Don’t get lost this summer
Added on Monday, July 7th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Sat Nav systems are replacing the traditional A-Z.
The summer is here and the first thing on your mind is hitting the road on your pride and joy, but do you actually know where you are going?
With the road network ever expanding and town councils coming up with increasingly baffling one-way systems, satellite navigation systems have enjoyed a massive rise in popularity in recent years.
Until recently, this technology was a luxury reserved for car drivers and those with big budgets, but today motorcyclists are now able to enjoy the benefits of satellite navigation thanks to a series of dedicated portable devices costing a fraction of the price of the integrated systems offered by most car manufacturers.
Here at Insidebikes, we look at products from two of the market leaders in the world of portable satellite navigation aimed specifically at making motorcycle touring that much easier.
US-based Garmin and Dutch company TomTom have established themselves as leading names in mobile navigation.
Garmin, having previously provided GPS devices to the US military during the 1991 Gulf War, have an estimated 50% of the American market whilst TomTom are the biggest selling name of “sat nav” systems in the UK, so both companies certainly know what they are doing when it comes to guiding people around.
But what do we make of the two rival products? Well, let’s start with TomTom and their offering, the Rider V2.
TomTom’s latest device is not the company’s first foray into the world of motorcycle navigation systems. The V2 is, as the name might suggest, a development on the initial Rider which received rave reviews when it was launched in 2005 as the first and only dedicated motorcycle GPS system.
The Rider takes its inspiration from TomTom’s hugely popular in-car systems, the One and Go series and in essence, all the firm has done is tweaked those models to suit the biking market.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with that approach. The 3.5in colour touch-screen gives the user the option of either a birds-eye or top-down view of their route and automatically zooms in and out to give a clearer view of junctions and the route ahead.
A customisable information bar at the bottom of the screen offers the rider with an estimated time of arrival, current speed, distance to travel and a warning of the next manoeuvre ahead.
Voice commands are transmitted via Bluetooth to the included earpiece, which sits snugly inside most helmets to give audible instructions throughout the route.
There are plenty of little features though which suggest that TomTom have really thought hard about this product and they’ve avoided the common mistake of thinking that riding a bike is the same as riding a car. The menu for instance has been simplified so that it can be programmed even whilst wearing gloves and the unit is waterproof to IPX7 standards, meaning that it will still work even if you submerse it under 1m of water for around half an hour. Certainly enough to handle the worst that the British weather can throw at you!
A major selling point for navigation units these days, the Rider also features a comprehensive UK speed camera database which provides an audible forewarning of any known fixed speed camera location within the UK. This sat nav doesn’t only keep you on track; it can help you hold on to your licence and keep your motorcycle insurance premiums down as well!
It can also keep you away from the traffic, thanks to TomTom’s GPRS traffic updates service. For a monthly fee, you can download traffic updates through your mobile phone, allowing the Rider to reroute you around any hold-ups, road closures or accidents.
Another feature worth making note of is TomTom’s unique ‘Mapshare’ system, which allows users to notify each other of changes in the road which haven’t yet been mapped. So, if that mini-roundabout has just been installed or your local council has made the road outside your office into a one-way street, you can inform the rest of the world about it and download each other’s amendments.
The rider is available in two packages, with the £349.99* entry level model boasting UK street level mapping likely to be the most popular whilst tourers may prefer to invest in the Western Europe model for an extra £50 - not a bad investment given that country-by-country maps can retail at around £70 each*
In many regards, the Garmin Zumo 550 shares many of the TomTom’s strong points.
Whilst looking more rugged than its European rival, the Garmin is larger than the TomTom by only a matter of millimetres and weighs slightly less. It features the same 3.5in colour touch screen, European mapping (a UK only version is available elsewhere in the Zumo series) and the map view is very similar as well.
Like the Rider, it also comes with a menu interface which is designed with bikers in mind, its waterproof to the same standards and it also comes loaded with a speed camera database so that you won’t have to dread your next bike insurance quote for having points on your licence.
But the Garmin does do a few things differently, most notably when it comes to traffic updates.
The Rider uses the GPRS system in your mobile, subject to a subscription to the service. The downside is that on top of the monthly fee, you could also (depending on your mobile phone tariff) get hit with a hefty bill for mobile data downloads and so that time saved on the roads could well hit you in the pocket.
The Zumo does things slightly differently. Instead of a subscription system, users can buy an optional TMC (Traffic Message Channel) receiver which fits to the unit.
Then, instead of relying on costly mobile phone downloads, the user is updated at no extra charge via data streams transmitted the RDS FM radio network (think of how your car radio automatically tunes to the local BBC station during traffic updates and you’ll be on the right lines). The Zumo then acts on this data and plans your route where necessary.
And the downsides of the Zumo? Well, the 550 costs more than the Rider at an RRP of £359.99* although it does include maps of Western Europe and, whilst the unit is Bluetooth compatible, it doesn’t come with a Bluetooth headset in the box. Garmin claim that the unit will work with most Bluetooth earpieces already on the market however, so it should still work with your existing ear piece.
* Prices correct at time of going to press.
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