Zumo 340LM Routing

OK...mounted my old car Garmin and set the mode ( top left of the screen when you boot the GPS up...touch the motorcycle logo and in the menu select car - job done :thumb2 ) on the 340....seemed to get me around Liverpool identical to each other. As Mzokk say's, probably taking us on a recommended Garmin 'motorcycle' road route when all we want is to get there !!
It doesn't make any difference whether mine is in car or motorcycle mode.
 
Hmmm... interesting as the menu also show's an off-road route so something must be changed :nenau ( Then again, only checked for about 20 miles or so...further test's will be made :D )


thanks guys will try car mode.
 
my 350lm has started to act like this since I updated a couple of months back, perhaps its gamins way of trying to make us upgrade to the latest overpriced units

My new Garmin 396 has a penchant for taking me off the sensible route, and on usually short but annoying diversions down goat tracks, only to rejoin the sensible route a few miles down the road. It's fecking annoying, so don't think buying a newer unit will help.

Why isn't there a 396 section in this forum? Seems to be Garmin's newest general purpose bike unit.
 
Used mine 390 in a hire car in Italy. took me down an unpaved track despite have those checked in avoidances. Had to do a three point turn in into a gap in the hedge. Madness!!!!
I wonder if it has something to do with avoiding U turns?
NB I still havent heard back from Garmin about my suggestion to list unclassified roads among the avoidances.
 
I've only just seen this thread. I have a 340LM and it seems to have a mind of its own. I generally use basecamp to plot routes and upload it to the satnav. I used to have a zumo 550 and had no problems with routes at all. Now the 340 won't follow a basecamp route even with loads of way points. It starts ok then takes me all over the place. Last week while doing a 140 mile route after about 20 miles the satnav kept trying to take me back to the start. It continued doing this for the rest of the trip. This unit is absolutely crap.

My answer is to sell it and go with Tomtom.:mad:
 
It's not perfect, but evetually I found the best solution was to put loads and loads of shaping points (not waypoints) into the routes in BaseCamp to make it go exactly where you want, and with minimal opportunity to make it's own mind up. Takes a bit more effort but then seems to work well.
 
https://www.newenglandriders.org/learn-basecamp/

Look at this learn Basecamp and the unit pay particular attention to setting up your Garmin device. I have a a garmin 2610 340lm 390lm and a nav 4 no bother with any of them. Helpful hint. Turn off all the curvy roads /avoidances crap if you want the unit to follow your route and set the 3xx units to shortest time routes to avoid the taking you on an unintended tour. Make sure the map version you create your route on and the version on the device are the same. Learn how to use the skip waypoint button. :)
 
Four years on from the first post and I've long since ironed out the issues. Using BaseCamp and inserting numerous shaping points (not waypoints) you can make the route go where you want, and stay on track pretty much all the time. But, it takes time and effort that really shouldn't be necessary. I rarely use the skip button as the only waypoints I use are for coffee and fuel stops, for the rest I use shaping points. But, given half a chance this unit will still lead you down some shit hole of a track to save five yards, and for the price that Garmin charge you shouldn't have to put up with that, or a piece of crap software like BaseCamp.

Last year, I dropped into a BMW dealer and they had employed a guy for the weekend to do Garmin / BaseCamp seminars for their customers after realising around 95% of them had very little idea. Out of around 20 people there at the time, only 2 of us knew anything at all about BaseCamp, the rest simply put in their destination and chose the curvy roads option. None of the people I ride with have a clue how to use it and they are not stupid people. I do the routes and they simply download them into the gpx folder of their units.

When you look at the simplicity of other mapping software out there (even ignoring Google Maps obvious financial backing and input), there are much better options than what Garmin does. As the market leader in motorcycle sat navs, with years of experience and premium pricing they really should be much, much better than they are.
 
Last year, I dropped into a BMW dealer and they had employed a guy for the weekend to do Garmin / BaseCamp seminars for their customers after realising around 95% of them had very little idea. Out of around 20 people there at the time, only 2 of us knew anything at all about BaseCamp…

I guess the other 18 were there to learn, which was the purpose of the course, was it not? I reckon if you went to a learn to speak French class, the ratio might well be similar.
 
That may well be so, but a six year old can use a smart phone without needing a course, and for the price point of the product, their market position and length of time they've been in the game it really should be a lot more intuitive and simpler to use.
 
Some bods couldn’t even manage MapSource. Or couldn’t be arsed…..

:beerjug:

But hey, they have all gone over to using their phones. So, it doesn’t really matter.
 
I have a 390LM and mine throws a wobbly every now and then.
It will sometimes behave perfectly and then use a side road to flatten out a curve which can be annoying.
I had a similar issue in Wales with the dam thing sending me fully loaded and with camping gear, on a RT, down goat tracks. I think in Wales all goat tracks are "B" roads. It even put me on forest access roads with gates and everything!

Mine is set to faster routes and no unpaved and does offer me anywhere from 2 to 5 optional routes. I generally only put in my destination postcode.

I have had the unit for a while and it never used to do that so I was wondering if it had something to do with the later software / firmware updates?

Maybe with the current crop of complaints we will get a decent update soon to "cure" the problem??
 
Four years on from the first post and I've long since ironed out the issues. Using BaseCamp and inserting numerous shaping points (not waypoints) you can make the route go where you want, and stay on track pretty much all the time. But, it takes time and effort that really shouldn't be necessary. I rarely use the skip button as the only waypoints I use are for coffee and fuel stops, for the rest I use shaping points. But, given half a chance this unit will still lead you down some shit hole of a track to save five yards, and for the price that Garmin charge you shouldn't have to put up with that, or a piece of crap software like BaseCamp.

Last year, I dropped into a BMW dealer and they had employed a guy for the weekend to do Garmin / BaseCamp seminars for their customers after realising around 95% of them had very little idea. Out of around 20 people there at the time, only 2 of us knew anything at all about BaseCamp, the rest simply put in their destination and chose the curvy roads option. None of the people I ride with have a clue how to use it and they are not stupid people. I do the routes and they simply download them into the gpx folder of their units.

When you look at the simplicity of other mapping software out there (even ignoring Google Maps obvious financial backing and input), there are much better options than what Garmin does. As the market leader in motorcycle sat navs, with years of experience and premium pricing they really should be much, much better than they are.

I think a lot of what you say is fair comment. Probably the issue with the garmin devices is that they are trying to cater for the get you to your destination minimal input/learning users and users who define their routes to the last turn. I fall into the latter category much of the time and anytime I do have errors it is invariably because I have missed something when plotting the route in Basecamp. Also the units themselves require a bit of setting up to make them work at their best for adhoc route planning on the unit or following a GPX track (and your basecamp settings for routing preferences better match your units). I suppose trying to be all things to all men means the interface is not as simple as it could be? All that said I still enjoy using the units and on the whole don't have many issues. Having put the effort into understanding garmin units and software I haven't tried the tom tom units or any other apart from the satnav's in my cars........thank goodness for Android Auto in that case :)
 


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