Zumo User Forums

You can find out what the Zumo will do if it has to recalculate a route - all you have to do is to load it in and force the Zumo to recalculate it !

By far the easiest way of doing this is if your route has its start point somewhere along the road from your current location. (By the way, I really do recommend doing this - placing your start point on the first road that you want to be on after leaving your current location.) In this case, you can probably start the route and immediately press Skip, to skip that first point. The XT will recalculate every section of the entire route and will probably take the road you intended anyway.

Another way is to load the route and then change the route’s vehicle icon - see the image above. Change the Bike to a Car, let it recalculate and then change it back to a bike again. All of the route points (Via and Shaping) will remain intact, but now the entire route will have been re-calculated by the Zumo, using the the vehicle and calculation mode specified in the route and the Zumo’s settings for the vehicle. Hopefully, after recalculation, the route is pretty much the same as it was. If it isn’t then you need to review your Shaping Points and check that Basecamp had no other routing preferences set. (other than those that can be matched by Zumo’s settings - eg avoid Ferry)

A convenient way of spotting whether the Zumo has calculated a different route from the one that you planned in Basecamp is to create a track from the route in Basecamp and transfer that to the Zumo as well as the route. You can get the XT to show both on the map - the route displayed on top of the track. If the route is changed, track will be revealed, showing where the original route went.

How to do this is described Section 6 P50 - Quick Link Here.

There is a balance to be obtained between adding a lot of Shaping Points and not adding enough. I assume that Via Points are plotted in just a few key places - locations that you will definitely pass through no matter what. Often these will be close to stopping places. Once these are positioned, it should be possible to add a Shaping Point somewhere between two Via Points that brings the fastest route pretty close to where you want to ride. Just a couple more may well clinch it.

That is what I tend to aim for but there are circumstances when it is impossible to achieve. Some examples are:

• The route you want is on an old main road when a Motorway runs in the same direction close by. The stanav will always go for the motorway when Faster Time is selected. Shaping Points are required on the side road midway between motorway junctions.
• The route you want is in a network of country lanes. You know one is better than the other, but the satnav doesn’t. But if you are able to recognise the better road when riding, take it no matter what the satnav says. The satnav will simply calculate another way using the road that you are riding.
• Mountain Passes with a lot of hairpin bends and often old routes sometimes cause problems. Sometimes the mapping isn’t as up to date as we would like and it some of the old mountain roads have been rebuilt. Check on satellite images. There is rarely more than one feasible route to the top. A point near the bottom and another near the top is usually adequate.

Sometimes more points are required, but really, the fewer the better. That is because if you are forced to miss one, it gives you much more flexibility. You can follow the satnav which will get you to the next point a few miles away, or you can ignore the satnav and aim to get back to the original route. Easy if you have marked the original with a track. Whatever - the satnav will keep finding different ways to keep you moving forwards - rather than repeatedly sending you back because you plotted a lot of shaping points very close to each other.