Trip planning tools

[Tom_imp]

love the discussion. I definitely unplug on the road. I stop and talk to locals and get good tips. I do like to plan ahead and memorize as much as I can. I just really hate when the route I pick sucks. A few week ago I rode up to Hawk's Nest on the Delaware river in New York State. The way I went had lots of lights and traffic. Turns out there is a much better way. There always is right. I just need to vet better ahead of time. I was bothered I did the ride the right better way 2 weeks later. If you're in the area, you can't beat riding along the river anywhere from Trenton all the way up to the Catskills.

[rboe]

On youtuber I watched to learn how to plan on the Garmin said it was "easy" to load routes into the Garmin and when you fired up the Garmin you go into the saved routes, select the one you want and off you go.

But. If you go off your saved route to pee or eat or something, when you get back on the bike the GPS does a recalculation and does its' thing. On some models (like mine) you can tell it to ask you if you want to recalculate - just say no. Bob's your uncle.

[Stichill_imp]

One problem I've always had with routes: if you start anywhere other than the exact coordinates of the start of the route, the GPS tries to direct you to the start point rather than to the closest point to join the route.

[Tev62]

One problem I've always had with routes: if you start anywhere other than the exact coordinates of the start of the route, the GPS tries to direct you to the start point rather than to the closest point to join the route.

This is true and bloody infuriating. When I plan a journey, say from the house, waypoint 1 is always someway in the general direction I want to go rather than too close. Reselect the route halfway through and it can get itself in a right pickle. I tend to pick the next waypoint along the way and the Sat Nav gives you the option to "start from here" but you have to muck around a lot to do that. The Tom Tom 550 uses tracks by default with no waypoints, when you select a track it always ask you if you want to start at the beginning or the nearest point. You just got to be careful to pick up the nearest point and go in the right direction and not back on your track.

[Cormanus]

This all sounds very complicated to me. I just get on the bike, ride to the gate and then turn one way or the other. Then I ride, turning randomly until, inevitably, I realize I’m lost. I dig out my trusty Palm Pilot V and select the GPS icon. It draws a very large ’X’ on the screen and says ‘You are here’. Comforted, I ride on.

[GoldOxide_imp]

This all sounds very complicated to me. I just get on the bike, ride to the gate and then turn one way or the other. Then I ride, turning randomly until, inevitably, I realize I’m lost. I dig out my trusty Palm Pilot V and select the GPS icon. It draws a very large ’X’ on the screen and says ‘You are here’. Comforted, I ride on.

Mmm, Palm V. Diehard. Diehard.

My once heavily used Palm Pilot III still works perfectly. So much promise. Not enough follow-through.

[Tom_imp]

This all sounds very complicated to me. I just get on the bike, ride to the gate and then turn one way or the other. Then I ride, turning randomly until, inevitably, I realize I’m lost. I dig out my trusty Palm Pilot V and select the GPS icon. It draws a very large ’X’ on the screen and says ‘You are here’. Comforted, I ride on.

I used to ride like that in Pennsylvania. Without some kind of decent plan around here (NJ), you can end up on a @~*^ty ride.

[Stichill_imp]

This all sounds very complicated to me. I just get on the bike, ride to the gate and then turn one way or the other. Then I ride, turning randomly until, inevitably, I realize I’m lost. I dig out my trusty Palm Pilot V and select the GPS icon. It draws a very large ’X’ on the screen and says ‘You are here’. Comforted, I ride on.