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I'm Beginning to Hate Garmin With a Burning Passion

I use my GPS on roads/routes I know and note the errors.
This leaves me wondering how 'helpful' it will be on roads I don't know.

My advice:
Carry a paper map and some spare change for a cup of coffee for when you stop and ask for directions and experience a little human contact.
 
Moderator Interruption- If we are going to salvage any of the good info in this thread, we have to keep it on topic. Thanks, your mod team.
 
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LOL,

I didn't see any of the original post, but the comments and the ".." just crack me up. This thread now belongs in "Gee, I have nothing to say, can we just keep this going until something intelligent is said?"

:bikes
 
I plan my trips using large scale maps (Delorme/Michelin) and use my GPS to find food, gas, lodging, and routing to local addresses. Maps give a greater sense of where you are in relation to points of interest and much more detail. The GPS provides "Where am I ?" info in addition to routing preferences. One complements the other in my view. Ride Safe :usa :usa
 
I plan my trips using large scale maps (Delorme/Michelin) and use my GPS to find food, gas, lodging, and routing to local addresses. Maps give a greater sense of where you are in relation to points of interest and much more detail. The GPS provides "Where am I ?" info in addition to routing preferences. One complements the other in my view. Ride Safe :usa :usa

I'm an old map and compass guy myself so what you are doing is what I had in mind-for the most part. I look at the gps threads to get an idea what's up. It would seem the new units do so much that if you don't run the unit regularly it's almost a retrain when it needs to be used. The HAM radio gear is very much the same. You used to be able to look across the room and know the settings as every feature had it's own knob. With the microprocessor power a lot of features are 2 or 3 levels deep-again if your not using the radio regular there is a re-familiarization. I find the Rand McNally truckers atlas gives me good info on the map side. Gary
 
You mean you have no radios with a GPS input for APRS position beaconing? :brow

Sorry, Gary, I had to. :D

-ka1tox

Actually no Tom, you've been at it long enough to know what I mean, both on the gps usage and and the radio gear. When you looked at an older piece of electronic gear you would know what to expect with no power to the unit. I'm going to get one (gps) but chances are it will be used like Rpbump is using his. :wave Gary
 
Actually no Tom, you've been at it long enough to know what I mean, both on the gps usage and and the radio gear. When you looked at an older piece of electronic gear you would know what to expect with no power to the unit. I'm going to get one (gps) but chances are it will be used like Rpbump is using his. :wave Gary

I'm no fan of software menus, Gary. On the other hand, the Collins R390A that's still sitting on my shelf is no picnic to operate either. Most of the time I've owned it, its been tuned to WBZ.

Back to the maps -- I don't ever see myself giving them up. There's no better planning tool. I also don't want to give up the audio quality of that giant Collins receiver either.
 
I'm no fan of software menus, Gary. On the other hand, the Collins R390A that's still sitting on my shelf is no picnic to operate either. Most of the time I've owned it, its been tuned to WBZ.

Back to the maps -- I don't ever see myself giving them up. There's no better planning tool. I also don't want to give up the audio quality of that giant Collins receiver either.

That's sort of my point Tom, you can look at the Collins and the switches/knobs and see what's out of sync. More times than I'd like to admit I'm in the wrong menu layer and have to go back. BTW there is nothing like big box/radio/stereo audio. Gary
 
I've spent hours selecting a route and loading it into my Garmin, only to have it take me the way it wants to go, not where I thought I asked it. I enjoy planning with a map, even online maps, so now I, too, pretty much just use the Garmin to get me out of trouble and to find food. Oh, and the MP3 player, I like that feature.........

Written directions are also easier to give to riding buddies so they know where we are going, not that I lose my riding buddies (often), but, it does happen.
 
I've spent hours selecting a route and loading it into my Garmin, only to have it take me the way it wants to go, not where I thought I asked it.

I tend to route by using carefully selected waypoints rather than importing entire routes. I also tend to create a lot of waypoints when I'm out on the road.

To me, sticking to a route is like staying on the highway. Turning down a road because it looks more interesting than the one I'm on happens a lot.

I can navigate with maps or gps, but using both is a much better experience.
 
GPS???

Bah
Hum
Bug
 

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Was griping one day about how the GPS (in this case a Garmin) had tried to take me up what was essentially a cow path. I found the response enlightening:

"It's just a suggestion, you don't have to go that way."

True enough, nothing like dead reckoning!
 
Was griping one day about how the GPS (in this case a Garmin) had tried to take me up what was essentially a cow path. I found the response enlightening:

"It's just a suggestion, you don't have to go that way."

True enough, nothing like dead reckoning!

So true, I travel with maps and find that it's easy to justify taking a different route than I've highlighted. I have a friend who goes most everywhere with me and uses GPS - to find food, lodging... and to guage how fast we are going in mph since our bikes are in kmh which is very helpful.
 
For me it's a tool and applied in specific situations. Excellent tool. Misleads me now and then or makes me talk to it as if she can really hear me..... "uh...WTF...what are we doing here?" Found some interesting unintentional places because of it though. As I read through some of this post I wondered what it would be like to set the GPS from here in Halifax to some place in southern California and set the thing for no tolls, no dirt (sorry), no ferries, no tolls etc. Two years later I bet you'd have some interesting story to tell! - Bob
 
I tend to route by using carefully selected waypoints rather than importing entire routes. I also tend to create a lot of waypoints when I'm out on the road.

bingo.

To me, sticking to a route is like staying on the highway. Turning down a road because it looks more interesting than the one I'm on happens a lot.

and the good part about GPS is that it will tell you where that road (which most likely isn't on the map) goes.

I can navigate with maps or gps, but using both is a much better experience.

for me, too.

but my stupid GPS routed me along a US higway instead of two interstates on a recent trip where i was just interested in getting somewher the "fastest." i followed the GPS... big mistake... it took me through a small town with photoradar. guess what just showed up in them mail???

ian
 
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