Sat Nav shopping.

[Cal Price]

I have been looking around for a while, a mate has suggested that if I buy the 'UK' tom Tom Rider V2 which is about £40.00 less than the European mapping version which is the one i really want - he can give me a memory card with the Euro maps on it. This sounds pretty good to me. Any wizards out there have any thoughts on possible pitfalls ?

There are only two practical alternatives available in UK, the Tomtom Rider and the Garmin Zumo 550. The Garmin has mapping that spreads much further east to the Ukraine whereas the Tomtom is "Western" Europe as far east as the German - Czech border and not into Hungary, Poland etc where I might take a look sometime. The Garmin is quite a lot more expensive and has a lot of features that are of no interest to me, I am hoping that the Tomtom mapping will "catch-up". The main reason I am leaning  towards Tomtom is that I know a couple of people who have them who can give me a bit of support if needed and transfer route programs and the like.

Any observations, advice or techno chat much appreciated.

[TheGoodGuy]

From what I understand Tom Tom's mapping is more accurate in western europe than Garmin's mapping.
It all stems from Tele Atlas (Tom Tom) and Navteq (Garmin), the reverse is true for the US.

THe problem at least from UK is that road names can change as it goes through towns and stuff. Tele Atlas keeps track of it, Garmin for a while did not do that. At least that was the bug early on.

As for the Tom Tom, if the maps are on SD cards then go for it. It should read them and work no problems. However I do not know if the EU version has more memory or lesser map database than the pure UK one (for the UK maps - assumping the EU contains UK maps too).

[Cal Price]

Thanks Manjul, UK is included in the Euro maps and I don't think memory is an issue, its just a question of switching SD cards. My concern was if the unit would "recognise" the card / maps on offer, it looks like it will from the feedback both from you and on the Bandit forum. Cheers.

ps. Road names occasionally change but normally the numbers stay the same, a few exceptions like when a bye-pass around a town is built but not enough to worry about.

[ohgood]

I've used garmins crap software, but we're talking about the actual unit. I owned a non-motorcycle specific TomTom for a little while after Christmas. The TomTom One XLS to be exact. It was lacking things like additional route features, easy route changes etc, but from what I've read the Rider series is better with route changes and planning.

On the bike:

The (remember, non motorcycle intended!) One XLS was very quick to acquire satellites, quick to re-route if i missed (purposely or not) a turn, and the voice prompts were shut off after a day or so. Not bad, but annoying at times.

The TomTom RIDER I played with for only a short while on someone else's bike: Same fast satellite pickup, same quick rerouting. I didn't get to play with it's features enough to really know if it was as friendly as everyone says. It really is glove friendly, and using it while stopped is easy cheese. What you'll want to know, is that TomTom advertises their devices as BlueTooth compatible with angels singing and lots of marketing of the bluetooth symbols everywhere. I, like allot of others thought this meant it was compatible with bluetooth phones, and would serve to make/take calls, play mp3's, and allow the TomTom to be a handsfree device via bluetooth. This is WRONG to assume. It was a real let down to realize the unit doesn't support bluetooth much aside from syncing (which it does very poorly) with a bluetooth enabled pc/mac. Big enough of a let down that I returned it. I thought I would be able to recieve voice prompts via bluetooth, which would be idea for on the bike, not having to look down and all. No such fun.

Now then, the Rider really is a fantastic device. It's considered water 'proof' as in a short dip in a puddle, and rain is not a big deal.

TomTom software = annoying, slow, updates are a real PITA, and bricking one with an update is pretty common according to online forums. Not to mention if you have to use the RESET feature (paper clip to the back of it) you'll loose all your routes AND your POI's unless they're on a SD memory card.

Oh ya, the memory card issue( s ):

You have to actually copy the entirety of the TomTom operating system to whatever card you want to use. Afterwards it actually boots FROM THE CARD, and the built in memory is no longer used ! It's not like a camera that you just read/write to the card and boot the internal ROM. Now sure, if you remove the SD card, it will still boot, but all your POI's and routes are gone now. There is very very little room on the internal ROM for additional stuff. Something like 5-10 Mb i think. The TomTom OS + maps + simple POI's (police/fire/rescue/parks/etc) weighs in around 980Mb. That means you'll want at LEAST a 2-4Gb SD card to for the OS, your MP3's, and additional maps and POI's. Get a FAST card, spend a little more and you won't hate waiting for things to load, mp3's to 'skip' etc.

The on/off button may have been revised now, I don't know, but it really SUCKED on the older units. It was kind of a dimple on the corner, and no amount of finger pressure would make it work. You have to use a key, or the edge of something hard to press HARD AS HELL to turn it on/off. Gloves won't do it. Period.

The charging cables are weird and vendor specific. Ahh, remember back when USB was going to change everything ? Sorry, not here.

Now then, don't let my pointing out the bad things about it make you believe it sucks. It's a FANTASTIC unit, and does it's routing very very well. You're never lost, and zooming in /out works like maps.google.com and is pretty darned intuitive. I loved that feature ! LOVE, capital letters.

TomTom wants CHARGE for additional maps. Forget it, the forums are full of people sharing maps, POI's and interesting applications. Use them !

There ya go, my $.20 review.

[ben2go]

Garmin Nuvi for MC's.I had a chance to play with one and they work great while wearing gloves.Didn't get a chance to take it on the road tho. 

[Cal Price]

thanks one and all for all that especially the comprehensine review from ohgood.

I have played around with my m8s Rider version 2 which is the one I will go for, it does allow for phone use via Blutooth from a one-touch on the screen and it seems fine with the voice commands so perhaps V2 ironed out some problems.

Cheers folks.

[ben2go]

Is there any nav systems that will connect with a blue tooth head set?
I'd rather listen and take a glance every once in a while.Instead of staring at it until I wreck.

[ohgood]

Is there any nav systems that will connect with a blue tooth head set?
I'd rather listen and take a glance every once in a while.Instead of staring at it until I wreck.

looks like a revision bump took care of that:

thanks one and all for all that especially the comprehensine review from ohgood.

I have played around with my m8s Rider version 2 which is the one I will go for, it does allow for phone use via Blutooth from a one-touch on the screen and it seems fine with the voice commands so perhaps V2 ironed out some problems.

Cheers folks.

weeeeeeee

[ben2go]

I read that and still my fat mushy gray matter didn't even take it in.Sometimes I wish I drank.That way I'd have an excuse for times when I have a stupid attack