TomTom Rider reviews

Hi all,

I've had a quick google around, and just wondered, now that the TomTom Rider
has been around for a while, are people happy with theirs? It's currently
£323.01 at The Link (with a discount code) so quite tempted.

TIA.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, MA belched forth and ejected the following:

Too big to be any real use on a bike unless you ride a streetfighter
with 3ft long flat bars.

 

After a LOT of research on the subject, I decided to go with a Garmin Nuvi
310. It uses Navteq mapping rather than the not-so-good Teleatlas mapping
(as used on Tomtoms). On top of that, It's very slim (about 3/4" thick) and
would mount on any bike with no problems. You don't even need to power it
from the bike as it has an 8 hour rechargable Lithium battery built in so
it's just a case of shoving your earpiece plug into the socket, and you're
off. Oh, and you can operate it with gloves on though it would be a bit of
a hassle typing a postcode or address (not that you'd want to - I recon
typing an address on ANY unit while riding would be rather fucking
dangerous). Other 'nicities' are a very good MP3 player, Audio book player,
a picture viewer and loads of other goodies like a language translator,
measurement conversion utilities, world clock, currency converter,
calculator etc,etc. Audio applications (MP3 & Audio book) are muted while
spoken instructions are given so you can get yourself lost listening to
AC/DC and have a nice lady's voice occasionally interrupt telling you how
to get home. Superb stuff.

HTH.

 

Is it waterproof?

 

No but one could easily fashion a waterproof container from clear polythene
or similar. Most tank bags have a waterproof map pocket on top and I'm sure
the unit would fit in there quite easily.

 

Goods:
Easy to read, night and day lighting etc.
UK postcode entry,
Reasonable favourites and address entry if you don't know the
postcode.
Customisable menus (after a bit of a trawl)
Battery life reasonable, but you can power it from the bike
Points of Interest available from CDs and web
Gatso database ditto

Bads:
No real connectivity to computer (like I heard Garmin Quest do?), so
route planning is a matter of having to enter a load of 'vias'
laboriously on the unit itself.
Mount won't let it fall off, (that's a good I suppose) but it doesn't
lock the unit in place, so it's yet another thing to take off when you
stop anywhere.
If you want sound you HAVE to use the bluetooth headset. Can't plug a
speaker into the unit itself, and currently Autocom don't do a thingy
to connect the two together so I can't hear the voices if I'm using
the autocom helmet.
You can't save a route and look at it later (on the pc or the unit).
Once you've ridden it, it's gone.
The bluetooth headset needs charging too, and it uses the same charger
as the TomTom so you can't charge both at once. TomTom won't charge
off the usb connection to the pc.
At the moment the optional car mount so you can move it from bike to
car is not available.

Summary:
Excellent for going places you've never been (duh!)
Not quite so good for planning the next day's tour itinerary in a
hotel bedroom.
Overall I'm reasonably happy with it, but not over the moon. (Dunno
the postcode for that)

hth

 

Thanks everyone. Going to pop into Halfords and try out the Garmin when I
get time, and see what I think of them both.

Cheers, Mike.