My TomTom Rider just arrived today...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Keba
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Keba

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Just finished fitting it - mangled it onto the left wingmirror using some brute force and a lot of ignorance.

I'll post some piccys if anybody is interested.

Got the bluetooth headset receiver synced with the Rider with no issues at all - really simple instructions to follow telling you what to do when, and managed to insert the flat ear-piece speaker in my Schuberth C1 with no problems at all - found that Schuberth had actually left some room deliberatly for speakers to fit into which is nice!

The microphone is a bit too close to the earpiece for my liking - managed to mangle it in, but as the C1 is a flip-up helmet, not sure how good it will be when I actually get to use it for real tomorrow. Its a bit awkward putting the helmet on, thats for sure!

I think I'm going to have to find a custom headset system that uses a 3 part headphone socket (left, right, mike) - would be nice to get a throat mike I think if it would work though as its the only way I can think of that would really kill the ambient noise...

Linking the mobile to the Rider was almost too easy - apart from the downside that I have a new iMate K-Jam and the Rider firmware doesn't know of that particular phone just yet - I'm sure TomTom will do an update at some point and include it though.

Anyway, Rider is on bike, headset is in helmet, and I'm waiting to try it out for real tomorrow! I'll post more once I have actually given it a whirl on the roads rather than just running around the house trying to get up past 2 miles and hour ;)
 
I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. In particular is there a headphone socket on the unit? Not yet up to speed on bluetooth, but use in ear speakers for music while riding. Also would be interested to see how ot looks on the bike, so if you have a few photos I'd like to see them.
 
Keba, I'd be v interested also to hear how you get on.
Where did you get yours? I thought they were'nt available till beginning of Dec (which means now I guess).
Also what mapping have you got? I see they have a set of CD's for Western Europe available for £100 or so. Do you know what memeory card is needed for this?
 
I bought mine from inmac ( http://www.inmac.co.uk ) I was willing to pay the premium for getting one early, mainly because I've used a TomTom Go Classic for ages and have always wanted something similar on my bike.

Tonight will be the true 'see how well it works when its dark and can't remember the road curvature ahead' test.

The ride in this morning was great - I updated the POI's for traffic camera databases and also bought myself the John Cleese Voice which is much more amusing than the bulk standard voices (cost an extra 10 euros though).

They do supply a warning leaflet stating that using the handsfree headset/microphone over 40 mph is not advisable - what they don't put on the leaflet is that over 40mph even with the volume on max, you can't hear anything anyway - granted I do wear earplugs, but I'm not about to stop wearing earplugs and start losing my hearing. I'll have to take a look into autocom or something similar (I don't think a boosteroo will work for me as its a mic enabled headphone jack - I guess I could custom build something perhaps).

That aside, I can see it even as it is with the low volume being a godsend when trying to find weird addresses in areas that you don't know at all - London being one of the places I tend to end up working in quite often (out in Southampton at the minute, so no traffic worries to deal with really).

The way it clips onto the holder means that a RAM mount will be achieveable - the direct plate that screws onto the Rider holder is a ball, not sure the size though, but it will fit into the RAM system components afaik.

The holder looks very very flimsy, but it works very well - it didn't even look like it was going to fall off even going over bumpy roads, and even excessive speed didn't deter it. Its possible that my speedo might have been saying 100 mph this morning (while the Rider using GPS was stating only 95 mph), but I wouldn't want to say that for sure, as I'm sure it would be illegal to do that sort of speed ;) Cruise control works wonders for making sure a GPS system is sync'd over the last 10 seconds and you can compare what speed the bike is saying to what the GPS is saying........

Regardless, I turned up at work with a huge grin on my face, which always happens when I buy a new gadget and am very pleased with it. Being a gadget geek, I'm giving the RIDER a big thumbs up.

Feel free to ask questions and I'll answer them best I can!
 
Keba, when you say you can't hear anything above 40mph doesn't this mean that you have to look at it to see where to go?.I would have thought this was not ideal. As i am seriously thinking of buying one, do you know if you can dispense with Bluetooth and run it through an Autocom as with a Garmin? because i don't want to spend £500 on something i can't hear very clearly.Also is loading European maps easy please?
 
Looking at the device at speeds over 40mph is required with the 'comes in the box' speaker, but no more so than checking your speedo is from a 'how long do I need to take my eyes off the actual road' point of view.

I'm seriously looking for an alternative - autocom seems to be the biggest name out there, but I'm fully open to suggestions on what to get. Basically I want a speaker (two would be a 'nice' but not an essential), and a microphone, and someway of connecting the device.

The RIDER relies on Bluetooth to talk to the headset/mic arrangement and the problem isn't that the system doesn't work - its just that the provided bluetooth adaptor isn't very powerful in the volume department. I'm sure hooking the bluetooth adaptor into something like an autocom as if it was a mobile phone would be the easiest bet.

All the TomTom equipment uses a 5v DC (2 Amp) charger, so the one charger works for the RIDER (and the different Go models) as well as the bluetooth adaptor. Having it hardwired into the bike using the bikes battery may be entertaining, but I'm sure thats possible too.

As to loading new maps - the RIDER in the UK comes with only the UK maps funnily enough and only has a 128 Mb SDCard (for 600 squids you'd hope for something bigger imo) and you can put any size SDCard in there with no issues. Getting a 1Gb SDCard and loading on all the maps (after buying them of course at a quite high price really) is not only possible, but also really easy to do - TomTom have made very easy to use software from both the end user 'wizard' dialog approach to the geeky 'its just a really big floppy disk' approach.

Each set of maps you buy comes on a new SDCard afaik - and you can combine them onto a card that will hold them all using copy/paste in Windows if needed - buying a bigger SDCard is an additional expense of course :/

On a side note, the RIDER uses the new version 3 chipset of the GPS system - it picks up signals really quickly and is around about 50% better at keeping them active than the Go Classic which uses the version 2 chipset.

If anybody has recommendations on headset <-> mobile phone via one of those 3 partitioned headphone plugs (speakers and mic on the one plug) then I'd love to hear them so I can do a bit of research and decide what I'm going to get to replace the 'in the box' speaker.

Don't get me wrong on the 'in the box' speaker - it works well if you are in a town driving to somewhere you don't know and are unfaimliar with the area - its just you can't make telephone calls (or receive them) or hear the 1.5 mile warning that the exit is ahead (which is really easy to see on the screen with a quick glance), and personally I want the telephone side of things - which I may add music capability too using something like an Archos (think iPod) later on....
 
Consider using earplus with built-in loudspeakers. I use them and they're great!

Since they use a normal audio jack, I presume you could replace them for the RIDER ones, but keep the mic.
 
Keba, thanks for the info.. and keep us informed. :) Us gadgeteers need to stick together :)
 
Mouse said:
Pretty sure I saw a CD of maps for sale on the Tom Tom web site.

http://www.tomtom.com/products/accessory.php?ID=150&Product=146&Category=&Context=1&Language=1
Click to expand...

Yup - it comes on 6 CD's in total, so could in theory be around about 3.5 Gb of information....

Having multiple copies of the SDCard (i.e. 2 or 3 SDCards with 2 or 3 sets of maps on each) is possible, as the software that makes the TomTom work is tied to the inbuilt device number (serial number in other words) and they can be swapped out quite easily if needed. You do have to take the RIDER out of its holder to do that though, so don't try it while riding ;)

Inmac were the cheapest (and reputable) company who were listing actual stock when I made my purchase on Tuesday - it arrived Wednesday (less than 24 hours) later which is fairly standard for companies like Inmax and Expansys.

Over to the headphone idea - I want to use the mic and the type of plug used is a 3 band 2.5 mm plug (it has 3 black bands, letting it have 4 sets of wires going for mono sound pos and neg, as well as mic using pos and neg, if that makes any sense to anybody!) I'll try to remember to post a magnified picture of what I'm talking about tonight. How I'm going to link that into something like an autocom I'm not quite sure just yet... Anybody got any ideas? Or recommendations on autocom type products of course....
 
Keba said:
Over to the headphone idea - I want to use the mic and the type of plug used is a 3 band 2.5 mm plug (it has 3 black bands, letting it have 4 sets of wires going for mono sound pos and neg, as well as mic using pos and neg, if that makes any sense to anybody!) I'll try to remember to post a magnified picture of what I'm talking about tonight. How I'm going to link that into something like an autocom I'm not quite sure just yet... Anybody got any ideas? Or recommendations on autocom type products of course....
Click to expand...

From memory, Autocom have different connectors depending on whether it is a phone or Aux (Music, GPS etc) source. They are both three pole 3.5mm, but have different wiring depending on the source. Ie. IIRC the phone connector would have Mic, Audio out and Earth. The Aux would be Left Audio out, Right Audio out and Earth. What you are describing sounds like four poles, most likely mic, Left audio, Right audio and Earth though in which order I cant say.

Additionally, if you are using TomTom's Bluetooth receiver then I understand that it needs to be charged periodically? If that is the case, then installing it into the bike together with your Autocom setup might not be practical.

It might be possible to use Autocom's own Bluetooth Receiver instead of the TomTom rider one. You will probably appreciate though that this could be incompatible with TomTom's expected set up so you really want to borrow one to test before you go ahead and buy. I alsodont know if Autocom's Bluetooth Receiver (in fact a Nokia Car Kit) needs additional power.

Alternatively, Autocom's next unit is expected to have Bluetooth functionality built it. No news on release though.

Sounds like an interesting project though!

Mike
 
Keba said:
Yup - it comes on 6 CD's in total, so could in theory be around about 3.5 Gb of information....

Having multiple copies of the SDCard (i.e. 2 or 3 SDCards with 2 or 3 sets of maps on each) is possible, as the software that makes the TomTom work is tied to the inbuilt device number (serial number in other words) and they can be swapped out quite easily if needed. You do have to take the RIDER out of its holder to do that though, so don't try it while riding ;)

Inmac were the cheapest (and reputable) company who were listing actual stock when I made my purchase on Tuesday - it arrived Wednesday (less than 24 hours) later which is fairly standard for companies like Inmax and Expansys.

Over to the headphone idea - I want to use the mic and the type of plug used is a 3 band 2.5 mm plug (it has 3 black bands, letting it have 4 sets of wires going for mono sound pos and neg, as well as mic using pos and neg, if that makes any sense to anybody!) I'll try to remember to post a magnified picture of what I'm talking about tonight. How I'm going to link that into something like an autocom I'm not quite sure just yet... Anybody got any ideas? Or recommendations on autocom type products of course....
Click to expand...

It's just the idea of having to spend money on another device... specially since the Blietooth could possibly be used as intercom.

Looking forward to some pics of the audio interface...
 
Is it just me being a luddite? I havn't a clue what this threads about :confused: :confused:
 
Well, used it in the dark on roads I've never been on...

I can't believe how much safer I felt just knowing how tight the bends were that were coming up - not to mention not having to guess if I was going in the right direction or not! ;)

I'm upping my 'usable in the box speaker' rating for the voice directions to around 55 mph - can hear the alarm sound for 'speed camera POI ahead' up to around 70mph with no issues as well.

I'm still going to look at getting something like an autocom though - I tend to do slightly more than 55 mph and it would be nice to have that added music funcionality that an autocom type system will allow.

Hooking the bluetooth system into the autocom type system is going to be the fun part by the looks of it - I may have to end up building a custom 3.5 mm jack to 2.5 mm jack splitter so that a seperate mic and headset approach can be used.

I seem to spend on average around 2 hours a day on the bike, so the extra investment will probably be worth it for me - I guess it all depends on how often you ride and how long for as to if you can justify the extra expense - the TomTom is anything but cheap once you look at adding extras to it...
 
Forgot to say - when I finally got back on roads I've been on many, many times (as well as in the car when using the TomTom Go), I found it kept wanting me to turn off and go on much more windey type roads that aren't that much fun in the car as opposed to the 'safer' routes....

It seems to prefer bike type roads to straight line ones - especially if the distance difference between the two is very slight. Methinks TomTom tweaked the algorythm for calculating which roads to take slightly towards bikers - a good thing in summer, I'm sure! Maybe not quite so good on nights like tonight when it was quite windy and chucking it down....

It took me on a totally different way to work this morning too - might not be doing that too often though, as it doesn't go past any friendly petrol stations, and I need one every two days with the current job :(
 
hahaha... a truly biker-friendly GPS, well, if you're riding a 33L GS Adventure... :D Keep posting your findings, please :)
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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