with Garmin Zumo 350lm Ok. Sat nav is great, so thought I would have a look at planning some routes for next year in the Alps using Base camp soft ware. Wtf? Is it easier to use than it first looks? All I got when I clicked re calculate was a straight line.. Does anyone use Base camp and is it worth persevering with, or is there a better alternative that will work with the Garmin? Cheers in advance.
With a pc or mac? i have struggled with a mac tbh. have a look at " zumoforums"- helpful site/stickies and folk occupy that.
Mine works fine and I have used it extensively to make maps and send them to the device, it has taken me all over Europe without error. You need to do the route waypoint selector, then pick off the route points reasonably close together. Don't use tracks, or you will get a straight line like you said. Sometimes it is easiest if you have a large Michelin paper map in front of you, so you can also pick up all the scenic routes (marked with green edges - they are good bits!) and then pick those up on the Basecamp map. A decent 8 hour route will likely have 200 waypoints to accurately map all the twists and turns. That's fine, it will handle loads. Best, Ian
!!!! 200!!!! Not like Google maps then...so my 7 days in the Alps will need 1400 waypoints. Better start planning now
take a look at the GPX files from Ride magazines routes France e.g. Route Napoleon with 5 waypoints + start/end
Yes, but that's a more or less straight road so you don't need many. (it's a bloody good road too BTW, but I did get nicked on it last year as parts of it are a bit of a racetrack and some is downright dangerous mountain pass stuff on perfect tarmac, so go easy). For normal routes where you have to keep moving from road to road, you will need to pick up pretty accurate waypoints. Spend the time at home and get it right, then the journeys will just be a breeze and you never have to worry about being lost. They are brilliant for keeping momentum up on a ride as you never have to stop other than for fuel and drinks..... perfect riding....
Takes a while to get used to Basecamp, as previously stated you need to plan with waypoints. I use Google maps on another screen to pick out where I want to plot a waypoint. There are one or two good tutorials on YouTube and it is worth persivering as in the end you can produce an ideal route adding in fuel stops, places of interest and once completed you can e mail file copies to other group members if doing a large tour.
Cheers guys, after re installing ( went glitchy after sat nav update:frown it now seems to be making more sense. At first it didn't want to work with the Europe maps loaded on to the Garmin and the recalculate button did sod all...but now it does! Restarting the programme maybe sorted things out after removing and downloading the latest version of BC? Anyways, I will sort all the waypoints first as this seems to be one of the solutions. My main concern was planning a big day where we travel from St Moritz, through Italy and in to Bourg St Maurice via St Bernard pass. I didn't want to get drawn in to the congestion of Milano, but do want to see lake Como en route :smile:
Did a week based in Bourg st Maurice last year and virtually every road out of that place is a fantastic road on a motorcycle.
We were there for 3 days last year... .....superb roads There is a little know col close by that is simply outstanding with little traffic; Col de la Madeleine (D213). Due another visit in 2014 when we stay in Bourg
When I am over in France (Chamonix) I usually find time to do a quick loop through Italy, so that's out from Chamonix into Martigny, over the Saint Bernadino pass (Italian Job road), into Italy (Aosta), out up through La Thuile onto the Petit Saint Bernadino pass (SS26) then over to Bourg St Mouritz. Bourg to Albertville, then over the D1508 to Megeve, then back up the road to Chamonix. Takes about 7 hours pinned in third. Pretty much either amazing or scary depending on which section you are on (passes - scary but fun, into and out of Bourg, over to Megeve, amazing). Col D'Iseran is also quite good, but slow like the other passes as it's tight switchbacks. If you also fancy a fast run out, there are some amazing roads out towards Bourg-En-Bresse - fast, sweepy third gear roads.....
I have tried to but find base camp a pos. For a start it won't update to the latest maps on my Zumo, downloaded via the Mac. Secondly, I find it virtually impossible to work out a route that does not become a set of zig zags and not curves following the road. Mapsource on the other hand, the old system was superb, IMHO.
I am trying it on a PC with a Zumo 660 but cant get the maps onto basecamp with anything like enough detail Best detail I can get to after loading maps on both device and pc are basic roads but not down to minor roads? Anyone able to shed light?
I had the same problem. What did work though was to plug in the sat nav unit and open the maps stored on there (select maps from the Nav from top tool bar) . Much more detail than the rubbish that is on Base camp already, though that may be just a basic world map. Hence the lack of detail. It took a couple of goes including deleting and reloading the latest software version...but I can now see potential! Btw first time around it took an eternity to load the maps. its a case of small steps until used to it maybe, but its a shame that something more intuitive is not available.
Can you get detail down to the same level as on your satnav? I have downloaded and installed the maps but still only down to A-road detail - not down to streets or minor roads?
sounds like the map detail isnt unlocked. You need to use the unlock codes to gain full level detail. Then you are right down to shrubs on the side of the roads.......
Update. Don't waste time with Basecamp it IS a pos. Download Tyre. Plan routes in Google maps. Download to Tyre. Transfer to Garmin. Takes about twenty minutes and includes as many twisty roads and waypoints as you want!
