New Sat Nav

[Ali and Gail]

Motorbike Sat navs are more money than a car one and I can see 2 benefits. Firstly there water proof but more importantly they have "Twisty, hilly, windy road" feature.

Has anyone got one, used that feature, are they worth the extra money?

[Andy Banks]

IMHO, yes 

I have a TomTom Rider;  winding routes is great but check it first as it WILL add in roads that ONLY a bike should be sent down! Otherwise, given the outdoorness of our travels, it works a treat. I have mine ram-mounted on the bar that runs behind the dash with a cut out for the ram mount arm on the dash (yes it's still hardboard so what do I care).

[Ali and Gail]

9 minutes ago, Andy Banks - Chairman said:

IMHO, yes 

I have a TomTom Rider;  winding routes is great but check it first as it WILL add in roads that ONLY a bike should be sent down! Otherwise, given the outdoorness of our travels, it works a treat. I have mine ram-mounted on the bar that runs behind the dash with a cut out for the ram mount arm on the dash (yes it's still hardboard so what do I care).

That's the one I'm looking at the Tom Tom Rider.

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Hi Ali.

I looked at the TomTom Rider but decided on a Garmin 595LM.

Only has it a couple of weeks but so far seems a brilliant piece of kit.

Well suited to a Westfield and touring so far.

[Ali and Gail]

1 minute ago, Geoffrey (Buttercup) - North Yorkshire AO said:

Hi Ali.

I looked at the TomTom Rider but decided on a Garmin 595LM.

Only has it a couple of weeks but so far seems a brilliant piece of kit.

Well suited to a Westfield and touring so far.

Hi mate, is that a bike or car one?

[Andy Banks]

Just now, Ali and Gail said:

Hi mate, is that a bike or car one?

Bike.

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

9 minutes ago, Ali and Gail said:

Hi mate, is that a bike or car one?

It has different settings so you can change it for different vehicles and also surfaces.

I have had TomTom’s for years but this really is a serious bit of kit.

[Kingster]

Yes. Bike ones are better for our cars for the reasons mentioned. I have Garmin Zumo. Great bit of kit. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

You don’t need Riders to get the windy roads feature. It’s present on quite a few of the Sat Navs now.

The Go 5xx and 6xx Series, programmable from the on line Tom Tom My Drive facility have it and I’m sure quite a few other models do.

It has different levels of setting, if you change your routes from fastest to “thrill” you’ll find you have a twistiness setting with three levels available, and a hilly/mountainous terrain setting, again, with three levels of extreme ness available.

you need to have a care for the level of extreme ness you select though! I tried the maximums once, and four hours later, I’d covered about a quarter of the way to a destination normally only an hour away, and had to turn back, out of time! It found some great bits of road, but really twisty, is really twisty!

To be fair, the Riders shouldn’t really send bikes down roads like that, as roads to twisty for Westfields are utterly crap for fast bikes. But the Riders, when I last looked into them a few years ago, did suffer a little bit from being on the older mapping software to preserve compatibility with Tyre softwares route planning system via Tom Tomas old itinerary files.

The good thing, is that the GO’s with the My Drive functionality all have the new equivalent off the route and track planning and recording facilities, so you can do all that without having to have a Rider.

The latest Riders May have already moved to these maps though, if they list My Drive comparability they have!!

Check on what Audio options the current Rider has, again, it’s a few years back, but I gave up in the end last time, cause they all seemed to be Bluetooth to headsets only, with no audio out jack and no built in speaker. (And they were allegedly picky about which Bluetooth head sets they’d sync to if you wanted the full functionality.)

[Onliest Smeg David]

I have a Samsung S7 which is waterproof, and I run the Tom Tom app which I've been very impressed with. Around £30 for 3 years - bargain compared with a dedicated Sat Nav.

Also use free app called Ways which is great for fun / country routes incuding just asking it for a circular blat within parameters you set.