.

[MotoTex]

I've used Routes for 98% of my travels and haven't had any problems significant enough to justify the effort of using Tracks exclusively. There have been instances where I have used Tracks, like the ET400/500 rides, singletrack trails, etc. where a map was more appropriate.

When riding locally, to lunches, pie runs, etc. the navigation data providing time / distance to the next turn, street name detail at turns, time or distance remaining on the route and other related info is useful for me to reference at a glance. I don't use the turn by turn via Bluetooth notification to the helmet com at all.

After getting past the learning curve in Basecamp I can easily create routes that go where I want them by placing the Start and End points, then use the "Insert" tool to drag the route onto the roads I want to ride between those points. This tool isn't displayed by default and can be added to the toolbar for quick access, or, selected from the Tools drop-down menu.

 

[DFW_Warrior]

If you guys are having that much trouble with Basecamp, I must be doing it wrong. I planned out an 8 day trip to the Grand Canyon in less than an hour. This was only about an hour after installing and opening Basecamp for the first time ever.

 

[Jarrett]

.

 

[copb8]

If you guys are having that much trouble with Basecamp, I must be doing it wrong. I planned out an 8 day trip to the Grand Canyon in less than an hour. This was only about an hour after installing and opening Basecamp for the first time ever.

View attachment 267038

Ok, well that makes me feel stupid. I'm pretty proficient with it now but it certainly took me WAY over an hour to get where you are here. Especially the part where you send it to your unit and it re-routes all the work you did because it's set on a different routing preference.

 

[kdh]

The more of these threads I see, the less I want to try GPS. I still just wing it with compass and maps if I can find them.

Ditto. The truck I drive has 2 GPS built in, and my 3 (Garmin, Rand McNally, TomTom). All are supposedly top-of-the-line commercial motor vehicle units in the $500-700 price range, regularly updated. Not a one works consistently, and I never go off road in the truck. I waste hours doing the required work on the GPSes instead of driving and since the company won't pay me to do their paperwork I told them they can fire me if they want. At the moment they had in the office another driver following the company required GPS route to a new consignee who went under a low bridge. $270,000 in damages to the bridge. Made my point.

Anywho, nothing on the bike except a map, a compass, and 2-inch tape roller filled out carefully. It is wise to study maps well before a trip, if route matters. Even that takes the adventure out. The route I used to do Chispa Road:

South to river.
Turn left, keep river on right.
54 miles pavement resumes.

Otherwise, if no obvious landmarks, follow the compass all morning, then go the other way all afternoon. Keep the adventure.

 

[Flipit]

...Keep the adventure.

Heh, funny: If I'm fixxin' to do a trip, I try not to watch YouTube videos of the area, or check out Google Street view, because I want to 'Keep the Adventure'. Sometimes technology just gets in the way.

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Ok, well that makes me feel stupid. I'm pretty proficient with it now but it certainly took me WAY over an hour to get where you are here. Especially the part where you send it to your unit and it re-routes all the work you did because it's set on a different routing preference.

Like I said before, I used to use whatever the old Garmin software was, (Mapsource, City Navigator, or whatever the heck it was called) but that was years upon years ago. As soon as I poked around Basecamp and found the right buttons to push, routing was easy as can be if you just know how to work the software so the GPS doesn't recalc all your stuff. The solution is lots of little points throughout your trip. Click on every darn turn if you have to. It may sound tedious but in practice it is quick to do and it just works.

 

[DFW_Warrior]

The planning part doesn't seem to be the issue. The issue is when you are 500 miles from home and the GPS goes, "what's a route?"

You didn't bring that up in your many earlier posts. I haven't been out of the metro mess with this new GPS (yet) but even with my old trusty I never had it just stop routing all together. Was it a random file you put on it mid trip? Did you look it over in Basecamp before loading? So it wouldn't even route if you picked a point on a map and told it to route you to it? I'm not trying to be nit picky, but from what I've seen so far from a lot of people, when the GPS's don't seem to work, they can sometimes be attributed to operator error in some way.

 

[Flipit]

... routing was easy as can be if you just know how to work the software so the GPS doesn't recalc all your stuff...

Yeah, just remember: ROUTES are dynamic, and TRACKS are static. ROUTES are map specific, TRACKS are independent. In fact, you can run a track with no map turned on at all, which occasionally is a good idea.

 

[MotoTex]

Routes are Tracks with bling.

 

[Jarrett]

.

 

[copb8]

Like I said before, I used to use whatever the old Garmin software was, (Mapsource, City Navigator, or whatever the heck it was called) but that was years upon years ago. As soon as I poked around Basecamp and found the right buttons to push, routing was easy as can be if you just know how to work the software so the GPS doesn't recalc all your stuff. The solution is lots of little points throughout your trip. Click on every darn turn if you have to. It may sound tedious but in practice it is quick to do and it just works.

I usually map what I want to do in Google maps. And then transpose that over to Garmin Basecamp.

 

[Jarrett]

.

 

[Flipit]

Hmmmmmm. I can honestly say I have never had a trip that was negatively affected by a Garmin.

Every trip I go on has this common problem: I eventually have to go back to Dallas. And the trip back is always progressively uglier and irritating the closer I get to home.

 

[Simmons1]

From misterk's Idaho BDR thread, kinda sums it up:

Operator error

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Operator error

Agreed.

 

[copb8]

If you get through the learning curve the Garmin is a fantastic device. I use mine all the time and it's had the living **** beat out of it and never missed a beat. I hate to admit it but I also just wash it off under a running tap. There is no cell phone that would have survived that abuse. As a matter of fact, two of my riding buddies have had their new iPhone's motion stabilization mechanism failing due to shock and vibration. One of them had it happen to 2 phones.

 

[TheD-Man]

I agree with OP completely. It is strange to me that you would have to have so much training and expertise to plan out trips. Routes, Tracks, what map version, convert file types, compare and rename when importing, prevent rerouting ....[emoji36]
It would seem to me the big gun in the biz would have found a way to simplify.

I could not even select a point on the map as a destination on my Garmin Nav VI.
I wanted to go see an old bridge out of commission. No address, not in the Garmin database as a POI so I was out of luck. I could not find any way to browse the map on the device and locate the spot myself and select it.
I looked at every menu and option and could not figure out how to do that.

Surely this is operator error!!!
I will have to find my owners manual.

Google maps on my phone has the bridge in its database - or I could just browse the map till I find it and select a spot on the map as my destination. But it won’t select curvy backroads for me and it takes forever to load in a bunch of intermediate destinations to get it to follow a backroad route.

Hey! Maybe this is a business opportunity!! Who’s up for building a UI that makes this easy? Then sell it for a ton to Garmin and retire! [emoji41]

 

[Jarrett]

.

 

[Aspear]

These work pretty well.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[bwdmax]

Yeah but they make my bars feel heavy when mounted on the bike.

 

[Aspear]

Yeah but they make my bars feel heavy when mounted on the bike.

Alittle expensive too

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Tigerkf]

I'm sure someone mentioned this already but I didn't read every post. I've seen good reviews on the new Garmin Xumo XT which was designed to mount on a motorcycle.

 

[_RG_]

I agree with OP completely. It is strange to me that you would have to have so much training and expertise to plan out trips. Routes, Tracks, what map version, convert file types, compare and rename when importing, prevent rerouting ....[emoji36]
It would seem to me the big gun in the biz would have found a way to simplify.

I could not even select a point on the map as a destination on my Garmin Nav VI.
I wanted to go see an old bridge out of commission. No address, not in the Garmin database as a POI so I was out of luck. I could not find any way to browse the map on the device and locate the spot myself and select it.
I looked at every menu and option and could not figure out how to do that.

Surely this is operator error!!!
I will have to find my owners manual.

Google maps on my phone has the bridge in its database - or I could just browse the map till I find it and select a spot on the map as my destination. But it won’t select curvy backroads for me and it takes forever to load in a bunch of intermediate destinations to get it to follow a backroad route.

Hey! Maybe this is a business opportunity!! Who’s up for building a UI that makes this easy? Then sell it for a ton to Garmin and retire! [emoji41]

Part of the problem is in configuration options...there lots of them. And that's both in the device and the mapping/planning software. If they automate it too far then we have a situation like a professional photographer would with a point and shoot camera. Simplified at the expense of functionality. Not in a good way.

 

[copb8]

That Garmin Zumo XT looks like a significant improvement over my trusty 590. The mount/cradle is so much simpler without the insane number of wires on the 590 cradle. I cut all of them off and rewired the cradle to a simple SAE 2-pin jack that can move from bike to bike.

That it can connect and download wirelessly seems like a big step forward as well. I'd like to see it's screen brightness in direct sunlight because that is probably my biggest gripe on the 590. I have to raise my tinted shield and angle my head to see it well if the sun is shining directly on it. I also need to see if I can upload tracks/routes to it wirelessly from my phone.

I'm still trying to figure out why it's priced so much less that then 590/595's were. Just due to competition? Or are there some features it lacks that I'm missing?