Easy way to transfer routes from Google maps to GPS

Inspired by motorcycle paradise reader Rob to dig out my GPS for the upcoming overseas holiday I started by revisiting the methods of transferring a Google map type route to the device and found the developers of Tyre, a motorcycle GPS routing solution have extended the software to work with Garmin GPS units. Hallelujah at last a simply solution! But first the background to why this has made me so happy.

In Australia I have made routes in the Mapsource software and transferred them to the unit no problems. However I have the UUD Japan map for Garmin devices which I purchased with a Garmin 760 at same time and have never been able to display the third party Japanese map in Mapsource to do routing (nor any free maps like those made for Malaysia etc). So to take a Japan route from Motowhere to GPS I did the following. 1. Save route from Motowhere to PC in .gpx format. 2. Use GPS Babel to convert that file from Track to Route and filter number of waypoints to fit Garmin limitations. 3. Use Expert GPS to transfer file to GPS unit.

GPS Babel can also convert the file to Garmin Mapsource format however placing these files in the unit myself never seemed to work, same for the converted gpx files if I tried to put them in the unit myself. When the 30 days trial of Expert GPS ran out I weighed up buying it but by then was pissed off that a basic thing like uploading a route was so hard and tossed the unit in a box with the intention of using offline maps on my iPhone instead for navi in Japan. Maybe there is another way but trawling the net for hours I seemed to just find lots of guys like myself perplexed to why this sort of thing was not supported better.

Just by chance I revisited the Tyre site last night and saw they now supported Garmin. It was Tom Tom only for long time and there is only one Japan map in English made and it works on Garmin only. So I gave it a go and despite needing a few goes it did successfully transfer a route I had just drawn in the Tyre’s Google maps interface straight to the device which then I previewed and it appears quite accurate. I could have added more waypoints to improve it further as I see the device has routed a short cut where not wanted but if that’s the only issue on a first attempt then this  pure gold!