From Garmin 2720 to Tom Tom Rider?

[avigar]

Looking for a second GPS to use with the FJR. My wife has laid claim to my 2720 for use on her minivan. I'll be looking for a replacement GPS when riding season starts. Will I be happy going from the 2720 to the Tom Tom Rider? No frills required such as MP3 or XM radio; just the basics such as pre-loaded maps and no hard drive.

 

[tontofjr]

The maps look totally different but not in a bad way, the voice directions are not as good but still adequate.

I have just changed from Tomtom to garmin and both have their benifits.

Not much help is it

 

[04FJR4ME]

The maps look totally different but not in a bad way, the voice directions are not as good but still adequate.I have just changed from Tomtom to garmin and both have their benifits.

There is ONE BIG difference that you may not know about, TomTom with TA mapping software in NA is inferior to the NavTeq mapping software. Now the TomTom rider with the NavTeq software, it actually performs much better then the other TomTom's that is available for the automobile market.

The TomTom Rider seems to process much faster and offer better routing due to the NavTeq software which is also utilized by Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance etc.

If you did not test the TomTom Rider side by side with a TomTom 700, a Garmin 2720, C340, Nuvi 350, you will not know the difference, but there are alot of issues that is in the normal TomTom 700 that is not found in the new TomTom Rider.

TomTom makes the unit simple, sometimes to simple, it does not offer to much verbal commands or information and it does not tell you which side of the street the address is on when it arrives. There is no POI address when selecting POI's and you can't chose the City that the POI is in.

But it does have Bluetooth handsfree phone feature and traffic and weather information if you utilize their TomTom Plus optiion features.

The TomTom Rider is design for a motorcycle, and we ride motorcycles. So I would guess for what is worth it is a good unit for most.

Just my 2 cents worth by I have ALL the GPS units that is mentioned here to compare with, including some GPS units that is not yet available in the market, so when I say I compare these units, I really test the differences and see the issues and the benifits.

 

[JimV]

But it does have Bluetooth handsfree phone feature and traffic and weather information if you utilize their TomTom Plus optiion features.

The traffic and weather that you can get through their Plus services are very interesting. In order to get the same thing with Garmin would be VERY expensive as far as I can tell. It looks to me as if with Garmin, you can get traffic either with XM on the 2730 or with RDS on the 2720 and some other models. There are subscription costs for all of them.

It looks as if, with TomTom, you just use your GPRS phone. I have a couple of questions:

1. Does the link between the phone and the TomTom have to be Bluetooth or could it be a cable? My Blackberry is GPRS enabled but it does not support the required bluetooth object profiles to be used as a modem over Bluetooth. This isn't really a deal killer since I could get a cheap GPRS enabled phone and just move my SIM card to that when I want to use the traffic and weather features. Since I have unlimited GPRS data, this method would be really cost effective if the service itself is cheap. BTW, all it would take is a wee bit of software to have an online satellite tracking service for your bike at this point. All that hard parts are done: The GPS and an IP link to the Internet.

2. Do they actually say anywhere how much the Plus services cost after the free trial period is over?

3. Is there any way to download the manual? I can't find one on their website.

I'm pretty psyched about the TomTom Rider. I may have to hook up with 04FJR4ME to see what kind of price I can get. I wrote off the Garmin 2730 because I want to use my Ipod and I really don't want to have to pay an annuity subscription to XM for traffic and radio. Plus, its a one way service. I think I may email TomTom to see if they have any plans to offer a locator service.

Cheers,

Jim