Roadmaster GPS - Tripy |
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File under New Products GPS
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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Not a conventional GPS, nor a conventional road book, but interesting nevertheless.
Belgium manufacturer, Tripy, has produced a motorcycle specific GPS (but it could be used for other activities) that functions as a road book producer and road book reader. Based on GPS technology, it's not a GPS like Garmin or TomTom, so don't expect it to tell you how to get to a certain point !
In short, what Tripy does, is record an itinerary in its memory, so that later on, with it's specialized software, you can produce a paper road book. You can also follow the itinerary on Tripy at a later stage.
So, how does it work ?
Preparing Your Road Book
Let's say you're preparing a ride-out for several motorcycles, and you want to make sure no one gets lost, and that you indeed follow the best roads. You place the waterproof Tripy Roadmaster on your motorcycle and tour around the country.
You can not use the Roadmaster for conventional navigation, ie, you can't enter your destination and let the GPS figure out how to get there. You'll need to navigate the old fashion way (ie get lost a few times).
But what the Tripy will do, is memorize your track, on tarmac or off-road, and allow you to make annotations on the fly.
Ride the roads you want to visit. Every time you reach a point (interest, change of direction, restaurant, etc), press the OK key. That marks the position for later use.
Editing Your Roadbook
Once you've finished riding the circuit, you head for your PC. Download the memorized track via USB to your computer and use the special road book maker software from Tripy. They have different version, professional and non- professional . The professional software has very detailed maps.
Using the editor you can edit all the marker points you have memorized, inserting road book symbols/icons such as "Church", "Y split", "farm", "gast station" etc. If you need a special symbol, you can create your own.
Once done, you store the trip on your computer.
Now, you can print a professional road book for your biker friends who don't have a GPS or Tripy Roadbook, and you can upload the trip to a website (Tripy have a section on their site where you can upload your trips).
Riding an Itinerary with Tripy
You can also go on a ride with the Tripy Roadmaster. Upload a track (either from your own library, or from Tripy's growing library) and follow the signals. It's like an electronic road book.
The system as stated before, is not meant to replace a GPS, but is intended to produce road books, either in paper format or electronic. Motorcycle clubs, rally & event organizers and motorcycle tour operators stand to gain from this tool. It's easy and fast to produce a professional road book.
Cost: €575. Maps are currently only available for Europe, but you can use it anywhere, since it memorizes your track.
Click here for more information.
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