Reviews and Opinions about Rider 550 — TomTom Community

Pre-sales Questions- Product Specification & Features

Reviews and Opinions about Rider 550

cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
edited November 2020 in Pre-sales Questions- Product Specification & Features
hi all, living in spain there are some great roads and routes to explore here and portugal. I am thinking of getting the latest tomtom 550 for my motorcycle. Would like to ask your opinions on the device and is it worth buying over the sat nav on a mobile phone like google maps for example. Would very much appreciate your views and oinions. Cheers

Comments

  • lampardlampard Posts: 5,084 Moderator
    Thoughts anyone? @RoadRider @kieron @Ste7ios @YamFazMan :)
  • RoadRiderRoadRider Posts: 634 [Revered Pioneer]
    The reason why I like my Rider 550 over a mobile phone are.
    • Ease of use. The only thing a Rider 550 can do is navigation and there are no unnecessary options that make it hard to use.
    • Easier to operate with gloves
    • Stability. (After enabling rotation lock the Rider 550 is verry stable.)
    • Easer to disable irritating popups like phone calls, sms and WhatsApp. And when you need it you can turn it on.
    • More rugged design, it’s made for motorcycle use. Waterproof. No camera that breaks due to the vibrations as with many telephones.
    • Good mounting system with waterproof power connection.
    • Best traffic information on the marked.
    • Winding routing and Adventures routing make it verry easy to find the nice and small curvy and hilly motorcycle roads.
    • Verry easy to load Tracks from your PC using MyDrive.
    • Automatic recalculation back to your track when you take a different route. (regardless of the fact that this requires some practice when avoiding roadworks.)

    Downside
    • Not possible to use the TomTom Rider for off-road tracks. (Your track will always be mapped to known accessible streets on the TomTom Map)
    • Just navigation not a Swiss Army knife like your phone with many apps.
  • kieronkieron Posts: 436
    Superusers
    Hi there cbrfireblade -

    I have been extremely pleased with my Rider 500 rather than using a mobile phone as a Sat Nav and found it to be very reliable and of sturdy build quality. The Rider has a slide mount which is also complemented by using a quality RAM fitment accessory.
    I generally use it mainly for single stop destinations in the UK rather than itinerary routing and if the device is not wired to the bikes electrical system, I can vouch for the claimed 5/6 hours built in battery runtime which can be very useful in various unwired situations/vehicles.

    Unfortunately, the MyDrive app on iPhones running iOS 13+ (Apple changed the Bluetooth permissions) does not currently allow traffic data and calls/texts to pass through the app to work on the device effectively, so if using an iPhone, pairing directly from the Rider to the iPhone would be required for calls and traffic data and if this applies to you, there are a quite a few postings and solutions on the forum regarding the iOS/Bluetooth/MyDrive connection issue.
    I use a Sena 5s headset, iPhone 7 Plus connected without paring through the MyDrive app with no problems.

    Lastly, lifetime traffic (excellent which is unmatched) and lifetime updated quarterly maps are very important for me and I tend to update the Rider’s maps whilst connected to the iMac via MyDrive Connect rather than through the Rider’s built in WiFi as I find this downloads a lot quicker.


  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    Hi guys, thanks for your comments very helpful. Just a couple of points 1, my bike is a 2018 honda fireblade and have been told the mount that you get with the device when purchased will not fit onto a sports bike because the handle bar is not round, do you know where I can get a mount for a 2018 fireblade to use the tomtom devices. 2, my phone is android powered samsung, will that be ok for data and internet connection for traffic, speed cameras etc. Lastly do they make a rider device with built in sim card like my 6200 in my car. Cheers and safe riding.
  • YamFazManYamFazMan Posts: 18,381
    Superusers
    edited November 2020
    Hi
    @cbrfireblade
    Welcome to the site....
    cbrfireblade wrote: »
    (Snip) Lastly do they make a rider device with built in SIM card like my 6200 in my car. Cheers and safe riding.
    Sorry NO Built-in SIM....
    Data is through Smartphone....
    Apple iPhone or Android Smartphone....

    Stay Safe... ATB YFM
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    H yamfazman. Thanks for your reply, if I cant use my samsung android phone for data with regards to traffic and speed cameras then there is no point in spending 400 euros. Will use my phone for Waze. I dont understand why they cant make it with built in sim with WiFi like my 6200.
  • kieronkieron Posts: 436
    Superusers
    Hi cbrfireblade -

    I have used a RAM Motorcycle Fork Stem Mount with 1” Ball kit part no. RAM-B-342 on my bike.
    ze5yg2x2sz41.jpeg
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    thanks kieron, will check that out.
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    YamFazMan wrote: »
    Hi
    @cbrfireblade
    Welcome to the site....
    cbrfireblade wrote: »
    (Snip) Lastly do they make a rider device with built in SIM card like my 6200 in my car. Cheers and safe riding.
    Sorry NO... Data is through Smartphone....

    Stay Safe... ATB YFM

    thanks yamfazman, so if the devise does not use data from my phone how does the devise connect to the internet for traffic and speed cameras. Just trying to find these things out before I go and spend 400 euros.
  • RoadRiderRoadRider Posts: 634 [Revered Pioneer]
    The Rider will load Traffic Data using a Bluetooth connection with your Phone. So your phone will use (4G) data. This will be less than 1 MB/hour driving.

    Normaly the the Rider uses a Bluetooth Smart connection with the MyDrive app on your phone to get traffic updates.
    As an alternative you can use a Bluetooth tethering connection with your phone tl setup a PAN to get traffic.
    updates.

    At home WiFi will be used.
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    thanks roadrider, so my samsung android galaxy j5 which has bluetooth should be ok for this device.
  • RoadRiderRoadRider Posts: 634 [Revered Pioneer]
    Galaxy J5 has Android 7 so It must be compatible with the Rider 550.
  • YamFazManYamFazMan Posts: 18,381
    Superusers
    edited November 2020
    Hi
    @cbrfireblade
    Sorry for the confusion....
    I've edited my post for clarity.....
    Here... https://discussions.tomtom.com/en/discussion/comment/1732842/#Comment_1732842

    Stay Safe... ATB YFM
  • kieronkieron Posts: 436
    Superusers
    Hi cbrfireblade -

    If you don’t require worldwide mapping that the Rider 550 has and would like to make a quick saving, the Rider 500 which has european maps is currently being offered on A*A*O* at an extremely good discount. (£288) =)
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    Thats a point Kieron, I live in Spain and my bike is the 2018 honda fireblade so maps of europe would be sufficient.
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    just looked at tomtom.es kieron and the 500 and 550 are the same price 400 euro and the 550 premium pack is 500 euro
  • kieronkieron Posts: 436
    Superusers
    Just make sure it is the Europe 49 Countries version and not the Europe 23 Countries as that model is the Rider 50.


  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    just checked tomtom.es kieron and it says the 500 maps of europe has coverage 52 countries, traffic 19 and speed cameras 19. have not compared that to the 550 but they are same price 400 euro.
  • cbrfireblade cbrfireblade Posts: 46 [Renowned Trailblazer]
    just looked and the 550 world maps has more coverage for traffic and speed cameras both same price 400 euro.
  • Ste7iosSte7ios Posts: 752
    Superuser
    I think RoadRider covered it completely. Personally the main advantage is ease of use and that I can pre-plan the routes on the computer using tools like MyRoute-App and then transfer them to the Rider.

    Have in mind that no solution is perfect. Maps have errors (so careful pre-planning is always a good idea at least when traveling) and there can be problems with Bluetooth.

    That doesn’t decrease the value of a navigational device. They’re valuable partners to our riding.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Who's Online in this Category0