I've been using Harley Ride Planner since I bought my Ultra Classic back in August.

It has been working pretty well and the .gpx files upload to the bikes nav system and seem to work well.

But I'm having a problem today. I'm trying to make a route that starts and ends at my home. Basically make a big circle through the country side and come back home.

To create a ride I have to put a starting point and an end point. If I put both in as my home address, and then start adding way points to make it go on the roads I want, I get about 3/4 of the loop created and all of a sudden I have some crazy route going back on itself and taking all sorts of strange roads. So I tried picking an address about a mile down the road from my house as the end point. And I get the same result.

I used to use Rever and it worked great, you enter a start point and then just start clicking on the map for way points. But Harley Ride Planner forces me to enter a destination address.

Any idea how to get around this?

Only thing I can think of is to make 2 rides, pick a point about halfway on my circular route as the destination and make one ride to that point and then make another ride from that point to my home. But that seems like a PITA while riding.

 

if I read this correctly... You are entering you start address in the pop up windows where is say create a starting point then follow up in the same window with the end point? If so then Yes you will get a ride like that. What I do is close the pop up. enter you starting address on the left side . start your ride creating waypoints and save often. enter you ending point same way or right click on map where you want to end select destination. make sure you are zoomed in when making the waypoints etc. That's how I do it and I never have issues. I also use the house next door as the ending point as well just incase. hope this helps

 

Problems is I can't create a waypoint until I first enter a location for the end point, then I can add waypoints. But it doesn't take anything like a straight route back to the ending location.

Here I entered my starting address (it's not my home) and right click to enter a way point and the only option is add a location. So I make it a location.


Then I add waypoints going along my route, I added the waypoint at Legato, then Willow Spings, then the upper left corner, and then finally I add the waypoint that is just to the left of the 50 and suddenly it takes that funky dive.


I'm normally not computer illiterate, but this is baffling me.

 

Have you considered using the "Round Trip" selection?

 

I tried that and it seemed to make it worse.

But I must have had something weird with the waypoint locations. Because I just tried creating my route again, starting location at my house and then I entered the ending location at my neighbors house like hdman6 suggested and then just went on the map clicking and adding waypoints and it worked OK. I did have to delete one waypoint and then drag the line over to the road I wanted to go on.

So it looks like the key was don't use the exact same address as the start and end point, and then be very careful where my waypoints are located.

 

Ride planner is not the best tool to use for route planning that you want to be that precise. In your instance I would make the staring point on you ride at the first intersection when you leave your house and the ending destination your home address.

You didn't ask for this information but if your intent is to use ride planner it's something that you should be aware of. Ride planner It takes the way points fine on the screen and looks correct however when it transfers out to the GXP file a lot of that detail will be lost and the head unit will recalculate the route based on the settings in the head unit to the next way point on the route. The guys that have dissected the GPX files from the ride planner have noted the lack of detail. The head unit settings and avoidance's should be set for minimal corrections suck as avoiding highways and taking scenic routes. I leave mine set at fastest route with no avoidance's when running planned routes.

If you really want to be able to rely on your routes to execute as planned you should take them into another software program to verify them. Sometimes you can inadvertently select a point on the wrong side of a divided highway and it will create small loops in your route and screw you up. I have placed addresses to hotels right off the highway and had ride planner place the destination on an access road so always look carefully at your way points zoomed way in. I use an older version of Tyre but I think the Honda ride planner is another app based on the google maps overlays. Base camp is ideal but not user friendly.

 

One thing I have done is to enter my ending point as the City or a main intersection.... I figure once I get back to my home town, I can make it home!!! Or I will start from the city, which usually starts you off in the main area. Just another suggestion. And I too find the ride planner a bit of a pain, but I've used it so often....
I really should investigate other planners and see if there is one that would suit my needs.

 

I have experience problems with the waypoint being just off my route, so I know to zoom in. I also use quite a few waypoints to make sure the GPS on the bike stays on the route I want. But, still not sure why I was getting such a convoluted route, other than having entered the same start and end points.

 

and you dragged them to your preferred route when zoomed in to the max. that's how I do it. I happen to use a Garmin Zumo but sometimes it also changes the route after I transfer the gpx file. I always double check it . If needed I will add more way points you can also set as destination point then change to way point and save it work your way around the loop.
I just made a loop similar to your for my house and thats how i did it try adding a way point after the loop de loop that sends you down

 

You don't necessarily have to use the Start/End in the center box. Use the black box section in left corner to create a start location & using "add location". I also some times I drag the "end" icon to a new location. Add waypoints if need be. The learning curve is aggravating & long for Ride Planner. Another tip, expand out to make sure your waypoint is actually in the right hand lane too.