TomTom Rider 2 GPS Navigator for Motorcycles and Scooters

TomTom Rider 2 GPS Navigator for Motorcycles and Scooters

Doe what it needs to do

The TomTom Rider 2 is too expensive, but essentially a good product. - Screen is visible in sunshine - Menus are easily accessible, you don't need to study the manual to work the box - Navigation quality is good - RAM mount works fine (Ducati 1098 - mount on steering damper) The only negative is the price. In terms of value for money, this is not the product you'd be looking for. Yes, RAM mount works fine on all bikes, but there is nothing magic about it. Yes, the navigation quality is good, and the screen is well visible. But again, is that worth 500 bucks? I suppose it's a niche market and that makes it worth it.

TomTom Rider - Read this before you buy !

1. I have owned a Rider for more than 18 months. 2. The first one I had, the dock broke in Texas while I was riding Route 66. 3. I called TomTom from Texas (I live in Calif) and asked them to FedEx a new one. They said no can do. 4. Once home, TomTom sent me a new Dock, but... it took them 1 month to get it to me. 5. After a while I started to notice that the Rider was not charging while in the dock and on my bike. 6. They asked me to send them my Rider back with all the accessories. 7. Then after 4 weeks, they sent me a new Rider, with no charger and no accessories. 8. The asked me to send it back. 8. After another 4 weeks, they sent me another.... new Rider... with all the accessories. 9. The dock didn't charge. 10. After another week, they sent me a new dock. It works. There are known issues with the docks and charging, but TomTom won't admit it. It's manufacturering issue. I'll let you guess where they are made. The Tom Tom rider is good, easy to use. But if anything goes wrong, you'll be waiting many weeks for a replacement. Ad of course the wait time on the phone, plan on an hour with each call. I probably would NOT buy another one.

no hassell great service.

we did have a problem with our product. but when we called the 1800# we got very courtious answers and no problems they came to our home and picked up our idem with no charge to us and we had a replacement in three days. its great .........

Very good if you can find it on sale and are technically inclined.

So I got the TomTom Rider 2 on special for a really good price and have been playing around with it for a week on the bike and in the car. I had some problems with it at first, thought I'd managed to brick it within the first day installing the latest software updates, but after some research and playing around I got it sorted out. (Hints: there's a paper clip reset hole on the bottom, and at least on a Mac you want the newer version of the desktop software, *not* the one they say is for the Rider, which probably actually means the 1st gen Rider.) Once I got all that sorted out and got the updates installed (thank Dog I backed the whole thing up before trying the update or I would have been screwed) it's been great! It comes with a Cardo-Scala Bluetooth headset, integrates with your phone (you can receive calls anytime and make calls when stopped), and will use the data connection on your phone to pull down weather and traffic info, and also locate other people you know with TomTom Rider units. It has no problem getting a GPS signal, even inside my house, it reroutes automatically, and includes RAM mounting hardware. Really my only complaint is that there's no built-in speaker so if you want to use it in a car you pretty much need to spring for their car adapter kit. (I tried hooking it up to another Bluetooth headset but it didn't work very well.) I think this will be a nice unit, especially for the price, and considering it comes with a helmet headset. It's got basically the same feature set as the Zumo 550, which is much more expensive and IIRC doesn't come with a headset.

A decent unit, but with major flaws, at a ripoff price!!

I bought the Rider 2 GPS last summer, to tour the south of France, from Paris. I'd travelled before with maps, sometimes missing offramps out of confusion (freeway signs here are only really good if you're a local, in which case you don't need them in the first place!!). After having used a TomTom GPS in a rental car to go to Italy, I decided to get one for my Speed Triple, for the pleasure of being guided from "above". The decision was made a week before my departure, so I didn't really have time to investigate the market. I discovered only Garmin & TomTom have bike-specific models, and that both were incredibly expensive compared to car units. Being used to, and pleased with the TomTom interface, I decided to buy TT. The first Rider 2 I bought would not connect to my Motorola Razr V3i, despite the help from the sales reps, and would refuse to turn on, even fully charged. After 3 (THREE!!) trade-ins, I had to leave for my 1 1/2 month vacation with my current unit, picked up the same morning. My first beef was to find that not only would it start trying connecting to my V3i, then fail, but I'd also have to use the cellular connection to obtain the updates, and 1 month trial of various options I'D PAID FOR!! This is totally stupid. If you're going to have to use a PC to save your SD card, let the PC handle further downloads and updates!!! It doesn't take being a racket science wiz to understand a DSL connection is more reliable than a cellular. Also, the fact you have to pay for updates, and options that should be standard, is preposterous. My second problem, is the fact that as long as you're moving, you cannot access/change routing information. That's totally stupid too. Even at walking speeds, the unit will accept no change of route, or any other modification. When you're on the freeway, or on city streets with no place to stop, this is really aggravating. I know it's supposedly for security reasons, but changing your destination to a favorite isn't going to put you in danger in most cases, stopping and starting on a road close to heavy traffic will. In any case, you can tap all you want on a car unit, so security obviously isn't a valid reason. In any case, I hate when an appliance is set to restrain my use of it, and not let me decide for myself when/if what I do is safe. 3rd beef: sometimes, maps are obsolete from the start. When driving through Italy, I was directed to turn right on a freeway, in the middle of... fields!!! There was an offramp on my screen, miles from any actual offramps. Only corn fields, which had obviously been there for years, and weren't going to disappear in favor of a new road overnight. Really scary when you're on a schedule.. Maybe I should have listed first the On/Off button. I have very strong arms & fingers, but the time & pressure (and numerous attempts) it takes to turn it on hurts my fingers each time. Needless to even think of asking my girlfriend to do it... The last unnicety I can think of right now, is the fact, if you're typing an address, the streets that pop up aren't entirely legible on the screen. It appears there's no way to view further past the first letters. This is really a bummer in France, where streets precede their name. Example: if you're looking for an address on Boulevard du General De Gaulle, all that appears on the screen is "Boulevard du Genera", so you have to type each and every letter in the name, or you'll get directed to another general's name, and, as there's no "back" function, you'll have to go through the whole itinerary planning procedure again to try to get it right. Total lack of user-friendliness, for a unit that's supposed to be usable by bikers, with gloves on. On the upside, missing an exit leads the unit to recalculate another itinerary very quickly, the reason exactly I'd bought a GPS. Arrival times are incredibly accurate, even on long trips. Screen maps are legible. The RAM fixing system is great, and solid, but props there go to RAM, not TomTom. The Scala system works fine, and is reasonably audible, although the choice of a higher pitched female voice, on full volume is a must, if you're going to be riding over 100 mph. If I'd had more time to choose, I'd have bought the Garmin Zumo instead. The price is too high for a GPS that's so poorly engineered. It does work nicely when it's all set up correctly, but not being able to take phone calls, use paid for updates, or use your PC to download data is unacceptable.

Keyword : tomtom