GPS Global Positioning System satellite navigation on our xs650 motorcycle with a Magellan GPS 315

Magellan GPS 315 Mounted On A XS650 Yamaha Motorcycle

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The GPS - Global Positioning System - units are great fun and can be used for on or off road navigation and dozens of other uses: treasure hunts, geocaching, navigation in aircraft, even marking a favorite fishing spot. I found a great adjustable motorcycle mount online (below) that allows us to use our portable Magellan GPS 315 in any vehicle or vessel. You actually can put an "X" on the side of a boat or vehicle with no visable landmarks at sea or in a desert, and return to that same spot. It is water proof and it actually floats if you drop it overboard. I posted some favorite links to some really great sites at the bottom of this page with information on how the GPS units work and constantly track satellite positions (up to twelve at once). It displays and constantly updates this information in real time right on the screen. You can get your waypoint "your exact position" or "goto" any waypoint that you have saved or entered on the easy to use keyboard, (500 user memory positions in the GPS315) or you can use one of the hundreds of cities and towns that come loaded in the units memory. You can also set it to display in Nautical Miles / Knots for marine use or in Miles / MPH for land use. The navigation fun begins and they come alive when you are moving. In the mount on our motorcycle (or dash of the truck) you can read miles per hour that is exact and displayed to the tenth constantly because it is updated every second. You can check your exact speed against any vehicles indicated speed too. The 4 most common readouts are : bearing, distance, heading, and speed. This can be custom set with other options like, altitude, ETA, etc. You can also set a proximity alarm to go off at various distances when approching your target area, and or just the "on target" alarm notification. You can point it at the sun or moon and get a compass reading, and display the best times for hunting and fishing. There are other brand GPS units with many features and more expensive, this one retails for $150.00. I bought it for just over a hundred on sale at a major sporting goods chain. This is my first and has performed flawlessly with other uses and features I have not discovered yet.

The advertised accuracy is 15 meters (49ft) with selective availability (SA) turned off. "SA" is accuracy errors induced by the department of defense that caused displayed values to fluctuate some. President Clinton turned selective availability off in 2000. The accuracy can be better or worse than 49 ft, depending on the angles to the satellites it is receiving. It is actually about 20-30 ft. It will operate up to 15 hours on two AA alkaline batteries, using the screen while lighted will shorten this time though. Its limit on speed is 951 mph and the altitude limit is 17,500 meters. More information about GPS units at the link below:

Be sure to visit the web site about Louisiana's GPS geocaches: http://www.650motorcycles.com/CacheLa.html

Be sure to check out the link to "geocaching" below, modern day treasure hunts to hone your skill, swap some surprise treasures if you like, leave your photo and sign a hidden logbook that you located.

GPS 315 mounted on the right side on our XS650 Yamaha motorcycle with the adjustable handlebar mount.

GPS 315 mounted in the center position with the adjustable handlebar mount, you can move it left and right, or up and down, anywhere you like.

The adjustable mount clamps on two hard rubber balls on each end to isolate the unit from vibration.

It comes with a universal U bolt type clamp for 7/8" or 1 inch handlebars, but you can enlarge the two holes slightly and mount it right on an existing handlebar clamp with a couple of longer 8mm mounting bolts.

The GPS "Ram Mounting Systems" various GPS units are available at the below link:

http://www.cycoactive.com/gps/gps_mounts_ram.html#gr315h

The GPS Stash Hunt, also known as geocaching "is a fun way for recreational GPS users to get out and actually use their GPS receivers for something exciting! Essentially, it is a treasure hunt -- A container hidden somewhere filled with prizes". Visit the new updated web site at the link below:

http://www.geocaching.com/

A "Gear Review" news article about the Magellan GPS 315:

http://www.gearreview.com/magellan315.asp

General and Detailed GPS information at the poplualr site below:

http://joe.mehaffey.com/default.htm

Motorcyclist with GPS units of all types and their GPS installed on their cycle images:

http://www.gpsriders.com/

Samual Wormly's great GPS user information web site:

http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/staff/swormley/gps/gps.html

The degree confluence project:

http://www.confluence.org/

USENET GPS newsgroup: