TomTom have carved a great position for themselves as the champion of aftermarket SatNav in Europe and their motorbike enabled effort, the Rider was highly anticipated. It builds upon the technology developed for in car use and uses the same core application with the abstract mapping layer which enables TomTom to select map data providers with ease. Inside the smoothed shell of the Rider beats the heart of a Linux OS and the now proven TomTom code.

What makes the Rider stand out from the crowd was soon apparent to the Stig as he rummaged around in the box looking for all the "extras" that are normally lacking from most motorcycle systems. Much to his surprise and delight all the bits required were there, from the mounting kit, power cables and earpiece, no need to head back to the shop for an essential part.

Clamping the Dutch SatNav unit to the Stig's Fireblade was always going to be a challenge even for an intellect as big as his. Ignoring the fact it spoils the clean style lines of the blade (his words not ours) it's not easy to find somewhere practical to mount it. From all of the mounting brackets shipped with the unit, the sticky-back pad would have to be used on the blade. Which isn't a problem however he temporarily lashed it up on the bike (we won't say how), as he didn't want to have the hassle of removing the pad and risk the paint work. However there is an obvious place for it at the top of the tank. We think it would be reasonable to say that GPS units are more likely to be used on your "tourer" style bike, rather than a race-style bike, hence the Stig's problems.

With the unit safely if rather unorthodoxly mounted on the Stig's blade he completed a number of test routes and came back very happy with the navigation and planning ability of his new technical partner. Directions are both visual (although these are tricky to read on bike) and also audible via an ear piece which connects Bluetooth to the unit.

Route entry is possible using everything from a full postcode to address and many options in between like city centre and POI's, however out test Stig noted that the touch screen is really rather tricky to use when wearing gloves and that your destination is best programmed indoors before you setout. The overall UI is very well laid out as we'd expect from Tom Tom and the screen is excellent with it's little cowl and bright backlight. All the usual software options are there with things like POI warnings and the ability to avoid roadblocks and reroute.

While the TT Rider got our Stig safely between A and B multiple times and with good directions he did note a number of downsides. Firstly the ear-piece cable. This feels quite delicate, and we know it wouldn't take the Stig long to break it (with a yank when taking his helmet off and forgetting to unplug it). A common solution to this (for bike-to-bike comms units for instance), it is a thicker curly cable similar to the style of cable between desk phone and it's handset.

Stig also commented that he had to resort to the manual to locate the power button, this is not only well hidden but tough to operate in gloved hands and is very stiff due to it's waterproofing. Plus we had to stop him ranting about the fact that there is a car kit (which is useful) and how he'd really like to use the Rider in his car but the car kit has no speaker. On this point we have to agree, the car kit is nothing more than a holding and charger combination and using the earpiece in the car is plain daft.

We do have to question the hands free calling ability of the Rider, while it works the Stig and indeed all motorcyclists we have spoken to insist that making a call on a bike is both impractical due to road noise and also unsafe. In the words of the Stiggy "even with all your concentration on the road, it's all too easy to ride into the side of a fiat Punto" and he knows!

All these points sound like our Test Stig didn't like the tomtom rider, but this couldn't be further from the truth. With the unit properly mounted it is one of the few useable and fully featured SatNav systems for bikes. Our test device is pre loaded with the latest UK maps which include many of the more recent road building schemes and combined with the internal 5 hour battery you could even avoid having to run the power cable.

After a week on the road with the Rider the Stig gave it the big thumbs up, he was impressed with the quality of the navigation both inroutes selected and also in the suitability of the instructions for a bike rider. For the price it may seem initially expensive at £399 but when you consider you get every extra (even a carry pouch) for this amount it makes for great value. Lastly the key question would the I.T. Stig spend his own cash on the TomTom Rider Motorbike GPS system, in short yes, well at least after he has bought some carpet tiles?

Published - 22/07/2006

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