I’ll be sticking with my NavV or VI I think. People are becoming far too reliant on phone apps. NavVI does everything you could possibly want or need from a sat Nav.
The answer is No! This is very much like the Navigator 6 and 5: Overpriced underperformance BMW GPS devices. Cost me SGD480 (USD346 or EUR327) to hold my phone in place and charge it wirelessly--very slowly. Nothing else. You can't use Google Maps!!! You must use the BMW Connected's downloadable maps. I use the bike in Japan: they don't provide a map for Japan. If you want a GPS navigation, use your phone`s Google Maps: always up-to-date, reliable and fast... If you want a dedicated GPS navigation device, get something else and stay away from BMW Navigator 5, 6 and this cradle. For about USD50 you can get unbranded Chinese-made cradles that do the same thing and are compatible with the BMW docking (power source); they will allow you to use Google Maps, hold-in place and charge your phone. Perhaps in Europe and USA the downloadable maps are high in detail and timely updated, but still, it is something of 20 years ago. Nobody download maps nowadays, they use Google Maps. The bike info feature? It's the same as what you get on the Navigator 5 and 6... on your phone. Yeah, now you have the bike leaning angle indicator...Cool but uselese information. The operation with that BMW counterintuitive scroll doughnut and up/down arrow switch is awkward at best, and is horrible with the cradle and the Connected app.. At the end you have to do things when you are stopped, not while riding. It is frustrating to buy another BMW expensive device that delivers nothing. Once you start the Connected app, that is only what your phone can do. The app takes over, and you can`t get other apps or functions to work unless you shut down the BMW Connected app. I had 6 bmw bikes so far, I loved each one of them, but BMW is terrible on the GPS navigation department. BMW:please give-up and focus on the wonderful bikes... Or get someone to do it right for you, like Google.
I'm using the cradle for a month now, and although the system as such works very well, I do have a few practical issues which makes me using my Nav 6 again: 1) once in cradle modus you cannot load/start imported routes ie you have to take your mobile phone out of the cradle and load/start an imported route on your phone when being out of the cradle, and than put it in the cradle again. Not very user friendly. 2) whilst the Nav is locked into the holder, your mobile phone is not locked in the cradle. At the gas stations where you have to pay inside, or any other short stops, you have to take the mobile phone out of the cradle each time to make sure it's still there when you return to the bike. I will carry the cradle in my luggage on long travel as back up system in case something goes wrong with the Nav, but will continue to use the Nav as primary navigation for the time being.
1) I think they might fix this in a newer version of the app, but I agree that's not great. 2) The funny thing is I pay for my gas with my phone so it I would take it inside anyway, but it would be nice if you could lock it in place with the key.
An ultra thin case is a good buy to use with this, about £3 on most auction sites. Otherwise you have to take the phone out of the case which is not ideal
Very cool, that is by far the best review of the Connected Cradle, thanks! The offset would annoy the hell out of me. I think the Navprep could be adjusted to one side to centre the Cradle? I don't have my Navprep fitted at the moment as I use a WunderLINQ in a Quadlock on the Navprep bar. I'm still debating whether to move to the Cradle. If BMW gives access to all of the info that the WunderLINQ can display I would buy it.
You could move the mount further along the handlebar to suit your OCD. Mine is angled slightly too far up which bothers me. I will get around to adjusting it one day.
@@DC1008 Really can't see how. BMW have dampers on the thing but if your phone breaks then it's probably an apple phone. I've had no problem with my cheap Chinese copy.
My question is this.I belive that to see properly at daylight you must set brightness very high ,also sunlight warm the screen ,processor and graphics are also doing heavy job on maps further more the wireless charging produce even more heat.Did you had any problems with overheating or iphone dimming screen brightnes on that conditions ? (ex use over 1 hour )
What a faf this is, I can’t be bothered with all this tech anymore For me this takes away the joys of motorcycling and is a distraction. I must be getting old. Each to their own I suppose.
Warning. While the Cradle worked well for me, the bottom arm just broke last week. This is a very thin piece of plastic and it snapped at the base of the U shape, on both sides simultaneously. I purchased it less than a year ago, used it maybe a total of 12 times (not needed for daily commutes). With this piece broken the phone is not secured and the whole device is useless.
The Wunderlinq is much better. You get all the CAN-Bus info + you get to use Google or what ever map system you want, including off-road maps, and the docking is click on click off. Pairs with my helmet. BMW just bought an ebay hardware phone holder and made the same mistake on software development as with the TFT. Hey manufacture, just make find the best software out there and make a deal.
Bloody expensive for what is! think I will stick to Nav 6 until it starts ghosting again! Off set could be sorted on the GS by moving the existing mount not sure about on a XR? I'm old school I like to have a sat nav and a phone as back up. Thanks for the vid though.
It’s quite protected behind the visor so you won’t get driving rain into it so considering ip68 is 30mins protection at a depth of 1.5m I think it would be fine When I’ve ridden in the rain with it, it only gets wet when you become stationary
My iPhone 13 fell out of the cradle and it was fitted correctly. It was under high acceleration on an s1000xr. I managed to save the phone but didn’t trust it after that. The same happened to a friend with the same bike. Got a nav 6 and love it, no problems whatsoever. 👍🏻👍🏻
@@DC1008 The phone was out of the case and absolutely fitted correctly. Also if you stop somewhere for a coffee, gas or something whilst on a ride out, you definitely don’t want to leave your expensive phone for someone to rip off. With the nav six, it’s locked in place and less desirable than a phone to your average street rat 👍🏻
I had the same situation and distroyed my phone…, but phone was fitted not correctly. There is a button built into the spring part of the handle. this button must be pressed before tightening the security screw. It works - believe me :-)
The Connected Ride Cradle is not available in my part of the world yet, there seems to be a world wide shortage at the mo. I'll probably go for one for my R1250RS when they get here (South Africa). I have a concern about the cradle mount interfering with the volume and on/off buttons on my iPhone 8 Plus, or any other phone for that matter. Have you had any problem with your phone buttons? Cheers.
Probably a bit soon but can you tell if vibration is going to affect the camera if your iPhone , one of the cheap versions I had has killed my iPhone camera when I changed from gs1250 to xr , I think this cradle might be great but am nervous of the same happening to iPhone camera
Yes you can. You pair your helmet to tft and then you use either 2nd phone or gps pairing from your helmet to the nav So basically you can hear the music but when the nav wants to say something it interrupts etc
I notice the phone is in the Cradle Every few minutes the green light turns yellow and flashes Which stops the wireless charging and repeats itself Why ?
It’s the same price as a quad lock if you buy the wireless charger and anti vibration mount It’s really simple the mount stays on the bike where the gos connection is and you just mount your phone and start the connected app
It’s a piece of sh t. You cannot “control your phone” with the bike controls. It does not integrate your phone. It integrates Connected Ride. Which sucks. Which is worse than Nav6. I thought it integrated the phone-and thus it’s apps. All the apps. How do I play RU-vids after it’s in?? How do I use Google Maps or Waze or OSM? It’s a joke.
You’re surprised it’s a clear display? It’s your phone. Where’s the surprise. Ps. It’s a terrible display for a gps. You can’t see it in bright light. The screen is particularly susceptible to oils smearing the images. The only good things about the Garmin are the screen and it’s utter lack of dependency on cell service. I ride all over the USA, Europe and Northern Africa. Cell service is a difficult issue. I often have zero cell service. Otherwise I’ll use Google or Waze or OSM.
Honda solved this problem in 2020. Just make the TFT apple carplay and android auto compatible. Done. This thing is nonsense and is just another money grab from Bring More Wallet. If you want one, get the chinese ebay version for 1/5 of the price.
NAvigator VI is a total bust. I had to replace it 3 times because it went haywire after a couple months of use. It's laggy. And very expensive. I had it refunded.
How do you use your phone for the other two million things it can do? Like listen to a RU-vid. Or nbc news? This device takes a brilliant device and makes it do one thing only. Typical. A joke.
Great overview of the cradle! How effective is the wireless charging? i.e. does the phone still gain charge if the screen brightness is set to max and the map is displayed?
I am noticing that if your phone is low say 10% and brightness is max then it won’t drop in charge but won’t gain as well so you get the notification to say low power it will disappear and pop back up so it’s best to drop the brightness if you can This is on a pro max with bigger screen
Hi mate, I 've got Note Ultra 20, and the wireless charging is not enough, but I guess that's because of the mobile phone's power consumption. 2 hours ride, it drops like 20%. Need to try out the cable charging. Another con is that, while riding with the cradle on, you cannot see the top bit of the TFT screen (consumption, petrol level etc).
@@DC1008 Thnx for the tip mate. I didn't know that I could adjust the angle. I asked the dealer the other day and they said no. Anyway I will look into that :) Once again, I appreciate your reply :)
Great explanation on the cradle,I've seen a similar cradle on Amazon for £36, looks the same, probably not as well made, but for the money is BMW cradle worth it,in your opinion?
Hello from France, Could you share your experience with compatibilty smartphone wireless load (model and brand) because personnaly my BlakView 6300 pro don't load by wireless. I hope your contribution ;)
So now you have had the cradle for a while is it a clear winner over the Nav or really a cheaper option? Would love to see a retrospective short video of pros and cons for each and a final score
Great video, the nav 6 was terrible imo, it was my worst purchase. If the cradle was available at the time I would have bought that. The poor interface/ software let's the nav 6 down ( very dated, no innovation)
☠️ I wish somebody would have warned me before I bought this. The vibrations are not dampened on this cradle and it is a known iPhone camera killer. Now I’m stuck with it and keep the iPhone in my pocket.
Good to see a fellow Welsh rider and not that far away! Bought one of these myself and found when you use it, you can't have your phone connect to the TFT as well. If you do the directions come up on the TFT as well as SATNAV which is really frustrating! Also, I'm concerned it will damage the mobile phone as there does not seem to be anything to stop the vibration and I've had a phone break in the past. So I've I'm using another mobile phone on the cradle. So that goes back to my first point - I use my spare mobile for the cradle and connect my main phone to the TFT so I can use it for music/calls etc and not worry about the directions coming up on the TFT. Don't think it's as good as the Garmin in terms of directions etc. For example, when at roundabouts it will just say 3 exits but not display it on the map like the Garmin and also on the Garmin on motorway junctions etc it will pop up a different display to make it clear to exit whilst on the phone map it just says on/off
Hopefully bmw will take some feedback over it and develop it further. I do like the uncluttered display and how clean it looks. I’m not too fussed if it comes up on the tft as well there must be a way to stop that. I do think with a little update it could be loads better and I’m hopefully running a vibration test which I’ll post up on my channel to see if the vibrations are really bad. What bike you using.
@@DC1008 There is an option in the settings that says do no display on TFT but it does not work. The reason I don't like the directions popping up is it distracts me when come to a roundabout etc. Maybe it's just me! Be good for you to do that test, but I'm not convinced and not connecting my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Got a GSA so as you know the vibrations are more to what I think you are riding the XR? If the NAV 6 didn't continue to break I would stay with that!
Hello, just a quick question, so you can have your main phone connected to the TFT for media/calls and you can use a second phone in the cradle for navigation that you can control with the wonder wheel?
@@bushisemo to be honest I don’t know You could connect one phone to the tft and then using a Sena for example connect the tft phone to phone pairing and the cradle phone to 2nd phone pairing but I don’t know if connecting the 2nd phone to the cradle would cut out the other phone on the tft as when I set my one phone up you pair to the cradle only and it sorts out the tft. To be honest I’ve ridden loads with my phone in the cradle all speeds all type of British roads and it still works
@@bushisemo hello, I have two phones connected and they both work with the wheel. My main phone which stays in my pocket! Is connected to the TFT and I can control my music and take calls as my TFT is also linked to my helmet comms. My second phone which I use for the nav is in the cradle and it works with the wheel. And that’s also connected to my helmet as my 2nd blue tooth device so I can hear directions if needed. All works fine ! 👍
How do you get turn by turn instructions and time to destination ( in time and distance ) on the phone while using it as a gps ? I can use the app as a sat nav but it doesn’t show any trip info
@@cundemaro as long as the bike has gps preparation ie to take the nav 6 you will be fine just don’t buy the nav 6 unless you are loaded buy this. What you might find is that your dealer may throw in a nav 6 as part of the deal as when the cradle takes over they won’t be sellling loads
What communication device are you using. I have the cardo 4x and when I have it connected to the tft and my phone connected to the tft. I get bad audio and audio drops. I just don't use the tft anymore and have the cardo connected directly to my phone.
@@DC1008 Why not, though? It looks to me like the cradle is just a convenient mount for your phone that happens to interface with the BMW satnav bracket. Are there electronics inside the cradle that actually do something?
@@DC1008 What I mean is, do you have to Bluetooth your phone to the cradle so the cradle then does the connection to the bike or are you still connecting your phone directly to the bike during set up?
@@HyperBiker yes so the cradle connects to the interface of the bike same as the nav 6 so that you can control the app. The phone connects to the cradle via blue tooth and has wireless charging. You then load the bmw connected app and you can use the controller on the left grip to go through menus etc
@@DC1008 Bugger. I thought I'd found a loophole to not have to bother with this device and still retain use of the WW. Never mind. thatnks for the confirmation, though.
So far I would say that a working Nav 6 is better than the BMW cradle for many reasons, the main one being that touching the phone screen is not allowed when on the move...... I think that is what the sticker is referring to. This is very annoying as you can with every other Nav device. You can't drop a pin or move the screen with a finger for example. There are other annoyances.
Good Walk through !! I am currently riding a 2021 S1000XR with the phone adapter (Fox Wolf) installed . The vibration screwed my iPhone's Camera and currently contemplating buying a Quadlock phone mount with vibration dampner . Not sure if this connected ride cradle will address the vibration issues and will help save your cell phone's camera . Did you use it for some distance and if yes , what are your thoughts ?
Yes I’ve used it for some distance. I’ve done a video testing vibration with the cradle and a quad lock measuring the vibration range on different roads. Hope to have it uploaded soon. Although the quad lock didn’t have a vibration dampener I found the quad lock was visibly vibrating compared to the cradle. The cradle I think is well damped similar to the tft. You only have to look in the mirrors stationary with engine running to see the vibration in the bars compared to the gos preperation .
@@DC1008 I ll give a try with the less expensive option (Quadlock Mirror Mount + The Vibration Dampener) first . Will share my thoughts after I am done with the installation and a thorough test . Till then Take Care and Safe Riding !!!
My iPhone 13 came out of my cradle under heavy acceleration. (2021 s1000xr) I just don’t trust it, also heard about it ruining cameras in phones… Back to the shop for a nav 6 👍🏻
Thanks don’t have wireless charging on my iPhone. Is there a charging connector cable that comes with the cradle? If so, what type (iOS 5 pin, micro USB)? Thanks!
What do you mean by comms?? If you mean music, phone and nav updates then yes phone to tft If you mean rider to rider then I use intercom pairing to connect
So follow this guide 1. Pair phone to tft via Bluetooth 2. Pair helmet to tft via phone pairing on Sena 3. If you have a nav 6 pair Sena to nav 6 via second mobile phone pairing 4. Pair phone to nav 6 or cradle via Bluetooth On nav 6 disable the media and phone function 5. If you have a passenger pair their helmet to tft as passenger via there sena phone pairing 6. If you want to speak to your passenger or mate riding in your group pair helmet to the other helmet via intercom pairing on the helmet Hope this helps
@@DC1008 so helpful. Bill with the Cardo Freecom 4+ Dual. presume this pairing holds true on a 2019 gs 1250 with a nav 6 and passenger ? (I messaged you some months ago ,,, I have no requirement for phone or radio - actually just paired to my Nav 6 for directions as its allI need) and for talking to pillion so just a simple link set up - was helped by guy at JS Accessories to do this all the best and thanks 4 your previous advice - will keep your stage by stage advice above as backup if need to reconnect Bill Ker in Sussex. about to do a Motorrad Tour of Highlands in May ... cheers
Are you aware of any vibration damage news from using this cradle? I damaged my previous iPhone camera lenses due to vibrations from the motorcycle. QuadLock has now addressed the issue by releasing a vibration damper for all of their mounts. Wondering if BMW got ahead and resolved this issue with their cradle. Thanks!
I have unfortunally had an accident with my phone where the camera autofocus went bananas. The camera had to be replaced in the phone. Goes for an iphone 13 pro max.
Asking another question how can I increase the volume on navigation via connect cradle and tft on my gs1250 can hardly hear it even with my phone on max. If I increase the volume on my headset it is too loud for rider/passenger communication. Also if I play music I get the same problem. Anyone out there had same problem and fixed it.
I have just got a bike with this device. I have installed the app on my iPhone, paired it with the TFT, but anyway - can’t get the control over the Navi via the roller. Another thing is, that the app stays in a horizontal view - even when I install the iPhone in the cradle. I don’t know what l’m doing wrong
@Surfnpics I find the Nav6 pretty good, it's just about on par with the Tom Tom rider 42 which I have also got, so I've got the best of both worlds, I'm using the Nav6 on the bike constantly not just for navigating but for the speed camera alerts and traffic conditions, as with all Sat Nav's they can send you down a road or lane you didn't want to go down, on the odd occasion I have used Google maps on my phone just to check best routes but I am happy with the Nav6 so far .....👍
First tried a Nav VI. Nice sat nav when it works, which it only intermittently does. Reached out to Garmin and they're out of refurbished replacements but could put me on a waiting list. Screw that, so I got the Connected Ride Cradle. The nav portion of the app is VERY basic compared to something like a Garmin, TomTom, or Android Auto/Apple CarPlay. Rode through 100F/37C+ temps and phone would overheat when using induction charging -- used a short USB-C to USB-C cable to charge phone from cradle to phone which resolved that. Eventually saw it for what I think it is -- an interim solution while BMW was ending its relationship with Garmin. I'd really rather BMW just set its ego aside and work with Google and Apple, but in lieu of that I bought a Garmin Zumo XT2 and it has so far has exceeded my expectations. Now BMW has a dedicated hardware unit for $1100 USD that takes a SIM card but as far as I can tell provides no additional functionality outside of the phone app with a cradle.
I agree the cradle was a good idea but I think they realised quickly damage to phones. Luckily my phone was fine. I’ve got the new connected ride navigator so I’ll sort out a review on it
Only time will tell, when I road in the wet whilst moving the phone was shielded. Don’t know how wet it would get just sitting there not moving. GPS still worked without phone signal so that was ok and again the vibration side of things, it seemed ok no more than my quad lock anti vibration mount. I can’t see bmw releasing something with an intended use that damages phones wouldn’t be very good but we will see. I think the best way to sum it up is if you haven’t got the nav 6 this is a cheaper way of getting a good visible mounting solution with charging for your phone that’s cheaper than the nav 6. A quad lock mount case anti vibration and wireless charging will cost £184 so it’s not too bad for something that is stock and makes use of the gos prep.
I like the cradle for day to day riding locally it’s easy to stick my phone in have it charge and use the hand controller to control nav functions. It also charges the phone which is a benefit I’ve hand no issue with the camera If I was going abroad or multi day trip then I’d use the nav it’s got better nav function etc
