Tom Tom Ride hard wiring
 

I bought a Tom Tom Rider last summer for a ride from the Maritimes across the USA. I hard wired the mount into battery on my BMW 1200GS but the unit always petered out around 6-7 hours. Makes me think that it was running off battery and that's limit. Any tricks with making sure the contact pins are good, or is there a quirk in my home-mechanic wiring job?

Had the same trouble with mine till I realised the contacts weren't making on the mount.
I tied an elastic band around the whole unit to tie it to the mount and it charged properly.
Will do till I can make something a bit better.

Tomtom Rider 1 or 2 ?
 

I asume that is with a Rider 1.
I have a Tomtom Rider 2 on my GoldWing GL1200 hard wired and that works fine. The Rider 2 has a much better mounting then a Rider 1. I realy like my Tomtom.

I know Touratech makes a mounting kit for the Tomtom Rider 1.
Maybe that would be a good solution ......... and a Touratech mount looks cool on a BMW GS too ;-)

The V1 has a known (to everyone except Tomtom) issue with the mounting wearing and then not connecting properly. Eventually they can get so worn that the unit will fall off, hence the lanyard. I've seen the Touratech mount on a mates bike and it looks like it does the job. From comments on other fora that seems to be the best solution. As jkrijt says they've improved the mount for the Rider 2 so they know it was a problem, but they don't seemt o willing to admit it to people who've had problems. There was a lot of ranting about it on the UKGSers site which might be usefull to you.

TT Rider
 

My Rider 1 is hard wired to my 1200GS and soon started switching itself off and on, owing to the rubber top mount flexing and allowing the contacts to part (on-road use only!), so I fitted the Wunderlich alloy bracket kit which reinforces the original mount rather than replacing it. Success, and cheaper then the Touratech item, lovely though it is!

Nippy Norman's, part no. WUN-8600880, £39. Locks it on to the mount too.

However my TTR1 goes on strike occasionally, just dead, won't switch on. Chuck it in the drawer, get it out a few days later, works perfectly! Anyone else had this?

I liked the Tom Tom until I bought a Garmin Zumo 550. Much better, plus superb bracket with proper RAM mounts. Did 2000 miles through Belgium and Germany in the summer no problem, and all round the Moroccan pistes last January in my 4x4 camper truck - 'cos it tracks you off-road too - with the (supplied) car windscreen bracket with built-in speaker. Prices have tumbled since last year so it's comparable with the Rider 2.

Nigel

If you look under the hatch where the USB and card slot are there's a little hole, it hides a reset switch, bung the end of a paper clip up there and bob's your aunties boyfriend. I find my V2 tends to need a reset if I switch it off while it's booting up.

Re tracking you offroad you can get some additional software for the tomtom that will turn it in to a conventional GPS rather than automotive satnav. Take a look at the Web Bazar site, they have an offroad utility that will give you range and bearing to next waypoint.

Cool, thanks for that, Rizzo! I thought the reset was just for if it starts misbehaving whilst switched on. It'll work perfectly one day then next time I get it out it's just dead. The next time after that it's fine again. I'll try the reset next time it does it (only twice so far in 12 months). And thanks for the offroad GPS link, I still use the TTR with my GS but have the Zumo on my other bike.

To be honest, when offroad in the truck (ie desert) I still use my old Garmin eMap and also have a Touratech bracket for it next to the TTR on the GS!

Nigel