TomTom Rider 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Motorcycle Navigator

Category: GPS Motorcycle

Manufacturer: TomTom
Customer Rating:
List Price: $1,199.99
Sale Price: $699.99
Availibility: View Product Availability

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Product Description

Designed for two wheels, the TomTom Rider 32MB GPS Navigator for Motorcycles and Scooters is rugged and water resistant, and provides you with clear spoken instructions right inside your helmet. Easy to use, this unit lets you just plug it in, switch it on, and ride away, requiring no installation or activation for you to enjoy door-to-door routing to any address in North America, all with a simple touch-screen operation that is tailored for use even with your gloves on.

The TomTom Rider displays crystal clear 3D and 2D graphics on its 3.5-inch, TFT color LCD touch screen with 320 x 240 lines of resolution, and includes anti-glare technology for optimal viewing even in direct sunlight. This navigator provides clear and accurate, turn-by-turn voice instructions inside your helmet via an included Bluetooth headset, which increase or decrease in volume depending upon the speed of your bike. With an extensive guided tour for quickly learning its various functions, and a useful on-screen tip feature, the Rider not only guarantees ease of use, but lets you choose your routing by quickest, shortest or avoidance of obstacles such as toll roads, as well as test your route once calculated before you actually start driving.

The unit has a compact, portable design that fits both bikes and scooters via the included four-piece mounting kit. However, with an optional car-mounting kit this unit can also be used in your four-wheel vehicle, recognizing if you are on your bike or in your car and automatically switching from glove-friendly to in-car mode for driving. The multi-lingual Rider speaks more than 30 different languages in over 50 different voices, and lets you choose from 18 languages for its user interface. This navigator provides you with thousands of POIs (points of interest), which it lets you call directly through the interface, and even allows hands-free calling via any Bluetooth compatible phone. This unit features itinerary planning with multiple waypoints and destinations, the ability to save favorite addresses for quick route planning, a compass mode for added orientation while driving, and TomTom Plus service compatibility for such things as free scenic routes, weather services, additional voices, city maps and more.

Constructed to be extremely water resistant, the TomTom Rider provides rugged protection against any wet-weather conditions. This unit has an integrated, high-sensitivity 20-channel GPS receiver, and includes a 380 MHz CPU with 32 MB of RAM. The Rider runs for up to five hours on its internal, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, while the included Bluetooth headset provides up to 10 hours of talk time, and up to 250 hours of standby time. This navigator includes a high-speed USB 2.0 connection for data transfers, an SD card with pre-loaded with software and maps, and a power input for recharging the battery from, and running off of your motorbike's 12-volt battery. Easy to take anywhere, the TomTom Rider 32MB GPS Navigator weighs just under 11 ounces, and measures 4.5 x 2.3 x 3.6 inches (W x D x H).

What's in the Box
TomTom Rider and holder, Bluetooth headset, mounting kit, screen cloth, carrying case, home charger with multiple plugs, battery cable, USB cable, quick start guide, CD with manual and back-up tool, accessory leaflet, TomTom Plus leaflet, TomTom Plus voucher for access to free scenic routes, pre-installed memory card with region map, product code card, and an installation and security strap for attaching the device securely to your bike.

Product Details

GPS device designed just for motorbikes and scooters offers an intuitive, glove-friendly touch-screen interface
3.5-inch screen and integrated sun-visor
Included mounting kit makes the Rider compatible with virtually any scooter or motorcycle
Bluetooth technology allows you to route voice commands and phone calls to your helmet
Download real-time TomTom Plus services to the Rider via your phone's data connection

Video Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Very good GPS System

Review Date: January 9, 2010

Reviewer: Frank Widlund, Battle Ground, WA, US

I bought this item for my son's Xmas present, And the unit worked fine, I also have a TOM TOM GPS for my motorhome and it is exellent. The problem we had with this unit, was thee was no mounting hardware that came with it, we contacted the vendor who was more than helpful, and would refund our money. So we sent it back and waiting for the refund.

tom tom

Review Date: September 15, 2009

Reviewer: D. Slone,

this tom tom did not work out of the box, big problem for me, because I was using this for a cross the country
trip on a motorcycle. I had to buy a car type which is very hard to use outdoors. Amazon would not refund me the shipping costs.

Good enough for the price I paid

Review Date: September 8, 2009

Reviewer: James H. Parker, Orlando, FL

I've read a lot of the reviews on this page. I just recently completed a 3,000 mile round-trip ride from Orlando, FL taking part in a 9-11 Memorial Ride that went from Somerset, PA to NYC, visiting the 3 sites involved in that day's attacks. I was looking for a GPS before leaving on this trip as I'm not familiar with PA, Maryland, Virginia, Deleware, NJ and NY roads at all. In my car I have a Garmin Nuvi that I like a lot. I think I paid like $700.00 for it two years ago. I looked at the HD (Garmin unit) Road Tech, the Garmin Zumi, and the TomTom GPS. I've never used a TomTom unit, but working in Europe it's the big dog for these things over there so I figured it's got to be the equivalent of the Garmin. Being on a budget, as most of us are, I had given up on getting one for my trip as Everthing I saw was North of $700.00 for one of these things. I was checking prices one more time and happened to spot an Amazon seller that had 5 new Rider 1s in the box for $250.00 each. That was more like it so I quickly got one on order. The transaction was perfect and three days later I had my unit.

It only took about an hour to install the unit on my 2007 HD Ultra Classic. I wired it into the bike's cigarette lighter by removing the Bat-wing fairing, tied the wiring off to the bars and installed the mount to my left hand control pod. The kit came with a large selection of mounting hardware and options. I can't imagine it being too hard to get it mounted on almost any platform. After installation I fired up the unit. Cold start-up took only a few minutes. I put a test address in the unit and took it for a test spin and it worked fine. I din't use the Bluetooth receiver that came with the kit as I had a Motorola H270 from my AT&T phone that was smaller, had volume controls, it's own recharger and would run for about 6-hours on a single charge. I didn't like the claptrap looking one that came with the unit. It's still in the original packaging in my spare electronics bin.

After riding with it for 3,000 miles I've come to the following conclusions:
Overall, the unit is nicely styled, and visibility of the unit is good unless the sun is shining directly over your shoulder in which case the unit is practically unreadable.
The algorithms for routing and the GPS database are reasonably accurate and efficient. I've never seen one of these that didn't have a few errors or omissions in them. It had a few quirks like even though the avoid highways and no toll roads options were selected, it sent me onto the PA Turnpike to get me to Somerset. Maybe it's the only way there I don't know. It has some differences to the Garmin's but nothing worth complaining about except, my Nuvi will navigate me right to the address. The TomTom often would tell me I'd reached my destination when I turned on to the address'road and never told me it was another 350 yards down the road. The voice prompts, especially on the highway were pretty few and far between with the TomTom compared to Garmin. The Garmin will tell me continue x miles on the highway or something ever so often, the TomTom was quiet. Again, not a fatal flaw just different. Also, it's not real goood at letting you know exactly where the turn is sometimes. It'll just say in 500 yds turn right, then just before the turn, turn now. If you have multiple paths and you can't study the screen it's hard to determine which turn you are making. The Garmnin gives a little audible tone at the turn.
It's pretty quick in recomputing a recovery route if you do miss a turn, but often the reroute is u-turn and go back to the highway or some such.
The touch screen is good and wearing rain gloves or my regular gloves I could operate the unit with no issues. The GPS also cuts out some features in the menus when your using the unit in the cradle, again it caused no degradation of function when I was riding. I noticed the same complaint another reviewer had that the TomTom would let me change display scale, but then it would return to a preset level after a predetermined time. That was a little annoing when I was really trying to see some detail on the screen.
It never missed a beat or locked-up on me even in driving rain. He unit seems to be well sealed. However, that power button is a bitch!
Volume using the Motorola BT is good. I had no problem hearing it at 75 -80 MPH rain or shine.
The mount seems to hold my unit securely (I use the leash too) but I noticed a couple of mounting bolts that mount the cradle to the RAM mount loosened some and I had to retorque them. That was probably an installation error though. When I got home I applied locktite to them. So that should no longer be an issue.

For $250 I'm very pleased with my purchase and it served me well on my ride. I think a motorcycle GPS is a useful tool letting you see the road ahead and of course navigating you to your intended destination. Although the traffic warning and other "extras" are nice to haves, I could live without them as I could the XM radio option of the newer unit. My bike has CD/CB/AM/FM/WB and iPod interface on it anyway, so you know I was listening to the iPod the whole way.

I'd recommend as an entry level unit to anyone. Just depends on your budget and needs. I think I prefer the Garmin's operating system, but just slightly, and it sure isn't worth another $600.

Tags: 3.5inch, motorcycle, Navigator, portable, rider, TomTom

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 and is filed under GPS Motorcycle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.