Genius strikes with motorbike GPS

Bikers won't have to stop for directions with a GPS. Photo / Jacqui Madelin

Following a map is almost impossible on a motorbike. You stop, remove your gloves, extract the map, memorise the next turns then reverse the process. Not ideal on long trips and unwieldy round town, where u-turns and mistakes can be fatal for a biker.

So I greeted the Strike Genius motorcycle GPS with joy when it arrived for testing. Its power source doubles as the aerial and wires into your battery, coils under the seat and tank, and emerges as an unobtrusive socket into which the GPS unit clips when in use.

The main unit - designed for pedestrians, cyclists or car drivers too - mounts to your bars, or to a sucker stuck to the tank.

From there its instructions are visible, or can be voice-relayed to your helmet headset. In the car it transmits to the radio via Bluetooth.

It's certainly a vast improvement on dragging out a map, particularly when it's raining - yes, the Strike is designed to resist the weather.

I swap test bikes twice a month, and not every model suited the standard bar mount, or the tank sucker that requires a flat surface. If you strike problems with your own bike, there are accessory solutions.

Less easily solved, the Strike didn't work well with gloves on, so changing settings still meant removing them.

However, given it's so versatile - it includes photo, music and e-book facilities - my bet is it'll soon become an everyday tool, which helps justify its $720 price.