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rider vs zumo
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ninjabika
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:25 pm    Post subject: rider vs zumo Reply with quote

hi-ya all


can anyone offer me an opinion as to which is the best unit to get, i currently have a quest 1 for the bike which i'm looking at replacing, i know it basically does what is needed but i want a bigger screen and inputting adresses is too long winded.

i have a tomtom 1 xl for the car so i don't need any dual purpose mounts (also got a nokia n95 but aint tried the gps on that yet).

would still like to plan and view routes on the pc and ideally have europe coverage as next summer we are hoping to take the blackbird abroad

any words of wisdom please, also any ideas on price and what do you get in the box please


martin
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FazerUK
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the TomTom Rider had all the extra what the zumo get, I would say the Rider, but tomtom cut it too short in my opinion. I would go for the zumo but its too expensive when you compare it to the rider.

The better unit is the zumo by far
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Tim Buxton
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In short (and in my opinion), the Garmin wins easily in the off-device planning stakes but I'm not sure what FazerUK is referring to as regards the extras.

Briefly, Garmin Mapsource, which is the PC application, allows you to create routes quite easily, and then transfer them to the device. The device doesn't have to be connected during the planning stage and the application will run in full-screen.

TomTom HOME requires the device to be connected and switched on even during the planning stage and only runs as a 'virtual device'; that is you get a 3.5" screen to work with.

The RIDER comes in two flavours, regional and European, and you get maps to suit.

zumo comes in three flavours. The top of the range 550 has European maps (with a wider coverage than the TomTom) Text to speech. However, whilst it comes with a carmount, it has no m/c headset, so that's an extra cost you'll incur if you want voice commands on a bike.

The RIDER comes with a Scala Rider headset which I've found to be pretty good for voice instructions upto around 70mph and I have held telephone calls at 40 or so, and I use earplugs.

You can also get Traffic data on the TomTom (via a subscription) and both models support the PGPSW $afety camera database.
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ninjabika
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hi-ya

thanks for the reply's, does the zumo or the tomtom come with any audio out connections so it can be connected to an autocomm at all


martin
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Tim Buxton
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ninjabika wrote:
hi-ya

thanks for the reply's, does the zumo or the tomtom come with any audio out connections so it can be connected to an autocomm at all


martin


The zumo has jacks on the mount for audio and mic, as well as mini USB and GTM module. The RIDER has none of these. Well, it has a mini USB port on the device but that isn't available when it's in the bike mount.
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ninjabika
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

also i know there was problems with the original rider regarding the mount, so which one's got the most secure mount ????
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Tim Buxton
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ninjabika wrote:
also i know there was problems with the original rider regarding the mount, so which one's got the most secure mount ????


Apparently both TomTom and zumo owners are mentioning that the contacts are wearing on the mounts. As for security, the Rider clicks into its mount with a healthy clunk but the zumo goes one better in that it has a lever-type mechanism which can then be fixed down with a security screw. You get the screwdriver in the box and I have mine attached to my earplug box. This is handy as it means that you don't have to remove the GPS when going to pay for fuel, for instance, although it would only deter an opportunist thief who only has a few seconds, I think.
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FazerUK
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The extra is the MP3 player stuff like what on the tomtom 720 and not the rider
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Tim Buxton
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, OK. I must admit that I was expecting an mp3 player on the RIDER2, but it never materialised. Maybe with V7.....?
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Redkite2
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've used the 1st version of the Rider voor almost 2 years and 2 weeks ago bought a Zumo 550 more on impulse than anything. I felt ripped off over the years by TomTom, the holder and mount were useless and I couldn't ever get it to charge on the bike.
So I thought, get the Zumo, can plan routes using mapsource, use it as an MP3 player (when I get a headset, just using the original TomTom one at the mo). Did I do the right thing? - I'm sort of wishing I'd gone for the Rider 2 now.
First off: the Zumo does the job - it gets you there, it looks good, the holder and mount seem good, but haven't wired it in yet or been out in the wet.
But then: Map clarity and contrast on the TT are 10 times better. You can change colour sets on the TT. Map updating when approaching turns on top of each other is faster on the TT and much clearer. The font used in the Zumo map makes text looks like a kid wrote it with chalk. The voices on the Zumo aren't clear en street name pronunciation is pitifull. And you can't change anything on the Zumo.
The Rider shows what your next move will be in a graphic (like 1st exit at roundabout. The Zumo has a bar at the top of the screen that tells you to turn right into (streetname) etc in text form. OK if you've got time to read text and don't need reading glasses. You can't disable this either. Plus it stops you from seeing further ahead on the map. And there's lots of other niggles too, mainly over the lack of configurability.
It does some things the TT can't like the fuel odometer that pops up the nearest gas stations when the pre defined limit kicks in.
Again, it does the job, a lot is obviously down to personal preference but I just can't help thinking maybe I should have gone for the Rider2...
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FazerUK
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Rider2 should of had what the TT 720 has but with blue tooth headset and come with a car mount and speaker in the mount and FM transmitter to radio
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Tarby777
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tim Buxton wrote:

TomTom HOME requires the device to be connected and switched on even during the planning stage and only runs as a 'virtual device'; that is you get a 3.5" screen to work with.


Indeed, and it is poo. But just so as the OP gets to hear about it, that's not the only way to do it. The TTR2 appears as a USB drive to Windows, and any route-planning software that writes TT-format itineraries can plonk a file in the relevant folder. My personal choice is to construct the route in Google Earth by plonking a series of waypoints down. The fab free TYRE software, running in the background, grabs Google Earth waypoints for its own use and has a "Send to Tomtom" button. Piece of cake Smile
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chrisdhall
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've had a Zumo 550 for about 6 months and on the whole I like (I had a Navigon4/PDA system before), there are niggles with it.

Because Zumo is a US product, it always announces the road name if one is assigned to the road. So for example it will tell you to "turn left on the North Orbital Road" Nowhere on the "North Orbital Road" is this road name displayed. So you need to look at the map screen and check until your reach it, that you have arrived at the road/junction that you need. In actual fact the North Orbital Road is the A414. If Zumo announced the road number, which is displayed on all the road signs, this would be SO much easier. If the road doesn't have a name, like the A1 near me, then Zumo announces the road number. All it would require is a reversal of the current logic. I mailed Garmin about it, but no response so far.

Mapsource takes some getting use to, but once sorted its quite powerful. The downside is that in Mapsource you can instruct the routing to avoid a road, but this is function not recognised by the Zumo

Bluetooth is good, the only problem I've had is that I can't use voice dialing on my Nokia 6300, I have to use the contacts list manually from the Zumo.


I looked at the Rider 2 - once you get past the flashy map graphics, the Zumo is better IMHO

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bigrog
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recently bought the Zumo 550 because I wanted to plan routes, and all that I had read said that Mapsource was the clincher between Garmin and TomTom. However compared with Google maps and some of the smart free utilities based on it, then Mapsource is a clunky bit of software. If you are looking for certain types of terrain such as mountains, then you have to look at Google maps or a paper map to get an idea. Waypoint insertion using the route tool does a recalculate after each waypoint is fixed, which if you are sprinkling them in to force a route, becomes a very time consuming process. The search engine for addresses is very poor, an ability to find names that are close in spelling or ‘sounds like’ seems not to be there. I found that the address has to be exactly as it is in the database, which is often not the same as that given by an organisation on the internet. Even if you have the correct address, you may need to get at it from different approaches such as the town, country, post code, etc before it will concede that it knows it. This problem is the same in the Zumo itself.

As for the unit, I used it with the Scala Rider 2 Bluetooth headset. Incidentally I bought them from ‘mynewcheap’ because they were in fact the cheapest. But if you buy them bundled it is more expensive than buying them separately. The rep I spoke to about this thought it was funny, but I call it sharp practice. The combination worked very well, although at speed with earplugs, the voice was difficult to hear. However if a manoeuvre is coming up there is the onscreen indication and as you slow the instruction is repeated. I didn’t use the phone since it seemed that at times it caused the Garmin to drop the connection to the headset. This still happened though, so maybe it wasn’t the phone. The unit performed very well, it is easy to use with gloves on, and I can vouch that it is waterproof.

Most of my complaints are to do with niggley design things that could be put right. I have mentioned the search engine, but another issue is that the lady does not get up very well in the morning and after having set the route, she invariably says “drive to the indicated road”, which is invariably off screen. I had to drive around in circles for a bit before she would get frustrated enough to recalculate and start giving out proper directions. I found no other way that I could force her to do it at the outset. It happened because her idea of where the start address was located and the actual location varied quite a lot, particularly in Sicily. When planning the route I found that Garmin and Google were often at variance, and on one occasion I used the Google geo-coordinates which turned out to be wrong also. I noticed that sometimes the unit would show me as driving in the fields, then it would suddenly snap the map to my location. It could be that these automatic correction factors caused address errors, I guess it depends whether the map is adjusted to fit the coordinates, or the coordinates are adjusted to fit the map.

Giving out street names seems like a good idea, but usually names aren’t visible so it doesn’t help, still they are mostly all doing the same now. It would be nice if the road number was given as well. At a crossroads which is at an oblique angle, she would tell me to keep left or right depending on the direction of approach, when she really meant go straight on. When editing a route in the unit, it was not possible to change the route avoidance criteria before it recalculated, I had to come back out about four levels of menu to do this. If you ask it to recalculate after you have made these changes, it doesn’t because it thinks that it has already done so. There are work arounds, or you need to think out each step before doing them, but a bit of extra usability in the menus would be nice.

Perhaps the biggest pain is the itsy weeny screw driver thingy that you get to lock the unit to its cradle. It has a small hole at the top to put it on my thick BMW key ring, and it has a screw on cap presumably so that the screw driver bit does not put a hole in your pocket. First trip and this had vibrated off never to be seen again, which is just as well because I would have thrown the fiddely thing anyway. Since the top does not articulate on the key ring, I had to turn the whole set of keys to undo the screw (about four or five turns). This was impossible so I ended up keeping the screw driver in a bag in my pocket. My near sight isn’t that good so I needed to fumble for my glasses to even see the itsy screw head, doing it in the dark is again almost impossible. It doesn’t seem like much but going through the rigmarole twice at each stop got my goat and I suspect the designer has never had to do it. Why oh why can’t they use a simple key lock built into the base?

I found the screen clear and bright with sufficient controls for me to customise it. However the night mode loses all the little side roads which are essential to gauge the road she wants you to take in a town. This is because the distance countdown lags the actual position sufficiently to cause confusion when turnings are close together. I turned off the automatic mode and left it on day time setting since it is easy to lower the brightness while going along if it is too much at night.

Do I like it? Well it is probably the best on balance, it did the job and I am sure they all have their problems when you get to use them. I just hope that the Garmin designers listen and make changes down the line, which are mostly to do with software.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the clock was an hour behind all over the continent and there was no way I could find to correct this.
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Tim Buxton
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bigrog wrote:
Edit: I forgot to mention that the clock was an hour behind all over the continent and there was no way I could find to correct this.
You set the clock in 'Locale'. We are Western European Time (WET) and France, etc. is CET.
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