A lap of Germany

Thanks for sharing this, looking for ideas for next year so do be sure to follow up with a ride report and have a great trip:thumb:thumb
 
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The basic essentials are lined up
 
If anyone is thinking of doing this loop, ADAC do a bundle of maps at 1:200,000 scale which are good.

I bought a full set in Germany in 2011 for EUR 15, on which I have just spent several happy hours highlighting all the roads we'll take. A worthwhile exercise as it would be helpful to know where I am in relation to everything and everywhere else.

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I dropped into the excellent Stanford's map shop in Covent Garden, where I picked up two plasticised large scale ADAC maps of Germany. Good enough to get me somewhere if it's peeing down or blowing a gale.

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I have similar sets of maps from Louis , ome set covers the Southern Germany and Austria, the other set covers North and East Germany. They are
1:250,000 reasonably well detailed and being plastic waterproof and carry a load of information.

www.powerkarte.de
 
I have similar sets of maps from Louis , ome set covers the Southern Germany and Austria, the other set covers North and East Germany. They are
1:250,000 reasonably well detailed and being plastic waterproof and carry a load of information.

www.powerkarte.de

Those are the ones I have. Highly recommended
 
The routes so far, from Calais (basically motorway) to Lubeck, then on the national and smaller roads from Lubeck, to Stralsund and Rugland island, to Berlin and now into Dresden have worked fine all the way with no obvious significant glitches.

The ADAC mapset has proved its good value at about EUR 15. It was certainly worthwhile marking out all the routes in dayglo highlighter before I left. Having a 'traditional' paper list of the main towns and roads on my tankbag also came in handy, making it reasonably easy to see where we were at any one time.

Similarly, my Nav V GPS has behaved itself with distinction, proving invaluable navigating right into the middle of Berlin in the early rush hour with no problems.

Fingers crossed for the next nine days.
 
Looks like a great trip, I hope you enjoy it and that the lady's hip doesn't cause issues.

Ref. the original post it makes me shudder as I didn't realise that the Nazi's intended to destroy the rest of the British Isles. :)
 
Ha, ha!

After a good day-off in Dresden, it was back on the bikes today. The scenery, having not seen a hill or bend of any real note since leaving London 11 nights ago, changes completely and very quickly when you leave Dresden, heading south south west, becoming a mix between the Ardennes, Black Forest and even the low Alps valleys. In a word, excellent.
 
Now in Passau, after another day's great riding. Touch wood, the routes have not let us down so far.
 
Enjoy Richard, i bet that crap garmin unit and the shit software that they supply with it has caused you major trauma.:beerjug::D
 
It has been truly dreadful (not). Yesterday, there was a routing error (the first) which - on proper examination - was mine! I'll correct it when I create a final version.

Now some 1,700 miles since leaving home and having travelled the bulk of these on German roads of all shapes and sizes, from motorways through to very small country roads, the Garmin based maps have been more than capable, with just one 'No entry street' being incorrectly marked, which was not until we got here to our hotel in Mittenwald yesterday at around 17:30. To be fair to Garmin, the street appears to be 'No entry' only during the day, when it's pedestrianised. After dark, it's a conventional one way street.

Other than that:

1.My Nav V lost its signal processing ability temporarily, showing me running some distance from and parallel to the road I was actually on; which was no big deal.

2. The only thing that has sometimes not worked quite right is the device's displaying of 'Off route' when riding through some large German interchanges or on long slip roads. This is odd as the vehicle cursor was - each time - plainly on the correct magenta line.
 
Quote ( The only thing that has sometimes not worked quite right is the device's displaying of 'Off route' when riding through some large German interchanges or on long slip roads. This is odd as the vehicle cursor was - each time - plainly on the correct magenta line. ) i had that a couple of times in Poland, only i was on a motorway and the screen was showing me in the middle of a field for a time.
 
Quote ( The only thing that has sometimes not worked quite right is the device's displaying of 'Off route' when riding through some large German interchanges or on long slip roads. This is odd as the vehicle cursor was - each time - plainly on the correct magenta line. ) i had that a couple of times in Poland, only i was on a motorway and the screen was showing me in the middle of a field for a time.

Most likely answer is that the maps are not accurate. Assuming you had good satellite reception the device will place you reasonably accurately. If the road is shown in the wrong place on the map then he device will show you riding through a field. If the discrepancy is small the device will assume you are on the drawn road but if the discrepancy is too great it will show your actual position which then does not match the map.

I have come across the interchange problem too. German interchanges can be quite complicated and so any inaccuracies in the map can lead to confusion and the device trying to recalculate because it thinks you have taken the wrong turning. Best advice is to note which road you are supposed to take and follow the signs, if the layout was not accurately shown on the map the device will catch up with things after the junction.

As has been said many time before there is no such thing as a perfect SatNav A little knowledge of how they work, experience in use and a big dose of common sense will get you through.

John
 
I am now not entirely sure that it's down to the map's accuracy. As far as I can see the rendering of the maps is pretty good, minor roads and large.

I get the feeling it is much closer related to the GPS signal the device is receiving and the way that signal is then processed. Why?

I can sometimes deliberately ride some distance off my pre-planned route, off the main road and into a town in search of a coffee. The device will sometimes faithfully show the cursor moving from the magenta line of the main road, into the much smaller streets of the town, all displayed accurately. Sometimes it can be some distance before the screen flashes up an off route warning, asking me if I wish to recalculate.

Similarly, when due to a poor signal, my device showed me driving through houses in a town - when of course I was riding along the magenta road - I received no off route warning at all.

At the major interchange junctions, I was most definitely 'on route', the cursor running faithfully along the slip road or around the long bend of the exit. The device's sudden flash up of 'off route' would seem perhaps to be closer related to the precise quality of the signal, rather than the separate function of displaying a vehicle's position on a map. Maybe the device thought - just for a moment - I was on the road beneath the flyover?

Similarly, if the slip road is drawn correctly but (as in some cases) say 600 meters long and the device's pre-planned route assumed the rider would exit at the the 300 meter marker, then indeed - given a good GPS signal - then you'd be 'off route' by up to 300 meters, if only for a fraction of a second. The device, just prior to the 'off route' message flashing up, would have correctly shown the vehicle cursor moving along the long slip road.

Either way, it matters little. I am glad I knew (near enough) where I wanted to be heading to and that I had my device set to recalculate only if I asked it to do so; the 'off route' message being a device generated mistake.
 
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Either way, it matters little. I am glad I knew (near enough) where I wanted to be heading to and that I had my device set to recalculate only if I asked it to do so; the 'off route' message being a device generated mistake.

In that situation I would follow the signs and the device would, being set to auto recalculate, take me on to the via point I would have placed just after the junction to ensure it chose the correct road. If you know how the device works then your routes can be made to work properly with or without auto recalculate. It's down to personal preference rather than there being a right or wrong way.

John
 
2750 miles door-to-door completed.

By one small route error (mine) and a significant routing error (Garmin's) that was safely ignored, everything worked out just fine. I'll tidy things up and post up the final version in a fresh thread sometime.
 
hope you had a wonderful trip.

It was excellent, thank you.

For the first time in my life I think that (other than to get a good overall look at where I was in relation to places and / or get a good look overview of the day's ride) I could easily have just gone with the routes on my Nav V and nothing else. Other than the one time I asked it to make a recalculation, just to see what it would do, the Nav V's BaseCamp routes and the device's overall minute-by-minute performance could not be faulted. Its one and only routing error in the pre-prepared routes was one I made, not the device itself. This and the recalculation error were both easily overcome on the move, so I can't complain.

In all it was finally 21 nights away, with two full days off the bike in Berlin and Garmische, a full day off in Dresden, a nearly full day off in Lubeck, a full afternoon in Arnhem and no hotel arrival on any day later than 18:00. We also had a full day (on our bikes) going around Rugland Island, in the Baltic. Of course it would be easy to cut the time away down, which is what I would ordinarily have done. But, that was not the purpose of the trip, not least as we were not entirely sure how well my friend's wife's new hip would stand the jaunt on her CBR 650F Honda *. As it was, all was well. Indeed, it was better than well.

Similarly, I - had I given it a bit more thought - wish now that we had completed the full circle back to Hamburg. It was never our intention to do so; the only reason we didn't was the dullish ride back to Calais from there and half an eye the possible hip issue. It would certainly suit anyone who crosses into Holland via the Hook, that's for sure.

I'll do it again some time, I hope and do the full circle; it really was that good and very different from the many European trips I've done before. The weather, which was fantastic for all bar one day right at the end in France (and even that was OK) certainly helped. But.... I think Italy (top to toe) Sicily and Sardinia might be calling me next.....Probably around the same time of year.

For once in my life I had a look at the data, worthwhile only as it was a longish time away, doing something different. Average speed 41 MPH, average fuel consumption 49.1 MPG, maximum speed 113 MPH, all according to the Garmin trip log thing screen. Not too shabby, I guess but it wasn't a dash, that's for sure, nor was it ever meant to be. Those figures were for my 1600 GT. My friend's Triumph Adventure averaged 49.3 MPG, no significant difference between them on that score. No idea about the little Honda.


* Proof, if any were needed, that you can do it on any bike, even one with a chain, 17.5 litre tank and no screen to speak of. She's 67, too. So nobody tell me that only a GS with 32 litres of fuel and 100 litres of panniers is the minimum required.
 
A decent enough average speed and mpg, did you get to visit peenemunde, its a place i would like to go.

we are off to visit Pompei and Herculaneum, and Rome, we will be going via corsica sardinia and sicily, and then riding back up through the dolomites and austria all being well.
 


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