Daily Routes or not?

[Peter kinver]

Please forgive me if this has already been discussed – I am quite new to this and have been planning a weeklong motorbike trip which has been cancelled three times now due to Covid. I had initially worked out seven separate day routes in MyRoute for the whole trip and I had intended to export the seven individual routes into my BMW Nav 6 before I leave.

But, having thought about it I am now wondering what would happen if for some reason I had to change the planned overnight stop, either cutting the days route short or extending the ride into the next days route. I am still learning how to export a route from MyRoute into Garmin Basecamp, and then into the Nav 6, so it is going to be tricky enough to achieve and I can foresee problems synchronising all the separate routes in the Nav 6 if things do not go as planned.

Might it be easier for me to just plan the whole trip as one MyRoute route which I would then export into the Nav 6. This would hopefully allow me to stop and start each day where I want and allow the Nav 6 to pick up the route from wherever I stopped at the time?

Others that are experienced in exporting to the Nav 6 might be able to offer me some welcome advice please.

[Drabslab]

@Peter-kinver My first advice: take a small tablet with you so you have something decent to make changes to your beforehand prepared routes in de evenings.

As regards transfering routes to your NAV, I have no experience with thz Nav 6 but there are interesting video tutorials from MRA.

Changing routes substantially while on the road does not seem like a good idea to me and should perhaps only be done in case of need (read: motorcycle repair). I would strongly recommend to research your weeklong trip and haev all the questions solved (where will I eat, where will I sleep, what will I visit, which road will I take...) before starting. Just following your front wheel withotu much planning may seem adventurous, it can also lead to serious disapointment. And in some area's (and seasons) it can be difficutl to find a place to sleep when not reserved beforehand.

Roughly explained:In my first preparations I usually start putting places to visit (starting at home and coming back to home) on a first "overview route" and let MRA calculate the route. A 5 day route may as aximum have 1500 km at this stage.

Then I cut the route in seperate routes of 300 km each that I "polish" choosing the most beautful roads (the Michelin map is a great help here) leadin to a max route lenth of 350 to 400 km.

You can of course change these distances according to the type of rider you are. For me it is very important that the trip does NOT become a race and that there is sufficient time to visit places.

Also, before embarking on a week long trip, prepare and ride a few trips starting eand ending at home. You will learn a lot

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

Hello Peter,

Planning routes per day is best, if you plan routes from 250 to 350 KM, these are easy to drive per day.
What you can also do is split up your day route on the places where you want to stop for something to eat, drink and visit.
If you want to shorten or extend the route, make sure you have the POIs in your device so you can select them to go there. Please note that your route is then calculated according to the settings of your navigation device.
Why are you transferring the routes from MRA to Basecamp?
You can also export the routes directly to the BMW Navigator or save the route as .... gpx1.1, then put it per day on the micro SD card, then you can download them when you need them.

[Nick Carthew]

Hi @Peter-kinver. 4 of us did a 21 day tour in 2019 all across Europe with a total of 7200 kms. We had 3 rooms booked in all the hotels that we were going to stop at. We chose hotels that we were able to cancel within 24 hours of our stay without losing any money.
One of the bikes developed a problem which delayed us by 2 days. We decided that we wanted to catch up on our intended itinerary which meant adjusting the next 3 days routes and hotels.
This was relatively easy using an iPad to access my MRA account to adjust the routes and some research to find alternative hotels.
I use MRA Navigation on my iPhone and a TomTom Rider 500. The modified routes were automatically available to use with MRA Navigation and they were easy to transfer to my TT by using Wi-fi.
I know this doesn’t directly help your situation with your Nav-6, but my advice would be to definitely take a tablet of some description and maybe sign up for a subscription for MRA Navigation.
Good luck

[Peter kinver]

@Drabslab Great advice. Thank you.

[Peter kinver]

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master Thank you for your advice. Unfortunately I found that when I exported the route directly into the Nav 6 from MRA it didn’t do the calculation on transfer and my waypoints were just strung together with diagonal lines. Maybe I am doing something wrong?. Thanks.

[Peter kinver]

@Nick-Carthew Thanks for the help. Yes, I will certainly be taking a tablet and using Booking.com. Just waiting for Hotels and B&B's to open their doors again !!.

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Peter-kinver

Hello Peter, use the track and let the navigation calculate the route.