How to adjust GPS average speed to make ETA close to actual

[Florida Red Wing]

I have spent several hours attempting to figure out how to make the ETA on my Zumo 550 and/or my Zumo XT to be a little closer to real world ETA. I know there is a way in Basecamp to adjust average speed on different roads and any adjustment there is reflected in the software. However, when the route is transferred to the GPS the ETA there does not change.
My friend has a Harley with a factory GPS and when he loads my route into his GPS his ETA is always very close to our actual time of arrival. Both of my Garmin GPS's are very optimistic when calculating what time I will arrive.
So, my question to you experts is this. How do I make the ETA on my Garmin GPS be closer to actual?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.
FR

[rbentnail]

Using the Route Options tab for your route.

Double click route name so box opens. Tab at top. Click Customize Route Options and scroll all the way down to adjust speeds for different types of roads.
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Also in Base Camp, Edit/Options/Activity Profile/Routing tab. Scroll down, adjust average speeds for the profile you use.

[Florida Red Wing]

Thanks Russ. This is what I have tried and it only seems to result in making a difference in the amount of time Basecamp projects it will take to ride the route. When the route is loaded to either the Zumo 550 or the XT it isn't making any change to the ETA on the GPS.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.

FRW

[lkraus]

Using the Route Options tab for your route.

Double click route name so box opens. Tab at top. Click Customize Route Options and scroll all the way down to adjust speeds for different types of roads.
---------------------------------
Also in Base Camp, Edit/Options/Activity Profile/Routing tab. Scroll down, adjust average speeds for the profile you use.

That works in Basecamp, but the question is: How to adjust the ETA calculation by the GPS?

I don't think there is any such adjustment on any of the Zumo models.

As best I can tell, the Zumo ETA calculation assumes travel at the posted speed limits with no allowance for traffic, slowing for traffic signals, pit stops, etc.

[Florida Red Wing]

Thanks lkraus. I was hoping I could make the GPS give me a better ETA. I lead group rides and when I make a reservation at a restaurant I do my best to be there a few minutes prior to my reservation. If I could make the GPS give a more accurate ETA it would be easier to arrive when I want.
I guess the only way to do that is to buy a Harley, but I'm spoiled by my Goldwing.

[MSTOCK27370]

Thanks Russ. This is what I have tried and it only seems to result in making a difference in the amount of time Basecamp projects it will take to ride the route. When the route is loaded to either the Zumo 550 or the XT it isn't making any change to the ETA on the GPS.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.

FRW

Both Mapsource and Basecamp have options to set average speeds for different road types. In Mapsource it's in the Edit-Preferences, and in Basecamp it's Edit-Options. You set it in the Motorcycle profile. The 550 doesn't have this ability in it's settings. I have always found that the ETA is fairly accurate. The ETA seems to load with the speed setting that came over with the route from the routing software, but once the route recalculates in the device the ETA will change a bit. In theory, your 550 should be using Mapsource, not Basecamp for route planning. Garmin has advised that Basecamp cam give unpredictable results if you load a route into the 450 or 550 (or a few others).

[sussamb]

Garmin devices learn your driving style so you'll find the more you use it the more accurate your ETAs will become. There is no other way to improve the ETA given by your device.

[Peobody]

FWIW, I believe my XT comes pretty close in terms of ride time. ETA is another matter since traffic and stop frequency/duration can not be anticipated by the satnav. Since you lead group rides you likely have a sense about stop frequency and duration so you could add that time as a layover time to one of your route points. This won't address all of the factors that can affect ride time but should help a little.

[rbentnail]

Thanks Russ. This is what I have tried and it only seems to result in making a difference in the amount of time Basecamp projects it will take to ride the route. When the route is loaded to either the Zumo 550 or the XT it isn't making any change to the ETA on the GPS.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.

FRW

Using Base Camp, do this for the routes already on loaded the XT and see what happens. This is yet another reason to transfer routes to the SD card and not to the device internal memory- you can "delete" them from the device and still have them available to work with outside of Base Camp.

side note- I wish you'd turn off the italics, it's awfully hard to read.

[jfheath]

The 550 was quite poor at calculating ETA. From my own observations, it seemed to only start to readjust the ETA when there was a about 30 minutes left - when suddenly the ETA would start moving away from you. That last 30 minutes would often take an hour.

I didn't find any way of changing its behaviour. Incidentally, the same is similar in the XT if you use OSM maps. OSM maps did not have speed limit information, so could not take that into account. One thought was to do with the maps at the time - but if it is still doing it with modern maps .......

I suspect that my 'last 30 minutes' assumption isn't correct - it just becomes more noticeable as the amount of route left decreases.

You get used to it, and if it is a long ride and says ETA is 16:20 when you set off, you just think - Ok, that will be 18:00.

Adjust the BC / Mapsource figures to suit your riding. The default settings are pretty good - ie if you stick to speed limits, then it recognises that at 50mph, your average will be less than that due to traffic, lights, etc. That doesn't affect what the Zumo does, but it will give you a pretty good estimate.

Mapsource is still the program of choice for the Z 550. I cannot remember if you can set the average speed for different road types. But BC and Mapsource will read the same GPX file, and both will modify the type of route points to what they need. Mapsource uses only Via Points - but Garmin changed the definition of Via Points for Basecamp.

The 590 and 595 are pretty good and they adjust the timing if you change your average speed for a particular type of road. So if you suddenly get out of traffic on open roads and can average 60mph instead of 50, after a few miles this change is reflected in the ETA.

The XT is pretty much spot on with ETA. It will adjust it continuously (not continually) ie. It uses a constant stream of information to keep the ETA updated - but it is rare to see it alter by much unless your riding style changes or reported traffic gets in the way.