What makes it better than using Google Maps??

Not trying to be a butt....although I have been told I am really good at it...but I am seriously trying to understand....

The one thing I use a lot is an app that gives me a distance between cities to plan my fuel stops accordingly....

 

You will find that Tyre allows you to plan a trip using the same flexibility that gps software allows. I find that Google Maps is an okay vehicle to do rough planning but to do a detailed m/c route you want to use a detailed format to download to your gps system whether it is Garmin, TomTom, or Boom Box. Google Maps does not allow you to modify the trip as easily.
Download the software and give it a try. I only use the free version of it and have found it useful for my purposes.

 

I will have to look into it. I try not to plan my trips out too much....I know start and end, but in the middle I just make sure I don't run out of fuel!

 

On multi day trips I make each day a separate trip. Way points can be used to take side roads or mark a special interest site. For a 11 day trip coming up this summer I have 8 different trips to load in the Boom GPS.
Good Luck

 

Earlier review by me.

Here is an unbiased review of the HD nav system.
I created all routes using the HD Ride Planner.
Note: We travel secondary and county roads that are in many cases "one step above dirt". I use the satellite function and zoom in to confirm blacktop when planning a route.
I set the preferences on the nav to scenic and strategically place my waypoints and destinations so that the system does not redirect.
In NE my route was to stay in close proximity to the sand hills which run across the middle section of the state. Anyone who thinks there are no good routes across NE needs to do a little more homework. Lots of hilly and curvy routes but you have to stick to county roads.
We crossed the Big Muddy into WI at Prairie Du Chein and did not want to go through Madison so again county roads heading in a southeast direction. Unbelievable riding.
When in IA we were not going to make it to our destination so I used the POI function to locate a campground when 50 miles out from Clear Lake, IA. I chose Clear Lake State Park and said Go and the system worked flawlessly in getting us rite to the CG. On this leg of our vacation the nav system performed flawlessly. It never tried to vary my desired route!

When setting your route use locations first. Once you have done a section of your planned route, go back and change locations to waypoints except leave begin and end of route as locations. then save.

 

Agreed. I use the HD Ride Planner exclusively and don't have any issues.

Set NAV to fastest, because that is how the Ride Planner is set to, then use waypoints strategically to drag and drop your route and extra waypoints to lock in the route.

For a single day, if you are making specific stops, you can start by adding the addresses as destinations. Once you have everything the way you like it, go to those destinations on the map, right click on the destination and change it to waypoint. It will still take you there, but you won't have to start a whole new NAV session to continue on.

Also, ALWAYS zoom way in to each waypoint to ensure they aren't on some adjacent road that you couldn't see.

I even use the HD Ride Planner for my wife's Garmin unit that she uses in her car. If she is following for some reason or another, I can just build one map for both her Garmin and my Infotainment.

Using the Ride Planner is like all other software, it will take a few times to get used to its caveats and to become second nature.

 

The more I work with it, the more I like Ride Planner. If you're using boom navigation, you need to keep track of where your waypoints are. If you stop for lunch, or something, when you start back on your route, you will need to be able to tell the boom navigation at what waypoint to continue your trip. Otherwise, it will want to take you back to the beginning. Garmins ask you if want to start from the beginning, or continue the trip.

 

After reading this thread, I thought I would give it a try. I created 5 routes which was not so bad after you get the hang of the Ride Planner program. Thinking the hard part was over, I could not upload the files to navigation system. I am using a MacBook and knew something was not right when the file extension saved as .gpx.xml The navigation system recognized the thumb drive but the prompts to import never came up. I have an old Windows XP laptop that had not been used in months and sure enough after firing it up, the files were saved exactly as illustrated on the youtube examples listed here on the forum after doing multiple searches. The XP saved .gpx files upload to the navigation system on the first try and all my maps are ready for the next ride.

Question for the Mac users, any advice on saving maps in .gpx format vice gpx.xlm would greatly be appreciated. I am sure I am missing something simple. Thank you in advance and I learned something new about my bike today. I appreciate the thread on this topic.

 

There are good points in these messages for sure. I have a garmin and I try to use BaseCamp to plan my routes because it will avoid interstetes, tolls, etc. but more importantly it can do arrival and departure times. Once I get "sort of" a map then I open Ride Planner and use the show roads and show dealers and make my start and destination match what I think I am willing to do for the day based upon what BaseCamp says (I set the speed to what I actually ride most of the time, also).

I save that refined map as say, Day01 (the 01 is important if you are going for more than 10 days). Once I have each day planned out then I export to a gpx file and import that into BaseCamp. If you are using HD's nav, then I would use Google Maps in place of BaseCamp (which I have to do sometimes just to find campgrounds, etc.).

Worst part is my Garmin isn't visible when there is bright sun unless I am wearing black. Sometimes I have to make notes about my road turns when it's too hot to wear black.

 

I am trying to use Ride Planner right now and as far as I'm concerned it absolutely sux. Can't save a file and I'm getting all sorts of error messages. It acts like more people are trying to use it than it can handle at any one time. I log in to H-D website and I've logged in via HOG. No difference. Shows "log in"/"create profile" but the clicking on either doesn't work. Same result when I try hitting "save" once I've built a map. Can't share because it won't let you share if you haven't saved, and I can't save. "help" is a joke and "contact us" has no info on how to connect with someone who can help with the problem.

I'll stick to Map Quest and load my destinations and via points into the Boom Box GPS every day starting out.