Harley-Davidson "Ride Planner" tool ... pretty clever...

[JRWooden]

Ok.... So I have a Garmin GPS (Nuvi 500) and MapSource has always driven me crazy,
I started looking at BaseCamp, but have not got very far with that evaluation ...

What I've always wanted is a "tool" that looked kinda like Google Maps where I could snap in a route,
drag it around until I was happy with it then download it into my GPS without a lot of overhead.
Someone mentioned the Harley-Davidson "Ride Planner" tool. I tried it out and it seems to work pretty well.
The interface is VERY much like Google Maps, and when you are done the route downloads directly into the GPS with no muss/fuss. You can share your route either publicly or privately with other Ride-Planner users.
You still need WAYPOINTs to anchor your route so that an internal route recalculation by the GPS won't screw things up, but I have found it to be pretty good.

http://rideplanner.harley-davidson.c...idePlanner.jsp

I could not find any "serious" threads here on ADVRider dedicated to this tool so thought I'd start one ......

Anybody else have anything to say about this tool??

[wrecked'em]

cool thanks

[switchback]

Played for a few minutes so far. How is it that Harley of all companies could make something so useful to the adventure rider? Awesome!

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by switchback

Played for a few minutes so far. How is it that Harley of all companies could make something so useful to the adventure rider? Awesome!

I don't know ... sigh ... I just don't know...
The "great roads" feature seems hosed up and/or under-populated, but the basic tool works pretty darn well.

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

Ok.... So I have a Garmin GPS (Nuvi 500) and MapSource has always driven me crazy,
I started looking at BaseCamp, but have not got very far with that evaluation ...

What I've always wanted is a "tool" that looked kinda like Google Maps where I could snap in a route,
drag it around until I was happy with it then download it into my GPS without a lot of overhead.
Someone mentioned the Harley-Davidson "Ride Planner" tool. I tried it out and it seems to work pretty well.
The interface is VERY much like Google Maps, and when you are done the route downloads directly into the GPS with no muss/fuss. You can share your route either publicly or privately with other Ride-Planner users.
You still need WAYPOINTs to anchor your route so that an internal route recalculation by the GPS won't screw things up, but I have found it to be pretty good.

http://rideplanner.harley-davidson.c...idePlanner.jsp

I could not find any "serious" threads here on ADVRider dedicated to this tool so thought I'd start one ......

Anybody else have anything to say about this tool??

There's about a thousand (give or take a couple of thousand) of these applications on the web. It kind of looks like Google Maps because it is using Google Maps. Having used Google Maps and written code to Google Maps API's, I really don't see any advantage over BaseCamp. The workflow certainly isn't any easier and with these Google applications, any routes you create will have to have waypoints placed in them so that a GPS doesn't totally ignore your route path. Seems like twice the work to me - guess that's why I quite using them some time ago.

Keep using the H-D website for a while. When BaseCamp v4 is released (soon) you might want to give it a try. There will be a Web component Called Garmin Adventures where you can directly share from BaseCamp your data online with the world if you wish. You'll also be able to search for other's published Adventures right in BaseCamp.

Cheers,

[Unstable Rider]

I looked at the Harley thing too. Spent an hour or so playing around with it. There were a couple of toolbox commands it was lacking as I recall, and at one point I lost everything in terms of "route" that I had drawn and got pissed off at it and dumped it.

I liked the concept though. Harley and Harley groups do come up with some simple yet useful stuff-- motel / lodging guides with discounts and ratings about a motel, etc.

[DynaSport]

I played with it for a while and it seemed nice and functional. Saved several routes, but I haven't tried to download one to my GPS yet. It is easier than Bascamp to me, but I suppose if you use Basecamp a lot you may find it easy, I don't. I do think Basecamp has more features, but with features come complexity often.

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by DRTBYK

Keep using the H-D website for a while. When BaseCamp v4 is released (soon) you might want to give it a try. There will be a Web component Called Garmin Adventures where you can directly share from BaseCamp your data online with the world if you wish. You'll also be able to search for other's published Adventures right in BaseCamp.

Cheers,

Thanks I will do that - have you heard of a tentative release date for BC V4?

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

Thanks I will do that - have you heard of a tentative release date for BC V4?

No data - like most Manufacturers, they don't do that. But, the Beta's seem to be going well and the Adventure website seems to be working OK so it shouldn't be that far out for the v4.0.1 release. I expect they will want to coordinate the release with at least one GPS model (Montana?) that can support Adventures.

Cheers,

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by DRTBYK

... I expect they will want to coordinate the release with at least one GPS model (Montana?) that can support Adventures.
Cheers,

Thanks! That would be a nice way to introduce it, I'll be on the lookout!

[bob393]

Cool Google map based program.

[_cy_]

neat ... HD tool