Tomtom Rider 400 or Garmin Zumo?

Sorry for the thread revival.

I've essentially got the same question as the OP only with Aldi's £200 offer on the Zumo 340LM it's a case of does the TomTom justify an extra 30% on the price tag???
 
You missed out on a deal last week where the rider 400 was £230-odd.

I went for the tomtom 400, however the rider 40 is more like the 340lm as that's western europe maps (not sure what the coverage is on the 340lm, the 400 has full european maps) and you get lifetime traffic and speed camera updates on the tomtom.
 
Ah man, don't tell me that now. :p
How does the traffic work? Does the TomTom connect to your phone for live updates?
 
Yep, and it's pretty good from what I've seen - the traffic appears in the right hand bar and it gives a distance to it and the delay, and it's accurate down to a few car lengths. Of course on a bike traffic is less of an issue and it will try to route you around that traffic - there isn't an option to 'ignore' traffic (unless I've missed it) so when riding I tend to leave it off. Would be very handy in a car though.
 
Sounds like the same thing in their mobile app. As you say it's pretty accurate from what I've found with their apps (much more so that Google or Apple maps) but it's pretty useless for a bike. When you say you leave it off, is there a setting to turn off the traffic feature or do you just not connect your phone? I'm assuming the speed cameras don't need your phones data connection?
Also, what's Tyre like?
Have you used the option that lets your plot a round route specifying key areas, twistyness and altitudeyness? (They are words honest...) Twisty roads I have used a few times from my phone via my intercom and tend to find it's pretty good if you don't select max twisty (hello dirt roads).
 
Who cares about traffic when you are on a bike?! Filtering funtimes! :D

I think I filtered for miles and miles in 4 lane motorway gridlock in Europe. Satisfying!

Speed/Safety camera database is all offline. Updated via the PC app.

Tyre is functional but SO VERY clunky in my opinion. Feels like a Windows XP application developed in the 90s. They have pretty much just replaced it with a new app it seems, costs money though.
 
gcaster said:
Sounds like the same thing in their mobile app. As you say it's pretty accurate from what I've found with their apps (much more so that Google or Apple maps) but it's pretty useless for a bike. When you say you leave it off, is there a setting to turn off the traffic feature or do you just not connect your phone? I'm assuming the speed cameras don't need your phones data connection?
Also, what's Tyre like?
Have you used the option that lets your plot a round route specifying key areas, twistyness and altitudeyness? (They are words honest...) Twisty roads I have used a few times from my phone via my intercom and tend to find it's pretty good if you don't select max twisty (hello dirt roads).
Click to expand...

Yeah the speed camera thing is offline, it's stored in the device like the maps, there's an update every week or 2.

Correct - I just don't connect my phone if I don't want traffic, you can answer calls via the tomtom but it's rare I get any when riding.

The 'plan a thrill' option is pretty good, it does a round trip and you add stops - you can re-order the stops on the device but you have to click on them in the order you want, which when you've done a 200 mile route on tyre with 40 stops (that's how tyre works, you place markers and the tomtom finds the route between these markers) and you want to add a single stop halfway in to stop the tomtom from choosing a side road when you want to stay on the main road, it's easier to add the stop in Tyre and re-uload the route rather than tapping on all 40 stops.

I've just tried a route putting 3 stops on a decent route than I know is good, and on the least windy option it's picked pretty much the exact route I would take. In Kent there's not many decent roads so somewhere with 'proper' roads it could well find you some hidden gems.

The maps can be a little slow the zoom/load etc, but nothing major and when you're riding it's not a problem. And there is a lack of detail on the maps - if someone ever made a satnav with proper google maps on it that would be incredible. As it is, you still need google maps to find stuff easier, hotels etc.

I don't mind Tyre at all, once you use it a bit it's very simple - just pick your route, place a marker - and if you need to fine tune the route by dragging it, it automatically adds in a marker for you.

Oh and battery life is great, I don't turn it off, I just put it to sleep when not using it - it's been sat on my shelf for about 3 weeks and the battery is at 50%.
 
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