Question for GPS Users

[Ves]

So, if you haven't read it, I posted my first ride experience with a GPS unit here: http://r1150r.org/board/viewtopic.php?f ... 38#p124641

For those of you people that use GPS units on a regular basis, especially if you use a lot of waypoints, do you get the same sort of thing that I got: the occasional detour to nowhere for apparently no reason.... or it thinks you missed a waypoint and then keeps wanting you to go back to it, asking for repeated U-turns? And aside from that, any other gripes about day to day use?

Also, what is your strategy? Do you program in your whole route up front? Program in just start and end with no waypoints? Program as you go?

[famousperson]

I don't use way points on my Zumo, but that's mostly because I don't know how. I plan my trip on a map, first, and just plug in the final destination. Since I make it a point to have no hard and fast plans for being somewhere at any particular time, I frequently make my own detours onto interesting looking roads, and pretty much navigate by the sun. (In fact, I'd do pretty well with a compass on these excursions). If I figure I am too far off track--like I will never get to where I am going if I continue flying blind--I consult Zumo and follow its directions until I am back on a majorish sort of road again.

That's in Western PA, where I know the major routes and have gotten pretty good at knowing when I am going to intersect one. In a couple of weeks I will be traveling around Maine where I've never been so me and Zumo will have a real learning experience. If it's interesting enough I'll post san account.

From your account, I will have to be damn careful when I do learn how to use way points. I think they would be useful as the only way to keep Zumo from picking an interstate or other divided highway as the fastest or shortest point from A to B.

[stilldking]

Ves,
I've been playin' around with a new-ish Magellan and usually I just let it find its own way. Just input the destination and see where it says to go. Like you, mine keeps rying to get me to do a little off-roading, but I've found if you just drive past a dirt turn-off, it'll reclaculate the route and eventually get you there on the pavement.
The first week I had it, I kept messing with it to see how well it would recalculate routes. I'd set a destination and take different roads from what it said just to test it out. This one works well enough, but can't compensate for having a bit of common sense. Now, when I have it attached to the dirtbike, I'm more than happy to take the random dirt path. So far it's never been anything too nastyt for the RR, but just in case, I'll try & keep to the street.

JC

[Boxer]

do you get the same sort of thing that I got: the occasional detour to nowhere for apparently no reason.... or it thinks you missed a waypoint and then keeps wanting you to go back to it, asking for repeated U-turns

Sounds like what my Quest does. It calls them VIA points, but the same deal. What happens if you go along picking your way creating VIA/Way points when you're too far "out" on the map, you inadvertently pick spots along the way that are maybe on the wrong side of a 4-lane, or maybe 200 yards beside the road in a Wal-Mart parking lot. This happened to me coming back from south Alabama a few weeks ago. I had several "What da hell?" moments on that ride. I guess the trick is to route, and pick way points with the map at high res..up close. But I've found that's really the only way to have any choice in where you go. If you say 'Shortest Route" it takes you along dirt roads and silly short cuts. If you say "Fastest Route", you're stuck on major roads. But I too need some more instruction in this game.

[DSKYZD]

Ahh, the pitfalls of GPS usage.

Everyone seems to have a slightly different expectation when comes GPSr's. I personally have no interest in hearing voice prompts while on the bike. They're fine in the car but would be too distracting on the bike. Crazy isn't it? I also don't set a bunch of waypoints or try to customize my route with via's, mostly because the GPSr I use on the bike only has basic point-to-point routing. I pick where I want to go (usually a single preset waypoint destination) and it picks a route, that route doesn't always match the route I want to take. So, I go my own way and let the GPSr reroute (this requires a double punch of on the buttons) on down the road. This is where Boxer hit the nail on the head with the common sense remark.

You are smarter than the GPSr! The hard part is knowing when to trust it and when to disobey. More often than not when I second guess a suggested turn from my Meridian I am wrong. On a larger scale it is a guide, in an unfamiliar town trying to follow a numbered road through a town (which generally has a street name and poorly marked junctions) it is the authority. I simply need to make sure I'm zoomed to a scale that ensures I'm turning onto the street it is telling me turn onto.

Large scale route overview - Paper Maps
Detailed turns - GPSr

Bike navigation for me is a blend of both.

Don't fret over the GPS taking you on wild goose chases. It's just blindly doing what it is told unless you are dealing with map inaccuracy in the GPSr. Keep practicing, you'll find that blend between your unit's capability and your expectations.

DSKYZD

[Ves]

Mine definitely has no problem adapting between points. Regarding the use of waypoints, it's definitely an issue of "I want to go on THIS road, right HERE." The unit actually has all sorts of modes... car, fast car, slow car, motorcycle, scenic, avoid highways, etc.. What I've found is that scenic motorcycle can take me through some really strange areas... like cemeteries with curvy roads in them... Which may not be all bad if I'm in the mood for it. But I found was that the most direct route is the best choice, maybe with "avoid highways", and from there I use waypoints to tailor the path. I've thought about just picking the end point and improvising the rest, but you just don't know what to expect on a road, and I want to make sure I hit the curviest road in the area.

I actually found that the GPS is too difficult to plan the route on. I go to Google maps, which is a lot faster than my GPS in recalculating routes, and is a much bigger screen, and I can just drag the points around until I get exactly what I want. Then I just plug that route in the GPS, add the waypoints, and I'm done.

I can definitely understand picking a spot on the wrong side of a 4-laner. I'm sure that's what happened to me. Yup, definitely going to have to zoom in when picking those points. Most of the time the waypoints were no problem... just the few annoying one's.

One thing for sure. It beats printing out a list with 50 turns on it and then trying to follow it while you're riding.

Thanks for the input.

[omg1010]

I plan my rides in Europe with a software called Motorcycle Tour Planner which has an export function to my TomTom Rider. The goal is to zoom in as much as possible to place a waypoint correctly on the road (and on the right side of the road). Only then will the GPS detect the waypoint and mark it as "visited". If the waypoint is for example 20 mts away from the road the GPS will not be able to pick it up as visited and will ask you to return again and again endlessly ...

Kind regards from sunny Germany
Oliver