GPS, Adjustable Road Class Preference ?

I know everyone must become tired of GPS questions from the uninformed, like myself, but I'd appreciate your GPS advice.

I was on a ride with a person who had a Garmin 2610 (now discontinued). He showed me an easy to set feature which I would find important in my soon to buy GPS. He used it to route us back. Garmin refers to it as;

Adjustable Road Class Preference ÔÇö How about taking the road less traveled? Users can adjust preferences for major, medium, and minor road categories.

As I recall he went to a screen adjusted some bars on his 2610 GPS to emphasize the smallest roads, while de-emphasizing the quickest time a lot, and shortest distance somewhat. (Each setting could be varied from one extreme to the other.) It took us back fairly directly over some dirt roads I'd never been on along with some unlined paved roads that connected in places I hadn't known.

We tried to access this feature on another riders Zumo but couldn't find it. I looked on Garmin's site and didn't see Adjustable Road Class Preference mentioned on Zumo but they do show the Zumo and 2820 as having Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road):

For those that are familiar with both the 2610 and Zumos/2820, do they operate the same in this regard? TIA

On the Zumo, you can select from quickest time or shortest distance. To further refine the routing, you can set avoidances for toll roads, highways, interstates, etc.

Myself, I like to build my routes on the computer using Mapsource, then load them into the unit. I find I can manipulate the route much betterand easier to achieve what I want this way. However, for those spur of the moment routing needs, setting up the above parameters should help to come closer to what is wanted.

MCMXCIVRS said:

On the Zumo, you can select from quickest time or shortest distance. To further refine the routing, you can set avoidances for toll roads, highways, interstates, etc. ...

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Does it have avoidance of dirt roads?

dancogan said:

Does it have avoidance of dirt roads?

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Yeah, but what fun is that?

tommcgee said:

Yeah, but what fun is that?

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Gee, Tom, maybe I just don't want to have the share the road with you! With my SP2610 I've found that the fastest route will often include dirt roads if I don't exclude them. That's not where I want to ride on the RT when I'm on my way home in the rain.

The Zumo can be set to avoid unpaved roads. I use that setting or not depending on which bike I'm on.

setting Shortest Distance on my Zumo gives me dirt roads...a lot!

Fastest time seems to keep me on pavement

I guess I need to look where the "no dirt" button is when I am leading the group...they are not amused at times as I say "let's go!"

dancogan said:

With my SP2610 I've found that the fastest route will often include dirt roads if I don't exclude them.

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The routing algorithm on the 2610 has a real sense of humor. It would often dump me on dirt roads as well. The Zumo hasn't done that yet, unless I asked nicely.

Thanks gentlemen. It sounds like Zumo can do the same routing as the 2610's Adjustable Road Class Preference, just in a slightly different way.
I pretty much have decided on the Zumo. I can't see the value (for me) of the 2820 over it, or the Conquest, which are the ones Garmin recommends for motorcycle use.