I did it! After having procrastinated for a week – I’m on vacation after all – I finally pulled through and did an unboxing video of the TomTom RIDER 400 Navigation (GPS). Or an attempt at least. Editing in iMovie isn’t exactly the most exact science. But here it is, I hope you enjoy it.

The TomTom RIDER 400 is a an updated version of another motorcycle specific navigator, and this one has a lot of cool features which I will test in depth soon enough. But let’s not go ahead of ourselves. What’s in the box…?

Of course you have the device itself. The TomTom RIDER 400 is a rather sleek and elegant product with feels solid enough. It’s a bit heavy but in a good way, and the matte black rubbery surface contrasts nicely to the aluminium details surrounding the speakers. The rubber covers to the USB micro port and the SD card are, just like the power button, really nicely integrated into the design and can be almost hard to spot because they blend in pretty nicely.

On the back side you slide in the power supplying cradle. The cradle itself has a short wire with a connector at the end. In the box is an extension cord with two bare strands you can solder to a plug of choice or directly onto a power supply on you bike.

What’s really great is that the TomTom RIDER 400 comes with a RAM bar mount. Many other navigators come with a car mount and bar mounts are optional but here it is the other way around. All bolts, nuts and other things you might need is included in a plastic bag.

A USB cable and a manual is included although the GPS itself is pretty self explanatory. Turn it on, make your choices and you’re good to go. I had to update the maps – free maps four times a year are included for the entire product lifespan – which took me several hours. I don’t know why, but be sure to do this well in time before your trip!

Since I haven’t mounted it yet, hence not tried it for real, I cannot say much about the functions but one feature I am going to try is the “Plan a thrill”-option which apparently lets you set different levels of twists and turns and then calculates a more thrilling route than otherwise.

Unlike for example the Garmin Montana 600, the RIDER 400 has bluetooth connection which will be great to connect to my Scala Rider for easy access to instructions. The device came preinstalled with two voices in Swedish, a male and a female, but there are more voices in the TomTom shop if you’re not satisfied.

All in all, it seems like a pretty solid product. It doesn’t have the option of having topography maps installed which could be a deal breaker for the avid offroader, but it does have GPX capability. In the manual, it states that it can import routes and both import and export routes, but these have to be prepared in some other program since the MyConnect app is rather limited in its functions. I’ll get back to that in a week when I have field tested it a bit more.

Well, here goes nothing. The unboxing video: