkullDaddy]

Thanks all for your advice. I went with the TomTom One XL 330 ($210.00). I thought it might be a good way to go if I did eventual did go for the TomTom Rider. I also bought the RAM mount with the short arm from White Horse Gear. I really can't say enough great things about those guys and their customer service, but more on that another time.

I got a great chance to field test the whole set up with a road trip from Boston, MA to Rochester, NY and back with plenty of time in the Adirondacks and Berkshires (a great time!). Got to say lots to love and hate with these things. First thing the RAM mount system. I love this thing, brilliantly made and the short arm was the perfect length. The GPS however was a hit and miss experience. On the positives, so much nicer to use than maps and the count down to turns and turn offs are easy to read when on the bike were you'd rather keep your eye on the road. Also it quickly remaps for you when you miss your turn and gets you back on track fast and simply. The points of interests is great too for finding the gas station in the middle of nowhere. The maps are very up to date and only on a couple of circumstances could it not find an exact address though I definitely felt as though I could find where I needed to be. Oh yeah and it's fairly Mac friendly a big plus for me.
On the downside, don't let this thing map a route for you without careful supervision!!! The first map I let thing do for me drove me though the heart of Downtown Boston, which is something most sensible people will avoid. I thought I'd give it a try though, but as soon as we got in amongst the tall building the GPS got all haywired and confused with the map spinning as though in a vortex. It was a disaster. Next time I let it pick the route on its own it sent me from above Albany NY down to Pennsylvania then back up to lake Ontario, all because I wanted to avoid Tolls. I had to punch in a series of way points in order to get it go in a more reasonable direction (thus cutting 4 hours out of the trip it had planned). The only other complaint is that it is difficult to read in direct sunlight, however the numbers indicating when to turn can be picked out in the glare so it keeps it in a functional way.

All in all I think it was good investment and with more use I'll probably work around some of the complaints I have with it. I do wish however that I could simply import maps worked out on Google directly into the GPS, right now all I can import are the endpoints. Google does a far better job mapping out the routes that avoid tolls and highways and far easier to adjust the map to include side trips.

Thanks again to everyone who offered their thoughts.
Happy riding, I'm off to try a new route today!
Mark

[He Man]

Im still using a $5 map, a pencil and a piece of paper + tape. lol

When im wandering, i use my 8820 GPS just remember every 5 turns and stop to look at it again.

[FatguyRacer]

Im still using a Garmin Legend C i bought 2 1/2 years ago and a RAM mount. I like the Legend C. But it's getting tired and there's a Legend Cx that has a mini SD card port so I can put more map on the unit. Gamin has a North American map set preloaded on Mini SD for about 100 bucks and I've seen the Cx as low as 150 dollars.

My favorite thing about the map sets and the unit is being able to find the closest gas station when im somewhere i've never been before and the yellow light comes on.

[Buckethead]

Thread: Bookmarked.

This'll be me in a few months.

[triangleforge]

Just don't shut your shut your brain off when you power up your GPS:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080806/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_lost_convoy

+1 on letting your good sense override whatever the GPS might tell you, especially if you're in a state that has a lot of unpaved roads in its state "highway" system. Here in Arizona, a lot of the road that shows up in the Garmin City Navigator database is gravel & may not have seen maintenance for a number of years. I was putzing my way back from Phoenix to Prescott (in a 2WD pickup hauling a trailer) and decided I'd explore some back routes that I thought were paved. The GPS led me on a fun little odyssey of washouts, deep sand and two-track roads that never actually got me where I intended to go.  Mostly it was fun, but would have been a different story had I been low on gas or on the Monster with street tires. 

[redxblack]

anyone looking to buy a gps might want to check out the navigon 2100. it's pretty inexpensive and works great. I like it. I don't have it mounted on the bike though.