Tom Tom Rider - repairs

[JH]

I've been using Tom Tom for many years since it was Rider 1 and the Rider 2. I have then upgraded to the 400 and now have the 550 Rider, which I have used all over the UK and Europe for many years. I realise that there are opinions of whether to use Tom Tom / Garmin / Phone Apps etc, and that this model has not been updated for many years. Given technology development within Apps, is unlikely to ever to be updated or replaced with any else, but I am comfortable with it, like many of the features and am competent(ish) on route planning for my various trips and tours.

So last year the device start to only charge intermittently when on the bike, shutting off without warning or rotating to an orientation other than the one I wanted all by itself. A new charging head if anywhere from £45 + but I have found a place that recognises the fault and offers a repair service for less than £20.00. I thought it worth a punt -

TomTom REPAIR SERVICE for TomTom Rider Mount ! electronic part only ! 24h repair | eBay UK

✔️ Repair service for the electronic part of the TomTom Rider Mount. ✔️ TomTom Rider 40 / 400 / 410. ✔️ TomTom Rider Pro / Urban Rider (with Active Mount). ✔️ TomTom Rider 420 / 450. ✔️ TomTom Rider 500 / 550.

www.ebay.co.uk

I am waiting for the item to be returned so will let you know if the service is any good, just in case others are in need of repairs. Now I just need to find a replacement tiny circular key clam lock, for the locking mechanism which has also broken .....

 

[walkingpictures]

Quick question.Are you saying the 550 Rider has not been updated for many years?That is their current model and mine definitely gets updated,Sorry for the confusion!!

Kimbo

 

[Steve398]

I've been using Tom Tom for many years since it was Rider 1 and the Rider 2. I have then upgraded to the 400 and now have the 550 Rider, which I have used all over the UK and Europe for many years. I realise that there are opinions of whether to use Tom Tom / Garmin / Phone Apps etc, and that this model has not been updated for many years. Given technology development within Apps, is unlikely to ever to be updated or replaced with any else, but I am comfortable with it, like many of the features and am competent(ish) on route planning for my various trips and tours.

So last year the device start to only charge intermittently when on the bike, shutting off without warning or rotating to an orientation other than the one I wanted all by itself. A new charging head if anywhere from £45 + but I have found a place that recognises the fault and offers a repair service for less than £20.00. I thought it worth a punt -

I am waiting for the item to be returned so will let you know if the service is any good, just in case others are in need of repairs. Now I just need to find a replacement tiny circular key clam lock, for the locking mechanism which has also broken .....

I had the battery successfully replaced on my Tomtom a few years ago. Returned after about 10 days as good as new, except (obviously) I’d lost all my routes, saved locations, etc.

 

[JH]

Quick question.Are you saying the 550 Rider has not been updated for many years?That is their current model and mine definitely gets updated,Sorry for the confusion!!

Kimbo

Hi Kimbo,

I forgot all about this post. To clarify, the mapping on the device is regularly updated, as you say, via wifi and is great for my needs. What I was saying is that the actual 'Model' 550 has been the same for many years, and I suspect due to the development of Apps, that it has not been nor likely to be replaced with a completely new device.

 

[JH]

I had the battery successfully replaced on my Tomtom a few years ago. Returned after about 10 days as good as new, except (obviously) I’d lost all my routes, saved locations, etc.

Steve,

Battery is still fine, but the charging head was intermittent. So it could be running on battery all the time without you knowing, and then shut down; or click in between charging or relying on battery. Anyhow the repair has been completed and it seems to be working OK again, all for £18.00.

 

[walkingpictures]

Hi Kimbo,

I forgot all about this post. To clarify, the mapping on the device is regularly updated, as you say, via wifi and is great for my needs. What I was saying is that the actual 'Model' 550 has been the same for many years, and I suspect due to the development of Apps, that it has not been nor likely to be replaced with a completely new device.

Thanks for getting back to me,makes sense

 

[Colin]

I've been using Tom Tom for many years since it was Rider 1 and the Rider 2. I have then upgraded to the 400 and now have the 550 Rider, which I have used all over the UK and Europe for many years. I realise that there are opinions of whether to use Tom Tom / Garmin / Phone Apps etc, and that this model has not been updated for many years. Given technology development within Apps, is unlikely to ever to be updated or replaced with any else, but I am comfortable with it, like many of the features and am competent(ish) on route planning for my various trips and tours.

So last year the device start to only charge intermittently when on the bike, shutting off without warning or rotating to an orientation other than the one I wanted all by itself. A new charging head if anywhere from £45 + but I have found a place that recognises the fault and offers a repair service for less than £20.00. I thought it worth a punt -

TomTom REPAIR SERVICE for TomTom Rider Mount ! electronic part only ! 24h repair | eBay UK

✔️ Repair service for the electronic part of the TomTom Rider Mount. ✔️ TomTom Rider 40 / 400 / 410. ✔️ TomTom Rider Pro / Urban Rider (with Active Mount). ✔️ TomTom Rider 420 / 450. ✔️ TomTom Rider 500 / 550.

www.ebay.co.uk

I am waiting for the item to be returned so will let you know if the service is any good, just in case others are in need of repairs. Now I just need to find a replacement tiny circular key clam lock, for the locking mechanism which has also broken .....

my 550 goes black screen for a couple of minutes then comes back on, it also changes orientation from vertical to horizontal. I've also found it bad for sending me down very small country lanes with grass growing down the centre.
we are off to France in September and worried it might pack up

 

[Steve398]

my 550 goes black screen for a couple of minutes then comes back on, it also changes orientation from vertical to horizontal. I've also found it bad for sending me down very small country lanes with grass growing down the centre.
we are off to France in September and worried it might pack up

If it were me I’d get it checked out well in advance.
I had one go weird, when for the only time in the 20 years that I’ve been using them, it leaked during a rainstorm. It was at the start of a 6 week tour of Europe with full daily routes, hotels, and POI’s logged on it. Fortunately it dried out in a cafe while we had lunch.

 

[Barnoe]

I bought the Tomtom 550 rider in 2013 and it was discontinued so bought the Nav6 in 2020.
At the time i gave it a mate who used it for a while until he couldn't update the maps.

It was a good unit to be fair even came with a car mount that had a speaker built into it for the car.

If you find a way to update maps and its repaired why not keep using it.
If you cant update maps then your going to run into trouble.

 

[Mzokk]

my 550 goes black screen for a couple of minutes then comes back on, it also changes orientation from vertical to horizontal. I've also found it bad for sending me down very small country lanes with grass growing down the centre.
we are off to France in September and worried it might pack up

If you are worried it might pack up it might be worth testing out a phone app capable of navigating gpx files that you can use as a backup?? With regard to it sending you down very small roads with Grass up the centre, you can avoid that with careful route planning. However, depending on the routing algorithm of the Tom Tom, it still might do that if you just plot a route from A to B and perhaps the shortest time indicates the use of that type of road? I don't have any experience of tom tom devices though.

 

[Wapping]

If you are worried it might pack up….

I’d contact the people linked in the opening post, to see if it can be looked at (repaired) and returned before September.

As to grass up the middle of roads? I’d normally suspect some sort of extreme setting in the routing preferences or something like ‘most direct route’ mode selected or just plain old bad route creation. Who knows? Not me, as I’ve never touched (let alone owned) a TomTom device.