396 taking crazy routes on tiny backroads

[Kernow]

I upgraded from a 220 to a 396 last year , I also garmin in the car and van so I understand the settings etc .
Trying my new 396 out locally as you do I found it was routing me down narrow lanes constantly . The kind of lanes that are barely one car wide and have grass or mud in the middle , so not a great place to be on large road bike . Whatever setting it’s on it does this , although I mainly tried it on fastest route with all the adventurous routing switched off .
After many calls to garmin new sd cards and many hours or re installing maps etc I had no joy and garmin replaced the unit .
After not much winter use I get the bike out and install the new garmin to find its doing the same as the old one . I live in Cornwall so most day rides are Devin Cornwall and Somerset , so often this unit takes me Down very narrow roads , and yesterday a toad marked as not for vehicles .
I ve got wise to it and I check the lane it’s turning me into and ignore it if it’s not suitable but it just try’s to take me down the next lane . It always gets me there but a basic route can become 3 times longer as I keep igniting the back lanes .
I can’t help but feel they must all do this especially in rural places like Devon and Cornwall , Iam scared to any sort of tour far from home .
Garmin are no help simply asking me report all the roads /route errors which aren’t suitable , if I did that I would need to become a full time employee of garmin
Iam really hoping someone has a fix for this , even if I look like a fool , as Iam about to go ask for my money back and try a tom tom

[rbentnail]

Can you switch your device to 'driving' instead of 'motorcycling', see what happens?

[Kernow]

I’ll give that a go on the bike good idea thanks I’ve tried it in the car with same result but I think I still had it set on motorcycle

[pidjones]

In my recent 4200 mile trip experience, only setting the 396 as a standard car device - and setting Basecamp to route the same way, and including a huge number of shaping points, and telling the 396 that the starting point is the first waypoint to route to will make it a half-way reliable GPS for pre-planned routing. In other words, making it a $100 automotive GPS that is weather-resistant. BTW, to switch to automobile mode you tap the vehicle icon at the very top of the home screen. Another Garmin gotcha - hiding settings in places other than the settings menus.

[sussamb]

Switching mode is explained in the manual

[Kernow]

Well nothing seemed to work , perhaps it’s only a problem with garmins mapping here in the west country , but I doubt it . I again contacted garmin who asked me to report all the rout problems , I asked them if were going to employ me full because it was that bad , garmin suggested I return it to the shop I purchased from which I have done and exchanged it for a tom tom rider 550 . A little more Money but the tom tom seems to be way ahead of the garmin these days
thanks for all your advice trying to help .

[pidjones]

Well nothing seemed to work , perhaps it’s only a problem with garmins mapping here in the west country , but I doubt it . I again contacted garmin who asked me to report all the rout problems , I asked them if were going to employ me full because it was that bad , garmin suggested I return it to the shop I purchased from which I have done and exchanged it for a tom tom rider 550 . A little more Money but the tom tom seems to be way ahead of the garmin these days
thanks for all your advice trying to help .

Wish I had either waited until just before my trip, or tried my 396 out earlier. I have re-mounted my old dim screened 2730 for now, and will have to ebay the 396. Then watch Garmin come out with a mega-patch for it and fix all of its dangerous problems. Taking me down a bad road on a GL1800 pulling a trailer 2-up is not going to happen again!

[Dusty ST]

I've seen some odd routing on my 396, I have set it to avoid toll roads, but twice in France a couple of weeks ago it tried to take me to the peage.
I need to investigate further, but I think the car and bike mode avoidance preferences are independent and I wondering if planning in car mode and loading into bike mode really upsets things.

[sussamb]

Quite possibly. I use my satnav in France regularly and don't normally have issues with avoidances.