Where to start

I have a garmin 60csx that I bought used. It has city navigator loaded on it. I have only every use the unit by putting in an address and having it route me there. I am planing on doing some riding in the UP of michigan and hope to follow some tracks that others have created. I don't have any idea where to even start with this. What do I need to do to be able to build tracks and/or load others prebuild tracks?

Thanks

Download the free Basecamp program from the Garmin website.

Play with that a while and consult the tutorials on how that works on this thread ( see the sticky at the top of the page @ DRZ charlies thread)

what you will need to do is learn how to create a route to where you want to go on the BC map using waypoints like a bread crumb trail, then send that to your GPS unit using the appropriate commands on the BC program. You have to have a connecting lead from your PC- to your GPS machine to do this.

OK then go and follow your route on the bike. Then you can send your actual track file back to BC and keep a record of where you went for future reference or to share with friends.

Thats is about it. GPS 101 done!

You need either MapSource or BaseCamp but since you are starting from zero, BaseCamp is best choice.

With either one you can download other peoples Tracks from the internet and then download them to your 60. You can also hand draw tracks and download them to the 60.

The above post is all about Routes but you said Tracks. You do not need any way points to make/use Tracks.

Thanks guys. With Basecamp, it will use the map that is already loaded on the 60 correct? I don't have a disk.

Routes vs tracks-- i thought routes were what I am use to with turn-turn navigations, and tracks are bread crumbs. Which is better for offroad type riding? Will routes try and take me on highway?

Yes BC will read the loaded CN, MapSoiurde won't.

99% of off highway riders use tracks.

Turn by turn is great at speed on highways with street names but not necessary on jeep roads and trails, just follow the Track.

You don't have time to watch screen and read instructions off highway. With Tracks and good maps just ride, when you come to an intersection just glace down to see which way to turn or to go straight.

Will the basecamp allow me to load a new map? I am planning on hopefully following Cannonshot's Upper Penisula Adventure Trail (UPAT-1250) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=627424

He states that using the maps from vvmapping.com is better than city navigator or topo. If I bought the vvmapping.com maps, would I be able to load that using Basecamp? Would i need a second card to load that map onto?

Thanks for the help.

I think you need MapInstall, also free from Garmin, or MapSource (no longer updated/supported but available).

Bruce

I assume Cannonshot provides Tracks for the ride. With good tracks you really don't need a map showing the roads & trails. You may miss a few turns especially forks in trail but you will see it quick if you keep zoomed in.

The map on the card will be overwritten. Buy another card.

I downloaded some tracks for a multi day ride (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=632804) but when I view them in my gps (montana) I see only a short segment at a time. I expected to see the whole loop (as it appears in the map window in basecamp)which I could then just follow.

I am a total gps noob so can someone school me on this?

You may be trying to load tracks which contain to many points, the 60Cx has a 500 point max per saved track, 20 saved tracks max.

You can;
Using MapSource of BasrCamp devide the tracks into 500 point segments.
or
Using MS or BC filter the tracks to 500 points max.
or
Using IMG2GPX create a transparent map overlay will all the tracks showing.
or
Buy a new GPS (78 or Montana) which can handle far larger and many more tracks.
or
Bring a laptop and load the tracks as you need them.

Bruce

Sorry I can't find a .gpx file in the report. I think your Montana limits saved tracks to 2,000 points. If the file has more points you will need to filter them.

Never mind my post, I didn't notice it was not from the OPer (who owns a 60Cx)
I know next to noting about the Montana other then it can handle an incredible number of tracks made up of a huge number of points.

Bruce

Thanks Jerry. Is "filtering" a manual process of removing some of the "points" that make up the "tracks" or is it a function in basecamp or the montana software? I'm trying to figure out how to do this.

thanks for your help.

The Montana does 10,000 point tracks and 200 saved tracks.
Hard to believe you need to filter any supplied.

Yes filtering tracks is an easy function in MapSource and BaseCamp and on most GPS units. The filtering has settings but the automatic with ??? max points works very well. Better then by time or by distance.
The result will be a track with maybe 10-25% of the points but still having 75-90% of the important detail, works well.

Bruce

Can you point me to the file or better attach it here.

Uh....bad info. The Montana can have 200 tracks in the Track Manager at any one time and ALL of them can be shown on the map at the same time. Each of the 200 Tracks can have up to 10,000 Track points.

It is very easy to filter tracks in BaseCamp if you need to share them with someone else that does not have as capable a GPS as the Montana.

Agree that it would be best if g.mccormick could attache the GPX file so we could take a look at it. Could be something as simple as, some of the tracks are colored Transparent.

thanks for the responses!

as for linking the gpx...sorry dudes.

As you'll see here (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=632804) only the creator of the Blue Ridge Trail (BRT)--"errorcooled"--distributes the files. So I can't post them here.

He send me three files: one was a kml file; one was a 500ptmax.gdb file; and one was a Raw.gdb file. I could only import the Raw file into basecamp on my mac.

Maybe the file format limits the number of points that can be displayed at once?

Any suggestions on how I can get the full loop to appear as a single track on my Montana would be much appreciated.

Sorry without looking at the file no one can tell you what is wrong with it. The Montana accepts and displays tracks just fine if you send it good data.

Maybe the .gdb need to be converted to .gpx ?