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Basecamp

bdfbeemer

RT in NC
I just programmed my ride from NC to great Falls using basecamp. I have fought with this program for years I usually have struggled through. I have used various tutorials to help. t has been a while since I have planned a trip. This time as a refresher I watched you tubes be EZ Moto Tim. I easily completed the programming with lodging lunches and split daily routes. The hardest being finding the exact lodging. I highly recommend these tutorials. Made it so simple.
 
I just programmed my ride from NC to great Falls using basecamp. I have fought with this program for years I usually have struggled through. I have used various tutorials to help. t has been a while since I have planned a trip. This time as a refresher I watched you tubes be EZ Moto Tim. I easily completed the programming with lodging lunches and split daily routes. The hardest being finding the exact lodging. I highly recommend these tutorials. Made it so simple.

You haven't arrived yet!
gsjay
 
I have been using that program for a long time and I always arrive. This was the easiest routing so far. I also rarely stay on script. I take a different route while traveling a lot. However having the lodging programmed in is a big help. No matter which way I go I know the end point. That part hasn't failed me yet. I still take paper maps plus an atlas.
 
I just programmed my ride from NC to great Falls using basecamp. I have fought with this program for years I usually have struggled through. I have used various tutorials to help. t has been a while since I have planned a trip. This time as a refresher I watched you tubes be EZ Moto Tim. I easily completed the programming with lodging lunches and split daily routes. The hardest being finding the exact lodging. I highly recommend these tutorials. Made it so simple.

I haven’t seen any tutorials but if I’m looking for, as you say “exact lodging”, my Basecamp planning is aided with an open Google Map. It’s easier to find things using Google, Google Maps and their Satellite views.

Once I’ve located where I want to go with Google (and any other nearby POI that looks interesting), I’ll cut and paste the POI’s lat- and long- information from the browsers URL into the search field in Basecamp. Zoom into the POI in Basecamp and mark the POI accordingly.

Point being, whenever you search for a location in Google, the latitude and longitude always appears in the browsers URL, and can cut and pasted into Basecamp.
 
I do the same plus I use the website of the particular chain in question. Everyone has "their way". I was just offering some help to the basecamp challenged. There has been a lot of griping on here.
 
I just remember the EZ Moto Tim video on Basecamp where he (after a long pause) says, "wait, that doesn't look quite right." Or words to that effect. Basecamp, not quite right? No Kidding?? Basecamp...the worst, most picky, overly complex navigation software known to man. If Garmin had been around in the 1960's, Apollo 11 would have missed the moon by 10,000 miles! :laugh All the while, their Garmin would have been saying, "Make a U-turn, Make a U-turn!
 
I just redid my route home from Great Falls and It was quick and easy with the new info I got from the article. I also realized I had put in the wrongs motels for the ride out and it was simple to regroup.
 
Interesting, did not know about basecamp, ive used calimoto, lotus on my phone, but recently bought Garmin inReach which comes with an online mapping tool, but i haven't played enough to know if similar or not. But Tim's videos look helpful , so I might see what additional features their online version has, or see if I can import bascamp routes.

(the cloud is great for offroad, manual routes & tracking, but won't auto-calculate future routes as far as i know)
 
Interesting, did not know about basecamp, ive used calimoto, lotus on my phone, but recently bought Garmin inReach which comes with an online mapping tool, but i haven't played enough to know if similar or not. But Tim's videos look helpful , so I might see what additional features their online version has, or see if I can import bascamp routes.

(the cloud is great for offroad, manual routes & tracking, but won't auto-calculate future routes as far as i know)

I've not been travelling enough lately to justify the full subscription, but online, Furkot is the best route planning method I've found. It's especially useful for long trips, automatically breaking them into segments based on time and distance, suggests gas stops as needed, and helps find food and lodging.

Basecamp is very versatile, but more options means it takes more work to understand. It is great for maintaining a database of past and future trips as well as planning. The program is free, but unless you have a Garmin device with a map you can use, you will also need a more detailed map than the one that comes with it. There are several free sources, but I like the U.S. map available at [url]http://www.gmaptool.eu/en/content/usa-osm-topo-routable[/URL]. You can download individual regions, or the five large files at the bottom of the page will unpack to cover the entire U.S. Basecamp exports routes in gpx, kml, and csv formats, and online converters are available for other formats.
 
I've not been travelling enough lately to justify the full subscription, but online, Furkot is the best route planning method I've found. It's especially useful for long trips, automatically breaking them into segments based on time and distance, suggests gas stops as needed, and helps find food and lodging.

Thanks for mentioning Furcot. I hadn't heard of it but checked it out and it looks like a solid web route planning tool.

Like others, I use Google Maps for initial planning of my route and overnight stops along. But then I'd pull out my library of Mad Maps and Butler Maps to locate the best motorcycling roads along the way, then create the final route in BaseCamp.

Last year I saw that REVER premium included all the Butler Map motorcycle routes and didn't hesitate to subscribe. I still use Google Maps to rough out the route, but with REVER it's so much easier to include great motorcycling roads along the way. Unfortunately, transferring the routes from REVER to the Garmin isn't as straight forward as I'd like, but it still saves time over my previous method.

Looking forward to the ride to Great Falls and back...

Mike
 
I have no issues with Basecamp. I find it fairly easy to use and I plan complicated routes from 300 to 3,000 miles. There are good tutorials online to watch that should help anyone become proficient with Basecamp.
 
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