Intro

[Jim O'Dowd]

Hello friends,

New forum member, recently subscribed to MRA and Navigation gold lifetime plans. I found out about MRA via the GL1800riders.com forum, from another member "Big Bird" who thankfully guided me to MRA. I have many years experience using Basecamp and I liked MRA immediately. I also love the way it syncs to my smartphone. I hope to test the Android Auto capability very soon on my Goldwing.

I enjoy planning custom routes using Butler maps and Google maps as content sources, then loading the custom routes onto my Garmin XT2 so I can hit the road and get turn-by-turn instructions for my custom route.

An example of a trip would be a 6,000+ mile, 19-day ride ini September through South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado.

I like to display my routes on both the Goldwing screen (using Android Auto) and the Garmin XT5...my thinking is that it's good to have a backup if one system goes down for any reason.

My first big hurdle will be learning how to get the custom route from MRA to the XT2. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,

Jim O'Dowd

[Nick Carthew]

@Jim-O-Dowd Welcome to the forum. I’m sure that you’ll enjoy using MRA, ask any questions you might have here in the forum.

[Jim O'Dowd]

@Nick-Carthew

Thanks, Nick!

Right now my single biggest problem is exporting a route file from MRA to Garmin XT2. I first tried the wireless method, exporting the fiile to Tread, which automatically syncs to XT2. But I lost 5 out of 7 waypoints in the process, so the resulting route was unusable.

Then I tried following instructions from MRA using a direct connection of the XT2 to my computer. Never got the pop-up screen from connector. I have downloaded the connector and checked to allow pop-ups from MRA...so I don't know what to do next.

Any suggestions?

Best regards,

Jim O'Dowd

[paul69]

hi @Jim-O-Dowd

and welcome to the world of MRA, there are, good, bad , indifferent issues with MRA, but it's one of, if not the best planner out there. i have used the navigation app (next) on numerous multi day tours without any issues arising. lots of problems that may occur can generally be put down to user error, but of course not all time
lots of help on here, try to ignore the, "this app, that app is better", make your own mind up,
once you get used to using it, you will soon realise it's pretty darn good.

[Nick Carthew]

@Jim-O-Dowd I’m not an expert when it comes to Garmin devices but I’m sure that you’ll get an answer from someone soon.

[Mike 56]

Welcome to the forum. That 6000 mile ride sound fantastic.
Love riding the roads in the USA. My last ride in the US was a 5 week trip along the eastern sea board.

Mike

[Jim O'Dowd]

@Nick-Carthew

Hi Nick,

Earlier problem solved, I'm finding that the more I work with MRA, the easier it becomes. No problem transporting routes to Garmin XT2 and smartphone.

However, I am struggling to figure out how to save a .gpx route file so I can share it with other ride buddies. I guess my idea would be to copy the .gpx file then paste it into a folder on my computer, which I can then attach to an email. But so far I haven't been able to do it.

I'm sure there's some simple remedy here.

Any suggestions?

Best regards,

Jim O'Dowd
Franklin, TN

[Nick Carthew]

@Jim-O-Dowd With a route open, click Save as and choose the first option .gpx 1.1 (route, track, POI) this saves the . gpx file to your download folder, from there you can attach it to an email or social media.

[Jim O'Dowd]

@Nick-Carthew man, you are fast! I tried it and it works so easily! The one step I had been missing was to locate the file in my download folder...duh...problem now solved! You are the man!

I don't know if you saw an earlier post I made on finding the distance at any point along a route. This would be useful in planning for gas or rest stops.

In Basecamp, all I had to do was hover my cursor at any point along a route, and it showed my distance from the start point.

I figure there's got to be a way to do something similar in MRA...

All the best, and thanks for the prompt response!

Best regards,

Jim

[Nick Carthew]

@Jim-O-Dowd The way I add coffee stops and fuel stops is I first create the route adding route points on all the roads that I want to use, then in turn that creates a list of waypoints in the Waypoints tab in the left side menu, these all have distance and time from the start point. Then it’s just a case of looking at the nearest route point around the 2 hour mark and searching for a cafe using POIs along with the Google overlay map.
A more refined method of seeing distance and time from the start has been has been requested before so the developers are aware and something along the lines of BC might be added to the new route planner during development.

[Jim O'Dowd]

Thanks, Nick. Yes, the method you described is what I am using, and it will work just fine. What I found useful in BC is that I could rest my cursor at any point along the route and see the distance from the start point. It's no big deal...I'm just a little OCD about defining rest/pee stops every 60-75 miles, lunches at mid-point, etc. ut I am having no problems converting to MRA and I LOVE the way my routes sync to my smartphone, in addition to the easy download to the Garmiin GPS.