Zumo User Forums

I learned the following lesson the hard way when helping to plot GPS routes for the Scooter Cannonball (coast to coast Vespa race). Small differences in how maps are drawn can make big differences in how routes behave on a GPS. One particular route point from a Google map, for example, placed it just a few pixels out of alignment with the intended route in Basecamp and introduced an unwanted 100-mile detour.

Maps, after all, are just somebody's idea of how best to represent the real world. Zoom way in on a twisty mountain road in two different maps and see how much they can disagree.

It's fine to use maps other than Garmin for trip planning, as long as you are willing to do a thorough (and I mean very thorough) pre-flight check. A good way to do this is in Basecamp, which leads me to conclude why not use it in the first place. But I acknowledge that there are benefits to other mapping apps and would never claim they can't be used successfully with your XT. If you are willing to do the pre-flight.

-dan

in fact that would be what I would like to avoid! plan only in basecamp and not make the itinerary on an app and then check it again on basecamp, but basecamp has no references for example on scenic roads or anything else to travel, or at least, I haven't seen or understood them yet... consider that I've started to use and understand basecamo a little in just 3/4 days

Strommino wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 6:21 pm in fact that would be what I would like to avoid! plan only in basecamp and not make the itinerary on an app and then check it again on basecamp, but basecamp has no references for example on scenic roads or anything else to travel, or at least, I haven't seen or understood them yet... consider that I've started to use and understand basecamo a little in just 3/4 days

This is why I use Basecamp to plan the actual route, but refer often to Google maps to get the kind of information you mention about locations along the route.

-dan

Strommino wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 6:21 pm in fact that would be what I would like to avoid! plan only in basecamp and not make the itinerary on an app and then check it again on basecamp, but basecamp has no references for example on scenic roads or anything else to travel, or at least, I haven't seen or understood them yet... consider that I've started to use and understand basecamo a little in just 3/4 days

Garmin has always been so far behind on "scenic roads", restaurants, fuel stations and everything else that the collective 'we' have mostly learned to never depend on it for those things. In my mind, Base Camp is for routing, plain & simple, and that's all I use it for. Other apps are significantly better and more useful for those other things.

then I would say that my method is already good! I'll just have to check the route in Basecamp so I don't have any surprises while browsing!

I've just been looking at the Michelin 'scenic' roads. Scenic / Vista / Panorama are terms (in different languages) used in the key to the map.

Yet 'Desfiladero de la Hermida' - the road through a 600metre deep limestone gorge in the Picos d'Europa in Northern Spain - has a green 'scenic road' marker alongside it. A vista or panorama it does not have. For much of the year, some of it doesn't even see sunlight.

But it is a superb route to ride, and having more than a passing interest in Geology, I find places like this fascinating. So in my book it would have a green line anyway. But I also like the open moorland routes and the long gradual ascents with giant slalom type bends. A lot of my favourite roads are untouched by the Michelin Highlighter pen.
So when looking for decent routes, the green highlight can be very useful - but some of the others may be even better. Which is fine by me - I see what has happened to the superb roads that make up the Scotland NC500. What was once my favourite touring area has been ruined by over advertising and not providing any backup facilities.

My favourite trick when plotting a route is to export it as a track from Basecamp as a KML file and load it into Google Earth, and get Google earth to 'fly' the 3d landscape following the track. It gives a good impression of what to expect.





Here's a link on how to do this.

https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewto ... arth#p9959


You may have to adjust the height and angle of the imaginary camera to get an acceptable view.