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  #1  
Old 13 Feb 2010
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Anyone Know Of A Good Compass To Mount On The Bike

I am looking to mount a compass to my Bike, just as a general direction finder.

I have found a Silva 58 Compass for about £30 that would seem to do the job.

But maybe someone has found a better cheaper option.

Thanks
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Old 13 Feb 2010
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Originally Posted by stuxtttr View Post
I am looking to mount a compass to my Bike, just as a general direction finder.

I have found a Silva 58 Compass for about £30 that would seem to do the job.

But maybe someone has found a better cheaper option.

Thanks

I use a cheap compass that I bought in a shiny bits for cars shop and stuck it on my little instrument panel, it cost me under a fiver. I was a professional aviator for 30 yrs and am well aware of the changes in magnetic variation and metal and electrical influence but I have found that when my GPS cannot get a signal, cities, forests and canyons for example and I can't see the sky my little compass is accurate enough and its now done well over 100,000 miles travelling round the world. Ride safe.
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Old 13 Feb 2010
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cheap compass

HI iv just bought a compass off flea bay for a couple of quid to mount on my bike , metal cased with a closing top its not arrived yet so cant say how good but there are loads on there to choose from for a lot less than £30 happy hunting Rob
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Old 13 Feb 2010
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You could try one of these........cheap!

Conrad Electronic - Europe`s leading electronics and technology online specialist[1]=uk_insert&cookie_v[1]=89&cookie_d[1]=&cookie_p[1]=%2f&cookie_e[1]=Wed%2c+17-Mar-2010+20%3a07%3a30+GMT&scrwidth=1280
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Old 17 Feb 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maja View Post
I use a cheap compass that I bought in a shiny bits for cars shop and stuck it on my little instrument panel, it cost me under a fiver. I was a professional aviator for 30 yrs and am well aware of the changes in magnetic variation and metal and electrical influence but I have found that when my GPS cannot get a signal, cities, forests and canyons for example and I can't see the sky my little compass is accurate enough and its now done well over 100,000 miles travelling round the world. Ride safe.
As ex Servaceman i have done lots of map reading using a compass on & off vechals. make sure it is 1 off them filled with liquid as this reduses magnetic variation and metal and electrical influence would sugest you practice a bit of good old mk 1 paper map reading as a just in case
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Old 17 Feb 2010
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Diving compass?? Liquid filled, has a strap to secure to bike/wrist, waterproof?
Can be expensive though.
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Old 25 Feb 2010
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Well, you're obviously not going to shoot bearings with a bike mounted compass, nor use it as your sole navigation instrument. As mentioned, it's most useful when your GPS doesn't have a signal, you can't see the sun, etc and so long as it's accurate within +/-7deg to give you a rough sense of direction, it should do its job. And with that requirement pretty much anything will do. I have one of those ultra cheapo zipper pull compasses in my tank bag (could be glued/strapped to the bike too), like this one: Amazon.com: Rothco Zipper Pull Compass: Clothing, but with a red north marker and worth about $2.

It fully serves it's purpose. Maybe you might want something bigger that's easier to read, but the quality suffices. If I want more than a rough direction, I still have a GPS (well not at the moment as its busted), and a quality compass somewhere in the panniers.
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Old 28 Mar 2010
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I ended up finding a bicycle bell with a liquid filled compass on top for £2 in ASDA after fitting it to the bike I can confirm it works fine at low speed (it spins when going faster) and the extra bonus I know have a bicycle bell to warn pedestrians of my approach without having to resort to the horn for slow speed off road work. result cheers for all the replies
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