GPS is the new wave of navigating, and motorcycle GPS is no exception. But what exactly is GPS and why would you want it on a motorcycle?
GPS stands for global positioning system. It’s a high tech way of saying that it tell you where you are on the globe, and if you’ve got a motorcycle GPS system it tells you where your motorcycle is.
A GPS, including a motorcycle GPS, works by receiving radio signals from a series of satellites that are positioned in orbit around the globe. By cross referencing these satellite signals your motorcycle GPS unit can work out, to an accuracy of around 6 meters or less, exactly where you are.
In order for your GPS to work you need to be in a location where you can pick up the radio signals from a number of different satellites so that they can be cross referenced. Too few satellites and the accuracy goes down, none, or one, and it’s useless.
Early GPS systems, whilst accurate, had limited usefulness for the motorcyclist or car driver because they gave you your position on the globe in latitude and longitude. Whilst it was accurate, it wasn’t really user friendly, because you couldn’t really use it to plot your position on a map unless you were extremely map savvy and had the resources to do so. However modern motorcycle GPS systems have advanced way beyond this, and the best motorbike GPS units have now become a total motorcycle navigation solution.
The GPS technology has been combined with modern mapping software to eliminate the problem of …