[Leboyd]

My wife and I are looking at a long round trip this summer. We know the three places we want to go and approximately on what roads.

I used the HD trip planner and it is generally acceptable for a "if you know what you want" planner.

What I think would be cool is a planner where you enter your required overnight locations and dates, your starting/ending dates, and your minimum-maximum daily mileage.

Here's how it might work. Let's say we want to ride from Branson, MO to Mount Rushmore. It's roughly a 950 mile trip. Now, we say we want to ride 250-300 miles per day. The tool would then figure out the best (based on your selection: scenery, road size, curvy, speed limit and maybe others) routes to maximize your enjoyment.

What do you think? Does it exist?

 

[TedLucas]

Maybe I think it exists but have to find it out and if it would exist then it would be awesome to have 1 of them

 

[Beemer2012]

You can certainly get them with certain GPS units. Garmin has BaseCamp. Saves the plan directly onto your GPS.

 

[gerhard]

The most successful routes I planned used paper maps, google maps/street view and Garmin Base Camp. I think when you put effort into the planning the results will show it. I have the Nav V and it allows you select curvy roads and stuff but it only works so, so in my opinion.

Gerhard

 

[RTnger]

What do you have to pay for to use Basecamp

 

[Sleuth]

What do you have to pay for to use Basecamp

It is free, however you will need to pay a heavy price in blood, sweat, tears, swearing, frustration etc. It is not specified but you do need a Garmin device to get the best out of it!

It is very powerful, I use it for my planning, but it takes time to get to grips with it. Not the easiest to use. With this forum, large amounts of knowledge here, and with a companion forum (zumoforums.com) it can get you running with a minimum of stress.

Start your planning early, and plan small day trips to get to grips with the vagaries of the software / trip planning.

Good luck, and stick with it it is worth it!

Best regards
Sleuth

 

[Scubadoc]

My wife and I are looking at a long round trip this summer. We know the three places we want to go and approximately on what roads.

I used the HD trip planner and it is generally acceptable for a "if you know what you want" planner.

What I think would be cool is a planner where you enter your required overnight locations and dates, your starting/ending dates, and your minimum-maximum daily mileage.

Here's how it might work. Let's say we want to ride from Branson, MO to Mount Rushmore. It's roughly a 950 mile trip. Now, we say we want to ride 250-300 miles per day. The tool would then figure out the best (based on your selection: scenery, road size, curvy, speed limit and maybe others) routes to maximize your enjoyment.

What do you think? Does it exist?

There is a website called openroadjourney.com that has member published and downloadable routes all over the country. The routes are separated by region, and all have extensive comments about scenery, places to stay and eat.
This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but these published routes have done most of the heavy lifting, and I have found them useful for my own trip planning. The routes can be Iimported into your Garmin.

 

[Leboyd]

Nice site and looks liek it will be very helpful. thx.

 

[hschisler]

The most successful routes I planned used paper maps, google maps/street view and Garmin Base Camp. I think when you put effort into the planning the results will show it. I have the Nav V and it allows you select curvy roads and stuff but it only works so, so in my opinion.

Gerhard

Same here. I use paper maps and Google Maps, and set up an Excel spreadsheet to track each days from/to locations, mileage, ride times, routes, and comments/things to see and do.

I started to use Garmin Base Camp a couple of times and was really frustrated with it so I gave up on it. It has an awful UI, IMO. That said, I know once you get past the learning curve it's a decent product and I'd like to use it for a major trip out west this summer so I'll revisit it soon.

 

[justvisiting]

Hey there, noob with k1200rs here again
Just saw this post, have you seen the site that I made for this, it's bestbikingroads.com , it's far from being a perfect solution for your needs, but you can get a complete map overview of all the best roads in an area and then use that as a basis for a route.
Hope that is useful.
David

 

[BobbyB26]

My attack plan starts with talking to peeps about good routes and putting my nose in my Destination Hwy's books. Then get the maps out and open Google maps.

I set up each leg of the trip by how far I'm going in a given day. Then I do a screen capture so I can put it in my tank bag as a quick reference. I then "x" out of that route and start all over again for the next day. The reason I "x" out of the route is that when you do it stores it all in your history. Why you say?

When I get on my bike, I use my phone to run Google maps. I just access the history (Google maps saves your history to the cloud so you can access from any pc, or device...same saved history can be accessed) and choose the route I saved for the first day.....boom and it's all right there and ready to navigate.

Another nice feature about this set up is that I have the Uclear bluetooth speakers and mic system. Google maps gives me turn by turn voice directions via bluetooth right in my helmet. Pretty slick. Even if I'm listening to tunes, Google maps will override and give directions, then back to your tunes automatically. Did I say slick..

B

 

[XMagnaRider]

I mostly use Google's map website for basic planning.

I have many friends who use and rely on Garmin BaseCamp in conjunction with their Garmin GPSs. BaseCamp is free to download, but the built-in basic map is not very detailed or useful. You need a Garmin GPS to download the detailed maps that it needs. Working with the same version of the detailed map makes it easy to move your plans to your GPS when you are ready for your trip.

I am still at the beginner-level "frustrated with the Garmin BaseCamp user interface stage". I have friends who are quite experienced using it, and in their hands it is a powerful tool. They say it is worth investing the time to learn it and use it.

You can find some Garmin BaseCamp tutorials on the LD Rider website:
Basecamp FAQ - LDRiders

I have not looked at all of them, and I suspect the presentations are oriented for "Iron Butt" long distance riders and especially those who participate in motorcycle rallies. (By "motorcycle rally", I mean something that resembles a scavenger hunt on motorcycles.) I hope you find them helpful.

 

[Scubadoc]

I have gone through many base camp tutorials and am beginning to feel more at ease using it for trip planning. It is a very powerful program that lets you do very detailed routing. A bonus feature is that it is also a powerful database that lets you store POIs from multiple sources, and if you properly place them in the appropriate folder, you can easily incorporate them into any future trip without having to reload coordinates. There are open source databases on the web that will let you download, for instance, covered bridges in New England. Any time you are planning a New England trip you just go to that database which you have stored in base camp and insert it as a waypoint.
You can create folders by region and then have easy access to all the waypoints that are listed in that particular region. All you have to do is cut and paste that particular waypoint into your new trip. As everyone says, there is a steep learning curve, but once you get over the hump, it makes trip planning fun. There is a lot of help on the web. Search base camp tutorials, spend a few hours/days going through them and you too can become proficient enough to create interesting and accurate routes.

 

[Lynn_Keen]

When planning longer trips out of state I begin by searching a variety of WEB Sites for favorite roads, rides, trips. Just do a GOOGLE search for favorite motorcycle rides.
I choose rides from those Sites that are in the general direction that I'm planning to travel. Those rides can be anywhere from 20 miles to a 100 or more miles in duration. They then get plotted individually on my GARMIN BASE CAMP mapping software. I then do a "Connect the Dots" joining several of the favorite ride routes into one longer route. Works great for me and I get to take advantage of the home town knowledge of many riders.