BMW Motorcycles ConnectedRide Navigator

Let's be honest—I can be technologically challenged at times. However, the BMW navigation system is an excellent addition to the driving experience, even for someone like me. It is incredibly user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that makes it easy to input destinations and access various features without any hassle. The touch screen is responsive and relatively quick at recalculating routes. Whether you miss a turn or decide to take a detour, the system quickly adjusts and provides new directions without any significant delay.

Overall, it's a reliable and straightforward system that makes navigating a breeze, even for those who aren't tech-savvy.

I recently “updated” my BMW Connected Ride Cradle to the Connected Ride Navigator almost exclusively as my phone was frequently shutting down due to temperature when it was warm, over 90 Fahrenheit and using Navigation (which also charges), plus some visibility issues in some use cases. Otherwise, the cradle works well, or at least as well as the app being used.

Enter the Connected Navigator, which did help with the temperature related issues and admit it works, however be aware of a few things.

This device is decent at planning what I would consider a relatively short trip, like point to point maybe a couple of “known” stops. The UI on the phone or device does take some getting used to as the only option is finding a place, find next place. Example, the user must put in an address or a geographic location in its “search” bar to develop any kind of route. Note, there is a Map/Route icon present (lower-left) after searching for the 1st point that must be pressed to get the connected app or navigator into a multi-stop planning mode. Ironically, it behaves much better after that step where there is a list of way points that can arranged or added to, only by “search”. As far as I can tell there is no way to plan a route by adding way points to the map.

This leads to another idiosyncrasy of this device. It does have a “Favorite” feature. Great, this can be fantastic feature, I could set up easy things like “Home” or “Trail Head One” .. But no, that is not how it works, it shows an address like “123 S street, no, where 91666” with no way to label them. This is in the epic failure category, as this could be a very useful feature for more dynamic/adaptive riding. Some folks might remember addresses better, me, I like names.

This device does allow for importing GPX routes, so if you have a tool that can generate them, like Garmin’s Basecamp, Rever or any of several other tools this will open the door to doing more complex routing and then importing them into the “connected” app. I was able to successfully import routes I planned from Rever, and offroad trails from Trails Offroad, but the afore mentioned lack of click waypoint navigation makes it hard to do the, get me to the trail head, then follow the trail. However, it seemed to be able to create a route with the waypoints. I have not tested that yet, so that might be ok. However, the big disappointment is that there is no web based, or PC based tools for planning that BMW is offering.

Another issue to be aware of with the “Connected Ride” bits, and the Connected Ride Navigator in particular, if you want to see the rote you just planned on your phones connected app, you must save that as a route to the cloud, then you can load it into the Navigator. Unlike Apple CarPlay, or the Android equivalent .. that seamlessly pass navigation tasks to the automobile, this device really does not do that. Recommend, if planning a route, either just do it on the device or from a PC using an app that can export/import a GPX file.

Finally, this device does have a SIM card slot, which I would have been happy to use and pay for, as it was not all that expensive on my plan to add. Alias after a few hours in a US Verizon shop, and with different customer service representatives, this device is NOT COMPATIABLE with the Verizon network. So, for me to get traffic and other online features to work, I must do a bit of a dance to connect my phone WiFi hotspot to the device, every, single, time I would like that to work correctly.

The BMW wheel navigation is a great feature, and there are a few other noteworthy things it does, like lean angle... So, that is definitely part of the decision.

Sale was easy and delivery was quick

Overall, I'm happy with the Navigator, just so accustomed to Apple Maps. I wish BMW would add CarPlay compatibility. However, the more I get familiar with the user interface, the more I like it.

I do like the OEM integration very much. It makes things nice and tidy! Control via the Wonder Wheel is a huge plus and keeps eyes on the road. I do recommend using a data SIM card for live traffic info.

I have a trip planned in a couple weeks and a multiple-stop route saved in the unit. I'll have a better assessment after the trip.

Once I saw bmw released a new navigator ( cause we know nav6 had it's bugs) I had my sights set on it. I've used my phone, nav6, and a 3rd party device previously, which all worked decently.

I really, really wanted the oem integration again, so i finally broke and bought one. I like that the app, the nav, and the bike all talk to each other, so to say. It's just easier to focus on one app vs the previous 3+ I was juggling.

The wonder wheel integration also works perfectly but the nav is a touch screen too. Nice to have options.

I'm strictly a road rider (r1250rs) and haven't had any route issues and usually have cell signal. It's not mandatory, but I Hotspot it to my phone for traffic updates, which is a nice touch.

Overall, it's worlds better than the nav6, the oem integration is awesome, and it actually seems worth the price this time around.