For more than 4 years we were traveling the world on a motorcycle and we never used a GPS. We did it that way mainly for two reasons, first because we wanted the route to surprise us by taking us to places weren’t in our plans and second because meeting people form around the world was one of our main motivation to travel so we prefer to stop often our bike and ask to the locals for which path to take.
But there was a fundamental factor so that we could ride through 70 countries on our motorcycle without missing a modern navigation system and is the fact that we had no time limit for that trip. Without mortgages, contracts or too many possessions that would make us to return on a specific date, we did not mind spending time by getting lost on that trip.
But life changes and in these moments when Manu´s health needs a bit of care from doctors we have only the breaks of its treatment to go on a motorcycle journey so we must plan a little better those trips, and that is why for our visit to Morocco we decided to experience how it would be to travel with GPS.
The first thing that we had clear is that the trips should not going down on adrenaline and then we discovered the perfect companion for that Moroccan tour, the new TomTom Rider 550, a GPS designed especially for those who love traveling on motorcycle.
Their functions made us take advantage of the best possible way the only two weeks we had to enjoy a country that offers both for the motorcyclist as is Morocco, and that the trip did not lose any adrenaline.
WiFi connection and lifetime worldwide maps
To get into the desert until the dunes of Merzouga we had no problem because their maps include even the smallest and intransitive routes. It was also great that to update the maps, or download new ones, it is very easy because the device has Wi-Fi connection so you do not need to connect with USB to a computer, we could directly stop for a few minutes in any cafe shop with Wi-Fi, connect the GPS to internet and download the maps that we needed. Worldwide maps are available and for free throughout the whole life of this device, as well as traffic updates and speed cameras.
Design a route full of adrenaline
By the time we were crossing the Atlas Mountains we wanted a little more emotions in our ride than in the long straights roads of the desert, for that the TomTom Rider 550 offers us the option to choose the level (low, medium or high) of turns and mountains that we want to enjoy. It was also good that if the route chosen by TomTom we already did it in previous trips, as happened to us in this our second visit to Morocco, the GPS has the possibility to show us alternative routes, telling us the kilometers and the estimated time for each one of them.
Another feature of this GPS that we liked a lot is that you do not have to waste a lot of time to use it. The sensitivity of the screen with the gloves is very good, which can also be programmed depending on whether you use thin, thick gloves or bare hands. It also has a Quad-Core processor that allows it to work very fast so that we could often from the same motorcycle and without stopping to access to certain information, for issues that needed more attention we could pair it with Bluetooth with our smartphone and give voice commands.
This compatibility allow us also to receive calls, use SIRI or Google Now or listen the GPS reading us the messages that came to our cell phone.
The battery lasts up to 6 hours
One more thing we really like is that the GPS has a powerful battery that allowed it to work up to 6 hours, so we always had it in our pocket when we parked the bike and wanted to go for a walk. After a walk through the desert to climb the highest dunes from where to watch the sunset the GPS helped us to return without problems in the dark of night to the town, or also when we wandered through the labyrinthine streets of the huge market from Marrakesh we always knew how to get to the place where we had the motorcycle parked.
The experience was perfect, we really discovered that the time during the trip can be much more useful if we travel with TomTom and also for those like us who love the data on trips the GPS had recorded all the information such as hours of travel, kilometers, speed average and maximum speed… Now we only have to share this information and routes with other motorcyclists, because on the TomTom Road Trips website we could upload our favorite routes so that anyone with the same GPS can download them and ride.
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