Mad Maps?

A couple of guys on the Zumoforums bought some of them. They reported mixed results.

It's important to know that they aren't maps but rather are customized routes (that can't be altered) and specialized Custom POIs that go along with the routes.

Depending upon your use, they might be worthwhile for the POIs.

Thanks, so much Motorcyle Mama.

I guess for 12 bucks, I may try them out for my local states and see how they are.

May I also say thanks, MM for all the help you have provided myself and others on these forums. You are greatly appreciated!

We have only navigated one Mad Maps Scenic Tour route on our Nuvi 760 so far, which was a scenic drive through the north Georgia mountains beginning at Dahlonega, GA. I was very pleased with the Mad Maps route as it took us on a great route over scenic mountain roads we would probably never had discovered if not for the Mad Map download and Nuvi 760.

The Nuvi route implementation was not perfect, in that at one point the Nuvi insisted we turn right when the purple route was to the left. I considered this minor. As long as I followed the purple route I was on course.

I also purchased locally the same hard copy Mad Map to use in conjunction with the downloaded Nuvi map, so the total expenditure was around $25. Having both to me was ideal.

Hope this info helps...

Thanks, dickboyer.

I have a friend in Robbinsville, NC, and years ago we went around Dahlonega and Helen GA, it was a very nice area.

When you say you bought a hard copy,do you mean just the routes on DVD?

In addition to the Scenic Road Trip download from Garmin, I also purchased an actual physical MAD map ($10.95), like the fold out maps folks used to purchase at gas stations prior to the GPS. The physical map has the same info as the downloaded MAD MAP from Garmin, but it's nice to have the physical map for planing a trip and to see the various road trips, towns, other roads, etc. in relation to one another. Physical fold out MAD MAPS are available directly from MAD MAPS (madmaps.com) or their web site may direct you to a store in your area that sells them.

For example, if you have the physical map it is much easier to see how to combine, either in full or in part, the two different scenic road trips around Dahlonega and another around Helen.

Amazon.com sells the physical maps for a few dollars less, but does not have many of the various maps.

As a side note, my understanding is that one of the most popular MAD MAPS is the Smoky Mountains Scenic Tours one, which covers up your way in NC and also covers the Smoky Mountains in several other states.

Buy??? I remember when they were free!

Thank you, dickboyer.

I didn't know you could actually buy the physical maps. I'll check it out on Amazon.

They are a heavy plastic style... nice and long lasting. You can also get them from Madmaps directly, I did.

http://madmaps.com/roadtrips/categories/

Thanks, Perrdom!

I didn't even know there was a madmaps.com. I thought it was something only sold by Garmin.

I wonder why they don't have the scenic road trips for the central and mountain states though, while Garmin does. I need the tours for Michigan and they don't seem to have them yet.

I've purchased a few... and they're great on my Zumo. Love finding new places to ride!

I've been curious about these myself, but hadn't bought any. Now I may give them a shot.

I've bought some for northern Ill and southern Wis.there are some nice areas for riding that I would of never found...

I googled and came to POI for MADMAPS info. Isn't it great to find everything you need at one place??

Awesome info. Thanks all for sharing!

I picked up a 760 recently, and found the MadMaps Route 66 pre-installed.

Anyone else find these on their units? It was located in the \Garmin\poi folder.

Same here on a 770 purchased in October.

but haven't let it take me for a ride yet...looks like a nice set of trips that I wasn't aware of...

I purchased one for my Zumo 550 but have not been happy with it. It's a fixed route and insists that you start the ride at the prefixed starting point and travel in a specific direction. Everytime I try to start the route at a different location it keeps telling me to turn around and go back. I understand Garmin has an update for the Zumo that is supposed to work better with MadMaps but I have not tried it yet. If anyone has had better luck on the Zumo, let me know.

Another positive review for Mad Maps paper version. Love em.

- Jon

Thanks for the reviews everyone. Has anyone else had better luck starting from another point with the electronic ones?

It is more like heavy plastic than paper.

I read the comment about someone saying the routes that are loaded on the Garmin units insist that you start at a particular point - if you are staying at a particular location would it be more beneficial to have the paper maps and 'digitize' the route in Mapsource, taking into account where 'home base' is?

I did one in Mapsource, but have not tried it yet. I will be in the Smokies next month and plan to give it a shot.

For those that bought the digital product, a few questions if you please:

Does Garmin offer the AMA discount that MAD Maps does? I could not find any info on that...

If you have the static route, do I have to be at a point on the route before it will give me turn by turn? In other words, say I have 30 miles to get to a point on a loop that I wish to ride, will the unit route me to that, or will it be screwy?

For those that have both paper and digital - I know the paper routes have a decent amount of info about POI and such - does the digital product preserve that?

I recently purchased a Nuvi 760 and mine came with the Rt66 map as well.

I have the rte66 route in my POI folder too. How do I use it? Thanks.

Another question is: Mad Maps sells a map for Texas. Then they also sell local maps for Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio. If I buy the Texas map, does that include all the routes in the local maps?

I haven't tried the Garmin downloads yet but I do own a whole series of Mad Maps. They are a great resource for finding the scenic bike trails of each state and biker friendly eateries and sites. Their maps are very accurate as well. So if they tell you to top off your gas tank...better do it. Roadking_Rusty

I am pretty satisfied with this product. I got this Get Outta Town serious and it made my trips really fun and easy by taking me to the beautiful spots that I won't find myself and all those good restaurants. I definitely think MadMaps is worth trying.

I saw another review of MadMaps that said you could not reverse the routes. I was thinking of this for my Blue Ridge Parkway trip but I want to run it south to north. I think the Mad Maps route goes north to south. I did not buy for that reason.

Can any owners comment?

I did not think of buying the printed map to use with the route I created in BaseCamp. I may look at that.

Jim

The MadMaps program kind of sucks on the iPhone.

What they expect you to do is to start at a particular point and then go all the way around and end at the same point. What if you're near the route but not near the particular point and you end up going counter-clockwise instead of clockwise? It gets very confusing very fast.

It seems like all of this could be figured out but it hasn't.

I'd highly recommend the MadMaps printed maps but not the iPhone app. I assume that the Garmin plug-in routes (only available for certain, older units) have the same problem as the iPhone app.

I am off to look at the paper versions. My 780 has the route 66 in it but I never even tried to understand it. Paper for these sounds like a much better idea.

I have a couple of mad maps (hard copies) but I didn't see anywhere that the routes could be downloaded to my Garmin. Am I wrong? If so, where can you get them?

Neil

Were designed for motorcycle touring and they could be loaded to some auto units but from what I remember they were discontinued as a Garmin item 7 or 8 years ago. They used to show up as a menu item but I don't know how that was done. Perhaps our motorcycle guru, MM can give a better answer. To put it in another manner, I don't think Mad Maps offers Garmin compatible downloads any longer.