GPSing

GPSing

In 1996 I was on one of the first motorcycle rides of what became my motorcycle group called AFMC (American Flyers Motorcycle Club). We were in northern Vermont at Shelburne Farms on Lake Champlain. We had had a very cold October ride through Vermont, warming our hands at every stop, like the Warren Country Store. In fact, it was that ride that convinced me to upgrade to a BMW R1100RT, which has guided my motorcycle rides of choice ever since. The biggest selling point had been the heated handgrips, which I had never really understood until that frigid ride through the colorful hills. On the last morning of the ride, with our final destination being the Robinson Barn in Woodstock, we were scheduled to depart at 8am from Shelburne Farm where the heating system left a lot to be desired. We gathered as we always do in the circular driveway in front. Those of us who were on our game were suited up and ready to go, while others were hopping around on one foot trying to put on extra warm clothing. During all the fuss, one of the new guys I had just met, Bob Kirby, was showing off a new invention he was testing out. It was a very early model handheld GPS.

That GPS looked like a current day satellite phone with a hard, stubby antenna. The 1.5 inch green screen had a blip for our location and a Lat/Long Coordinate, the type we all see regularly but ignore as generally indecipherable. Bob tried to explain what this new gadget could be used for and I remember us all sitting there scratching our heads. Bob was an ex-Naval officer, so he was very used to navigational coordinates and how to use them. The rest of us had trouble connecting to how we would use this tool in our daily lives. Plugging in a coordinate and watching how close you were coming to it on an otherwise blank stream seemed a lot like hunting and pecking in the dark. It seemed like it should be cool, but in a Popular Mechanics sort of way, not so much on a practical day-to-day level.

My inability to grasp the importance of the technological vision imbedded in a new device was even further on display when they announced the advent of Bluetooth in 1998. The first question anyone might ask is where the name comes from. In those days, the days of Nokia and Ericsson, Scandinavia was leading the way technologically (at least in wireless) and they connected their heritage to the product by naming it after their Danish King Harald Bluetooth, which is the Anglicized version of the Danish name Blatand. The product was conceived to connect devices seamlessly for up to 10 meters at 2.5 milliwatts to connect portable and fixed devices to one another. I must admit, given that WiFi had been introduced the year before and it seemed so much more robust, I couldn’t really understand why Bluetooth added value, which really just meant that I neither understood the technology nor did I have a vision for what has come to be known as the Internet of Things.

One of the important applications of Bluetooth (and there are way too many to recount at this point) is to connect us to our GPS devices. In rental cars, we just connect our mobile phones to the car and we have full hands-free calling, music playing capability and the connection of Google Maps or Apple Maps to the car’s dashboard display screen. On my motorcycle, I Bluetooth my helmets to the bike’s navigation system, which allows me to merge my cellular phone with my onboard GPS and the onboard Sirius radio system so I can listen to that through my helmet. Our iPhones have become the center of our universes. My iPhone’s Bluetooth system shows seven preset paired devices ranging from AirPods to my cars, my motorcycles and my helmets, not to mention other audio devices like remote speakers and whatnot. The iPhone is truly the main event in our lives and the thing that really makes it so is the ability to connect with just about any device via Bluetooth. Many people don’t both buying GPS units anymore since they just use their phones when they travel or even when they are at home.

The buggy thing I find about my motorcycle GPS systems, which are generally made by Garmin, is that you have to always be downloading updated maps. In my Mercedes or Tesla, those map updates happen automatically and usually during the night. But every time I want to travel somewhere, I feel I have to check my GPS maps to make sure they are up to date. The other thing is that portable and interchangeable motorcycle GPS units are kinda clunky to program on. They are meant for easy use with gloved hands, but ease of trip input is way down on the list of features. Before I go on a trip I always bring the unit into the house and program it from a comfortable seat since it takes a long time to figure out each new time I use it and the instructions are more repetitive than not. I usually get the job done, but none too swiftly.

Yesterday I was at the BMW dealership waiting for the return of my bike from the service department. I was doing what guys do at a dealership and was looking at the new models. I have no intention of upgrading since I think my current 2019 R1250GS-Adventure is as good a bike as I have ever owned. But being a gadget guy, I was curious about the new bigger flat screens on the new touring models. Those screens were as wide as the one in my Mercedes and probably three times the width of the flat screen on my current bike. I asked to see it on and when I saw the Navigation toggle I asked the salesman to show that screen to me. He said he couldn’t because it needed to be hooked up to a phone app. I joked that he was going to force me to buy a new bike just to get this new gadget. He quickly corrected me and told me I could simply download the app and connect it to my existing bike since I have a 2019 model.

This was amazing news to me and the thought of being able to integrate GPS with my onboard system and ditch the GPS Nav sounded like great news. I wasted no time in downloading the app and signing up for the new BMW Motorrad Connection service. After going through the setup and downloading the maps I would most likely need (CA-South, CA-North, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico) I went to the trouble to learn how to create and download a GPX file so I could load in my upcoming Arizona/New Mexico trip. After doing all of that I went back out to the bike and found that it all worked except for one small issue. The onboard display (allied a TFT) would show the turn-by-turn, but not a color map of the route. The Nav synched with the TFT and it showed the map, which meant that I wasn’t missing anything, but I still needed the Nav to have a proper visual.

Now I suppose I’ll have to ask if I can retrofit my bike with the new, bigger display that will allow for full integration of the map, but I won’t do that until after this next trip when I get a chance to try out the newest GPS upgrade and see if it leaves me wanting or if it works just fine. It’s tiring keeping up with all the latest GPSing.