Thank you Zumo

[FJRBandit]

Fred,

Sure the road could have been traversed, there's no question about that. We weren't freaked out by the fact there was a dirt/gravel road ahead. Had we been travelling on a flat surface or downhill and could have seen the upcoming change in surface it wouldn't have been a big deal at all to make the necessary adjustments. But to be topping the crest of the hill and to suddenly be faced with a severe surface change, that is curving and dropping is what made it an emergency situation, regardless how much dirt experience one has. There was literally less than a spilt second of reaction time given the limited sight distance due to the hill. Honestly, I wouldn't even want to repeat the situation in a car. A simple orange or yellow sign stating "Pavement Ends Ahead" is all that was needed, we could have adjusted and rolled onward.

Furthermore, I'm not sure our speeds were as low as 45-50. After riding on a two lane country road today and comparing 45-50, I'm thinking it was somewhere north of 55. I don't believe the video really does the situation justice. In the immediate aftermath when our minds were fresh off the situation we contemplated whether the "*******" guys would even attempt it as a stunt. It was that serious.

All I can say is the FJR perfromed like few other bikes could given the same set of circumstances. But then, I am just a training pilot, so who am I to make such a judgment... :dribble:

FJRBandit

 

[jmdaniel]

I don't believe the video really does the situation justice. In the immediate aftermath when our minds were fresh off the situation we contemplated whether the "*******" guys would even attempt it as a stunt. It was that serious.

Those guys fire bottle rockets out of their buttholes and staple their scrotums to their inner thighs. I'm pretty sure safety isn't on their minds very often.

 

[Old Michael]

Those guys fire bottle rockets out of their buttholes and staple their scrotums to their inner thighs.

jm, let's not pass judgement, here.

We've all done that a few times in our lives.

 

[Fred W]

Fred,
Sure the road could have been traversed, there's no question about that. We weren't freaked out by the fact there was a dirt/gravel road ahead. Had we been travelling on a flat surface or downhill and could have seen the upcoming change in surface it wouldn't have been a big deal at all to make the necessary adjustments. But to be topping the crest of the hill and to suddenly be faced with a severe surface change, that is curving and dropping is what made it an emergency situation, regardless how much dirt experience one has. There was literally less than a spilt second of reaction time given the limited sight distance due to the hill. Honestly, I wouldn't even want to repeat the situation in a car. A simple orange or yellow sign stating "Pavement Ends Ahead" is all that was needed, we could have adjusted and rolled onward.

Ahhh, OK, gotcha. I had just watched the video quickly and said, "WTF was the big deal?"

I didn't catch the lack of warning signage. That is a big deal!

Now I also understand why you were upset with the DPW. I thought you wanted them to pave the road or something... Duh. My bad.

I agree, the FJR is pretty darn good (for its size) in "emergency" handling situations. Just had to deploy ABS (from ~ 50 mph) to avoid creaming a bear that rumbled out of the roadside brush about 30 feet ahead of me on Friday. Missed the scrambling bear by literally only a few feet. Had I been on a non-ABS bike the outcome may have been different.

 

[Grumpy]

Huh? I'm not getting the big deal here.
You had a perfectly good 2-track road of firm dirt. Just stay out of the gravel mound in the middle and all will be well. Why did you even stop? Nothing to freak out about.

Going ~ 50 when you see a dirt road ahead should not be a life threatening experience. Just slow down to ~30 before you go off road and keep rollin...

BTW, I intentionally seek out roads just like that one. And yeah, on my FJR.

Fred is 100% correct. Looks like a perfectly good road to me. Stay off the big gravel and drive on! How else do you find where the road ends up?

jim

 

[Slade]

Had the same thing happen in Wisc. (Where transitions occur all the time without warning.) back in 98 on a ST1100 with ABS/TCS. Cranking along around 65mph crest the rise and "whoops!"...where's the road? Jumped on the brakes...slowed and rode on through for about 3 miles till pavement reappeared. Stopped at an intersection and the rider who had been way behind me said, "That was so cool! Your back tire was about a foot and a half off the ground! Glad you were first and I could get slowed down easier..but that was so cool!"

My first stoppie was completely unplanned and unknown until she came up and reported.

As for the FJR on gravel...it does pretty well. Here's what I deal with every day....

Really fun after rain (mud, wet sand, wet clay), and when the road grader comes through leaving about 4 inches of powdered sand and gravel. 4 miles to pavement. Lots of practice.

Anyway, nice save.

 

[PhilJet09]

Just curious, has your Zumo ever warned you that a road was made of one surface or another? Is it supposed to?

 

[mfletch69]

Just curious, has your Zumo ever warned you that a road was made of one surface or another? Is it supposed to?

Every once in a while, the Zumo will try to direct me down a dirt or garavel road. I have the newest maps always and the "unpaved" avoidance on. This was the 1st time it almost wrecked me.

For what it is worth, I have driven miles and miles on gravel, dirt and actually like to ride in the rain. We are very experienced and not afraid to ride anywhere. The only reason that I ever posted this was because the surface change was sudden, hidden and the gravel was very slipperry AND I happen to have the video running when it happened. the video camera was my new toy for this ride.

 

[Fred W]

The Garmin GPSes and Mapsource share the same map database. In Mapsource, the marking of the road should change from two lines showing the sides of the road to a single dashed line to indicate unpaved roadway. I have noticed that many times the map database has this wrong.

And there are also a lot of "paper roads" in Garmin's map data that do not even exist when you get there. If you are planning ahead it is a good idea t use multiple map databases to confirm road presence and condition.

 

[Harald]

I just experienced a few errors in my Zumo database on a trip.

Heading north on 75 out of Boise, my fuel reserve countdown started. I knew we were approaching a T with another highway and figured there'd be fuel there, but I punched gas stations into the Zumo and it told me the closest fuel was 47 miles away! Ouch! I was already 10 miles into reserve and didn't think I would make it another 47 miles (as the crow flies - with actual distance sure to be more). But Lo and Behold, there was a gas station at the intersection with highway 93. And then heading north on 93 there were 3 more gas stations within the next mile. And none of these looked like brand new gas stations, so I can't figure out why the Zumo didn't know that there were 4 gas stations right there?

Later that same day I was following directions to the Hot Spring resort in Boulder, MT and it twice tried to direct me across a pasture where it insisted a road exsisted. I had to call the resort for directions because Mr. Zumo was totally wacked.

Needless to say, I'm not very impressed with the database which is no more than 6 months old.....

 

[Further]

Yeah, I completely agree. Garmins maps are by NAVTEQ, I believe. I don't know who's more responsible there for not updating things, or just plain getting things WRONG, but it happens a lot !!!

I never believe what Garmin tells me about gas stations.

And as an interesting counterpoint to this thread about Garmin saying a road was paved when it wasn't, I just had to make a route in Oregon to get from Prairie City to Joseph (without going the Hell's CAnyon way because the Canyon road is currently washed out). On Google I found a nice series of roads going up through Granite and northward, Rds. 73 and 51. When I tried to route them in Mapsource, it told me they were mostly gravel. WRONG. Google has these roads in their Street Level option. I looked at them via Street Level and found they were perfectly fine, paved, 2-lane. And they were NOT paved recently !!! You could tell in the video.

Garmin needs to stop focusing so much effort on quirky gadgets and widgets, and start giving serious attention to the basics. MAPS !!!

Chris

I just experienced a few errors in my Zumo database on a trip.
Heading north on 75 out of Boise, my fuel reserve countdown started. I knew we were approaching a T with another highway and figured there'd be fuel there, but I punched gas stations into the Zumo and it told me the closest fuel was 47 miles away! Ouch! I was already 10 miles into reserve and didn't think I would make it another 47 miles (as the crow flies - with actual distance sure to be more). But Lo and Behold, there was a gas station at the intersection with highway 93. And then heading north on 93 there were 3 more gas stations within the next mile. And none of these looked like brand new gas stations, so I can't figure out why the Zumo didn't know that there were 4 gas stations right there?

Later that same day I was following directions to the Hot Spring resort in Boulder, MT and it twice tried to direct me across a pasture where it insisted a road exsisted. I had to call the resort for directions because Mr. Zumo was totally wacked.

Needless to say, I'm not very impressed with the database which is no more than 6 months old.....

 

[Fred W]

I agree, the Navteq / Garmin map database SUCKS moist *** cheese!!

Except when you compare it to any the other GPSes.

Then it's still the best. :blink:

 

[Further]

I agree, the Navteq / Garmin map database SUCKS moist *** cheese!!
Except when you compare it to any the other GPSes.

Then it's still the best. :blink:

You've got me there. I don't have anything to compare it to. Owned my 275C for going on 6 years now.

But it does seem that Google manages to get things right much more often. Of course, if you've got 100 Gazillion $$$ in your rucksack, I guess you can afford to do better diligence. And Google doesn't sell GPS's, so that doesn't really do me much good. Though I've learned when in question to make a comparison on Google.