Each of the three devices shown in the opening post are, in their own way, reliable.
The weakest of the three is, in my opinion, the BMW MotorradConected app, displayed on the 1600’s big screen. It does though score some pretty good marks for being controllable via the bike’s wonder wheel. It is running routes created in MyRoute’s Routeplanner.
The phone is running MyRoute’s Navigation app. This performed well. So well in fact thst I was happy to go away a couple of weeks later with only a sacrificial phone running MyRoute’s Navigation app, for a week away in the Luxembourg Ardennes, running some pretty complicated, bespoke routes, all created on my iPad and / or iPhone, This is a luxury that is not open to me for the XT Garmin device, dependent as it is on BaseCamp, should I wish to stay entirely within the Garmin world. To date, Garmin have resolutely refused to adopt a Cloud based route creation app.
The XT is running routes that were created in MyRoute’s Routeplanner, exported to the device in version 1.1. It performed well, too. Not least as I do not see the problems that others have encountered with the device.
Additional comment:
1. I ran all three devices and systems, using the same (pretty complicated) routes, all created in MyRoute Routeplanner. This gave them a reasonably level playing field to start with.
2. The BMW device performed OK, until it developed a persistent desire to route me back to a shaping point I had missed. This prompted me to ask in UKGSer’s GP’s section why this might be. A very good answer came back, which solved the problem. There was then a subsequent reply which gave some additional constructive help too, along with some guidance that (in his experience) the BMW system performs best running routes created in the BMW app, ie. Not imported third party routes.
3. The MyRoute Navigstion app, again on a sacrificial phone, performed very well. Of the two ‘mistakes; it did make, one was self inflicted, whereby I ignored a clear instruction from the device and went wrong. The other was when I hadn’t got used to the way the phone displayed the route. Once I had got that straight in my head, all was well.
4. The XT performed well.
5. It is important to note that I had never used the BMW or MyRoute Navigation systems for a protracted period before. I was therefore learning both ‘On the hoof’ as it were. Bar some oddities, I found them both pretty intuitive.
6. Having used a GPS device of some sort of another for about 38 years, I am now very patient with them, long ago having accepted that there is no point in shouting at them, as they can’t hear anything. I also willingly accept that, with modern devices, the vast majority of errors are now self-inflicted. In other words, common-or-garden, simple user error.
7. Yes, each device and system will have its own oddities and idiosyncrasies, but so do different motorbikes and, at the other end of the spectrum, a Windows PC and a Mac.
8. Using all three together, helped me to learn about each of them and (most importantly) how they differed. From this experience I hope to be able to give help to others, returning the help I have gratefully received. As the forum is now sub-divided into near enough the main makes of devices and systems (and providing the threads stay, near enough on topic) then lots of people can hopefully benefit.
9. Had I of kept my 2017 1600, with its very good integration with the BMW branded Navigator V, I would very probably have never considered even looking at an XT, the BMW Connected app, nor MyRoute’s Navigation app. Why? Because I had no good reason to. The new bike, prompted me to try other things. By-and-large, it’s been a reasonably positive and at least interesting experience; useful to me and, I might hope, helpful to others too.
10. I am not frightened to try new things. Possibly my best example is the ending of my long term love affair with Garmin’s BaseCamp, moving exclusively to MyRoute for bespoke route creation. Why? First and foremost, BaseCamp became very unstable on my Mac, to the point that it became useable. Then mix in that the XT and a Mac are not readily compatible, topped-off with Garmin’s refusal to date, to adopt a Cloud based application. MyRoute and its parallel Navigation app are becoming better and better, so I use them.
11. Despite Garmin’s refusal to get onto the Cloud, I still very much like a standalone, dedicated GPS device, like the XT. I have no desire to play music, take phone calls, receive texts, know wither it’s going to be raining when I get to Tesco or how many times I have used the back brake. To others, these things and more are of vital importance; which is fine.
