Harley Davidson Ride Planner Assistance Needed on Importing GPX

[SAAHDPanAm]

I'm a new member of the Forum and use Harley Davidson Ride Planner to plan out my trips. I just purchased a Zumo XT2 for my H-D Pan America, an adventure model. I recently imported a .gpx file from Ride Planner to my XT2 and it worked without a hitch. My problem is that the complete trip is broken down into 6 individual routes. I am guessing that the XT2 is seeing these 6 segments as routes? Is there a way that I can merger these individual routes into one complete trip?

I'm reluctant to use BaseCamp as I understand development on BaseCamp has stopped (unofficially) at garmin? Or, is this a rumor?

Any assistance would be helpful. Thank-you.

[lkraus]

Welcome!

What GPS did you use previously with the HDRP?

I am guessing that your HDRP route has too many via points for a single Garmin route and the XT2 is splitting it into manageable chunks. Like other modern Garmin units I believe the XT2 via point limit is 30 per route, though you can have at least 125 shaping points between via points to define the route.

Garmin stopped Basecamp development about eight years ago, but is still available and still works very well. Basecamp routes also work on the XT2, even though Garmin says it is not supported.

Fixing your route in Basecamp would involve opening it to see the list of route points and then making most of them shaping points with a right-click so that they won't alert. Usually, I limit via points to actual stopping places and perhaps some progress indicators.

John Heath's guide, Zumo XT and Planned Routes - Everything That You Need to Know will give you better details about how this all works, though there are a few differences with an XT2. Those differences are discussed in the XT2 section of the forum.

The only other route planning software I know of supporting Garmin via/shaping points are the MRA planner and Furkot. Both are subscription services, but with free levels that might work to convert your route.

[smfollen]

Welcome to the forum. First, as a general comment for the future, I think the XT and XT2 forums https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=11 get more attention than this Other route planning software section does.

I'm not familiar with the HD Ride Planner but I can offer some thoughts that may help. I'm guessing the HD planner gave you a route, not a track, in the gpx file. Do you know whether the HD Ride Planner created a gpx file with one route that the XT2 then broke into 6 parts or did the HD planner create 6 route sections?

The XT2 does have limits on the number of via points in a route, so if a single route from HD planner is made up of many via points (vs fewer via points and more shaping points), then the XT2 would break the route into shorter pieces.

Basecamp works fine with the XT2. It is no longer being developed by Garmin and Basecamp will even warn you that the XT2 is not officially supported by Basecamp, but it works just fine.

[EDIT} Oops - Apparently @lkraus and I were both responding at the same time. At least our answers were consistent

[SAAHDPanAm]

Thank-you both, Ikraus & smfollen, for the quick reply to my question.

The previous GPS unit was the H-D Infotainment System which is a built in information system for the Pan America and uses the cellular data from a paired iPhone to determine position. The reason I purchased the Garmin XT2 is H-D is still perfecting the interface between the Infotainment unit and iPhone. Once a cellular connection is broken for more than 30 seconds it is inconsistent in reestablishing a handshake resulting in an inability to find a proper location. It only impacts the mapping capability, not the other interface functions.

Too many via points possibility? I don't believe so. There are only 12 via points in the complete trip. The H-D Ride Planner has this as a single trip. When it is uploaded to the XT2 it breaks it down into 9 routes which are clearly listed in order.

I have read John Heath's document and I must say it is very impressive, complete and shows a great dedication to providing more information than other sources, including Garmin. My concern centers around Base Camp continuing as a updated software. I did receive the non-compatibility popup when attempting to link the XT2. That was certainly disappointing, but fair warning from the developer. I have noticed that the other routing software offered by Garmin are also not compatible. Tread is designed to be off-road, unless I'm missing something? I have been disappointed so many times of using software that then gets abandoned by the developer, (many times by Microsoft, NEC, Apple, etc., etc.) that once someone announces no future support/updates I run to prevent the deadly paper-weight-syndrome.

I think that I am up against trying to interface a three legged plug into a 2-legged receiver.

Again, thank-you for your help. I have learned a great deal and I think enough to abandon my use of a Garmin.

Best regards,

[smfollen]

@SAAHDPanAm The XT2 is excellent hardware. The software has its quirks but there are many on this forum who have figured out how to work around those. You can find plenty of help here. I'm not sure that the perfect motorcycle SatNav exists, but the XT2 is a good one.

If you want to share your gpx file, I will take a look at it to see if I can figure out what the issue is.

[jfheath]

I have read John Heath's document and I must say it is very impressive, complete and shows a great dedication to providing more information than other sources, including Garmin. My concern centers around Base Camp continuing as a updated software. I did receive the non-compatibility popup when attempting to link the XT2. That was certainly disappointing, but fair warning from the developer. I have noticed that the other routing software offered by Garmin are also not compatible.

Many thanks for those kind words. It took some time, but much of the ground work was done when I switched from a 660 to a 590. That was a massive change of direction and I really hated the 590 and Basecamp. The 590 was not documented particualrly well, and Basecamp was still developing the idea of routes with shaping points and via points.

But the 590 with Basecamp turned out to be one of Garmin's better satnavs as far as being predictable and reliable. As long as you know what you are doing. The XT2 and Tread combination does a lot of things to undo that reliability - but I now have an XT2 which I can use in the same way that I used my 590. Trustworthy and reliable.

The statement that Basecamp is not compatible with the XT2 - is almost true. I think it is missing a figure: '100%'.
ie Basecamp is not 100% compatible with the XT2. But you can still use it.

Let me explain:

• A route consists of a start point and an end point.
• In between it can have a number of Via Points - orange flags - which must be visited.
• The route between the Via points is referred to be the XT2 as a segment.
  Each segment may contain a number of shaping points - to help shape the route. 'Segment' is term introduced with the XT2.
  
• Each segment can have a separate routing algorithm applied to it eg Shorter, Faster, Adventurous levels 1 to 4 and use of specific types of roads - Michelin Scenic Roads, Popular Paths (Moto) and Bookmarked Great Rides.

That last statement in red is something that the XT2 can do, which Basecamp cannot do. So yes, Basecamp is not forwards compatible with the XT2 - but the XT2 is almost backwards compatible with Basecamp routes.

Except in one respect. The XT2 does not have a 'motorcycle' profile. It uses 'zūmo Motorcycle' instead.
Normally a Zumo - if it comes across a profile name that it does not recognise, then it assumes its default and recalculates the route. But I have not seen evidence that it recalculates routes produced on Basecamp with the motorcycle profile. I did a handful of tests and all seemed OK.

The bottom line is that you can use Basecamp routes and create a GPX file to use on the XT2. And if you prevent the XT2 or Tread from 'processing' them, then the XT2 really does behave itself.

So I install Tread on my phone and I pair the phone with the XT2 - so the XT2 thinks that Tread is up and running. It will pass upahead info, traffic data, weather data, petrol station data, etc to the XT2 - which is great. But I do not allow the Tread app to save route data on the XT2 - its an option when you first set up tread.

So I use Basecmap to plan my routes, and export them as a GPX file. Then I use TripManager to send the route to the XT2. This creates the XT2 version of the route, completely by-passing the Tread /XT2 processing - which is what seems to change the route points. It also makes sure that the XT2 thinks that it has created the route, rather than it being imported. And suddenly the XT2 starts doing what I expect it to do, and not what Garmin has decided it is going to do with my route.

The Tread App seems to use 'fuzzy logic' with its route points. It seems to treat route points from GPX files with suspicion and assumes that they are inaccurately placed. I guess that it uses the lat/long coordinates and finds the closes known point in a database and uses that. The proble with this (if this is what it does) is that if the plotted point is on a minor road and it is running close to a main road, then it will possible shift the point onto the main road. In reality, the point was probably placed to avoid using the nearby motorway. You can see this sort of behaviour in the UK - north of England where the M6 motorway skirts the flanks of the lake district. Climbing to nearly 1000ft as it pass by the small town of Shap. The old main road - the A6 - is almost deserted and that twists and winds its way through the hills to the west, climbing to over 1400ft. It is a superb road to ride, and it passes over and under the M6 a few times.

So putting a shaping point on the A6 and then letting Tread or the XT2 'process' the route before saving it often results in the shaping points and the route jumping onto the M6 - the very thing that I wanted to avoid.

I've not got a precise figure yet, but I have noticed that there seems to be a tolerance of around half a mile. If the A6 is closer than to the M6, it will jump onto it, and maybe take other points with it. The behaviour isn't reliable, so it is hard to work out. eg Plot the point as a Via on the Tread App on my ipad, and change the via to a shaping - it will jump. Undo the action and then repeat it, it doesn't jump !

Too many via points possibility? I don't believe so. There are only 12 via points in the complete trip. The H-D Ride Planner has this as a single trip. When it is uploaded to the XT2 it breaks it down into 9 routes which are clearly listed in order.

No. That doesn't make sense. I'm not saying that isn't what is happening, but something has happened to the gpx file to cause that issue OR - there is something else that we are not understanding about the way that the XT2 'processes' gpx files when it first receives them. Post the gpx file and I'll take a look - unless you have already done it for @smfollen . It's always handy to know how that can happen - for future reference.