Tom tom rider

[pete07bikes]

Hi all,

Has anybody any first hand experience of the Tom-tom rider?

The cheapest I've seen one ais £315 delivered with UK maps (you can update to Europe at a later date if required)

I'm seriously thinking about getting one & would like to hear your views.

Lastly, I know the're compatible to blue-tooth phones but wonder if you can wire in an i-pod to get music en-route as well. If not I guess getting an MP3 player phone will sort it.

Thanks
Pete

[Robster]

Hi Pete

I have a TomTom RIDER which after a few teething troubles seems to be working fine now.

I bought it from a mate who'd literally used it 5 times before deciding to sell his bike. Personally I think it's great though it does have it's limitations compared to some of the other GPS units available, but for general day to day use it's ideal.

I freelance in London so can sometimes be at a different place every day and in that respect it's brilliant as London navigation is not my strongpoint.

I've wired the cradle into the bike electrics now too, so you need only place the unit in the cradle and it turns itself on and starts charging as soon as you turn the key.

I'm not aware of any functionality for playing mp3's on the RIDER, and only certain phones allow you the full functionality of the RIDER phone system ie not all phones will allow the RIDER unit to import names and numbers from your phonebook (there is a workaround for this), read/write text messages etc....but this is not really a big deal. I believe the Sony Ericcsons DO allow full functionality...and they make a nice mp3 phone too!

I've only got the UK maps too at the moment, but have see a place in Germany on EBay that supplies original (apparently) Europe map DVD's for £65.

[pete07bikes]

Thanks Rob, useful reply.

I think the idea of wiring in the tom-tom cradle is great - I'm going ahead with buying it so if you could advise me of the wiring that'd be great.

I see your relatively local - do you go to many meets?

Pete

[Cie]

Rob,

I'm thinking of one of these too. Any chance you could go into the limitations some more, if there are more than those you've given already. Thanks

[Robster]

Pete, I meant to do a step by step wite up with pics when I fitted and wired in the cradle but I couldn't find my camera that day...I've got it now so if and when I get a spare hour I'll take a few snaps and write a bit of a description. It was very simple, took about 3/4 of an hour but at least half of that was tracking down a suitable spot to cut into the feed. Should be a 1/2 hour job really and I'm no Black-Belt at Spanner Wielding, strangely though the electrical side of things scares me less! I've never dragged myself along to any of the meets as yet, but it's always something I keep intending to do...I just always seem to have something else on!

Cie, I'm by no means a GPS expert, although in sorting out the problems with the RIDER I'd say I know that system pretty well now! As far as its limitations go I can only base it on what I've heard/seen others talking about what their units can do. The TTR, I think, could best be described as for light domestic use. In that I mean you cant upload or download routes/waypoints to or from the unit as I beleive you can with some of the Garmin sytems. There is no facility for uploading say an OS map if you're planning on heading out into the great wide open. Nor can you the download your actual route when you come home and plot it on a map.

That said, and as big a fan of touring as I am with one big trip down and several more in planning, any romantic notions I have of sweeping majestically across open plains are not likely to happen anytime soon, and for bumbling around town and the odd trip up to Scotland or across to the Continent the TTR is more than capable in my opinion.

[Dee Duble Yuh]

Pete, I meant to do a step by step wite up with pics when I fitted and wired in the cradle but I couldn't find my camera that day...I've got it now so if and when I get a spare hour I'll take a few snaps and write a bit of a description...

Can you put it into the Wiki? Or would you let me copy your description into it? Articles like that are best stored in the semi-permanent Wiki rather than the ephemeral discussion forums.

[Robster]

I'm a Wiki Virgin, but I'll give it a shot! Otherwise you're more than welcome to copy and paste it in there once I've done it!

[Cie]

I've read this morning that there's no 3.5mm jack for a speaker/intercom. They did loads of research before they built that then. That's a huge drawback as far as I'm concerned.

Looks like Mr Garmin might get my money instead

[pete07bikes]

I've gone ahead & bought one - the headphones go through the bluetooth.

Not fitted it to the bike yet but plugged in all of my favourites & put it on demo looks really good.

I'm off to Wales tomorrow for a few days but I'll fit it next weekend & let you know how it is in action.

Cheers
pete

[Lord Vader]

I'm a Wiki Virgin, but I'll give it a shot! Otherwise you're more than welcome to copy and paste it in there once I've done it!

Vicki is no virgin anymore,trust me i know
and maverick knows her as well