Zumo User Forums

I've used a Zumo 660 on my motorcycle for a few years now, and there are some idiosyncrancies that I've never been able to resolve. I've searched the net for answers many times. Often, I've found the same questions asked over and over by other users so I know it's not just me. Just as often, the OP says the fix didn't work, or there is no follow up.

My list is exclusive to my Zumo 660: I didn't have or notice these issues with my previous devices.
I'm going to post them here to see if there is a final word:
It's solvable and here's how, or it's not solvable so live with it.

1) Unnecessary Diversions: When Highway A connects to Highway B, I'm ocassionally directed off the highway to travel through residential neighborhoods consisting of stop signs every block, shady areas, back roads etc. intead of simply taking the next interchange. This year alone, this has happened multiple times. In one case, I just refused to follow the GPS and took the logical route at which point the device credited me with 15 minutes of travel time to my destination. It "knew" these selections would take more time, but nevertheless...

2) Exit off, Enter on: On almost every trip I've been directed to take an exit and then cross over the road then right back to the entrance ramp of the same highway. At first I thought that, due to a road curvature, the device may have just calculated the shortest/fastest route, but on this last trip, I was on an arrow-straight road on the Great Plains when it happened.

Those are the two most annoying behaviors...
My settings: Motorcycle Mode (It will enter in this mode by default when it detects the motorcycle mount anyway. Some features are enabled only in this mode anyway).

Route Preference: Faster Time
Avoidances: Ferries, Carpool Lanes, Unpaved Roads, Seasonal Closures.
There are no avoidances for traffic, and I don't even have that part of the GPS connected. I don't use it.

So, any tried and true solutions that are known to work? Am I missing something?
As always, appreciated.

I don't bring a computer with my on long touring/camping trips and sometimes my plans and destinations vary on the fly, so going back home to fix a problem is not a viable solution. I know I CAN preview the route on my GPS and have started doing so to catch some of these problems ahead of time. Still, I'm curious as to the behavior and if there is a fix.

I've had similar situations happen to me with my 550 over the years. Didn't matter if I was on old roads that hadn't moved in 20 years or in construction zones. I do expect oddities when the roads are moved/added and maps are not up to date, but this was not the case.

All I ever did to get it back on track was to turn the gps off/on

I sometimes get number 2 - never seen number 1.

I've had that happen when I had my old 665 on shortest route instead of fastest time

I have had both of these happen.

1.) This one was explained by how I routed with the mapping software. I changed to shortest route to make the mapping software to not take interstate highways the entire way. Part of the route had to go by an interstate. That portion took me through towns because it was shorter than the bypass around the town. Changing the parameter to fastest route and using via/waypoints to avoid interstates that I could, or putting a via/waypoint on the bypasses with shortest route, resolved this issue.

2.) Never have been able to figure this one out. It happens on occasion (not too often). I was on a group ride one time and the lead bike exited and my unit was telling me to do the same thing. We were on a road that went over another road. It was on a straight road out in the middle of nowhere, no buildings, no trees, nothing to block your view. You could clearly see that you didn't have to exit, but the lead bike blindly followed his GPS instructions:-) and we had to make a stop at the stop sign before getting right back on the road where we had been traveling at highway speed.

Duplicate post deleted

Wingstyle wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:57 pm I have had both of these happen.

1.) This one was explained by how I routed with the mapping software.

This, I can understand. I've made my share of mistakes with routing programs, too.
However, the behavior I'm referring to is by the device itself. No custom routing is involved.

2.) Never have been able to figure this one out. It happens on occasion (not too often). I was on a group ride one time and the lead bike exited and my unit was telling me to do the same thing. We were on a road that went over another road. It was on a straight road out in the middle of nowhere, no buildings, no trees, nothing to block your view. You could clearly see that you didn't have to exit, but the lead bike blindly followed his GPS instructions:-) and we had to make a stop at the stop sign before getting right back on the road where we had been traveling at highway speed.

The first time I had this happen I was in the same situation.. leading another rider. "Blindly" may not be the word...If I could have seen the whole extent of the diversion I would have ignored it. My device is set to zoom in at turns, which is a good practice in areas where there may be closely spaced multiple exit and entrance ramps.
This behavior is usually just an irritant, but consider this...
On my most recent tour going through a sparsely populated part of the country the device told me my exit/interchange was "X" many miles ahead. I knew there was a town there and I knew I had enough gas to get to that town so I anticipated topping up my tank when I took that exit.
As it turned out, the "X" miles was only to one of those exit-here-and-get-right-back-on-the-highway errors. No gas anywhere, just a crossroad. I still had quite aways to go to the "real" exit. I still made it, but I could have been left high and dry on the roadside.
Suppose again that it was at night? Yeah, it wouldn't have been a minor annoyance then.

I'm not sure why Garmin doesn't want to address or even acknowledge this problem.

Garmin aren't the only ones. While we humans see roads etc your GPS just has a selection of nodes joined by lines from which it works out the route. Occasionally errors like the ones mention can happen. If you spot one you can help others by reporting it to Garmin or directly to HERE, who provide the maps.

[mention]sussamb[/mention] was there supposed to be a link above? Where you have put here?

I forgot to mention this earlier:

To avoid one of the weird off-highway side trips I experienced on the outbound leg of a recent trip, I went through the return trip step by step hoping to catch and avoid the missteps on the way back.

None showed and none happened.

It all seems so random.