I've continued to
tinker with the new TomTom Rider this week, trying to get a sense for all its functions
and how they operate prior to a big trip that I have planned starting mid-next
week. I’m going to be mapping some routes in advance and recording some of the
routes during group rides that I want to save. Today, I got to work on
Recording Routes on the TomTom and the Winding Route Planner function.
Just a couple other
updates first though.
Having used this
device under the bright Florida Sun, along with a pair of eyes that otherwise
require reading glasses, for several outings now, I really need to give a
thumbs up on the lack of screen glare and icon/numeral sizing that appeared to
receive some criticism. At 110cm diagonal, the Rider screen is considerable for
this purpose. Everything seems well placed and of the right size to read from
the saddle whether placed on the bar or up on the console. The device offers
two driving view settings (2-dimensional and 3-dimensional views) for different
looks on the maps and details. Then put any screen in the direct Florida Sun
and I think that you will experience reflections and some glare (as in the
photo below), but I've experienced nothing that prevents me from reading the
Rider screen in its entirety even in direct sunlight.
The next thing is a
supposed take-away about this device in that you can’t change anything on the move.
My initial thought about that comment was something I read or heard many years
ago regarding the 1972 crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida
Everglades. Essentially, a Federal Aviation Administration statement attributed
that crash to the pilots screwing around with the gauges and instruments in the
cockpit instead of flying the plane or paying attention to where they were
going. In the words of John Madden, “Boom!”
What I can tell you
in the short time I've had it is that the Rider seems to provide a lot of
flexibility in allowing route changes, whether skipping waypoints in loaded
routes (2 touches) or eliminating/adding roads to existing destinations and
option/setting changes. One way is that it offers pre-set short cuts (the Blue
Hand Quick Menu, see screen above) as was previously discussed, and it seems to
set route changes fairly early in the menu sequence, thankfully, such as in the
actual screen below where you can avoid one or more of the roads on the
calculated route. Can you make these changes on the fly? I don’t know. If
whoever tries it lives in the process, let us know.
That brings up the
Winding Route Planner…
This feature is one
of the three main selection buttons on the main menu screen.
The manual describes this, “The
winding routes feature is for planning a route that avoids unnecessary highways
and includes winding roads, with the aim of making the route a fun and
entertaining ride. When planning the route, your TomTom Rider tries to guide
you out of the city as quickly as possible.”
I found that the feature
operated virtually the same way that the regular planning feature and itinerary
feature operated (pick an address, place or thing … and go), with one
exception. You can set the route to be “more winding” or “less winding” using a
scale bar in the options that looks like this actual screen shot.
The Winding Route Planner is obviously
intended to be used in areas that we’re not familiar with, but to put it to the
test I picked an area that’s right in my backyard (riding-wise) and runs to my east
around 30 miles over to the Lakeland, Florida area. In between is a secluded stretch
that has a lot of farmland for growing fruit and vegetables and is all decent, two-lane
back roads. It has a fair amount of winding road work if you know where you’re
going.
I picked an address in Lakeland
as my destination and recorded the route that TomTom chose with the bar scale set
all the way to minor roads, as in the screen shot above. Coming back from the
selected address in Lakeland, I picked a gas station in my town as the final
destination and set the bar scale in the middle between minor roads and major
roads. I left the route recording going the entire ride over and back. This is
the Winding Route that the TomTom chose, again the outbound route is the “more
windy” and the inbound route is the “middle of the road windy.”
Just for the record, you are
able to view the route that TomTom picks and either change it piecemeal (road
by road) or ask it to calculate a whole new map. While I did “peek” at the
routes before disembarking each way I didn't change them thinking best to play
along since it was just a test to begin with.
Outbound Route (eastbound “more winding”
setting):
Using a baseball expression, the
outbound route was a “swing and a miss.”
Right out of the gate, the
TomTom put me on a long, straight road replete with four-way road stops and
totally missed the beautiful winding roads around Lake Thonotosassa just to the
south. Then about three quarters of the way to my destination, it abruptly sent
me way south across the main Interstate down to Plant City where I was forced
to deal with slow moving city traffic for about 20 minutes. As you can see it
created a huge gap in the map that is really full of some nice winding roads.
At the end of the Plant City stretch, the route put me back northward on my
first windy road called Walker Road. I know this road well and it’s as curvy as
they come (in Florida). However, it was way out of the way! Walker would be a
great winding road for some route (it’s crazy windy), but the cost in traffic
time to get there on this route really wasn't worth the benefit of the road.
It was kind of like the entire
outbound route was built around that one, out-of-the-way crazy curvy road and,
as a result, it missed a lot of really cool back road action!
Inbound Route (westbound “middle winding”
setting):
Using another baseball
expression, I’d characterize the inbound route as a “double.”
First observation is that the inbound
route was about 90% different roads from the outbound route. Second observation
is that, similar to the outbound route, it also avoided that big gap leading
into/out of Lakeland, again pushing me way farther south than I would have gone
if on my own navigation. It’s kind of like TomTom thinks that area must be
illegal to ride in or something. Thirdly, while on the middle range of winding
roads, the route included time on the Interstate; not much but some. Before entering
the Interstate I (after safely pulling over!) touched the avoid highway
preference to see if it would reroute away from the interstate and it did. So
the moral of that story is if you always want to stay off Interstates, use the
avoid highway preference even with the Winding Routes Planner.
Overall, I give the inbound
route a fairly good rating because (with the exception of the Interstate) all
the roads were very scenic Florida back roads. Plus, it picked up the windy
roads around Lake Thonotosassa that the outbound route totally missed. I would
think that if someone who didn't know the area rode that inbound route using
Winding Routes, they’d have enjoyed it all except the few miles on the
Interstate.
Overall, the Winding Route
feature did a so-so job at best. I suppose in other places where I don’t know
the areas I won’t know what I’m missing, if anything. I’m sure it won’t ruin my
days.
One last thing, the recorded map
I created was located in the itineraries folder. After connecting the Rider to
my computer, it uploaded into Tyre with a simple, single click.
That Tyre software is really
proving to be a great tool for navigation with the new TomTom.
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