Bob Denman
New member
Fan-DANG-tastic!! :clap: :2thumbs:
The quickstart version left me with far more questions, than it did answers!
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There were many reasons for the change of the site software, the biggest was security. The age of the old software also meant no server updates for certain programs. There are many benefits to the new software, one of the biggest is the mobile functionality. Ill fix up some stuff in the coming days, we'll also try to get some of the old addons back or the data imported back into the site like the garage. To create a thread or to reply with a post is basically the same as it was in the prior software. The default style of the site is light colored, but i temporarily added a darker colored style, to change you can find a link at the bottom of the site.
Garmin 660 users...
- Thread starter Bob Denman
- Start date
Fan-DANG-tastic!! :clap: :2thumbs:
The quickstart version left me with far more questions, than it did answers!
RUOUTHERE
New member
@ Bob, on July 24, 25 & 26 we are hosting the 2014 GWRRA New England Districts Rally in Sturbridge, MA. It's three days of great back road guided rides around MA, VT, MA, CT & RI, we will also have a number of instructional classes geared towards motorcycle touring. This year we have scheduled a class on GPS training that focuses on using it and how to create and edit routes. We ask the attendee to bring their own GPS with them for the class so they use their own unit and become more familiar with its operation. That said, more and more Gold Wing owners are moving to Spyders including myself so all are welcome. Let me know if you want more info on our rally.
new england rally
planning to attend the rally, what is the name of the host hotel?? ,am in the process of getting a rt limited,2014, sold my beloved gw
planning to attend the rally, what is the name of the host hotel?? ,am in the process of getting a rt limited,2014, sold my beloved gw
Bob Denman
New member
Thanks for the information! :thumbup:
Let me see if I can head in your direction on that weekend!
PMK
Active member
Bob, the wife and I have been sick all week, so Garmin became low priority.
Overall the Garmin is very versatile. Thing is, it just depends on how you want to make it to where you want to get.
If you are on the road, want to find somewhere to get to. Obviously, you can get somewhere by scrolling back to the first page and enter "where To". When in GO TO, note the down arrow in the bottom right corner. This bottom right is a key to see all available choices.
Her favorite three to select are "address", "points of interest" and recently found.
Address is somewhat straightforward, but wait there"s more. Once saved, you can bypass the typing since it should become a recently found if you let the Garmin map it once, whether you go there or not. These become shortcuts for lack of a better term. Often the rear admiral will do all the locations prior to rolling a wheel. Then while in transit grab places quickly via recently found. It is recommended not to program your home address in case a Garmin is stolen.
If you enter "points of interst", this again is key to the lower right arrow to find a catagory. Once in a catagory, the Garmin will find locations from nearest to further away. Be very careful using this function, as it can take you miles of your route in the wrong direction. Imagine dropping a stone into a pond. The ripple goes in all directions.
These are the key screens to use.
With a Garmin, you can also upload routes and so forth. Every trekking Garmin I own so far, (have not tried the car or moto ones yet), but I beleive it is the same, uses a way to upload a route that limitis how many actual points can be loaded into the unit. So, lets say you plan a trip on your PC. There are many ways or programs to do this, Google Earth, Garmin Programs or even others. What heppens is that the route you dictate may have 2000 points for the Garmin to see. Unfortunately, Garmin screwed up, and limits uploads to 500 points max. If you try this and see the word Truncated, it means the unit analized your request, then gave you, without your input, what it thinks you wanted with the 500 point limit. Kind of like a Garmin Nanny.
The truncating may or may not be a problem. Jeanne and I also do a lot of off-road MTB riding. There have been many events we preloaded into a Garmin, on account of trucating, and the slower speeds, plus close proximity of one trail to another, the truncating reduuced what may have been 20 miles true to 5 miles Garmin as an example. There are ways around this, all time consuming and complicated. The easiest method though is plan shorter routes and tie them together. As an example, home to some hotel 200 miles away as one route, then the hotel to dinner 150 miles away, dinner to the next hotel and so forth. If possible, learn to save these as seperate routes you can call up. I beleive this would be under "custom routes" in the Zumo.
Consider also, how you setup your ride to get somewhere. There are choices such as shorest route, shortest time, tolls or no tolls etc. Garmins are good, but can mess with your head sometimes. If your unit has traffic avoidance, be careful with it also. Beore driving all over to avoid a wreck, ensure the time saved is worth the effort. As we have found out, avoiding one wreck via the Garmin traffic took us on a reroute, all was good until a second wreck, stopped everything.
Learn to zoom out and in on the screen whie rolling. This can be a huge help to see a general idea of your bearings.
FWIW, the Garmin manuals are worth maybe 15% of what the unit is capable of. It takes some practice, playing around and just trying stuff to see what you prefer.
Our greatest two Garmin adventures were
#1, a 175 mile MTB race we did on our Tandem MTB. All day and all night, self supported. 24 hours and a few minutes, all navigated via the Garmin which was preset with many routes on account of truncation.
#2 was Ireland last summer with my wifes parents. I was to cheap to buy maps from Garmin. AT bottom of the 9th, I was finlly able to get free maps into two units (one trekking, one automotive) of Ireland. Got to the Irish rental car place, we had resereved a car with a Garmin, but found out none were available. So I stepped outside and fired up both Garmins. Luckily both worked like a champ on free maps. So I learned to drive an SUV on the wrong side of the car and wrong side of the road. THe Garmins only error, my fault. I not onl loaded both units with road maps, but also trails at my wifes request. Headed to Mlarney Castle, driving along in the SUV, the Garmin has me turn off the paved road, down a driveway and wants me to go down a trail throught the bushes. We turned around, it recalculated and we drove in on the paved road.
All the best, sorry for the long post.
PK
Overall the Garmin is very versatile. Thing is, it just depends on how you want to make it to where you want to get.
If you are on the road, want to find somewhere to get to. Obviously, you can get somewhere by scrolling back to the first page and enter "where To". When in GO TO, note the down arrow in the bottom right corner. This bottom right is a key to see all available choices.
Her favorite three to select are "address", "points of interest" and recently found.
Address is somewhat straightforward, but wait there"s more. Once saved, you can bypass the typing since it should become a recently found if you let the Garmin map it once, whether you go there or not. These become shortcuts for lack of a better term. Often the rear admiral will do all the locations prior to rolling a wheel. Then while in transit grab places quickly via recently found. It is recommended not to program your home address in case a Garmin is stolen.
If you enter "points of interst", this again is key to the lower right arrow to find a catagory. Once in a catagory, the Garmin will find locations from nearest to further away. Be very careful using this function, as it can take you miles of your route in the wrong direction. Imagine dropping a stone into a pond. The ripple goes in all directions.
These are the key screens to use.
With a Garmin, you can also upload routes and so forth. Every trekking Garmin I own so far, (have not tried the car or moto ones yet), but I beleive it is the same, uses a way to upload a route that limitis how many actual points can be loaded into the unit. So, lets say you plan a trip on your PC. There are many ways or programs to do this, Google Earth, Garmin Programs or even others. What heppens is that the route you dictate may have 2000 points for the Garmin to see. Unfortunately, Garmin screwed up, and limits uploads to 500 points max. If you try this and see the word Truncated, it means the unit analized your request, then gave you, without your input, what it thinks you wanted with the 500 point limit. Kind of like a Garmin Nanny.
The truncating may or may not be a problem. Jeanne and I also do a lot of off-road MTB riding. There have been many events we preloaded into a Garmin, on account of trucating, and the slower speeds, plus close proximity of one trail to another, the truncating reduuced what may have been 20 miles true to 5 miles Garmin as an example. There are ways around this, all time consuming and complicated. The easiest method though is plan shorter routes and tie them together. As an example, home to some hotel 200 miles away as one route, then the hotel to dinner 150 miles away, dinner to the next hotel and so forth. If possible, learn to save these as seperate routes you can call up. I beleive this would be under "custom routes" in the Zumo.
Consider also, how you setup your ride to get somewhere. There are choices such as shorest route, shortest time, tolls or no tolls etc. Garmins are good, but can mess with your head sometimes. If your unit has traffic avoidance, be careful with it also. Beore driving all over to avoid a wreck, ensure the time saved is worth the effort. As we have found out, avoiding one wreck via the Garmin traffic took us on a reroute, all was good until a second wreck, stopped everything.
Learn to zoom out and in on the screen whie rolling. This can be a huge help to see a general idea of your bearings.
FWIW, the Garmin manuals are worth maybe 15% of what the unit is capable of. It takes some practice, playing around and just trying stuff to see what you prefer.
Our greatest two Garmin adventures were
#1, a 175 mile MTB race we did on our Tandem MTB. All day and all night, self supported. 24 hours and a few minutes, all navigated via the Garmin which was preset with many routes on account of truncation.
#2 was Ireland last summer with my wifes parents. I was to cheap to buy maps from Garmin. AT bottom of the 9th, I was finlly able to get free maps into two units (one trekking, one automotive) of Ireland. Got to the Irish rental car place, we had resereved a car with a Garmin, but found out none were available. So I stepped outside and fired up both Garmins. Luckily both worked like a champ on free maps. So I learned to drive an SUV on the wrong side of the car and wrong side of the road. THe Garmins only error, my fault. I not onl loaded both units with road maps, but also trails at my wifes request. Headed to Mlarney Castle, driving along in the SUV, the Garmin has me turn off the paved road, down a driveway and wants me to go down a trail throught the bushes. We turned around, it recalculated and we drove in on the paved road.
All the best, sorry for the long post.
PK
Dan McNally
New member
Your Garmin is a tool, and like any other, can do amazing things, or not, based on the skill of the user! My Garmin always tells me how to get home, when I've made eighteen too many random turns on a nice day, while riding (often, it is in my trunk until I determine I'm really lost!) It also gets me to where I am meeting other folks . . . and finds the nearest gas stations, too! It comes in the house every few months to be connected to Garmin Express, to update the maps . . . that is very important! I learn new things about using it, right here at Spyderlovers, regularly! I love it!
RUOUTHERE
New member
For those in the area and interested in joining us for a great weekend here's the link to our July Rally: https://2014newenglanddistrictsrally.shutterfly.com/
FYI, we're hosting an Advanced Trike Course on May 4th in Billerica, MA put on by the MA District of the GWRRA. After 45 years on two wheels I've just purchased a 2014 RT-S and plan to take the course myself to learn how to ride all over again on three wheels. If you or anyone is interested let me know I can send you the details. I'm told by the Certified Instructors the Spyder actually handles the obstacle courses better than a Gold Wing Trike, the Spyder is more agile.
Bob Denman
New member
PK,
Thanks! :thumbup:
I've been playing around with saving adrresses that will come in handy.
I also downloaded the full manual; that'll also give me some useful reference material!
Thanks! :thumbup:
I've been playing around with saving adrresses that will come in handy.
I also downloaded the full manual; that'll also give me some useful reference material!
PMK
Active member
Hope it helped. Between the aircraft Garmin stuff and years of using trekking units on bicycles off-road Jeanne and I have learned some stuff about them. The automotive units seem easier, but in reality I doubt it is so much that they are easier, rather not pushed as hard in difficult terrains.
As far as Garmin manuals. They are often written by people that already know Garmins, so at times they seem to fall short in explaining or small finer details.
FWIW, years ago, while manning our companies both at a trade show, I found Garmin was there also. When time permitted, I was able to sit down with one of the guys from Garmin, now in sales but previously in something else with Garmin. He explained many questions I had where the manual failed. One was the previously mentioned trucating, along with breadcrumbs and other long distance accuracy things.
On a paved road, it far less likely to get totally lost. In the woods, miles from nothing, knowing the Garmin, spare batteries, and a bit of luck go a long way. Guess I learned or suffered.
If you have questions, please ask, I'll do my best to give a good answer.
PK
DeanerBeaner
New member
To plan a ryde on google what is the best way to transfer the route to the 660
R
RodMyers
Guest
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