Tom Tom Rider Europe 2nd Edition

BIKE ACCESSORIES REVIEW

Words: Gordon Compton

Pictures: Tom Tom

For such a compact size, the Tom Tom Rider 2 certainly feels substantial in weight. Mind you, it is sealed from the outside elements to an IPX7 rating, which means it is completely weatherproof. With it's tough moulded casing it should also easiiy withstand the odd drop too.

Tom Tom Rider Europe 2nd Edition

RRP: £400

Contact: www.tomtom.co.uk


A commonplace item that can always be seen suckered on to most vehicle windscreens these days, satellite navigation systems are a very clever technology that can provide route guidance on a journey to help you get from A to B, that is of course if there really is a place called A, and a place called B, but I digress.

Unfortunately, these are not such a common sight on bikes, mainly due to the fact that they generally cost around 3 to 4 times the amount of a half decent car specific equivalent. This is mainly down to the fact the unit obviously needs to be weatherproof, as well as fairly impact resistant, and easy to use with gloved hands, which considering the fact the unit has to be of a similar size to their car related cousins, it becomes quite an achievement.

The Tom Tom Rider 2nd edition has dealt with some of the mounting and fragility issues of the Rider one, which is where the immediate improvement lies at first look. By just holding the unit itself in one hand confirms that this is quite a sturdy unit by its solid weight and feel. Adding to this more features such as a Cardo Blue tooth headset, so spoken instructions from the unit are relayed straight to the riders ears to give greater confidence in tricky situations.

As for the Blue tooth functionality of the unit, it goes even further to allow a Bluetooth phone to synchronize to the head unit, which then uploads the phones phone book, and be used as a more convenient extension of the phone itself whilst riding.

Clever stuff by all accounts, plus the Tom Tom website gives a listing for all the known compatible phones, and a troubleshooting glossary, to help prospective serial chin-waggers know that it will all work when they’re bored of just riding, and need to pester someone while on the way to the shops.

The Box it all comes in (yes, it’s a bit like Christmas early) has a universal RAM articulated mount, which is claimed to fit pretty much any bike. Well to put it bluntly, it certainly didn’t fit mine, what?



The Ram mounting kit that comes supplied with the Tom Tom Rider 2 claims to fit most if not all bikes. Well my bike obviously fits within the “not all” sector. Luckily there are some manufacturers that recognise this issue, and do produce a kit or mounting that will allow a sat-nav system to be fitted, such as the mount available for mine from Kawasaki.

Well after 3 hours trying all the various ways of bolting up, taking apart, banging my head off any wall within reach for mental relief and comfort, I just gave up on it completely. Very disappointing. Luckily, Kawasaki make a universal mounting kit for the Kawasaki Versys, which conveniently fits behind the fly screen, and only costs about £30.

Well here’s where sods law intervened completely, I ordered a bracket which was due to come in the following day, the very day before going away to Italy for two weeks.

Did it turn up, did it hell. After some more self hatred, and a quick trip down to the end of the garden to burn the shed down and have no will to live any longer, I decided to phone up a good friend of mine, an excellent fabricator, who, in about two hours saved my life by knocking up a temporary mount to fit in a similar position to the Kawasaki part.

All good then so far, just need to get it all on the bike, which isn’t rocket science by any stretch, but if you have an allergy to workshop tools, however slight, then make sure that you budget the cost of dropping the bike into a workshop to have the unit wired in.

All the Tom Tom Rider requires is a switched supply, rather than permanent connection to the battery, so as to alleviate the risk of excessive battery drain. Something to be noted though, is that the supply cable that connects between the bike and the unit mount, is pretty fine gauge cable, and is devoid of any fusing, which is something else to consider fitting just to give extra piece of mind.

The cable supplied is a couple of metres long, giving options if there is a problem getting access to a supply closer to the unit, which is a nice touch.

As far as a switched supply goes, wiring into a side light feed seems to suit just fine, so every time the ignition key is turned on, the head unit fires up and will start charging, and when switched off, the head unit stays on, but is not being charged, so remember to switch off the unit manually if you are looking at stopping for more than a few minutes.

Once everything is back together we’re ready to give it a go.

Well maybe for the unit itself.

Also supplied in the box is the Blue tooth Cardo headset system to mount in the crash helmet, which is initially designed for use in open face helmets, but with some careful manipulation will fit into a full face crash helmet, providing the lining can be removed to allow access to fit the unit. This is achieved by a the unit itself being a clamp which slips over the bottom edge of the lid, and clamping onto the internal reinforcement hoop and bottom edge, which when done up carefully, is pretty robust, and unobtrusive when the lid is on. The previously removed padding can then be pushed back into place, job done!

The Cardo Headset attachment is a very compact assembly, with the teardrop shaped main body sitting on the side of the crash helmet, effectively clamping over the base of the helmet shell and the internal reinforcement hoop. The design is tailored to suit either open OR full face helmets, by plainly bending the microphone boom to the desired shape to suit whichever style helmet being worn. The ear piece is on a small fly lead, whilst the small speaker has a velcro backing so it can be placed in an optimum area close to the ear, and then becomes part of the helmet lining. Once fitted, the sound quality is great, and the bulk of the body on the helmet doesen't seem to make the helmet any noisier or unbalanced, which is reassuring for long periods of motorway cruising. A very well thought out accessory, and quite rugged too.

Once the Unit is wired in, and the Headset is charged up, the collective items are ready to be paired (sounds like some form of conservation program at a zoo), which in it’s self can be quite frustrating, as there is a the third member that also has to be paired if you decide to, and that is the phone.

After following the instructions, you should have a head unit that doubles up as a phone book, a phone keypad, as well as a satellite navigation screen.

When it was working, it was superb, the reception is crystal clear through the headset, either on the phone, or receiving instructions, and no element of wind noise interfering with the conversation, plus good clarity and volume for the spoken instructions, pretty nifty stuff.

I say when it was working, as on the first day of two, to Italy, the phone connection started playing up to the extent it was unusable, and had to be disconnected. In fairness, this is easy to do, but when you were journeying with other vehicles, albeit on the same route, but at different distances, and someone needs to get in touch, or likewise wanting to phone out, it really is a pain to find somewhere to stop.

“Helga” meanwhile, my definitive riding companion and guide wouldn’t shut up when there was no need to guide me, then when I did want some backup, she was off for a tea break.

So not off to a great touring relationship then.

Well the joy’s didn’t cease there to be honest, as the screen has several issues all of it’s own which were also making themselves known quickly. The screen has a satin finished surface, which when riding becomes very reflective in certain daylight conditions. So much so, that my Alpinestars Airflow jacket was glaring back from the screen, meaning that to get a proper look at the map when riding involved looking closely at the screen. A real pain, and dangerous too.

The screen also has several small buttons, which are still fairly small, even when the button size is set to large, and are awkward to operate accurately with gloved hobbit hands like mine. The zoom controls in the top corners of the screen are far to small, which meant that I set off another screen which you never actually need, which in turn creates a split second panic, trying to get the original screen back up to see where you are going.

Having only three and a half inches of screen can be a problem, especially if you have pudgy hands, which become even more pudgy when the gloves are on , then having to try and operate zoom buttons which are only 3/8” square. Nightmare!!!!


I thought satellite navigation was the way to go, and very quickly going from enjoying the ride, to doubt, concern, and general confusion. Going on holiday is wonderful, but the enjoyment is diluted down rapidly when you start to worry about being lost, as you end up putting all of your trust into this tiny box of tricks.

Well, we got there ok, the weatherproofing of the unit itself certainly held up through the rain and snow experienced in Switzerland, and the undying heat of Italy, regularly in the high 30’s.

Well we arrived safe and sound, despite the lurking doubt that it would, thanks to the phone connection issues, and then Helga, mistress of misdirection buggering off for the complete second day of my ride to Italy. This left me having to duck down to beat the reflective tendencies of the screen to see where the hell I was going, adding stress and tiredness to a journey that was long enough already without having to contend with anything else.

Now for the real fun.

During the break away I was obviously keen to go tear arsing around, er, enjoying the beauty that is the Italian countryside and it's culture. Sometimes things that should be straightforward can never seem to be, and then just revel in their own mischief.

You guessed it, dressed up, bike started, sat-nav plugged in, 40 plus degrees, result: as well as sweating profusely, I was losing my ability to keep my sanity together as the Tom Tom was refusing to do anything. Sure the display was working, but it refused to calculate the route I had already planned the night before, so I could not go anywhere until it was sorted.

Luckily the villa we were in had an internet connection, and one of us luckily had also remembered a laptop as well as remembering the accompanying Tom Tom CD-ROM so I could carry out a master reset of the units software.

What could go wrong, surely the manual would have a page dedicated to this little inconvenience, and have the answers to this quick fix, no chance. I mean the menus within the unit include a reset function, and there is a recessed reset button in the base of the unit, but no info in the manual how to go about using them correctly. You may be reading this thinking, “Gordi, you silly sod, whats the problem with that”, well nearly 1300 miles away from home is the problem. Some units can have their software damaged irreparably if the master reset is not executed properly.

Well after a bout of hating the world again, I managed to eventually find the instructions after about an hour of trawling the Tom Tom site. I just thank my lucky stars this didn't happen to me away on the road, I would have been up shit creek completely.

Even more so if I had tried to reset the unit without the instructions, as the SD card in the base of the unit HAS to be removed to save wiping all the data/mapping from it during the reset and re-booting procedure. Sure enough, I followed the instructions and we were back in business, even Helga woke up, and we were ready to go again. After wasting half a day of swearing, getting hot and bothered generally, I was back on my bike and on my way.

The journey that I was doing, was half , easy fast main roads, then another 25 miles of insane hairpins, wonderful, until Helga came back on the scene, deciding that every hairpin was a junction, creating initially doubt and panic, then more annoyance!

Also something noted was the apparent lack of recognition to crossroads, not being able to tell whether to give way, just happily sending you straight on regardless.

So far the Tom Tom as a unit is a capable and very intelligent machine, but at the same time a maddening mess, with these odd quirks, and mad moments of instability, which on a bike is really the place to be playing up. This added to the speed of the map scrolling, which is too slow, can be quite dangerous and disorientating.

There is some respite for the Rider 2 though, as complex or busy bits of mapping zoom in as you come up to them, which is a nice safety point, and adds confidence, or rather it would if the mapping would keep up over 60 mph! I know GPS is a remotely controlled technology, but surely someone would have thought about this seriously, as bikes don't have room for error like a car.

Oddly, there were a couple of occasions where the Tom Tom would seem to work out journey diversion without fuss, yet a straightforward situation would have it going bandy, constantly recalculating the journey despite sticking to the original planned route.

As for the unit itself, it's construction as mentioned previously seems substantial enough, and then some. The menu architecture seems to be similar, if not the same as the in car Tom Tom units, so navigating your way around is fairly easy, planning a route is simple, plus you can add itineraries, and places of interest.

The Rider 2 has a useful function whereby a Itinerary can be setup, with main journey points such as places of interest and city centres etc. This means that a journey can be organised to include via and stop off points, ideal for sightseeing and longer touring stints.

The main display whilst riding shows obviously the map (Durr!), but also the ETA and GPS speed, which is a handy function, despite being minutely displayed. As also mentioned earlier, the display tends to be overly reflective, which is a pain, but at night is another story completely. It really is excellently clear, along with the options to set the night and day colours lends additional flexibility to tailor the unit to an individuals particular needs.

Tom Tom is fairly unique as a concern too, as it has Map Share, likened to a mapping equivalent of Wikipedia, with registered Tom Tom members/owners reporting and correcting mapping issues. While this is a great concept, it will always have the vulnerability for error or misuse, which could literally lead you astray.

Other interesting features are subscription based live services, such as traffic/congestion updates, fuel prices, and a “help me” menu, which dials out to the emergency services, great for er, emergencies.

It really does go without saying that the mapping alone is an amazing technological achievement, then to add verbal commands as well is rocket science to me, and I really can appreciate how complicated and advanced that is. However, if there are constant irritating irregularities (try saying that backwards), makes it almost pointless and a waste of time.


CONCLUSION


Satellite navigation is now a well established technology, and a fast evolving one, but still only provides a very limited market for motorbikes, hence the price difference between equivalent bike and car aimed products.

Saying that, there maybe nigh on identical software on offer, but what it is all housed in makes the difference, but does not completely convince or justify the excessive purchase price.

As for the Rider 2, it is packed full of features, almost too many, as personally I am not convinced that they will all work together reliably, as they certainly didn't when my test was carried out.

Another thing to bear in mind is the possible addition of a mounting kit, if like my bike, the supplied RAM mounting refuses to fit, which then lends extra cost implications to the already substantial purchase price.

The technology is not infallible, and can give incorrect commands/mapping, which is where the Map Share comes into it's own, and could also be it's Achilles heel too, thanks to members adding other incorrect or corrupt commands.

With the Garmin Zumo 550 so closely priced, it really does have it's work cut out, and sadly I think it needs to work a damn sight harder to match the bomb-proof reputation that Garmin have.

If you do decide to buy either, just remember to carry a map as backup!