Is The Tom Tom Rider A Quality And Affordable Motorcycle Gps?

Hasn’t it happened to you during long distance motorcycle rides? It sure used to happen to a lot of bikers.

Let’s say you happen to be cruising along an unfamiliar place or a busy multi-lane highway. 

You suddenly realize you need a quick last-minute direction as to which lane you need to be in. Or you want to know  in advance if there’s an upcoming exit, turn or ramp. And ooops…. there you go. In a nanosecond….. you just missed your turn.

So you find yourself saying “Damn!”

Or let’s say  you lead a group of bikers and you got lost along the way. And there are dozens of bikes behind you. It’s like the blind leading the blind. It really sucks.

So you find yourself saying “Damn!”

Or let’s say you finally got the time to tour alone. You decided today is going to be an adrenaline-filled adventure. Because you’re too excited, you carelessly neglect the need for fuel until  you’re in a middle of a  beautiful, quaint, rustic  little hideaway and you’re on reserve.

So you find yourself saying “Damn!”

If you’ve experience frustrations like these…if every once in a while  you really blow it, and each time,  you vow  “Never again.” It’s a good thing, gadgets like GPS are invented. These gadgets  like the Tom Tom Rider will let you know. This is the motorcycle gps that tells you- what you need to know as far as motorcycle riding is concern.

This is the motorcycle gps that can help you quit cussin’ your luck---and start you crowing instead!

If you seek reliability, durability and ease of installation Tom Tom Rider is the sure bet.

I have summarized reviews in a bulleted form,  from  bikers who have purchased Tom Tom Rider at Amazon. Reviews like these are valuable especially for people who plan to buy the product. Motorcyclists who want to invest in these products would like to know if  what they have in their hands is an excellent product or  a lemon.

They don’t want to deal with poor customer service. They don’t want to pay return shipping fees out of their own pocket. They don’t want to miss prime riding season without the gps. It is important for them know which products to purchase that will really give them the best bang for their buck.

As of this writing there are 50 reviews at amazon.com and was voted a rating of  3.8 out of 5 stars. Here are what some users have to say about the Tom Tom Rider motorcyclegps:

= It has a bigger screen display which is great for optimum viewing in broad daylight or moonless night.

=It has larger buttons. And the menu for all the main action is located right on the display which makes for easy interfacing with heavy gloves on.

=The ram mount, wiring and harness are easy to install. You just need basic tools and minor electrical knowledge.

=Tyre (pro) , the  (free and upgradable) software it comes with, is far superior than Garmin’s  Mapsource and Basecamp.

=The gadget itself is solidly built and water-proof. It can withstand vibrations and torrential rains.

=It can easily be paired with your Bluetooth headset and cellular phone.

=Lifetime map updates are free that is available four times a year.

=It tells the street names and numbers and  able to point the main road after getting lost.

=The calculated arrival times are amazingly accurate unless there is a major traffic jam.

= The biggest compelling advantage of the Tom Tom Rider motorcycle gps is the price point.

So this is the kicker…..

TomTom Rider is half the price of a more popular product  but does  more than half as good.

Check out Tom Tom Rider price here:

Some negative but needlessly harmless points that came up are:

=It doesn’t have altimeter.

=It doesn’t display fuel price options.

=It doesn’t come with  “lock” feature.

But you can readily solve  this issue by mounting off your gps device everytime you stop or park . Take it with you or keep it inside your saddlebag. Your travel data will stop while unplugged. If you can live with that then it’s the most preferred method to keep your gps device  safely out of sight.

Overall the Tom Tom Rider garnered favorable reviews.

With Tom Tom Rider at your side, you can have confidence, security , assurance and more savvy.

Tom Tom Rider can take  a lot of awful worry out of your riding life.

Worry about discovering a hidden paradise but you are not sure which way to go if you want to come back again? Tom Tom Rider lets you record your route on the fly and even share it with your riding buddies.

Worry about not knowing the current speed limit, blocked roads, traffic jams, highway expansion and rebuild while on the road? Tom TomRider will quickly recalculate routes and through its  Mapshare community keeps you updated with dynamic road changes. You can skillfully avoid detours and get to your destination faster.

Worry about not having enough thrill while cruising along boring straight lined-roads? Tom Tom Rider lets you choose a “winding route” option if you get a kick out of riding your beloved two-wheels on the curviest roads. 

If discovering slow, single-lane back roads, strewn with gravel and sharp hairpins is your cup of tea- then press the “winding route” button.

Worry about using up the 4-6 hours of battery life of your gps  and.. you’re not even halfway yet, to your destination? You don’t want to really run on internal batteries or standard AA or AAA  alkalines, while rolling do you? You can do a permanent connection to the motorcycle battery via the cigarette lighter jack on the handle bar. 

If you ride a Street Glide, just ran the wires behind the fairing and spliced it to the cig lighter jack. Hook up the docking base to an accessory plug wherever it’s located ( underseat if your ride a Roadglide).  Be sure to wire the gadget to the bike’s ignition switch aux source. You’ll find the unit turns off/on automatically as you turn on/off the bike’s ignition. No need to switch on/off the actual unit. 

Therefore there’s no chance of leaving it on and draining the battery.

 Worry about any emergency that might occur while on riding tour? Tom Tom Rider (paired with your Bluetooth enabled helmet headset and mobile phone) lets you  call  hands-free. And with  “help” buttons to show you the nearest police station, garage and hospital.

Tom Tom Rider gives you a manageable way of keeping on top of it all.

What's in the Box

TomTomRider

USB cable 2.0 for PC connection

USB port

Documentation

    Charging bike dock

   RAM mounting kit

  Specifications

  4.3″ (11 cm) 16:9 Resistive screen

  Screen resolution of 480 x 272 pixels

Item Weight	1.3 pounds
Product Dimensions	5.1 x 2.1 x 4 inches

Why a dedicated motorcycle gps  is  better  than  smartphones as a navigation unit.

In this day and age, smartphones are increasingly becoming indispensable. We use it to take pictures,to listen to music,  to take calls, to send messages, to play video games,  to take videos, to monitor our workouts and to use as alarm clocks. And with the influx of navigation apps available ( featuring seamless map updates and integrated traffic alerts) it has become a gps navigation gadget as well. No wonder, smartphones are considered as the modern day digital swiss army knives.

But consider this:

Many bikers think  a smartphone propped on your handlebars is just too small to glance at while rolling. The ipad on the other hand, is too large. A standalone gps unit like the Tom Tom rider is just perfect in size. There are also other many things to consider like:

-The battery life of a smartphone is too limited.

-If you take or make calls on your smartphone, your navigation session is paused until you get off the phone. Motorcyclists don’t want to miss an exit so they rather not take the call and be distracted. That is not a problem with stand alone gps unit.

-If your smartphone stops working and it needs to be sent in for repairs. Or got lost or stolen. You will be left without communication and navigation tool.  This is an issue with convergence gadgets- anything you rely on to do multiple tasks.

A standalone gps navigation device like the Tom Tom Rider is lendable. You can lend it to someone traveling out of town in unfamiliar places to access turn by turn directions, lane assists and access thousands if not millions of biker-related points of interests. Using a non-wireless gps gadget is a breeze.

Buy The Best GPS Navigation Device For You

Shop carefully and know exactly what it is you want in a dedicated motorcycle gps. All  motorcycle gps are not created equal. Some are capable than others. So do you want:

- Display on elevation or fuel price options?

-Voice prompts that will tell you the actual street names?

- Internal hard drives to hold maps or storage on sd or cf (compact flash) cards?

- A unit with internal power or the one  with 12 volt battery power?

-To upload routes with waypoints from a computer?

-Do you want to mount the device using a  Ram mount, u-bolt or  mounts made by Touratech ?

- To auto-route?

- Built in list of fuel stops, Atms, restaurants, hostelries, hospitals, police stations, garages, parking lots and even parks and museums

-The device’s compatible software to interface easily with Google maps and Google earth?

-To share your custom routes in many formats?

Always remember… before plunking down a considerable chunk  of cash, know what you want and prioritize.

To stay safe always remember to do this.

And one last teeny-weeny bit before  starting your long motorcycle hiatus , before hopping on the lean, mean and shining machine of yours.

When you finally get your brand new spanking TomTom Rider out of the box, be sure to do the all the encoding before departing. It is easy to get distracted on the cool new touch screen and menu buttons on this gadget. They take your eyes and focus more than it should while you are on the road. And its dangerous.  

So be vigilant. If you must do a quick recalculation, stop…pull over a safe area and do a snappy reprogramming or cancelling. Also be sure to mount the device slightly out of the  main driving sight lines and instrumentation.

The Tom Tom Rider is more than just a gps navigation device for bikers. It is their lifeline to friends, families and colleagues. It can turn a boring Sunday afternoon into roller-coaster ride. It can lead to you to unheard of hotspots. It can make you a trailblazer,  leading a pack of warriors on two-wheels. You can forge a whole new range of possibilities at your fingertips. Get a Tom Tom Rider now. Click Here.
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