K11 Owners Group

[Off the grid]

Few things going in:

I needed a replacement for my Magellon which sucked....lousy interface, bad controls so I picked up a reconditioned TomTom Rider for a little over 200 complete RAM bar mount, all wires, computer USB connection, SD card, the works.

1. The interface sucks and is difficult to read. Better at night but still bad. Some important data like trip length, current MPH and current time are so tiny you cannot see it without getting 6" from the unit.
2. The "Safety" feature that will not allow you most of the features when in the cradle sucks. If humans are so stupid that you need some sort of child proof mechanism to prevent you from crashing, then I'm not sure this feature will help you.
3. The cradle is perhaps the worst I have ever seen. From day one it never worked right, and as time went on required adjustments/trimming of plastic to get the 4 prongs to line up with the contacts on the back of the device. Sure the device itself has a 4-6hr battery life, but whats the point of hard-wiring it to the bike if it cannot get juice? Don't just take my word for it...Scott was in my garage working on it for over an hour with me. I also had to add double backed tape to make it fit solidly in the cradle. The final blow was 4 days ago on the Jackie Robinson Parkway I hit some potholes and the GPS flew out of the cradle and bounced down the road doing 60. Given the traffic and the hassle the GPS has given me I didn't even stop.

In short, this GPS sucks ass. Avoid at all costs. For anyone like me that just uses a GPS for going from point A to point B it's terrible. I don't need route planning, voice activation, Bluetoof, Geo catching and all that other erroneous bullshit.

I just need a big display that you can read that shows your current MPH, time to destination, next turn in miles and actual road.

That's it. The TomTom has a lot of features that I (and I am sure others) will never use, and they really missed the mark with the interface and cradle.

I think the bottom line is that if you want a good GPS you need to get a Garmin. I have 2 Garmins in my trucks that are awesome and have one of these on order for my bike:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=Garmin+Nuvi+500&hl=en&cid=8873831548712660489&sa=title#p

I should have gotten a Garmin in the first place but am a cheap bastard.
Lesson learned.
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Bane of your existence since July 2006
2007 Triumph Tiger ABS. "Sabertooth"
2009 Husqvarna TE610. "The dirty Italian mistress"

[Flying Duck]

1) I paid less than $100 for mine (plus another $40 for the TomTom mount and wiring. I can read it.

1.5) You can edit the color scheme to make it more readable.

1. I'm running some 3rd party freeware in the background which I can bring to the forefront which has a huge speedo reading. This software also automatically logs where I've been in in gpx format that I can load up on Google Earth or convert to other formats with GPS Babel.)

2) You can put a piece of electrical tape over one of the contacts on the back to disable the safety mode.

3) I use the TomTom OEM handlebar mount and it works fine.


Not the world's best GPS but I'm happy with mine for what I paid for it
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93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

[Jim]

I bought the StreetPilot III because it was water resistant and has audio out (which I've only used once). It attaches securely - no way it could ever come out of the RAM mount - and it's easy to read. The SP III is an old unit now - not very sophisticated by today's standards, but it still works well. I hope it will last at least until 2nd hand Zumo's are dirt cheap.

I'm really happy with Garmin. I never liked the name "TomTom" - makes me think you should be listening for drums and watching for smoke signals to figure out where to turn next...
_________________
Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - still has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repaired!
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

[Scott_Anderson]

Dave has seen my Garmin 2820, it's just a newer version of the street pilot series.
I have used the audio out quite often until I went with the bluetooth connection.
The only think I have against the 2820 is that it has no internal battery pack. When you use it inside to up load data from the computer you have to use a wall pack power supply.

Like ANY gps system, the unit is only as accurate as the maps given to the mfgr to load into them.
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Ride safe.



1995 K1100LT 0302044
2017 FLHTK Ultra Limited
Garmin StreetPilot 2820
Garmin Zumo 550
Garmin Zumo XT
"One who does not ask questions is ashamed to learn" Danish proverb
1997 K1100LT 0302488(R.I.P.)
1997 R1100RT ZC62149(sold)

[John Clauss]

A friend of mine bought one and we went to the National Rally in TN with it for the first trip. Nothing but trouble. He had similar issues with the dock as well and wound up throwing it in the trash in TN and buying a Zumo. Like Forest said "Cheap is and cheap does sir!"
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1997 K1100LT
1975 R75/6

It will bring you so close to nausea, it will make you sick! - Big Al

[Flying Duck]

Geez, I've done quite a few MC trips as well as using it locally on the bike and in the car and am quite happy with it.

A poor craftsman blames his tools.
_________________
93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

[Off the grid]

[supercat1]

screw that noise. I'm gonna stick to using my pre. Love this phone so far.

or failing that, i'll buy a zumo at employee pricing through a high school friend that works at garmin. There are some benefits to living in kc.
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(formerly) 1993 k1100rs