Modern Vespa

Would you post your charging and mounting mods for iPhone/smart phone?
Curious as to placement, secure mounting, charging and visibility for directions.
Thank you!!

I tried a car hands-free mounting stuck on my windscreen with a suction fastening, just so I could try out a GPS app to guage a more accurate speedo reading for my Vespa. I only had it on for a few kilometers to give me an idea of my true speed at different speed limits, and I took it back off. I didn't want to trust my Iphone on there in case it fell off.
Interested to see other's ideas for more secure placement myself.

Originally I had this set up for my RAM mount

Duplicate post

But Stahh of MV convinced me that this set up was much better. I've also added a waterproof Satnav holder that attaches to the RAM mount

Thank you everyone

Pretty much always have my iPhone on my bike.. Usually have TomTom map on it to see my speed and to where I'm going.

Here are a few photos where you can see the setup. I use Ram mount on my mirror and used it for a long time and it works great!

That looks good

I've heard many people use iphone for navigation. Why not dedicated GPS unit?

I really dont understand standalone GPS.. phone is always with you and if you buy a TomTom app or similar.. it is a dedicated GPS that works just as good and always with you on the bike and you take it with you when you go. Would never have a standalone GPS again!

I'm using this..

In the US, we have an app called Waze. Waze is a community of GPS users and the users can add all kinds of updates and it's live. Check it out. But, you need data to run it.

OK, I suppose you'll need the 12V plug in for phone/GPS. I know a scooter for sale that has that available too.

Maybe not for a car but in bright sunlight it is really hard to see the display on a phone or a dedicated GPS intended to be used inside a car. I have tried both. I now have a Garmin Zumo and can see the display in most conditions. Plus it is waterproof and the physical and screen buttons are designed to be used with gloves on.

I love Waze though it is hard to completely participate when riding/driving alone. It has saved us some time though avoiding traffic tie ups.

Using Google Maps for directions is going to use up a metric shittonne of mobile data. Unless you have an unlimited mobile data plan. I wouldn't do it. It also won't do much for you if you get outside of a coverage area.

I use the TomTom iPhone app for navigation and I find it works really well. You can load all of the maps onto the phone so that you don't need mobile data at all, but you can use it for traffic updates and the like.

I find the display too small to really look at while riding. So I am trusting the voice through my bluetooth headset for guidance. I also use my iPhone for music while riding, so it helps me to have phone, music and GPS consolidated into a single unit.

I have a RAM mount attached to my rear view mirror stalk on the left side of the bike. I power the phone with a power outlet installed on the left knee pad.

This is my iPhone mount.

The RAM X-Grip seems to hold the phone pretty well. I haven't noticed any slippage.

My iPhone case isn't waterproof. But it's easy enough to put the phone into a ZipLok bag in the rain.

The choice of GPS/satnav is personal and depends on many factors. One loves combo stuff, another one loves dedicated stuff. I belong to the latter group.
Sergeibelski wrote "a phone is always with you": ha ha, not in my case. 8)
Yes, I keep it for emergency.... However, when I went down on mountain road with no cellular signal , the phone was not helpful, good compassionate strangers were. Again, it is just my opinion and I am not pushing it to others. I made my phone shut up. Nobody calls me anymore, I have my peace.
C'mon, my GPS unit never calls me, isn't it the biggest advantage of dedicated gps?

. Thanks for the tip!!

I use an old Motorola Droid X with a DIY modified suction cup mounted to the top of my Vespa PX glovebox when needed, handy for maps, route tracking and a GPS accurate speedometer. Its tethered to my iPhone via wifi in my pocket.

With the Droids brightness all the way up in sunlight to works well. Not bad for something I would have just thrown away cause its outdated as a phone

What is the name or part number for the mirror mount part of that setup and where did you get it? I have some of the Ram mount stuff for 7/8" handlebars but don't have anything that's small enough to mount to a mirror stem and can't seem to find anything online.

I always carry my phone with me so I don't need another unit. One unit is also better than two. You can pre-load the maps and use them offline.

I took a look at the Ram website and these are the parts that I got from them:

http://www.rammount.com/Products/AppleMounts/iPhoneMounts/RAMHOLAP11U/tabid/5052/Default.aspx


RAM-HOL-AP11U RAM Model Specific Cradle for the Apple iPhone 5s and 5

RAM-B-149ZU RAM Handlebar Rail Mount with Zinc Coated U-Bolt Base

All of it is $42... I'm really happy with it, nice clean look in my opinion and works great.

Sergei

I just installed the RAM mount to my Bud and am really please with how it holds my GPS.

I'm in the dedicated GPS group because I'm in trouble if anything ever happened to my phone so it stays in the pet carrier. Plus I don't need the distraction of FB messages or news updates while on the road. I also have a Pebble watch with Bluetooth so if I get a call I'll feel a slight vibration in my wrist so I know to pull over if I need to return the call.

I use MotionX but the basic principle is the same, iPhone in my pocket and either Bluetooth or wired headset (less battery consuming) with the screen off. I've also got an extended battery almost identical in size to the iPhone I can plug into with a short iPhone to usb cable I can also recharge in my pocket if needed. I've been known to put both in a waterproof pouch connected to a mount on the mirror. I had a Zumo but wasn't as pleased with it as I'd expected finding it not much better in bright light than a car or phone gps. Screen cracked and when we replaced the cracked screen the touch registration was so far off it was useless.

I've used the RAM mount with my iPhone with alerts turned off. It works really well. For powering up, I use a cigarette outlet that connects to my battery tender plug. No wiring or drilling needed.

I'm using an iPhone app for taking video of my rides. The app is called DashCam, and it shows a thumbnail of the map, while also showing metrics like time, speed, etc.

I bought a mirror-stem mount, not RAM, but it seems to be well made. The problem/question is that it vibrates too much. I used a strip of bicycle inner tube as a buffer, but it hasn't eliminated the problem. Any suggestions?

In my opinion there's nothing better than ram mounts. I have one for the gps and another that i use for my phone or, in the case of last weekend's ride, my iPod.

Someone just lost a phone using a ram x grip.I have a few Ram products but not x grip.I wonder why him/hers fell out?
I'm digging my zumo 550 hope it lasts many more years to come.Its Ram mounted! Have swivel drink holders too.

The X-Mount works great on phones in rubberized cases. With a bare phone not so much. But if you have a naked phone, RAM probably makes a dedicated holder for it anyway.

Must have been naked because I know you guys wouldn't use if not safe.

Was it helpful at all to change the background brightness of the GPS?

I was looking at the Garmin Zumo and it is really nice but expensive, but I am going to give it some thought, thanks for the suggestion!

^ and you can get XM on them

I too had an iPhone come out of the x-grip. I still use it from time to time but not without a rubber band around it to make sure it doesn't slip out again.

I've also heard reports of phones dropping out of the X-Grip holder. Still, I have a great deal of trust in RAM mounts.

Recently, I ordered this one...

http://www.amazon.com/RAM-Mounts-Universal-Holder-RAM-HOL-PD3/dp/B0088LL7UA/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1401860267&sr=8-10&keywords=ram+phone+mount

...also by RAM. It's for my naked Razr M, and it's just completed it's first trip on the motorcycle...700 miles of highway and byway...and held the phone securely. It's "universal" which means it probably doesn't do anything perfectly, but after a little tweaking of the adjustable holding pegs, making sure they didn't press up against any controls and were not in the way of the power plug, it was good to go.

I still prefer my dedicated GPS for serious travel, but it's nice to have the phone as a back-up. Incidentally, I've been using the CoPilot GPS app. The maps are resident on the phone.

Menhir, Do you use free version of CoPilot?

I downloaded the free version several weeks ago just to play around with it. My motivation was that my Garmin Nuvi 550 is getting old and is showing it. I wanted a backup GPS in case it failed.

The free version has the same basic utility as paid version(s). Some options disappear after about a 10 day trial period. "Active Traffic" and "Full voice-guided 3D Navigation" are two of them. If you like them, you can purchase them for keeps later.

I ended up buying the voice-guided 3D Navigation for around $10.00 or so. I can't even hear it when I'm riding...I don't have a bluetooth receiver in my helmet...but it's nice for the car.

You get to choose your first map. It's downloaded to, in my case, the phone's internal memory. I don't recall an option to download the maps to my SD card, which I would have probably preferred, but I'm OK either way.
Make sure you have a wireless connection, because the download is large. I chose the US map. In retrospect, I probably should have chosen the US/Canada map, which is marginally larger.

You have a lot of voices, themes, and several different night and day displays you can choose from. There's also, for those of us who like living in glass houses, automatic social medial connection options so you can let everyone else who doesn't have a life of their own exactly when you've arrived and where. I believe they are disabled by default...Thank God.
I pretty much disabled anything that requires data usage.

Well, in short...It's worked fine so far.

Give it a go.

The suction cup is a simple set up, but going 60 mph on the highway ... I would be afraid, besides I think people would take it while parked as I go grocery shopping!

Even though this thread is a couple of years old, now that it's been revived, I'd like to update my previous post regarding the CoPilot GPS app.

First off, the app now gives users the option to download the maps to an SD card. That was a major issue that's been resolved. Anyway, in the last couple of years the amount of internal memory on phones has vastly increased. My current phone doesn't even have an SD card and there's still plenty of available memory.

Second, I've been using the app for several years now and I'm very happy with it. It was my backup. I can see it becoming my primary. The search function(s) is far superior to my Nuvi550, which is downright poor.

At this point, if my Nuvi bit the proverbial dust, I probably wouldn't even bother replacing it. It's still my go-to device because it's waterproof and the screen is glove-sensitive, but I think the phones will catch up in that area soon enough. When they do...