After just over a year of ownership of the Zumo 595LM, a very expensive motorcycle GPS, and trying to figure out how to optimize use of the Zumo and Basecamp, I have discovered that this is the most convoluted, frustrating, piece of technology I have ever attempted to master!!! Who the hell designed this software, Rube Goldberg??!!??
So pleased with all the apps it supports (if you link it through your smart phone, of course), which begs the question, why would I pay $700 for a GPS to play music and talk on the phone?? That's right....I bought a GPS for navigation, especially in places where cell service is sketchy or non-existent. So happy to see that much needed memory space is wasted to support apps that most people buying a GPS will never use and have nothing to do with the function of a GPS.
Although the Zumo is handy for backtracking if you get lost, so is a $6 map.
After many, MANY hours of tutorial videos (both youtube and Garmin) and reading forums, I have figured out that you can either use the route Garmin gives you or you can get exasperated. I understand waypoints, insert into route, starting and ending destinations, etc. We all know that you can't use a map on a computer screen because it is too small to map a multi-state "adventure", therefore, you must use paper maps. After pouring over paper maps to figure out the exact route you want to take, you open Basecamp only to find it will take you days of making little purple lines (with numerous u-turns, backtracks, etc.), zooming in and out on the map, dragging the map north, south, east and west, just to give up, in complete frustration, and resort to the tried, tested and true way....making a simple list of route numbers and direction, putting it in the map pocket on your tank bag, rolling up the paper maps, storing them in your luggage, defeatedly throwing the GPS back in the box it came in and enjoying your trip.
Why,oh why, dear software engineers, can't I just type in the routes I want to take and have Basecamp map those routes? Or would that be too easy?? I realize engineers have to prove that they retained their 5 years of college and can write the most complicated software known to man, but why couldn't you use that education to write software that the common layman could decipher and use without taking a 2 year Garmin course??
So, Garmin, I know you can't publicly admit that your Basemap software is fundamentally deplorable, but when you decide to rewrite the software, please try and remember that common people have to use it. Remember the tried and true acronym.... KISS....keep it simple stupid!
Signed, One Very Displeased Zumo/Basecamp Owner/Usesr
