lostbiker

Hello,
I bought a Garmin Zumo 660, my first GPS, just before embarking on an 7700 mile trip to New York, New Mexico and return. Harris & Jeannine, Across America 2009
First some good points about the Zumo. It is easy to use. It is definitely waterproof in torrential rain . It is definitely dustproof and smokeproof. It is vibration proof and withstood working for hours at 109+ degrees in the hot sun..

Our goal was to stay on two lane roads as much as possible. On the return trip we achieved this, going from El Paso TX to Arlington VA on two lane roads except to cross the Mississippi River. BUT, we had to pick up paper maps in every state to do this because the Zumo would aim us at a highway every time!!

Complaint 1: The Zumo only calculates routes in "Fastest Time" or "Shortest Distance" modes, and each of these modes aims for interstates. Why not "Avoid four lane highway" mode?? This is my biggest complaint..

In Tennessee, North Carolina ,and Arkansas we were on some very, very twisty back roads where we could only go about 35mph. The Garmin speed limit was the state speed limit.

Complaint 2: The "Time to Waypoint" calculation on the Zumo is distance divided by posted/Garmin speed limit, a calculation I can do in my head. Why can't the Zumo use the average speed we are actually going??? (This is my least important complaint)

In western Texas (and elsewhere) I needed to get to a town for fuel. It is easy to drive well over 150 miles out there with no gas stations.. and the first time it happened was a big surprise to me...On my motorcycle 175 miles means running out of gas. On the Zumo I clicked through the box number and street address and just typed in the nearest town name. Zumo then gives a choice of street addresses. I clicked on a good sounding one. I ended up going well over 20 miles out of the way...and was very close to "high frustration" with my Zumo..

Complaint 3: Why can't Zumo go to the center of town (like Google does) when no street is entered?..

I'm new at the GPS game. Even though I used it every day I was learning on the bike....
Any help on these complaints would be appreciated.
Thanks
Lostbiker from the Lost Wheels Motorcycle Club

HumVee

Hello, lostbiker!
You should try using MapSource, which came on the City Navigator North America NT DVD that came with your Garmin zūmo 660. I have a 660 as well (& love it, despite some quirks & things I’d like improved). MapSource has more detailed routing controls, though still no “Avoid 4-lane & larger highways.” Take a look at the Preferences screenshot I’ve attached. There’s a slider for determining preferences for big roads – not very detailed but at least it gives you some control.

The best thing to do when planning a road trip adventrue is look around for enthusiast routes in the areas you’re driving through, and pattern your trip based on local driver/rider recommendations. I’m sure every state has a motorcycle enthusiast website or two. In Oregon, we have Oregon Motorcyclist, with recommended routes all over our state. In California, there’s Pashnit. It’s a for pay site now, but you can still get some good route ideas just nosing around the site. Once you’ve sketched out your route on paper, build the route in MapSource. Include lot’s of waypoints to force the route onto the path you want so it doesn’t try to calculate the shortest or fastest route. If MapSource goes crazy when you try to draw your route using the Route Tool, then look at the routing options – it might be that the road you’re clicking on is an unpaved road when you have “avoid unpaved roads” selected in your preferences.

Garbage in, garbage out. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, and nobody’s perfect. The best thing you can do is notify the map data provider where the road is wrong, the speed is wrong, etc. Your entry will be verified and then applied to a future map update. To provide map corrections to NAVTEQ, use this link to report the error: NAVTEQ Map Reporter

Quote:

Complaint 2: The "Time to Waypoint" calculation on the Zumo is distance divided by posted/Garmin speed limit, a calculation I can do in my head. Why can't the Zumo use the average speed we are actually going??? (This is my least important complaint)

I imagine that ETA is hard to please everyone with. If based on your current speed, then being stopped in traffic would show an infinite time to destination. Averaging your speed over a set period of time would provide better estimate…but how long should the time span be for the average? How much computational power should be given over to ETA calculations? If the time span to be averaged is the “last ten minutes,” that value is of course constantly changing, and all the speed fluctuations during that 10 minute time would have to be logged and evaluated. Talk about hitting a moving target! It can be done, but it’s far more complex than looking at current distance to target and posted speed. Map redrawing and other functions might suffer, or Garmin would have to use more powerful processors – which of course they’d feel obliged to charge to the consumer & thus bump up the price of already expensive GPS units….

Quote:

In western Texas (and elsewhere) I needed to get to a town for fuel. It is easy to drive well over 150 miles out there with no gas stations.. and the first time it happened was a big surprise to me...On my motorcycle 175 miles means running out of gas. On the Zumo I clicked through the box number and street address and just typed in the nearest town name. Zumo then gives a choice of street addresses. I clicked on a good sounding one. I ended up going well over 20 miles out of the way...and was very close to "high frustration" with my Zumo.

The zumo has the “Fuel Gauge” capability, where you input your motorcycle’s fuel range (I’m always conservative with that number, and give myself a 30 mile cushion even before I would hit my reserves). With this value set, you should get a fueling icon popping up when you reach the programmed limit – and then if you tap it, it will pull up a list of the nearest gas stations, their distance - and direction! Again, this is information that was entered into the NAVTEQ database by somebody at some time, and may no longer be accurate (it was zero for two in Crescent City, California – but found me gas stations in Eureka with no problems). The more we all pitch in to let NAVTEQ know about incorrect data, the more we all benefit down the road when we buy updated maps.

NOTE: I’m pretty sure the fuel gauge feature only measures your distance travelled versus the range you inputted. It doesn’t take the place of your brain. If you know it’s quite likely that you won’t be finding fuel in a desolate stretch of highway on your trip (like entering the mountains), then be sure to add a fueling stop waypoint in the next town before that big stretch of nothing!

Quote:

Complaint 3: Why can't Zumo go to the center of town (like Google does) when no street is entered?

What do you mean? When I select “Cities” in my zumo’s “Where To?” menu, I can see that it pretty much selects a point in the center of every town I select. How are you doing it, and where does the zumo direct you to?

Quote:

I'm new at the GPS game. Even though I used it every day I was learning on the bike.... Any help on these complaints would be appreciated. Thanks Lostbiker from the Lost Wheels Motorcycle Club

The Lost Wheels Motorcycle Club looks like a great outfit to belong to. I see the AMA endorsement on the top of the web page. Did you know that AMA membership gives very significant discounts to purchases of Garmin products from the Garmin website? I got my zumo for $672 straight from Garmin!

We're all learning how to use our GPS devices better, and like to share what we know as well as learn what we don't. Welcome to the forum, and I hope that you like it here!

Attached Thumbnails