Upgrading Dash cluster?

[czarwolf]

Very wise advice.

I own and ride a ST 1100 and a ST 1300. I much prefer the instrument panel on the ST 1100 - it has a light to indicate when the sidestand is down, and it has another light to wake me up when the fuel tank gets low.

I have a GPS on both bikes, and over the years, I have transitioned to looking at the GPS display to find out what my speed is, rather than the speedometer. Partly, this is because I prefer a numeric (rather than dial) display of speed, but mostly, it's because the GPS displays the posted speed limit right beside my actual speed.

Best suggestion I can offer you is to "know when you are well off" - in other words, stick with the ST 1100 instrument panel just the way it is, because it's a heck of a lot better than any digital display on any other bike. Spend your money on a good quality GPS that displays both posted speed limit and your current speed (all Garmin motorcycle units do, I don't know about other brands by likely other brands do as well).

Michael

At the moment I have a mount for my phone and I use it for my GPS [google or Waze depending on my speed ] But ive never used a dedicated GPS, How useful are they? Is it worth the expense to move from my celly which I already own to a GPS unit? Also... can they be hard wired to the bike as to not need to be dismounted and recharged every other trip?

 

[kiltman]

At the moment I have a mount for my phone and I use it for my GPS [google or Waze depending on my speed ] But ive never used a dedicated GPS, How useful are they? Is it worth the expense to move from my celly which I already own to a GPS unit? Also... can they be hard wired to the bike as to not need to be dismounted and recharged every other trip?

Yes they can be hardwired. Getting a motorcycle unit has the added bonus of being waterproof. You can acquire a 5” Chinese version off of eBay for around $130, many forum members have this model. You can plan routes with numerous way points and upload them to the GPS. They have Bluetooth, so it can be paired to a communication device in your helmet or hearing aids.

 

[fnmag]

You can certainly buy an automotive GPS and simply put a plastic baggie over it when it rains.
Many riders do this.
Yes, they can be hardwired to the bike if you so choose.

 

[CYYJ]

... I've never used a dedicated GPS, How useful are they?

In my opinion, extraordinarily useful. I would never have done the vast amount of touring I have done in the past 17 years without a motorcycle-specific GPS. I just spent the past 3 weeks riding 2,000 miles around Morocco. I don't know the country, and I don't read Arabic (the language used on most road signs). Having a pre-planned route loaded in my GPS made the trip a breeze.

Some of the higher-end units (e.g. Garmin 590) even give you weather radar capability, and an outlook at the weather forecast for the next three hours along your route so you can stay dry. See the photo below.

...Is it worth the expense to move from my celly which I already own to a GPS unit?

I think it is worth the expense, although I am not familiar with the capabilities of current smartphone navigation applications. A motorcycle-specific GPS is waterproof, works well in daylight, dims automatically for night riding, works in the rain (no fooling around with baggies, etc.), and the design of the display is such that you can look down briefly and see the important information you need at that instant displayed in large, legible form.

I have an application called 'Sygic' that runs on my iPhone XR... it is a very good mapping application, I often refer to it when I am taking a break from riding and sitting down with a coffee. But, there is no way I could use it while in motion - the display is too cluttered, the touch points on the screen are tiny and thus impossible to use with gloves on (or even with gloves off, doing 90 MPH)...

It's sort of a "get the right tool for the right job", if you get my drift. Sure, you can use pliers to undo a bolt, but it's a heck of a lot easier to use a wrench made for the specific size of bolt you want to undo.

...can they be hard wired to the bike as to not need to be dismounted and recharged every other trip?

All the motorcycle-specific GPS units are designed to be powered by the motorcycle electrical system when they are installed in the quick-release cradle.

Michael

Garmin 590 with Live Weather Radar Display

 

[Larry Fine]

I use the same Garmin 2460LMT that I use in the car.