PanEuropean
Registered user
HMR:
All GPSRs have a finite amount of memory available for track storage - some have more than others. If you want to maximize the capability of your GPSR to store tracks, turn the track recording OFF when you no longer need it, and turn it ON when you do need it.
It should not be necessary to leave track recording on all the time if you want to recall a particularly good route - just record the good parts, then upload the track fragments to MapSource later on. You can fill in the blanks (transit sections) pretty easily. If you find that you MUST have a continuous record of your activities, then buy a small, cheap, second hand laptop that has a USB connector. Load an OS and MapSource into it, and bring it with you when you tour. You can do the downloads every night.
Respecting route segments - I guess everyone has different touring styles. I have now accumulated 75K kilometres of motorcycle touring - all in countries I don't live in - on a SP III, SP 26xx and 296. I very rarely create "formal" routes anymore. What I do instead is create waypoints along the path I want to travel, then string these together to form a route (perhaps one waypoint per 2 hours travel), and then I use the AUTOROUTING function of the GPSR to fill in the gaps between the waypoints. If you have a SP 26xx, you can specify what kind of roads you want to be travelling on - motorways or not, twisties or not, city streets or not.
It really should not be necessary to stay up all night creating routes on the PC, and then downloading them to the GPSR and using them. That was the modality before autorouting GPSRs arrived. Now, it's far easier to just identify the next interesting spot you want to go to - whether it is 30 miles ahead or 200 miles ahead - and let the autorouting function take you there, according to your road preferences. If you don't like the result of the autorouting, then move the waypoint closer to you, or just head off in the direction you want to go, and the GPSR will get the message, after 3 recalculations, that you don't like its original routing suggestion, and it will then perform a full recalculation - which will most likely give you the results you want.
There should be no need to ever approach the 50 route storage maximum - heck, I'm just starting into a 30 day ride from Zurich to Dresden to Portugal and onwards to Morocco and Libya - I don't think I would ever have more than 2 routes in memory at any given time. Most days, I just enter my ultimate destination (for the day) on the GPSR, and when I am looking at the map before I leave, I add one or two via points for places that I don't want to miss. Then I go ride. Setting up a day of motorcycle touring should not require the same amount of preparation and FMS programming as doing a trans-Atlantic flight on the NAT route structure... heck, a Garmin 530 panel mount aviation GPSR, which is the top of the line unit that I use at work, only holds 20 routes, and that's enough for air carrier operations.
I sincerely recommend you consider the SP 26xx series if you are planning on getting a SP III replacement. On this tour, I am using a 296, because I am testing software on it, and I can tell you, it is a real pain in the ass to be limited to that little tiny 128 meg or 256 meg data chip. If I had my SP 2650 with me, I would have all of Europe and Africa that I need on one 512 meg CF card. Don't get me wrong - the 276 and 296 are great tools, but they are marine and aviation tools, not automotive tools. If your primary need is automotive navigation, get an automotive GPSR.
PanEuropean
PS: I just figured out a fix for your need to travel with more than 50 routes. When you load the CF card of a SP 26xx, leave about 1 meg of empty space on the card. You can then store MapSource files (.gdb or .mps format, does not matter) in the empty space. Whenever you find a computer that happens to have MapSource installed - you don't need the maps or your codes - you can just transfer the routes from the CF card to the computer, then upload them to the SP 26xx via the USB cable.
All GPSRs have a finite amount of memory available for track storage - some have more than others. If you want to maximize the capability of your GPSR to store tracks, turn the track recording OFF when you no longer need it, and turn it ON when you do need it.
It should not be necessary to leave track recording on all the time if you want to recall a particularly good route - just record the good parts, then upload the track fragments to MapSource later on. You can fill in the blanks (transit sections) pretty easily. If you find that you MUST have a continuous record of your activities, then buy a small, cheap, second hand laptop that has a USB connector. Load an OS and MapSource into it, and bring it with you when you tour. You can do the downloads every night.
Respecting route segments - I guess everyone has different touring styles. I have now accumulated 75K kilometres of motorcycle touring - all in countries I don't live in - on a SP III, SP 26xx and 296. I very rarely create "formal" routes anymore. What I do instead is create waypoints along the path I want to travel, then string these together to form a route (perhaps one waypoint per 2 hours travel), and then I use the AUTOROUTING function of the GPSR to fill in the gaps between the waypoints. If you have a SP 26xx, you can specify what kind of roads you want to be travelling on - motorways or not, twisties or not, city streets or not.
It really should not be necessary to stay up all night creating routes on the PC, and then downloading them to the GPSR and using them. That was the modality before autorouting GPSRs arrived. Now, it's far easier to just identify the next interesting spot you want to go to - whether it is 30 miles ahead or 200 miles ahead - and let the autorouting function take you there, according to your road preferences. If you don't like the result of the autorouting, then move the waypoint closer to you, or just head off in the direction you want to go, and the GPSR will get the message, after 3 recalculations, that you don't like its original routing suggestion, and it will then perform a full recalculation - which will most likely give you the results you want.
There should be no need to ever approach the 50 route storage maximum - heck, I'm just starting into a 30 day ride from Zurich to Dresden to Portugal and onwards to Morocco and Libya - I don't think I would ever have more than 2 routes in memory at any given time. Most days, I just enter my ultimate destination (for the day) on the GPSR, and when I am looking at the map before I leave, I add one or two via points for places that I don't want to miss. Then I go ride. Setting up a day of motorcycle touring should not require the same amount of preparation and FMS programming as doing a trans-Atlantic flight on the NAT route structure... heck, a Garmin 530 panel mount aviation GPSR, which is the top of the line unit that I use at work, only holds 20 routes, and that's enough for air carrier operations.
I sincerely recommend you consider the SP 26xx series if you are planning on getting a SP III replacement. On this tour, I am using a 296, because I am testing software on it, and I can tell you, it is a real pain in the ass to be limited to that little tiny 128 meg or 256 meg data chip. If I had my SP 2650 with me, I would have all of Europe and Africa that I need on one 512 meg CF card. Don't get me wrong - the 276 and 296 are great tools, but they are marine and aviation tools, not automotive tools. If your primary need is automotive navigation, get an automotive GPSR.
PanEuropean
PS: I just figured out a fix for your need to travel with more than 50 routes. When you load the CF card of a SP 26xx, leave about 1 meg of empty space on the card. You can then store MapSource files (.gdb or .mps format, does not matter) in the empty space. Whenever you find a computer that happens to have MapSource installed - you don't need the maps or your codes - you can just transfer the routes from the CF card to the computer, then upload them to the SP 26xx via the USB cable.
