Map APP to use for planning?

RaceBizz

Premier Member
#1
Hi, All. Not sure this is the right sub forum but here goes. So far, planning for LD rides I have used Google maps and the H-D ride planner. Both very easy to use and add addresses in for stopping points along routes with a start and finish. Also useful, recreating routes for certification purposes.

Now, I see all this hype/talk about REVER. I have been trying to embrace and use something new. So far, I am not liking it. In REVER you cannot put in addresses for waypoints/stops only the start and finish. Seems all you can do is drop a waypoint and hope you hit the address you are looking for. Am I doing something wrong?
 

Traxx

Premier Member
#2
You can log onto Rever on the computer and make your routes there by entering the address and as many as you want. It will then sync to your phone.
Another option is scenic, I had issues with the curvy routes. But every thing else works well. You can import route from Furkot
and yet another option is sygic but that one is not moto specific. Again you can sync your route from the computer
Road Runner magazine has one to but I haven't tried it yet.
Tom Tom mydrive and again you can plan on the computer and sync to the phone or to your tom tom gps.
 

RaceBizz

Premier Member
#3
Thank you, Traxx. My issue is I cannot figure out how to add multiple addresses. Only a start and finish. Then I need to drop pins for any other stops. Instead of just typing in addresses for waypoints. I am on the computer trying to do it from their website. It only gives a location for start and finish addresses.
 

BMW RT Pilot

Premier Member
#4
Hi, All. Not sure this is the right sub forum but here goes. So far, planning for LD rides I have used Google maps and the H-D ride planner. Both very easy to use and add addresses in for stopping points along routes with a start and finish. Also useful, recreating routes for certification purposes.

Now, I see all this hype/talk about REVER. I have been trying to embrace and use something new. So far, I am not liking it. In REVER you cannot put in addresses for waypoints/stops only the start and finish. Seems all you can do is drop a waypoint and hope you hit the address you are looking for. Am I doing something wrong?
Am I assuming correctly that you're navigating with a phone?
 

RaceBizz

Premier Member
#5
No, I am using my BMW GPS along with my phone. Both to give me times really. I am looking for something to plan with, that is easier than Basecamp. Not necessarily to navigate with app. I really like how easy it is to build routes with Google maps and the H-D map online. With REVER it is not easy at all. You have to drop pins for your waypoints/stops. I don't want to zoom in that close every time in order to drop a pin in the right spot. I like just typing address and the map figures best route and gives me mileage and time. Solely for planning. Using it on phone would be a bonus.
 

BMW RT Pilot

Premier Member
#6
No, I am using my BMW GPS along with my phone. Both to give me times really. I am looking for something to plan with, that is easier than Basecamp. Not necessarily to navigate with app. I really like how easy it is to build routes with Google maps and the H-D map online. With REVER it is not easy at all. You have to drop pins for your waypoints/stops. I don't want to zoom in that close every time in order to drop a pin in the right spot. I like just typing address and the map figures best route and gives me mileage and time. Solely for planning. Using it on phone would be a bonus.
If you're using one of the BMW/Garmin devices, the whole process is easy, but convoluted, if that makes sense. I'll describe what I do when route planning for my IBA rides and hopefully something I write will help out:

  1. Create a rough route in Garmin Maps.
  2. Once (1) is done, refine the route to add refueling stops. I can explain how I do that if anyone wants.
  3. When (1) and (2) are completely finished and the route is as it should be (Note: Google Maps will frequently change parts of the route as other parts are changed, so be aware), open Google My Maps.
  4. In Google My Maps, create a new map and add a driving layer; now copy/paste each location from Google Maps into My Maps. It is safe to delete the "unnamed" layer seen when Google My Maps is first opened.
  5. Adjust the route to make sure it is correct, just like in (3) above. Once everything is perfect, give it a good, pithy, descriptive name and export the route (not the entire map, just the route), as a KML file. This file will be downloaded to your normal "Downloads" folder on your computer.
  6. Open BaseCamp, create a new list, and import the KML file from (5) into it. Double-click on the track and change the color to magenta. I'll explain why later.
  7. When the KML file is imported, BaseCamp sees it as a track. Tracks are useless for navigating, so we need to make a route. Open the create route tool and drag and drop the starting waypoint to the starting point from the dialogue box. Next, drag and drop the 1st stop to the destination box. BaseCamp will then create a route with these two waypoints. Now double click on the route to open the dialogue box, change the color to something like light green, and one by one, add the waypoints, in order, imported from the KML file.
  8. BaseCamp will recalculate when you close the dialog window. Make sure you also switch to the "hand" tool before doing anything else. Failure to do so will mean additional waypoints will be added every time the mouse is clicked in the map area.
  9. The reason why the track and the route need to be different colors is because the track represents the route you want (but is useless for actually navigating with), but the route you created in BaseCamp (from step (7)), may not be what you want (because BaseCamp will want to do its own thing, just like Google Maps/My Maps do). Using two bright and highly-contrasting colors will help you adjust the route to the track. This is important: Adjust the ROUTE to the TRACK because the TRACK is CORRECT and the ROUTE may not be!
  10. Once the route and the track match completely, zoom-in on the route and make sure everything is still good to go. Sometimes, you'll discover that there's a section of the route doing some strange things, like looping around on itself or going off of the interstate and then right back on. Google Maps, Google My Maps, and your BaseCamp route, should all have the same distance showing, within a few tenths of a mile.
  11. Now that the route is as you want, give it a simplified name. Adjust arrival/departure/layover times as needed. When doing an IBA ride, it's really helpful to add in a layover time for each stop (I plan for 20 minutes per fuel stop), because when all of this is sent to the GPS, the GPS will give you a more accurate arrival time estimate. By adding an arrival time to either your destination or some other place along the route, the GPS will give you a good departure time.
  12. Connect the Garmin device to the computer, make sure all maps are updated (both on the PC and on the device; use Garmin Connect for this), then right click on the route and select send to and send to the device.
  13. Disconnect the GPS and turn it on. Import the route if asked. Now verify that everything is as it should be. Even after all of this, I have still seen the GPS wanting to "do its own thing", sometimes.
Believe it or not, this is the SIMPLIFIED version.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
  1. Once everything is done, you can safely remove the track and all of the waypoints. The route will store all of the waypoints in it.
  2. I usually modify the waypoints after they are imported into BaseCamp. When WPs are imported, each will be a blue flag with their full address. I open each waypoint, shorten the name to something like "Shell, Dallas, TX", or "Space and Rocket Museum", and assign an icon to each to match what the WP is. That's just my OCD kicking in.
  3. Before starting anything, BaseCamp and GPS maps should be updated. Make sure that the most up-to-date map is being used.
  4. Also make sure that the GPS itself has all of its updates complete as well. For example, Garmin frequently updates its text-to-speech engines. I have found that updates will fail if I try to update while also importing a route.
  5. Before sending the new route to the GPS, I like to get rid of all previous routes and waypoints on the GPS.
  6. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that state a route can be created from the track by right-clicking on the track and selecting create route from track. DON'T DO IT! It doesn't work at all! To see what I am talking about, create a route in the manner I've listed and then create a route like I just mentioned. Upon opening each route, notice that NONE of the waypoints will be listed using the method in this section. To further complicate things, if this is sent to the GPS, the device will not respect anything about the route that was so carefully planned. In my early days of IBA riding, my start and end points would be within a 1/2 mile of each other. The GPS would route me to the end point instead of the route and as I passed the end point, it kept telling me to do a U-turn to go back! This kind of crap caused me to not use the GPS at all and instead forced me to "just go".
  7. I believe that a route can be created from the waypoints by selecting them and then selecting create route from waypoints, but from what I recall, it's an even bigger mess because the route will be created from the WPs in alphabetical order! It might work if you added a prefix to the name of each waypoint, but I haven't tried this method. BTW, when using numbers, go with something like "01, 02, 03...10, 11" because BaseCamp uses the "dumb way" of sorting numbers and the list would look like "01, 10, 11, 02, 03...".
  8. When adjusting the route to the track, you need to zoom-in as much as possible to the area you are working on, hold down the ALT key, left-click on the mouse, and drag-and-drop the route to its correct location. BEWARE that when doing this, unintended results may occur. If something gets messed-up, use the undo feature under EDIT. Sometimes I spend 3x the time just adjusting the route than I did creating it!
  9. Before sending the route to the GPS, open the route and right-click on every point you don't want notifications for and select don't notify me. When doing (8) above, each edit will add another shaping point to the route. These shaping points will give notifications in the GPS while navigating and are useless and just add clutter to the whole thing. The only notifications that are needed are to each waypoint.
  10. In BaseCamp, under options, there is a section to tell BC what your average speed will be on a given type of road. Usually these are set fairly conservatively and consequently, BC will tell you that a ride will take longer than it actually does. The GPS will actually give way better estimates. As an example, Google Maps/My Maps and BaseCamp, were telling me that my Fools Gold ride was going to take 26 hours. The Nav VI was telling me about 23 1/2 hours. I did the entire 1,673 miles in 23 1/4 hours.
  11. Continuing from (10), after the route is exported to the GPS, I will review the route in detail on the device. when it comes to a departure or arrival time, I will make adjustments on the GPS to match what I wanted originally. For instance, during the winter months, I want to be home right at or right before sunset, usually about 5pm, so in BaseCamp, I will set my arrival time to be 5pm, but after the route is exported to the GPS, the arrival time will be very different. I will change the arrival time on the GPS, which will then change my departure time as well.
  12. Once you have a route that works, you can share that route by right-clicking it and exporting it. BaseCamp will ask for a file destination and will save it there. You can email or text the resulting GPS(?) file to your buddies, who can then import it into BaseCamp and then export it to their Garmin devices and they will have all of the same information!
  13. The KML file that was created earlier is also very helpful for Spotwalla users. Log-in to your account, click create track and import the KML file. Then go to create trip, enter all of the information you would normally do and then scroll down to the section about adding tracks. Select the track(s) you want and then create trip. Now when your trip is opened, the intended route, represented by a blue line, will be seen! As you ride your trip, people can see where you are on the route. This makes things so much easier because you won't have to send an additional file to show what route you're riding. The track will also show all planned stops.
  14. Everyone is probably aware that Google has a hard-limit on the number of stops/shaping points in their maps. If this happens to you, then break the trip into multiple maps and multiple KML files. However in BaseCamp, you can import multiple KML files into a route without issue. Case in point- my SS3K Gold needed 3 Google Maps/My Maps/KML files, and 3 tracks for Spotwalla. I imported each KML into my BaseCamp list for the ride, with the suffix "Leg xx". I then worked on each leg track to create a leg route. Finally, I created a new "overall" route by using the waypoints imported. This "overall" route is what I used to do the actual trip with.
  15. It should be known that Garmin is no longer developing for BaseCamp, so what we have is what we have.

Finally, I would like to add that neither Garmin nor YouTube were very helpful on any of this. I had to figure this out through a lot of trial and error and sheer luck.
 
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RaceBizz

Premier Member
#7
Thank you, RT pilot. I am pasting this in my notes and will try it out. The whole "easy, but convoluted" is what has me scratching head. Feels like DOS. vs. Windows to me. Thank you for taking the time to give me directions. May be back here to ask you questions. =) Ride Safe & Ride Far
 

Traxx

Premier Member
#8
Yep your right, I could not type in extra way points for a route. I had to click on the location to add waypoints.
Looking at it Rever may not be the best option to plan a long route.

I saw this the other day and it looks interesting.
https://www.speedyroute.com/
 

RaceBizz

Premier Member
#9
Yep your right, I could not type in extra way points for a route. I had to click on the location to add waypoints.
Looking at it Rever may not be the best option to plan a long route.

I saw this the other day and it looks interesting.
https://www.speedyroute.com/
Im glad it was not just me. I thought I just couldn't figure out how to do it. I will check speedyroute. I like Furkot, I have been playing with it a little. I am going to really study RT Pilots way and try that also. This is all the challenging fun of LD riding. The riding is the easy part. Thank you for the suggestion. Ride Safe & Ride Far
 
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Traxx

Premier Member
#10
I have been finding that a plain ole paper map does me better for a sit down and plan. I can see the bigger picture easier and pick a general route. Mark it up with a highlighter for that ohhhh shizzzz moment its needed for a back up and it is a good reminder for the trip when the ride is done. Take those points and enter them into the GPS for the ride.
Not sure what phone you have, but I have destroyed the camera on 3 iPhones of different generations from the Moto vibrations. Be sure to turn off the camera before pulling out.
 

RaceBizz

Premier Member
#11
That sucks destroying the phones. I have been using a RAM X-Grip for the last 5-6 years and have not hurt a iPhone yet. Even in the rain with the new phones, old ones had to be stored when wet weather came about. I like paper maps but the computer is just so much easier. I just checked out speedyroute. Not sure about it. Furkot is good, kind of mashes together the H-D planner and google maps. Just have to make sure to change my daily ride time to 24hrs. The upgrade to get recommended fuel stops seems interesting. I did not do it. I use google maps to get address then add to the H-D planner. The downside to Google maps is you can only put in 10 addresses I think it is.
 

BMW RT Pilot

Premier Member
#12
Thank you, RT pilot. I am pasting this in my notes and will try it out. The whole "easy, but convoluted" is what has me scratching head. Feels like DOS. vs. Windows to me. Thank you for taking the time to give me directions. May be back here to ask you questions. =) Ride Safe & Ride Far
Thank you. I have just finished doing a lot of editing and updating on my post, including some miscellaneous notes and clarifications. Again, this is a really convoluted way to send a route to the GPS, but once you've done it a few times, you'll get the hang of it.
 
#13
Lot's of good information on the post. RT Pilot has probably just provided you the most detailed and intuitive explanations I have read which should be easy to follow. I basically use the same set-up as you i.e. BMW Nav V and my phone (I do carry a back-up Garmin eTrex). I am a die-hard google map fan and do all my ride and rally planning using Google My Maps. I then just save as RT outlined as a KMZ/KML file and upload to BaseCamp. I change the track to trip; verify the route and waypoints are consistent (which I have rarely have; save and send to my GPS unit. This ensures I have everything I need on my GPS, in Base Camp if for whatever reason I need to change to a different Garmin device mid ride/rally, and can use my phone for point-to-point navigation while providing real-time traffic updates. Keep us updated to your progress - love hearing other rider strategies and process steps for routing.