TomTom Rider 2 GPS Navigator for Motorcycles and Scooters

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 .........

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.

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.

My wife gave me this unit for Christmas. She's a doll and I love her very much, but she was not very versed about what to shop for or expect from a GPS unit. I've now used the unit several hours during trips, utilizing the blue tooth connectivity with my cell phone and the included headset within my helmet. Ive also used it in the car a lot. They said this unit was designed by motorcyclists, but obviously the bikers TomTom consulted knew very little about the minimum expectations for features required in a decent GPS unit...especially one costing this much.

I am going to break-down my review into two parts....what it has that is good...and what it lacks that makes it a non-competitive GPS unit in the US. I've used GPS technology at work and at play for years. Most of my background with consumer-grade GPS units is with the Garmin brand. So it is to that brand that I will make most of my comparisons because Garmin, for the most part, has it right and does it right! (imho)I have no financial or personal relationship with Garmin, whatsoever.

OK..first for the positive...it's water resistant/proof (don't really know about the proof part cause I havent had it in the pouring rain yet)...Fast processor and fast acquisition of the GPS constellation...good screen graphics and brightness...decent battery life...sensitive touch screen technology....blue tooth capable...can download your Outlook contact database....decent internal memory...heavy duty Ram mounting hardware for your bikes handle bars....USB connectivity to your computer for map downloads, etc....and if you are into directions from the unit, it has a few male and female voices from which to choose.

Now for the features it should have but does not:
-Should have a trip computer with trip parameters such as max speed, average moving speed, time moving, time sitting still, odometer, trip odometer, vertical and horizontal elevation, etc. None of this exists on the tomtom rider.
-Should leave a track, or a bread crumb trail, as you ride along. Not available on the TTRider. This is a real disappointment.
-Should have larger fonts for speed, arrival time, etc. Way too small to have to deal with on a motorcycle...even when set to the largest font.
-Should not "snap" to the nearest road to fool you into thinking their base map is accurate...because it is not that accurate in reality.
-Should come with a cig lighter plug for powering, but it does not.
-Does not allow any preference setting while in motion. You must stop before you can do anything with this unit outside of a few limited functions. Excuse: a safety feature
-Cannot make a call while moving. You can only recieve calls while moving. What's that about???? (yea I know, safety)
- Has annoying icons on the screen when the phone and headset are not connected and there is no way to get them off the screen!!
-Gives you no options as far as screen orientation relating to your travel direction...always points you up. Thats ok most of the time, but we deserve to have a choice in this price class.
-Can fall off the ball mount and, if not tethered to the bike or mounting base, it will hit the ground and will be lost.
- No elevation available...for those of us that ride in mountains and are use to seeing this on gps units, it's certainly an oversight by the TTRider. GPS derived elevation is not that accurate in the first place, but readings are relative and give a pretty good indication of elevation changes as you ride.
- Direct sunlight makes the screen totally INVISIBLE.

If I could send it back to Amazon I would. I plan to give it to by wife for her car and purchase a gps unit that more closely fits my needs as a touring motorcyclist and as a consumer that refuses to settle for inadequate and poorly designed products.

This is our first GPS and as much as it cost you would think it would have more on it. You pay a lot just for the water-proof case! I would think they could include some of the options that you find on non-water proof GPS for the about the same price. We got it about 2 months ago and since we live in Ohio we haven't tried it on the bike yet. We haven't gone out of town yet so we have been using it around home to get use to it. It works well in the car but we have been using a styles to type and select the options, that will be a problem on the bike. Also when you look up a point of intrest it doesn't give you the address so if you're going to a chain store for example, it gives you the closest one and out from there but if that's not the one you want you don't know where the next one is without selecting it and looking at the directions. It would be nice to have the address or at least the street name so you can select the one you want. We were very tempted to return it and get a non-water-proof one and take or chances. Either way is a lot of money to spend and not have what you want.