Back to Home Page

Journey Mapping: Garmin & Google

​Garmin Zumo Details
The Garmin Zumo 660 is the device that comes with my 2014 Softail Deluxe CVO Motorcycle. In preparation for my trip, I've made sure to download the latest map from Garmin. To do this, requires a laptop or desktop computer to have the most up-to-date software from Garmin. The picture on the left shows you the menu options with some additional software I've downloaded from the Garmin site. The most important applications are Garmin Express and BaseCamp.
Google Maps Setup
Google Maps was the tool that I used to plan my destinations and to some level, the routes I wanted to take. I've done this before, and I ended up coming somewhat true to the route. However, you make decisions when you ride based on a lot of conditions. As I learned, I could take the actual route from the GPS, and render those GPX files (that's tech talk for a GPS file format) into an online mapping solution like Google Maps. Here is an example of a Google Maps in action. Completely separate from this topic, I created a list of Hilton hotel properties that didn't use a lot of points to spend a night. Check out that map here.
Procedures
This is going to be the long part. Having knowledge of some of these tools will be helpful in following along. Some information will be high-level, and some will be greatly detailed. This is not designed to be a "step-by-step, click this, type that" set of instructions. However, if you have any questions on this content, please let me know, and I will give you any assistance I can in the details that you need via email. Click the envelope on the left or here to send a question to me.
PreRide Technology Preparation
  1. Pack your laptop computer that has the Garmin software on it already. Maske sure to have all your cables for connectivity as well.
  2. Make sure to have your Garmin Maps, and software updated. Garmin's support is pretty good at helping you do things like unlocking a map and walking you through different options in BaseCamp. However, sometimes you can't always get what you want from support, so you have to improvise at times, as any customer support organization goes, focusing on break-fix, then move on to the next customer is what they do.
  3. Assuming you've connected your Garmin to the laptop in the previous step, open Garmin Express and backup your GPS data.
  4. If you don't have a Google account, please create one. You will need it to create and share a map, as in the above example.
Daily Procedures (Best Practices)
  1. At the start of your ride, turn on your Garmin Zumo while it is mounted on your motorcycle.
  2. Assuming you aren't a power-user and don't have any log you want to specifically save at this point, turn your Garmin on when it is mounted to the motorcycle and navigate to the My Data icon, find the current trip log item, and delete the data. If you don't want to do this, that's fine, but you will paw through a lot of data items each day to get the desired result.
  3. Start your bike and start riding.
  4. When you stop to get gas, use the restroom, or stretch your legs, you will turn off your bike. when you do that you have 30 seconds to make a decision to keep the Garmin on or not. IF YOU LEAVE THE GARMIN ON, you are able to move the bike around in neutral, and the Garmin will record all the movement. IF YOU TURN IT OFF, take the Garmin with you and leave the bike in a stationary position until the Garmin is connected to the bike again. As an aside, your Garmin will be creating a series of files in a time-date sequence that follows the time zone you are in. Each section of the trip log will have a starting point. That's the key to this whole process, as the Garmin collects your "tracks" like this constantly.​
  5. When you have stopped for the day, turn off your Garmin.
  6. Connect your laptop to the internet, and connect your Garmin to your laptop with the cable, it will turn on automatically showing the Garmin connection icon on the device.
  7. Connect the Garmin to your laptop.
  8. Run the BaseCamp software with the Garmin connected. {Figures 1-5}
  9. Navigate to the Internal Storage icon under the Garmin device (mine is the Zumo 660) in the top left window pane of the BaseCamp application. {Figure 1}
  10. Navigate to the bottom left window pane, and click the icon that represents two footprints {Figure 2}. This will display the tracks that have been recorded on the Garmin device immediately above the tracks icon. Note that the tracks are broken up into multiple "Active Log" entries, separated by date and local time {Figure 3}.
  11. Select all of the logs in the Internal Storage window. {Figure 3}
  12. Go to the menu at the top of the BaseCamp application, and select File >> Export >> Export Selection... {Figure 3}
  13. A dialog box appears asking to same the file. After you navigate to the directory you want to save the file, the default file name is "Selected Data from Internal Storage.gpx" and this name should be changed {Figure 4}. You can name this anything you want, but in my best practices write up, I will use a date code with the year, month and day; especially since this is a daily procedure I am conducting {Figure 5}.
  14. Close all the Garmin applications on the laptop, disconnect the Garmin from the laptop, and make sure the Garmin is powered off.
  15. Log in to your Google Account and open Google Maps in your browser.
  16. Select the menu icon in the top right part of the Google Map page that looks like three horizontal lines to the right of the "Search Google Maps" search box.
  17. Select Your Places from the menu, and a Labels indicator will appear with a Work and Home address label. {Figure 6}
  18. In that  Your Places  menu, select the Maps icon in the top section... {Figure 7}
  19. FOR THE FIRST TIME YOU DO THIS: ... select the Create Maps link at the bottom {Figure 7}. FOR REPEAT UPDATES: ...select the "My Trip" map {Figure 9}.
  20. FOR THE FIRST TIME YOU DO THIS: A new window opens up that says Untitled Map {Figure 8}. Click the Untitled Map title, and rename it to something meaningful. For this case, we will use "My Trip" as the title, and hit the save button. FOR REPEAT UPDATES: Select Open in My Maps {Figure 10}.
  21. FOR THE FIRST TIME YOU DO THIS: There is an Untitled Layer with a blue link that says Import. Click the Import link. FOR REPEAT UPDATES: Click the Add Layer button; then you will see a new Untitled Layer with a blue link that says Import. Click the Import link. {Figure 11}
  22. A new dialog box comes up asking you to select a file. We are going to select the file we created from BaseCamp with the date codes. Follow along with the application to select a file from your computer. After you make the selection, you will see a series of points, organized in start and end positions, with almost every point you will see as end points (since the start and stop of any segment is the same location). {Figure 12}
  23. This is a personal preference, but this is how I like to configure my map. Select Individual Styles in the map that's been created.
  24. A small dialog box appears with two categories. The Group Places By section has Individual Styles as the selection. Click on Individual Styles and select Sequence of color and letters...
  25. ...then click the X in the small dialog box to close it.
  • By repeating this sequence each day, you will be able to showcase a map with all of your stops, the actual route you took, and you can then choose to share your map any way you want, with as many people as you like. Figure library below.