[richw]

Garmin route notes expanded.

I used HD Ride Planner to plan Vermont ride here are some comments etc. I have an Oregon 300 with the 1:24K NE map installed trails etc.

Wire your Garmin power HOT to the battery. Mine is on a cold relay and when I shut off the bike and the Garmin turned off the route was lost. Even though we were on the route activating "Where To" just had it want to return to the start of the route ie place 1. I see NO ability to "continue" on the same route.

I suggest the routes be broken up into identifiable sections so if this happens then you can go to a nearby start. I knew we were going to App Gap so that would be a logical end/start point etc.

Label the way-points in some logical fashion, if you plan by pointing a map it makes no sense when you look at a list. May be a route letter and a point number.

The routing actually takes you from waypoint to waypoint with the GPS device deciding the route between them. Therefore the maps must agree or there may not be a road in the Garmin GPS to agree with the mapping software. Additionally if you want a specific road then there must be at least 1 way point on it.

Your Garmin route may or may not agree with your planning software. I found terrible editing in either Garmin or Mapsource routing, it is terrible and unuseable for long distance as you can NOT edit it.. etc. However I am equally sure HD Ride Planner did not agree with the map in the Garmin in some of the tiniest roads. Two times the Garmin went nuts and could not find or thought we were off road to a way point. It also wanted to make a left turn into the woods. These were back woods tiny roads in Vermont but it screwed us up. One rider had converted the route to GPX/Google maps and it to did not always agree with the real world either. Remember though the GPS will BAIL you out even from the back woods if you know some place next just where to and your on your way, so you can't really get lost just delayed.

If you plan on going into a warren of little dirt raods it might behoove you to check like mapsource etc. to make sure those roads exist in Garmin land map.

The pluses for HD Ride Planner are

Easy use and editing
Under close ZOOM dirt roads are Beige and identified as opposed to white paved roads
Easy to share with others
Seamless loading into your GPS

 

[jokermtb]

I use a Garmin GPS60csx for my moto travels. Sure, it's small, but it's incredibly rugged and reliable. I use the Garmin bicycle handlebar mount on my Vstrom - cheap and easy. I primarily use the free Ibycus map of the USA, as well as their separate topo [for off road mountain bike fun] - it's quite a huge file, and you can upload to your gps chunks of it if you don't want a file hog on your device. Power issues are irrelevant, for I use rechargeable batteries in my Gps [it avoids the aforementioned issues]

I agree, the Mapquest software is crude, but effective for routing. It's a lot better than some of the rubbish out there.

Czech it out:
You can download the map here: Ibycus USA Garmin Compatible Map - GPSFileDepot
Ibycus USA
Home

Awesome sfor free Gps maps n' stuff:
GPSFileDepot - Custom Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr
Maps catalogue

 

[V-Tom]

I don't have an Oregon 300 but have used Garmin eMap (non-routeeable), 60Cx and currently have a Zumo 660. I have used Mapsource for about 10 years.

I don't understand your comments about routes being uneditable. Mapsource isn't the most intuitive software, but you certainly can edit routes quite easily. You can either use the route tool to add to a route, or can move route segments by clicking on the route and moving the segment to a new turnpoint. On the GPS (talking 60Cx and ZUmo 660) you can edit the route as well by adding waypoints anywhere in the route list. I have edited routes on the fly on the GPS as well as using Mapsource. Are you sure you are on a route and not a track? They are different.. a track should be followed exactly, while a route will (as you say) navigate between way points. I edit routes all the time and have edited routes while on 10 day rides.

Breaking down routes makes sense, and different GPS units can only handle certain sizes of route. My 60CX could not handle nearly as large a route as the Zumo. However, I have found that if I am in the middle of a route and continue on, once it realizes that I am past the last waypoint it will continue to navigate along the route just fine.


One further note: if you are using any program to create a route and then transfer it, and the mapset is not excatly the same, you may find that slight differences can make the routing add a lot of extra turns. I used to use the exellent program "Gmap to GPX" before the program broke and created large routes on it. When transferring to GPX format the turn points might be off slightly, say just past the exit of a ramp, so Mapsource would (quite properly) route you to the next exit and back to use the ramp properly. It wasnt a fault of Mapsource as the turnpoint would be just after the ramp exit. (This is one example but there were several little things like that to what for.)


..Tom