Bigtallfatbloke said:
ok...this sounds interesting.
How is it done and exactly what gizmos are required?
How much does it cost in terms of the 'gizmos' and any ongoing costs when using etc?
If I got lost in the backstreets of a big city could it get me out and on my way without having to get off the bike every junction?
You can get bluetooth GPS modules on
eBay for less than £30 including packaging. Just search for 'gps bluetooth'. I couldn't really tell you which one is best - they seem to have moved on a bit since I bought mine.
Anyway, they're about the size of a matchbox with a couple of LEDs on the front, and that's it. With no display to power, they'll work for a good 20 hours or so (probably better than that now) and they connect via bluetooth to your mobile phone.
Which software you can get will depend on your phone, and some will run on fairly low-end phones without difficulty. Something to have a look at is
activepilot, which will work on most mobile phones, and works on either a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription basis, which costs up to £9.99 a month. As the routing is done on their servers however, it sends data to your phone via GPRS or 3G so you should expect some data charges as well.
If you have a Windows Mobile or Symbian-based phone, you may be able to get TomTom for your phone.
My guess is that you'd be able to get several hours of navigation on audio only with something like activepilot if you can turn off the screen backlight. Also, you may be able to find several solutions for keeping your phone charged from a backup battery.