That's handy to know, but the only issue is the planning side, as I’d prefer an option on the device itself to just avoid said cities, rather than spending hours plotting routes etc.
Once navigated all the way around southern spain on my 748. Planned a route on my ordance survey map each night before, then cross checked the road signs en-route to make sure I was following the correct directions. Hardly difficult but I can see the attraction of a sat nav if you hit roadworks/accident or a detour.
Well done touring Spain on a 748 ! Follow the signs, maybe stay on the beaten track. Touring on a CBR1000 Fireblade I found the Petrol Station feature on my Tomtom to be really useful. A route planned for the afternoon had one petrol station - that I relied on to be there and open. Otherwise that loop would not have been possible. Same with touring on the very thirsty MT-10 SP. Having the Sat Nav petrol station data allowed for a bit more exploration - but not by much !
That reminded me of a trip down to Italy, when I was living there, with my wife on the back of my 999S. Fuel stops were not so much dictated by the warning light, more so the temperature of her pillion seat and the commentary from her over the bluetooth helmet comms, as to how her backside began to feel like a flame grilled whopper. Stops aplenty at the motorway "Autogrill's" to alleviate the symptoms!
Avoid cities is there once you've selected a destination. So long as you don't choose the fastest route, rather one of the curvy options.
I would say, like anything with Garmin, "Not easy". Though that's from my extensive experience with the brand over many years, albeit only up to the first XT. I understand that things have changed since I defected to MRA though... You can see here that there's a save option in the MRA Nav Next app, this creates a suitably named track in your MRA Planner. In my case 'Route - Burford (2025-29-05)'. This you can then download as a GPX track, not a route, for use on your Garmin. If you choose to edit the track in MRA Planner it adds waypoints and from there you can download a GPX route/track combo. How easy it then is to get onto your Garmin is another matter... When I had my XT I used Garmin Drive which did this quite well, note this was on an Android phone. You can also see in this screen grab the straight line and 3 curvy route options once you've entered a destination into MRA Nav Next (the earlier screen grab from yesterday was the scrolled down version of this). As said; the avoid cities option only appears for the 3 twisty route options. It might not follow your interpretation of a twisty route, in this case it's the meandering route option following minor roads to the destination. I guess it's hard for MRA to have an algorithm that will satisfy everyone. Might work differently for an area with roads more akin to those one might want on a sportsbike. I would say that the route given is more suitable for adventure bikes or smaller cc machines. Of course in the Alps things maybe different...
I’ve downloaded the app, put a few favorite locations in, and played with the various settings. Some of the routes are bloody ridiculous, going all round the houses, so I’m guessing it’s one of those apps you need to mollycoddle and spend hours dragging and reshaping routes?
Just to be clear; you've downloaded the MRA Nav Next app and you're on the two week free trial? As I said above; It might not follow your interpretation of a twisty route... You can choose to remove some of the default avoid options in each case, though this will probably revert the route to the next less twisty, remove cities and highways and you're probably back to the straight line route. It can only do so much. For something specific and with some time and research (MRA Gold Planner has a few tools that help with this) you can create better. However, you seem to not want to do this, which I understand. You'll have to accept the compromise of an automated system that might not match your needs. How well does Garmin's twisty route compare? I did ask the MRA Planner to create a route from Barcelona to Jaca using the 'very curvy' as well as the 'big height differences' options, avoiding cities, highways, residential and unpaved roads and it generated what looked like a good route. Granted it did go through some towns though I think this is probably inevitable to a greater or lesser degree. Looking at some of it via Street View and someone not having local knowledge I would have been happy with the result as a quick fix. Of course sitting at my PC for a few hours I might have come up with something better, who knows.
Yep, I just downloaded the app onto my phone. All I’d like is just a button on the Garmin that avoids towns and cities, without all the faffery. It can’t be that difficult, surely?
IIRC Garmin classifies cities as any built up area; cities, towns and villages... That's going to be a tough one. Ask them... Oh hang on, they no longer speak to their customers... MRA was setup by and is run by bikers. They're constantly developing and have an active forum where users are encouraged to suggest new features. Currently in discussion over Google Maps location sharing integration. Garmin used to do that via Google Drive though I believe that they've now dropped that app. I don't think that currently there's a satisfactory solution for exactly what you want. If you want such granularity I think you'll need to resort to actual route planning rather than an algorithm second guessing your requirements. Maybe something the future holds... I remember saying that the rolling map in James Bond's Aston Martin wouldn't happen in my lifetime...
Mrs Visor has got the Beeline 2, I only mention this because the app is fairly good and you can use it on your phone without needing the unit. It will give you a fast or fun route but stays off motorways etc.
I have to say I always find it odd that people complain about Sat Nav’s sending them the ‘wrong’ way etc but they are not prepared to either create a route with a few waypoints or take a bit of time to watch some YouTube videos to understand what they are doing wrong. I agree that sometimes it’s good to just follow your nose and bimble around but if you are on a tour or group ride having well planned routes makes life so much more enjoyable. A couple of years ago the organiser of a bike tour in Portugal announced he’d created the route for the day and shared it with the group. It had 2 waypoints one at the start and one at the end and none in between. He’d created it on google maps and when it went into the sat nav the route took approximately 30 seconds from start to finish! MRA is a game changer, really intuitive and easy to use (Garmin basecamp was horrible to use). I think it’s worth spending a bit of time in advance and then you can pick the roads you actually want to ride?
Completely agree with all you've said there. Though accept that there's the occasion when you CBA and just want an interesting bike orientated route pronto. The MRA Nav Next app, and the MRA Planner, do this fairly well IMHO. Nothing automated like this is going to be exactly what you had in mind.
Yep, that’s all well and good, but what if you decide where you’re going, on the day? Spend the first couple of hours plotting routes? Most of my Euro trips are done off the cuff, I’ll wake up, see where the weather looks good, then aim for it, booking a hotel at lunchtime. The whole point of motorcycling, for me, is freedom. My life is spent plotting and planning, when I go away, I don’t want all that crap.
I find that it depends what you want to do. If you want to get distance done then just get on the motorway - the miles just fly past. No difficulty doing a 450 mile day - in a working hours day in France Trying to cross France going through all the towns and villages is very frustrating and very slow going. Unless you particularly want to see these places along the way. But as a way of getting across country - it is very slow and frustrating, with no way around it. It is the way the country is made up. France must have about 100,000 Trillion roundabouts - and that is what you will be doing all day. If that is the route you take that is the way it is really.
In that case, having decided to go “somewhere”, just use the sat nav as a live map. Without time constraints and “must see” places, I don’t use any of the satnav features just the map and road signs. Andy
I understand that but sitting down at breakfast and plotting a route with a few waypoints (even on the sat nav itself) might only take 10 mins, might give you what you want without having to compromise your reluctance at going through big towns?
I really like the Simon Weir books as a starting point for inspiration but as I have a total inability to remember road numbers (dyslexia) it’s either a list on the tank bag or plot the route on the sat nav. https://www.simonweir.co.uk/
This in combination with a regional (orange) Michelin map, paying attention to the green edged roads (scenic routes, almost invariably great biking roads), gives good results. Of course MRA have thought of this and include Michelin mapping in the MRA Planner but that would involve a laptop.
