Choosing routes for Urals

[cdscoot]

I know I already blatted once, but It is strange how the machine changes the way you ride. I also have a BMW GS . When I take the BMW for a ride it always seems to end up at higher speeds to be enjoyable. On the Ural though you feel more at home and enjoyable with speeds from 45 to 60. My wife always chooses the Ural when given the choice. Even on long trips.

[Geckoboy49]

One point worth mentioning, on 2 lane roads you're harder for overtaking traffic to pass and this can lead to dangerous tailgating. No such problems on 4 lane highways. I do prefer the back roads also but often pull off to permit passing. I usually cruise at 60 - 63 with 2019 GU.

[bratmanxj]

I almost always used Google maps or Waze with my phone and a RAM mount, but last year I finally broke down and got the Garmin Zumo XT($$$s) because I was doing fireroads on my KTM and Maps / Waze was pretty useless. I had looked at previous Garmin motorcycle GPSes, and they weren't worth the money. This model has a lot more useful functionality including terrain maps. But, yeah the Garmin app is disappointing. I did download someone else's map data for a fireroad, and I was able to import it into Garmin and the Zumo and it worked fine. It does irritate me that Google won't route our waypoints. The Garmin software will (if you set waypoints, Garmin will route between each of them). Maybe we can set waypoints with Google and let Garmin do the routing? I'll try that; if it works, I'll post the results.

I think I will buy another mount for the Zumo so I can use it on the Ural in case I get a wild hair and want to go offroad, but honestly with the streets, Waze is the best choice IMO since it's free and gives up to date road info.

If it helps anyone else, I've used this for car trips in the past. Will eventually try it for a motorcycle trip. It's really good at helping find interesting stuff along the route.

https://roadtrippers.com/

I'm gonna have to look into that one. Not a fan of my older Garmin Zumo 660 for off-road routing.

I just started using Gaia GPS for my off-roading adventures lately. I paid for the discounted yearly subscription they had at the start of the year so I can load aerial imagery on my cell phone app. I'm still playing with it, but so far it looks like a lot of ORV trails are already in the program (I don't have any public lands near me in Chicago). I am able to locate forest preserve trails, local wooded ATV trails and service roads to make my own paths.
https://www.gaiagps.com/map/

One of my go to maps for choosing routes for KLR or Ural is a DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer for the state I'm riding in. They use to cost about $20 per state but I find them worth the price. Many of the maps are old so some roads are no longer available but they do show good detail and interesting information.

The Gaia GPS app actually uses a lot of the same mapping data as the DeLorme data I've used in the past. My riding buddy (who now has my password) asked why I dropped the $35 for the app, but it was cheap compared to the DeLorme state by state pricing.

[Tomcatfixer]

I'm gonna have to look into that one. Not a fan of my older Garmin Zumo 660 for off-road routing.

I've got a Garmin 660, a 590, and an XT. The XT is some pretty sweet kit, actually cheaper than my old 590 (but with a few features, like tire pressure monitoring, dropped), but I find the way Garmin split the keyboard between two screens to be quite annoying for data entry. Coming from a 660, you will be quite impressed at how advanced these products have gotten.

[bratmanxj]

I've got a Garmin 660, a 590, and an XT. The XT is some pretty sweet kit, actually cheaper than my old 590 (but with a few features, like tire pressure monitoring, dropped), but I find the way Garmin split the keyboard between two screens to be quite annoying for data entry. Coming from a 660, you will be quite impressed at how advanced these products have gotten.

Oh I know my 660 isn't anything special and I've been giving the XT a bit of side-eye since it came out but its not a high priority. With the newer Garmin models are you able to make "area of interest" inputs, or only routes?

I'm in the far suburbs of Chicago and we don't have ORV trails or any form of public land to go trail riding. I go looking on google earth for wooded areas where the local kids made their own atv trails and then draw a block in Giai GPS to go explore this 10ac of land, or this 15ac over there. Our local DNR allows the horse trails to be used for snowmobiles in the winter but these are not typically mapped paths like ORV trails so most gps systems won't pick them up. Thankfully we haven't had an issue riding these areas yet, the workers usually see us "tread lightly" not like most atv riders power sliding around every corner.

[Tomcatfixer]

With the newer Garmin models are you able to make "area of interest" inputs, or only routes?

I'm not sure I fully understand what that is. Honestly, I don't use any of my Garmin units to their fullest potential. I either enter a destination and let them guide me there or I go get lost and rely on 'em to "unlost" me.

[Lofty]

I'm not sure I fully understand what that is.

Points of interest.

https://www.centcols.org/en/gestion-des ... -dinteret/

[RC20]

I go get lost and rely on 'em to "unlost" me.

Downtown Portland, my mom and I got lost, map kept looping us back and I finally told her I was winging it!

Interstate 5 is the Iconic landmark for the West Coast and between that and the sun I got us out, happy day.

I picked up the cT in downtown Portland, I spent a LOT of time on Google, figured out the exact route to get me on a State Highway that runs through Portland as a Street and right onto my destination for the day.

Other than running the side car wheel up on a barricade (sloped so no harm no foul) it worked perfectly and I hope never to go back!

Lo many years ago a friend and I were headed to the East Cost from Wisconsin with a stop at my Grandparents place on the way in Easter Wisconsin.

I had the highway picked out and he bet me $5 I could not find their place just hitting the town. Oh yes I could, I think it was 10 year gap but I remembered the layout and where their place was. Good days.

[louisg]

One point worth mentioning, on 2 lane roads you're harder for overtaking traffic to pass and this can lead to dangerous tailgating. No such problems on 4 lane highways. I do prefer the back roads also but often pull off to permit passing. I usually cruise at 60 - 63 with 2019 GU.

Yes, for sure, I do the same - if someone tailgates me on a two lane road, I pull over as soon as I can and let them through. I've found most people to be pretty patient and reasonable when one does this, but sometimes you get that jerk that is going to tailgate you even though there is nowhere to let him pass.

[Lofty]

I've found most people to be pretty patient and reasonable when one does this, but sometimes you get that jerk that is going to tailgate you even though there is nowhere to let him pass.

Jerks like that are pretty rare 'round these parts. Granted, I do seek out rural B roads when riding, whether for pleasure or for errands, to limit my interaction with traffic.

The foregoing M.O. doesn't completely inoculate me, though. My bête noire are those oncoming drivers whose tires are on or just over the double yellows. Said B roads aren't wide, and lane discipline apparently being too demanding, the bums simply drive near the center to "straighten the curves", so to speak.

---------------------

On those rare occasions when I can't safely let pass someone who is following too closely, I'll stand on the pegs and sometimes swerve in my lane a bit. This unexpected behavior usually causes the offending driver to back off, even if just by a little. If they believe that I stood up to fart in their general direction, and that their father smelt of elderberries, all the better.

We take things day by day, here the veldt.

[RC20]

I do prefer the back roads also but often pull off to permit passing.

My ops were slower to start with and the two lane in Washington State I pulled off, but seeing a spot ahead and having time to signal, slow down and off without someone over running me was problematical.

Alaska is worse as its all two lane roads out of Anchorage (going South they have worked hard on getting passing lanes). And it all follows the old jeep trails, aka, Alaska Cow trails. Mostly because the terrain forces you do as its restrictive.

Some areas are no wider than a jeep and they are the main routes! So, people are in a hurry to get to where they are going and the bad news these days is everything including motor homes has plenty of power to do steep hills at speed (unless there is a sharp corner) - you used to be able to settle in behind a slow motor home, pickup camper or trailer, no more.

On the other hand if you use 3rd you can stay ahead of them as the twists tend to slow them down to 60.

[Peter Pan]

Costa Rica mountain range IS STEEP, CLIMBS ARE LONG. Usually there are only 1 max 2 roads to or from many places. Worst obstructions are public buses and Sunday drivers. Town traffic under the week is STOP & COOK.
So I use to approach those aspects by:
Avoid main long distance roads on weekends and public holydays. Instead make my long tours on work days.
When I need to cross the cordillera, I take a lot of time, some coffee and biscuits with me.
After I had to pass a night in the rain forest due to a broken final drive.* I avoid any climb steeper then 25%.....
I do not enter steep dead ends, where I am unable to get out if the rain starts.
Dirt roads => get out there fast before the rain starts.
That reduced my eligible roads to 1/3 or even less. Tough roads I try to go from top to down with an outlet to a paved road.
Kind of boring, but safer.

In Poland 2018 it was way easier: "When you get to a crossing, just take the road that goes into the direction You head for +/- 45º. Forest & farm roads were in better shapes then crowded main roads."
Sven


*01/05 to 01/06/2019 I found out how to sleep inside the sidecar TUB after the rain stopped about midnight:
"¡ Like an origami !"
Result: Blue and green bruises all over the body.

[Marine Corps Codu]

Sven you make it sound less than fun to sleep in the tub, And I am larger than you so will take your word for it!!

[Peter Pan]

Well Keith, In the forest you do not know what to comes up into the tub, so sleeping on gravel wasn´t any option. Several times I got woken up by probably zainos (tiny boars) that passed by on gravel. It was just black and nothing possible to see. 4-5 hours it was just pouring, so with all rain gear and helmet on you had to sit upright. When it finally stopped pouring cats and dogs, all I heard for the night were 5 air planes. I am lucky to have protectors in the jacket, that helped some, when folding into the little space, but the hard tub edges leave marks. You always hit somewhere and cramps are part of the fun.

It took a lot of patience to get out those 6-7 miles to the next road. The help crew, 2 missionaries out of my neighbourhood, arrived after 20 hours. ... All traffic during that time were 1 strawling dog and 1 old Landcruiser with several grannies and not any tool, nor rope.
Side note: One of the missionaries, Clint Wisdom from Colorado, passed by this last Thursday due to Covid. (Literally it was a deadly mistake to visit his family.)

[phughes]

Costa Rica mountain range IS STEEP, CLIMBS ARE LONG. Usually there are only 1 max 2 roads to or from many places. Worst obstructions are public buses and Sunday drivers. Town traffic under the week is STOP & COOK.
So I use to approach those aspects by:
Avoid main long distance roads on weekends and public holydays. Instead make my long tours on work days.
When I need to cross the cordillera, I take a lot of time, some coffee and biscuits with me.
After I had to pass a night in the rain forest due to a broken final drive.* I avoid any climb steeper then 25%.....
I do not enter steep dead ends, where I am unable to get out if the rain starts.
Dirt roads => get out there fast before the rain starts.
That reduced my eligible roads to 1/3 or even less. Tough roads I try to go from top to down with an outlet to a paved road.
Kind of boring, but safer.

In Poland 2018 it was way easier: "When you get to a crossing, just take the road that goes into the direction You head for +/- 45º. Forest & farm roads were in better shapes then crowded main roads."
Sven


*01/05 to 01/06/2019 I found out how to sleep inside the sidecar TUB after the rain stopped about midnight:
"¡ Like an origami !"
Result: Blue and green bruises all over the body.

Don't forget construction, and sloths crossing the road.