I used TYRE for years and moved onto MyRouteApp as "Gold" user. Now after a few years using MRA I have found that a) they do do video tuition for folk who have never planned routes before, and b) if you don't take the time and care to place your waypoints it will have you tearing your hair out when on the road. But most of the issues are due to operator error and it's worth taking the time to find out how to use the App properly, i.e. not placing a waypoint on the wrong side of a dual carriageway. Also as a Gold user, you can compare Tom Tom routes with Garmin(HERE) maps / routing so all differing device users can have the same "designed" route on their device,,,
No the dinosaurs are the people who keep buying them when there is a much more capable GPS system on your phone. Add a waterproof case and a mount and go ride a route using any software that you want.
Can’t quite agree with that. Friends on tour have used their phones as you describe only for them to stop working in very hot summer conditions. Tom Tom etc won’t do that. Also as far as I know you can plan a whole holidays routes and install on TT Garmin but not aware of a phone app that does that, but please correct me if I am wrong.
Pretty sure there are a fair few navigation apps that'll let you do this, the TomTom app being one; also CoPilot I think. I still have the now defunct Navigon on my phone, along with about five years worth of pre-planned routes. The aforementioned MRA Navigation app has an offline mode, which I haven't tried, but I assume it'll let you do the same, i.e. download the routes and relevant maps in advance of a trip.
iphones by any chance? My wifes iphone has done the same just running gmaps. and yes, can store multiple routes on the copilot app
Thanks didn’t know about copilot! And yes IPhones or ipads overheat. Also wonder about vibration from Ducatis
Turns out I’ve inadvertently started an interesting thread. My view is that to date there is no decent product on the market for motorcyclists. Yes you can use your phone, I still do sometimes but not only will it overheat it will screw up your battery, you can’t see it in the sunlight and you can’t prod it with gloves on. Although nav apps are often far better than Tomtom. It’s a pain taking a phone out of a mount if you want to take a photo. The good things about Tomtom are; Sometimes, not always, the screen is glove friendly. Usually you can see it in sunlight. That’s it. A Tomtom Rider is F expensive to buy and really ought to be better. The operating system belongs to the last century. Coming down through France when I deleted a waypoint it took an age to reprogram the route. I had to ignore it and use common sense and road signs, how old fashioned is that? Many times I have come close to giving it the anvil and hammer treatment.
Yes there is but it would have been a better option if it had actually communicated with the TomTom it was connected to after an age of point plotting, instead of pressing the ‘Send the operator crazy’ button.
I have used CoPilot previously and still have it on my phone as a backup. Fiddly to program routes or for that matter create the proprietary TRP files and import them. And, yes, not glove friendly and all the other 'using a phone for bike nav' downsides. Aside from the OS point the same applies to Garmin. Had a TomTom once, just for the sake of curiosity, and the UI was appalling. Garmin's latest versions are an improvement/evolution and with the XT I personally feel it's now fully come of age. Like any device there is a learning curve, it's now more intuitive I feel. Though maybe that's because I've gone though the Garmin range from the old StreetPilots and various iterations of the Zumo it comes naturally to me... Did you plot the whole route across France as one file over multiple days? From what you've said it sounds like it. If so that's your problem. These devices do have limited processing power and recalculating a route is probably one of it's most processor intensive jobs. Best to split long trips into days at the very most, even half days. That way it'll recalc with relative ease and speed.
I call this the hidden "Goat Track" option and try to ignore them (usually)! I agree about Basecamp, it takes some getting used to but there are some good tutorials, but it is not intuitive. Once I've plotted a route I zoom right in and add a Waypoint about 200m after major junctions and turns (I also number these WP1, WP2 ect which helps you keep track of them). This waypoint 'forces' the device to head to that point so you should then be on the right road. Sometimes when the damn thing keeps wanting you to turn round you need to use the 'skip waypoint' command. Once someone showed me that my life with GPS improved enormously. The most annoying thing is once you have created a route in basecamp and loaded it to the device it still seems to want to 'calculate route' when you switch it on and import it and sometimes seems to make changes then. This is usually down the Fastest vs Shortest options. We've also found that even though three of us are sometimes using the same devices the "time to destination" will vary whilst we are riding.
Shouldn't do the calc on load thing if the mapping versions on your PC and the Garmin match. Load a route from another version of the Garmin mapping or from a third party route plotting tool like MRA and it will. Makes sense for it to do that IMHO.
@Bumpkin, I’m in the car not on the bike. The Mrs has had all this year having medical treatment so I put her in the car and went through the channel tunnel, safer I thought than flying. Theory being we were in our own ‘metal bubble’. So we drove down near Biarritz in one go. Therefore I needed a route plotting from Calais to just north of Biarritz, all in one. Tomorrow we do the other half of the journey, Biarritz to just east of Malaga. 11hrs, 700+ miles. Most of it motorway, straight through the middle of Madrid with the windows firmly closed. Route plotted, shouldn’t be too bad. I’m using the TomTom Rider for my route navigation and my phone with the Waze app on to warn of any obstructions or speed traps. Having said that on such a long journey I stick to the speed limits as it’s more relaxing. No route instructions from Waze as two navs instructions send you mad. As a combination it works. The nav system in the car is a few years old and as you can’t plot a route on it, for this journey it’s redundant.
