First go with the Motorrad Connected app…..

Wapping

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….. and a first go with a TFT screen.

First off, I like the TFT screen on my 850 GSA. It has its faults but on the whole it’s not bad.

My bike also has the mount for my Navigator VI, so I have the option of using the Connected app or the Navigstor VI or both, made easier as I discovered that by holding the TFT screen’s toggle switch ‘up’ I can switch the whirly wheel controller to control either the TFT screen or the device or visa-versa. That alone is quite neat.

I loaded the Connected app onto my iPhone and then synced the phone to the TFT screen, via Bluetooth. That was fairly seamless. Noticing that my phone battery was nearly flat, I took the opportunity to connect the phone to a charging brick and dumped the pair of them in the top box. Normally I would have put them both in my tank bag but was unable to…. But that’s another story. The beginner’s mistake was to assume that the Bluetooth would penetrate the metal top box. After 100 hards, the TFT screen lost contact with the phone, so that was the end of that idea, it seems. I do have a soft tail bag, so I’ll give it a go in that at some point.

Having stopped to then put the phone and brick into me jacket, contact between the phone and the TFT screen was re-established in seconds. As I had stopped, I thought I might as well see how the navigation worked. The app is reasonably intuitive, once you discover that you have to download the detailed maps onto the phone. My corner of SE England downloaded via 4G in about three minutes. I then just put Chelmsford into the app as a destination, fastest route, allowing motorways. Not surprisingly, it routed me out to The Highway, then down the A13, then anti-clockwise on the M25, then up the A12 to Chelmsford. Just as an experiment I went off route deliberately a couple of times; each time the app recalculated the route very quickly. Having got to Chelmsford, I stopped the route on the app but left it recording my onwards progress. I then navigated myself from Chelmsford, up the B roads to Walkers cafe at Mildenhall in Suffolk. The app recorded the track of my journey perfectly.

At Walkers, I mucked around in the app a bit more, by giving it access to my phone’s camera. I snapped a couple of pictures, which all but instantly appeared in the app, embedded into the recording. Again, pretty neat.

My next stop was going to be in Kimbolton, about 50 miles away. I know the way on the B roads, so I decided to ask the app to take me from Walkers to Kinbolton, avoiding motorways (there aren’t any, unless the A1(m) counts) avoiding any unmade roads and reasonably ‘twisty’. The app very quickly offered up a route, which wasn’t bad. I then asked it to take me to Kimbolton but this time putting the slider of the ‘wiggly roads’ setting to maximum. Again, the app calculated the route very fast. I decided to give it a go. Bar a couple of silly debtors where the algorithm did a ‘wiggle’ for the sake of doing a ‘wiggle’, it was pretty good, taking me down some Suffolk roads past Ely, scarcely a car and a half wide. Again I went off route a couple of times; each time the recalculation was very fast.

I don’t have earphones in my helmet, so I didn’t have any voice commands, only the simple direction of travel and turn-by-turn symbols displayed (very clearly) on the TFT screen. Here, there is a bit of an issue:

1. If you run the TFT screen in full view navigation mode, the current speed shown is reduced to quite modestly sized numbers. That is no big issue. What though you do lose is the rev counter. I like the rev counter. You can get around this by switching to full instrument mode, where the turn by turn is shrunk. I didn’t like this quite so much, though I might just need to get used to it. What I think is that the entire system is built around the assumption that the rider will also have the voice prompts running.

2. The direction of travel at a roundabout is a bit odd but OK when you get used to it. The classic roundabout symbol is very clear but it always shows ‘straight on’. What you have to look at is the little number next to the symbol, giving you the number for the exit road. For example, a roundabout with three exits at 9, 12 and 3 pm (with you entering at 6) will be numbered by the app, 1, 2, 3. Again, it’s quite possible that a voice command would say ‘Take the third exit’, I guess?

3. The turn instructions are very clear with the road numbers or names, very well displayed. Where it sometimes falls down, at least without the voice commands is, for example:

Imagine coming up a B road, to a T junction with a fast A road, running at right angles. The screen shows turn right onto the A road, which is fine. What it doesn’t tell you is that after say 20 yards, you have to turn left off the A road, onto another B road. This can create a problem, especially if you have cracked the throttle open on the A road! Had a map been displayed, or even a symbol that it was a direction of travel across a staggered junction, it would be much better. Again, a voice command might say, “At the junction turn right, then immediately turn left”, I guess? That way at least you’d be ready for it. I use my Nav VI without sound, relying on the map (and a bit of zooming) to show me the direction of travel. I suppose the new 1600 with its larger split-screen TFT, is able to show a map and the routing directions at the same time? I guess as well I could double up with phone’s screen if I mounted that on the bars…. But I am no big fan of stuff bolted on.

I haven’t yet tried to create a route in BaseCamp on my Mac and send it to the Connected app, though I see no reason why it shouldn’t work smoothly. Similarly, I haven’t yet tried downloading the recording of my day’s travels from the app onto my Mac and into BaseCamp. Again, I see no reason why it shouldn’t work. Whether the pictures come across as some sort of ‘Favourite’ or Waypoint, I’ll have to see, too.

Conclusions:

The app and my first experience of a TFT screen was overall, positive.

The routing algorithm seems pretty good. I have never asked a device to give me a ‘twisty route’ before, so I had no idea what to expect. The sliding scale, so that you can emphasise or not the level of twisties seems to work, the offered up routes changing quite significantly.

Marks so far: 7.5 / 8 out of 10. That may well get better as I get more used to it all. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised.

If you rely entirely on your phone and the app, you’d be buggered if your phone went flat or it broke or you lost it down the bog. That being said, modern phones are pretty reliable, providing they do not get jolted to death.

PS I have a big iPhone, so I’ll download the full set of European maps, over the internet. I wonder how often they update? The map structure and download looks very similar to that of Pocket Earth Pro on my iPad, which update quite regularly.
 
It’s getting there with the downloads of the maps onto the phone. The phone did get into a bit of a sulk for a while but it seems happier now.
 
Problem I've found it does not announce Waypoints. Fine if you want to go A to B, but if you want A to D with announcement you have arrive at B and C you can miss them.
Ended up getting XT as even though a pain to fit to an RT.

I'll leave it in your excellent hands to show how I'm doing it wrong :stolzy
 
The app’s search function seems really good and very fast. Adding places to favourites works well, too.
 
Problem I've found it does not announce Waypoints. Fine if you want to go A to B, but if you want A to D with announcement you have arrive at B and C you can miss them.

I don’t have the sound turned on, so announcements will probably pass me by.

I will though fire up my earphones to see what’s what and / or see how fixed points B and C work, part of a route A to D.
 
The tracks of today’s ride, recorded on the Connected app, download really well into BaseCamp on my Mac.

Select the track and export the GPX file as an attachment to an email to yourself. Open the email on your home computer and download the file into BaseCamp. It’s as simple as that. Sadly, the pictures don’t seem to come across, too. Unless that is, I have misunderstood something.

Next to transfer a file from BaseCamp into the Connected app.
 
Next to transfer a file from BaseCamp into the Connected app.

Instead of using BaseCamp, I asked the app to simply open a GPX file I had stored in a folder on my phone. It transferred into the Connected app perfectly. I see no reason why a route created in BaseCamp shouldn’t transfer in too, just as well and easily.

So far, everything I have seen and tried with the Connected app seems really good, with just the little foibles mentioned above.
 
The default unit for the app’s distances is metric ie. kilometres. To change this tap the three little dots on the bottom right hand corner of the app’s home page. Then scroll down to app settings. Then chose miles, assuming that is you want distances displayed in miles.

You can also alter the tyre pressure’s units and whether you want the app to show temperatures in fahrenheit or centigrade.
 
I have now downloaded the app onto my large iPad Pro. The app is clearly designed for use on a phone, as it displays in a vertical ‘portrait’ format. Logging into the app on my iPad using my ‘My BMW’ email and password address, brought up yesterday’s routes.

There is though a possible catch. The app needs to be linked to a motorcycle or its functions reduce after a 14 day trial period. I am not sure, as I haven’t tried, if you can link two devices (my phone and my iPad) to one motorcycle. If you can’t, this would appear to be a weakness, unless you want to do everything on your phone. I’ll give it a go, linking the two devices to the one bike, too see what happens. Failing that, I’ll see what limited functions the iPad retains after the 14 day trial period finishes.

I have asked the same question via the app’s review / comments section in the App Store.
 
Now that I can at least trial the app for 14 days on my iPad, I can find a possible weakness, though it will only affect people like me who like to plot their own bespoke routes. It does not seem possible to create / shape a route by tapping onto specific roads within the app’s maps. You can enter waypoints but how the app joins them together is controlled entirely by the app’s algorithms.

This is fine if the user is happy to simply accept what the app spits out, of course. Indeed, it may be pretty good. It seems that the only way to create bespoke ‘user created’ routes, following specific roads is only possible via BaseCamp and from there emailing the route into your phone, then from there, Bluetoothing it to the bike. I guess you could also use MyRoute or Kurviger or some similar app to create a bespoke route and then email those routes across, too?

It is the one weakness of this type of app, that route creation has been dumbed down or requires a workaround, using additional third party software, in my case, BaseCamp.
 
Not quite sure I’m with you on this, but I find creating bespoke routes very easy using the app on my iPhone and iPad running InRoute to create custom routes.
 
Not quite sure I’m with you on this, but I find creating bespoke routes very easy using the app on my iPhone and iPad running InRoute to create custom routes.

As my post said, you can use third party software (in your example InRoute, or in my case, BaseCamp) to create a bespoke route and then email or move it into the Connected app.

What does not seem to be possible, is to create a bespoke route directly in the BMW Connected app.
 
Thanks for your comprehensive review of your first TFT experience, although most of us have been using for over three years now:D
There are several ways of using the system, where an individual will make it fit. Once familiar its great.
Next time you come to Chelmsford Richard. Please let me know, We'll RV for a coffee:thumb
 
What does not seem to be possible, is to create a bespoke route directly in the BMW Connected app.

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H

Thank you for the positive comments, appreciated. I only rarely go to Chelmsford (and then only out of habit) when I want to run a bike in, simply as I have a route which is varied enough - over two days - to give me near enough the 600 miles I need to achieve. Failing that, I go to France for the weekend.

Next time I’m there I’ll let you know :beerjug:
 
Yes, Simply add a waypoint, on the map, where you want the route to go, then press add, it will automatically re ruote it using that way point.
 

Yup, I’m with that.

It’s the roads that the app chooses between (in your example):

A. Welsh Road

B. A55, Chester

C. A 55, Mold

Maybe I am being too fussy but I can create a bespoke route in BaseCamp from say, London to Provence (800 or so miles) that will, by using shaping points, follow exactly the roads I want to take, by me pacing each shaping point accordingly. The BMW Connected app, at least on my iPhone and iPad, does not allow me to ‘click’ on individual roads, I can only enter waypoints.

Or have I got it wrong? If so, I apologise and put it down to a lack of familiarity with the app.
 
The XT does have, direct on the unit, a route palnning page. You can create a route exactly as you would in basecamp. Which is such a bonus.
 
The XT does have, direct on the unit, a route palnning page. You can create a route exactly as you would in basecamp. Which is such a bonus.

Which is of course great if you have an XT. There again, most Garmin devices will allow the owner to create a bespoke route, directly within a device. The ease of doing it may of course vary.

The Connected app and its associated TFT and a phone, allows the owner to dispense with the XT (or any other Garmin / Tom Tom device) entirely.
 
The merging of several track records within the app seems to work well. Here’s a sample using the trial run on my iPad.

My ride around yesterday was recorded in two chunks, which the software stitched together in a flash.

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Only one of the photographs came across into the merged version. To be honest, I didn’t understand the pop-up message. I suspect it might be because I used my iPad, not my phone to do the merging and the individual pictures are not fully synchronised.

Anyway, merging seems to work. Another win for the app.


PS The two merged tracks were ‘joined’ ie. one started where the other stopped. I have no idea if the app will join together a track in, say, Wales to one made in Germany. Time and a bit of playing about will tell.

PPS I don’t know, as I haven’t tried, if it’s possible to un-merge the tracks back again.
 


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