TomTom RIDER

The TomTom Rider series is sat nav for motorcyclists - so I've been using the TomTom Rider V2, the model this is replacing. Naturally I expected this would be a nice improvement with some good new features. The lane navigation system shown in the main picture here looks like a great idea... Well worth the £230 or so I would spend on it.

Not so.

The day comes when the box arrives - those of us who have got used to TomToms customer care and quality are in for a surprise. In the box you find no case for your new sat nav, no strap to hold it onto the clamp - which by the way is no longer a charging clamp (you now have to spend £60!!! to sort this out), an instruction manual in about 400 million languages that only actually has 2 pages of english instructions that are not worthwhile at all. This is all disappointing as this never used to happen with TomTom, one gets the feeling they are cost cutting... and I don't like it.

So does the new machine weight less? more compact? better designed? Nope, the basic shape and weight is identical, except for one thing which we'll get to later.
Ah, you might be thinking... but they've simplified the user interface - the new 2 button menu system must make it easier to use. Well, up to a point yes - the problem is there are a lot of menu options there that you used to get, and there is no decent replacement for them, for example the feature you can buy "traffic" is not compatible with this new device - it was with the old one... hmmmm...

The only physical change is that there is now only one hole for charging and USB connection to the computer - that I like. But there is no longer an SD card slot, so you can't use any previous cards you bought you improve your coverage. Not good.

The main screen that shows while you are riding is fairly similar to the old one, no changes that really bother me for good or bad. Except the navigation has got worse, I am constantly caught out by "turn right, turn left" etc when there is no corner, just a bend in the road - rather frustrating if you are slowing down or indicating. Similarly there are plenty of mini roundabouts, junctions and so on which it is simply not aware of.

It gets worse. At the weekends I sometimes ride from southampton to bath, there are 2 main routes. the M3 then the A303, or the A36. Generally it is agreed the A36 is quicker and nicer. The TomTom Urban Rider insists the M3 is quicker, I don't like that route anyway. So I go to "calculate alternative" (as you no longer get any other choices, eg fastest, shortest, etc) I followed the route it suggested, it took me 2.5 hours and went round B roads, and weird A roads, and was over 80 miles. When I took my own route down the A36, I cut the time down to less than 1 hour 50 and to about 70 miles. God knows what it thinks it's doing taking me routes like that.

There are other examples, but the bottom line is - it has no idea what the fastest route is - my advice is always check google maps before obeying the sat nav. It is FAR more accurate. Even worse! You can't even tell it which route you want to go, even using the rather feeble TomTom Home software, which doesn't allow to you do anything useful. Even the "go via" option is tedious - if I tell it a road I want to use, it tells me to get to that road, then turn around and go back to another pointless route.

I have of course written to TomTom to complain about this and seek advice - but of course no response yet... grrrr

So what about the new features? Lane guidance is all very well, but it kicks in far too late. So what the feature actually does is tell you which lane you should have been in as you miss your juction, or of course confirm you are in the right lane.
IQ routes sounds great, "takes into account rush hours, school leaving time" etc but it is far too primitive, it takes into account things that don't make any difference, and I still don't manage to avoid rush hours, because funnily enough, they happen everywhere...

Battery life advertises 10 hours, you won't get this - unless you leave it on minimum brightness (which you can't) don't use bluetooth (for headsets and phones - again you kind of have to) and leave it in powersave mode. Battery life is more like 3 hours if you use it properly. So always take the charger with you.

So is there anything good about this? Yes - it works... things like connectivity is simple (although my phone book won't copy from any of my phones) it is well made, feels solid and well built, and of course is weatherproof, but the old one does all of this. My advice therefore is buy the old TomTom Rider Version 2 - some places still sell them and have caught onto the fact that it is better than the new one and charge more for it because of that - but trust me, it's worth it.

It does more than this new one, it won't drive you round the bend and you get treated like a decent customer, not a total fool.

Don't buy this, buy the old one.