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Attaching Gps To A Bicycle


Nick428

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Have you considered a RAM Mount RAM Mounts

 

The following kit will allow you to attach your Garmin to the handlebars (up to 1" diameter) of a bike.

 

RAM-B-149Z-GA5

 

This is slightly more expensive than the Garmin mount, but IMHO soooooo much better.

 

I use one on my mountain bike all the time, and they are fantastic as they allow you to adjust the position of the GPS for optimal viewing, which the Garmin mount does not.

 

I got one about 2 months ago, and would not be without it.

 

Adrian :blink:

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The thought of attaching something so nice to my handlebars makes my skin crawl.. but then again, I'm also prone to baby my equipment. :blink:

Me too. I was a little apprehensive about cluttering up my handlebars, but after I mounted it, I thought it looked ok on my bike.

 

[edit]

 

Regarding the Garmin vs RAM bicycle mounts: I am a big fan of RAM. They make strong, quality stuff. However, in this case, I might recommend the Garmin product.

 

The Garmin bicycle mount is tiny. It's so small that when you remove the GPS, the mount is barely visible. The RAM, in keeping with it's rugged design, is large. Sure, it's better built, but the Garmin is pretty good.

 

The Garmin allows you to adjust the pitch, which I think is the most useful adjustment. The RAM allows yaw and roll adjustments too, which I don't think are as useful.

 

Jamie

Edited by Jamie Z
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I found out after buying the eTrex handlebar mount that it useless for most bikes. I tried placing it on my bars only to find out it takes up to much room that I did not have, Since I already have a cycling computer, heart rate monitor, and aero extensions on my road bars. In addition, my mountain and road bars are bigger than the one-inch diameter, at the spot I need to place the unit. Therefore, I have to use a plastic zip-tie into the hole where the bolt goes to mount it…So I just keep my gps’r in my back jersey pocket for now. :ph34r::blink::P

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I found out after buying the eTrex handlebar mount that it useless for most bikes. I tried placing it on my bars only to find out it takes up to much room that I did not have, Since I already have a cycling computer, heart rate monitor, and aero extensions on my road bars. In addition, my mountain and road bars are bigger than the one-inch diameter, at the spot I need to place the unit. Therefore, I have to use a plastic zip-tie into the hole where the bolt goes to mount it…So I just keep my gps’r in my back jersey pocket for now. :ph34r::blink::P

Of course you no longer need the cycling computer if you put your Garmin in the detail mode. It can show you everything on one screen.

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aero extensions on my road bars.

I found the aerobar to be a perfect place to mount the eTrex.

 

It's hard to explain (and I don't have pics) but the eTrex fit very nicely between the aerobar grips and where the aerobar mounts to the handlebars. I added an accessory to the aerobar to make a horizontal mount, and the eTrex sit right in the middle of the two bars. When I was upright, or on my aerobars, the GPS sat in perfect view. Not only that, but it effectively used no additional handlebar space.

 

I've since removed my aerobars (and gotten a Magellen) so I added a Spacebar to mount my GPS and light. It puts the GPS in the center, my preferred location.

 

Here's my current setup, from two perspectives:

 

IMG_6925.JPG

 

IMG_6926.JPG

 

Jamie

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I found out after buying the eTrex handlebar mount that it useless for most bikes. I tried placing it on my bars only to find out it takes up to much room that I did not have, Since I already have a cycling computer, heart rate monitor, and aero extensions on my road bars. In addition, my mountain and road bars are bigger than the one-inch diameter, at the spot I need to place the unit. Therefore, I have to use a plastic zip-tie into the hole where the bolt goes to mount it…So I just keep my gps’r in my back jersey pocket for now. :ph34r:  :D  :P

Of course you no longer need the cycling computer if you put your Garmin in the detail mode. It can show you everything on one screen.

Detail mode is no good for me :blink: It dosen't have cadence, trip elevation gain, climbing percent and cumulative altitude gain... That's just to name a few :P

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aero extensions on my road bars.

I found the aerobar to be a perfect place to mount the eTrex.

 

It's hard to explain (and I don't have pics) but the eTrex fit very nicely between the aerobar grips and where the aerobar mounts to the handlebars.

I think this is where my (Profile-Design Aero Drink System) is located. But I'll go and take a second look.. :blink:

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The problem that I had with the Garmin mount in the end was caused by my handlebar bag.

 

I do a lot of touring, and have a bar bag fitted most of the time that I tour, and indeed when I go caching, as its a convenient place for maps, swaps, food, etc.

 

To use the garmin mount with the bar bag meant that the etrex had to be almost vertical, which isn't too god for getting a lock with a patch antenna, it also meant that you couldn't read the screen.

 

The bar bag also meant that one of the spacebars was not a viable option either.

 

The RAM mount positions the GPS forward of the bars, and allows it to be horizontal above the bag, meaning that it is in a perfect viewing position (for me anyway).

 

Adrian :blink:

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thanx a lot for all the input guys, it seems thats people are fans of both the RAM and garmin mount. the ram seems really strong, but for those of you that use the garmin does it hold the GPS in place well? Room is not an issue for me, my main concern is that it doesn't go flying off anytime i drop off a curb on the street or rock on the trail.

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I'm new to the list and new to geocaching.

 

I have had experience with mounting my GPS to my bicycle though. I have a Garmin GPS V and had a GPS III before that. I got a mount from Garmin that works perfectly. I've even used it during a 17 mile mountain bike race with no trouble.

 

The one problem I had, early on, was that during an off road ride (ie mountain biking) the batteries would tend to bounce around subsequently causing the GPS to lose power and shutdown. I solved this problem by adding strips of scotch tape to the sides of the battery. The increase in the battery circumference was enough to solve the problem.

 

Jim

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I use my eMap on all my bike rides and it currently has accumulated a little over 40000 miles attached to my handlebars. I've used the Garmin mount and was not impressed by the durability. After only a few thousand miles the tab that holds the unit in position started to crack - no danger of it falling off, but it could rotate. Also looked at the RAM mount but didn't like the amount of vibration that allowed.

 

So far I still use the very simple attachment method of a couple rubberbands to hold the eMap on top of my stem. I keep a small foam pad on the stem and place the eMap on top of that, then I loop one rubberband under the stem and put both ends around the top part of the eMap and do the same around the bottom part with a second rubberband. I also loop the lanyard around the bars as a safety precaution, but it hasn't been needed yet.

 

The rubberbands do suffer from UV degradation so they need to be replaced frequently. But since the paperboy delivers a new one every morning I have an ample supply.

 

The advantages are:

foam pad underneath helps cushion the eMap from road vibrations and shocks;

rubberbands can give if the bike bumps against something - less chance of damaging the eMap;

easily moved between different bikes;

angle of screen can be adjusted to avoid glare from reflections

can be used together with a ziplock, GPS case, or other bags to protect from rain and/or screen scratches;

redundancy - both rubberbands and the lanyard would have to break before the eMap could fall off.

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thanx for the input guys. so far i'm still pretty sure i'm going to go with the garmin mount. peter the rubberband sounds like a good idea but i'm not sure how safe i would feel with my GPS attached like that. for road riding i think it would be fine but i'm a little aggresive when trail rideing so i'd be worried it would shift or the rubberband would snap. thanx for the idea though i definately may use it when riding a different bike.

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I think this is where my (Profile-Design Aero Drink System) is located. But I'll go and take a second look.. :D

Hmm... yeah that's where I had the eTrex. Oh well.

Maybe you should switch to a Camelbak. :P

 

The problem that I had with the Garmin mount in the end was caused by my handlebar bag.

 

I do a lot of touring, and have a bar bag fitted most of the time that I tour, and indeed when I go caching, as its a convenient place for maps, swaps, food, etc.

 

To use the garmin mount with the bar bag meant that the etrex had to be almost vertical, which isn't too god for getting a lock with a patch antenna, it also meant that you couldn't read the screen.

 

The bar bag also meant that one of the spacebars was not a viable option either.

UK, I'm a tourer also and I had this same dilemma. My solution was to use a high-mount front rack and then I use a trunk bag mounted backwards on the front rack. It results in the front bag being substantially lower than a handlebar bag, yet it's still accessible while I ride (admittedly not as accessible as a handlebar bag, but I can open it and grab contents) as well as giving my the room on my handlebars for my cockpit. Downside is that I have to have an entire front rack just to hold my front bag. That said, I like the setup better than any handlebar bags I've tried. I find they're too unstable. Theoretically, I could load something like 40lbs into my front bag, and it's still solid.

 

For this summer's proposed tour, I'm considering going completely without the front rack and bag in order to save some more weight.

 

Confused? Here's a pic. (Yes, those are fenders on there, too.)

 

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure the high-mount front racks are still quite popular in Europe. I had to search around the US to find one.

 

Jamie

Edited by Jamie Z
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for road riding i think it would be fine but i'm a little aggresive when trail rideing so i'd be worried it would shift or the rubberband would snap.

I actually found the ability of the rubberbands to stretch and allow a shift in position to be a significant advantage when offroad. When I crashed with the Garmin mount and the bike toppled against some branches the eMap ended up with some scratches and had obviously taken a pretty hard hit. After switching to the rubberband mount, a similar fall just results in the bands stretching and the eMap shifting position rather than absorbing the force of the impact.

 

I got my Garmin handlebar mount from Darrel at www.tvnav.com - not the best website but good service and knowledgeable about the products he carries.

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My solution was to use a high-mount front rack and then I use a trunk bag mounted backwards on the front rack.

 

I had considered this, but as I often use front panniers on lowrider pannier racks, I needed to mount my dynohub powered lamp to the centre of the fork crown, where it would be obscured by a front rack.

 

I did try to mount the garmin mount on my bar ends, but because of the angle the bend at, you couldn't see the screen.

 

The RAM mount works fantastically for me, and means that I haven't had to spend an age fiddling with my current setup to mount the GPS.

 

Adrian :P

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Well, as it turns out... I won't be doing any cyclecaching anytime in the near future.

 

This morning my bicycle (with the GPS still mounted as seen in the above pictures) was stolen from my apartment.

 

Over the course of today, I've realized that the stuff is relatively easily replaceable, but I'm really bummed about it.

 

:(:D:D

 

Jamie

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Well, as it turns out... I won't be doing any cyclecaching anytime in the near future.

 

This morning my bicycle (with the GPS still mounted as seen in the above pictures) was stolen from my apartment.

 

Over the course of today, I've realized that the stuff is relatively easily replaceable, but I'm really bummed about it.

 

:):D:blink:

 

Jamie

Holy crap that sucks, getting ones bike stolen, at least for me, would be like tearing out ones heart and soul. You have my deepest sympathy :)

 

Those ram mounts look pretty slick.

 

However, i have been mountain biking with a gps for years now (check out http://www.crankfire.com and my new beta mapper at http://www.crankfire.com/gis/index.php?tid=18 (sorry for the shameless plug :D ) ) - but what i found to work best for me is to just throw my gps into the mesh compartment on my camelback.

 

Of course if you don't wear a camelback or actually want to keep a close eye on your position, this method is kind of moot.

 

The first approach i took to this was to hack up a water bottle, make a gps holder out of with some foam and velcro and such, and secure it into my water bottle cage. That worked as well with more velcro. That worked out nicely as well.

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