In the Garmin 660 I make a Custom Rt. for each day of the trip. Put in the start and end points and then waypoints. Choose waypoints that will insure that you take the routes you want. If you are using little towns as waypoints, delete that particular waypoint about 5 miles before you get to it so the machine doesn't try to take you to downtown.

On a recent 6,200 mile trip, I had all the day custom routes in the GPS before we started. If you find that you need an adjustment for any one day, they are easy enough to make.

Bill

 

I always use the Harley ride planner as well, are you sure you can't upload a route? What model do you have? My plug to upload maps is under the battery cover, just uses a normal phone plug that can be bought anywhere to connect it to the computer via usb.

 

I've tried every route planning software I can find. Google Maps is the easiest way to plan a custom route, but it's very difficult to convert the route to a usable .gpx file for the actual GPS units.

So after trying everything I could think of, I decided that the Trip Planner on Harley's website is the easiest to use. Behind the scenes it uses Google Maps which makes it very easy to draw your route, plus it converts to .gpx and sends it to your GPS device. (Not sure about iPhone, haven't tried it) There's a few tricks to learn about using Harley's planner but I've finally figured out how to make it do what I want and make my GPS follow a very specific route.

I'll be happy to help if you have specific questions.

 

Route Converter (routeconverter.de) is a freeware program that converts mapping formats. Very handy when importing to a GPS or phone based software. I use Copilot on my phone, after creating the routes in Google Maps (Classic).

 

I am in charge of planning a 8 day, 7 night trip to the Dragon and Nashville. We plan to take the "scenic" route and try to travel <300 miles / day.

Anyway This what I found out when trying to plan the route.

• Google Maps works works great for initial planning, but then hits a wall. The fact that you cannot edit a route after saving it ultimately makes it useless.
• Garmin Base Camp - I have Garmin GPS so this should be a no brainer, right? Wrong! I found base Camp to be extremely user unfriendly. Even worse it could not find simple addresses! Base Camp uses the actual maps in your Garmin GPS. The maps in my GPS are < 1 year old (yes they need to be updated), Base Camp could not find my local dealer even though I put in the complete address including zip. After the third separate address Base Camp could not find I gave up trying to use it.
• TYRE to Travel - At first I was put off because this is obviously a European program (TYRE). I quickly learned my first impressions were wrong. TYRE works great and seems to do everything I want it to. It uses Google Maps, so if Google Maps can find it TYRE can find it. It allows you enter addresses with noun names attached. For example: "Lake Erie HD - 38401 Chester Rd, Avon, OH 44011". TRYE had no problems finding and the listing waypoints with this format. It is very handy to have the name with the address. TYRE allowed me reorder and add way points to my hearts content. Another great thing about TYRE is that it is compatible with both Garmin and TOM TOM. Best of all, TYRE Basic is free!

You can guess which program I have decided to use.


Please note - I have no monetary stake of any kind in TYRE. I simply found something I liked and wanted to share it.

 

PFWiz,
I share the same duties as you, and have for 15 years. Your description of Tyre sent me looking to download it, only to find they don't have a compatible version for 64-bit computers. It sounds like just what the Doctor ordered and I'll look further to see if there is one on the horizon. Our 2015 8 day 7 night run will be from central NY to Baltimore, down along the eastern shore MD/VA and west from NC into TN. A stop in Chattanooga, Nashville and a tour of Pritchard's Distillery in Kelso, TN are on tap followed by a run up through your neck of the woods and back home. I used to plan everything down to the gas stops, but with the advent of the smartphone and gps, we now let the weather map dictate our route and we'll ride a hundred or two hundred miles out of the way to stay dry. We'll call for hotels while we have lunch, after we've agreed on where we want to be at the end of the day. We've ridden the Dragon a few times and there is definitely a lot of good riding in that area, much of it less crowded with stunt riders in less commercialized areas. Happy planning, thanks for the mapping product info and safe riding to you and your group!