Please Comment On The Tomtom Rider

[+D0T-C0M]

A friend of mine wants to buy a new vehicle mounted GPS unit. He wants to use it on his Harley as well as in his truck. We live in Canada so the maps in the other tomtom units are not as accurate so the only tomtom unit we can consider is the rider which uses maps that are more accurate in canada. Can someone provide information on tomtom's support and how often are map upgrades offered if any. If firmware updated? How does the product work? What are the pros and cons? What other company units should I be considering and why?

 

Thanks everyone.

[+D0T-C0M]

does nobody have any experience with tomtom GPSs?

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

does nobody have any experience with tomtom GPSs?

 

My boss has a Tom Tom GO 300 and I've used it a few times, albeit with US maps. The reason you won't find a lot on the Tom Tom here is that it really isn't a "geocaching" GPS; it's not easy to mark waypoints and it's geared towards finding addresses, not random spots in the woods. However, it gets awesome reception and is decent for car/motorcycle (your model) navigation.

 

I have not tried his Canada maps but I don't think the maps are different between models. The maps are somewhat dated though; our company had it's address changed due to 911 regulations about two years ago and the Tom Tom maps still show the old address. I've found support to be OK, it can take awhile to get to them, either phone or email.

 

As for alternatives, there really aren't any that are geared towards a motorcycle, the competitive car products are the Garmin Street Pilot series, the Magellan Roadmate series, and the Lowrance IWay series. One of them may have a special mount that lets it be on a motorcycle.

 

Good luck!

Edited March 29, 2006 by hairymon

[+HotFix]

TomTom Rider is expensive. Does he need to answer a bluetooth phone on the bike? I suggest not.

 

The Lawrence iWay 500 is about 25% of the price and just as good. There is also a new MC skin

http://www.bigbikeriders.com/forums/viewto...p?p=16719#16719

 

BTW: I use neither on my bikes

Edited March 29, 2006 by HotFix

[kerecsen]

The one big difference between TomTom and all the rest is that TomTom uses TeleAtlas maps, while everyone else uses NavTeq (and Garmin uses NavTeq, but with their own POI database).

TeleAtlas maps are known to be really good in some places and downright deplorable in others. NavTeq is uniformly decent everywhere (at the cost of completely ignoring small (dirt) roads).

 

TomTom also has (or at least used to have in the latest version I saw) some peculiarities about how it handles distances (e.g. using yards instead of feet), especially in voice navigation -- which may not be a concern on a bike.

 

Aside from the maps and some british oddities, TomTom is pretty usable and well featured, if pricey. While I haven't tried using it in bike gloves, the UI is designed to be as finger-friendly as possible.

 

I would recommend that your boss go to some Circuit City equivalent and play around with a few units, possibly borrowing them for a quick ride (in the truck ).

[+D0T-C0M]

thanks for your responses, please note that the new tomtom rider does use the Navteq maps as opposed to the Teleatlas maps that are used on the other tomtom units, thats why I specified that the tomtom rider was the only tomtom gps that my friend would consider buying because the telatlas maps have very poor canadian coverage. My friend doesnt do geocaching but good point about not being able to create waypoints. That would seem to be quite a drawback for any gps.

Edited March 30, 2006 by D0T-C0M