Garmin Zumo 660
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Written by Kate on June 16, 2009 – 5:25 pm
Specifically made for bikers by bikers, the Garmin Zumo 660 is a revolutionary GPS that is perfect for every day motorcyle riding and the long trips as well.
There are millions of POIs loaded on your Garmin Zumo 660, making it easy to find a restaurant, airport, bar, gas station, hotel, or whatever it may be. City Navigator® NT maps are also preloaded so that you have up to date city maps for your rides. These maps also have the option of the buildings being in 3D to make it easier find your way around a city and the Garmin Zumo 660 includes the lane assist feature which tells you which lane you need to be in before each next step in your directions. So, you never have to worry about cutting over last minute anymore and looking like a crazy tourist.
It has a large 4.3″ display that is easy to see and use with the touchscreen display. The Garmin Zumo 660 has Bluetooth technology, so you do not need to remove your helmet or take off your gloves in order to talk on your phone. All you need is a bluetooth headset on your helmet, a connection with your cell phone, and you can make or receive phone calls while on the road. You also can call POIs with your Bluetooth technoloy. Which is great if, let’s say you are taking your girl out on the town, but you forgot reservations…whoops…you can call on your way to reserve that table. Plus, you don’t have to worry about looking at the screen, while on the road, because the Garmin Zumo 660 tells you where to go and when.
If you like music while on the road, the Garmin Zuma 660 has an MP3 player and compatible headphone jack if you want to listen to some tunes on the road. It also has the ability to play audiobooks too, if you prefer to get in some reading while driving. You can even take pictures and load them on your Garmin Zumo 660, so you can always take a look at your wife, child, husband, boyfriend, whatever…kinda nice for those longer road trips…
Roadtrips can be made more fun because you can customize your route. Let’s say your friend tells you about a super scenic drive, you start out by mapping out the route on your computer, save it, and upload to your Garmin Zumo 660, and it is on your GPS, ready to go. When you get home, you can view your route in Google Earth, pretty cool.
Not always on your bike? The Garmin Zumo 660 is also car friendly, it even comes with a mount for your car (along with the motorcycle mount of course). It also includes a carry case and a power cord to make the switching back and forth even easier.
So, what if it starts raining while you are riding around? You don’t have to worry about your Garmin Zumo 660 because it is waterproof and therefore it can handle the rain. But if you get stuck in the rain and you decide you want to wait it out rather than keep riding, you can press the “Where Am I?” icon and it will tell you where you are. It will then give you the nearest gas stations, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, police stations, or whatever else you might need.
Another great feature of the Garmin Zumo 660 is the Garmin Garage. You can go online and the Garmin Garage has lots of fun things you can download to your Gamin Zumo 660 like a personal icon for the maps like a plane, a sled, and lots of other options. Garmin Garage is also useful if you want to download a specific voice for your GPS other than what is installed. It basically gives you a GPS that is more customizable to you.
Cons of the Garmin Zumo 660
It is a little expensive costing around $799.99, when you can get a basic GPS (that is not motorcycle friendly) for under $100. It also only comes with maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. So if you want to travel anywhere else with it, you will have to pay to download the maps (and those can get really expensive.)
Pros of the Garmin Zumo 660
The icons are oversized compared to other GPS models, so that it is easy to use the touchscreen without taking off your gloves. (Prior models actually had seperate buttons for people with gloves on to use instead of the touchscreen.) It is waterproof and is also car friendly. The Garmin Zumo 660 has most of the features of the top automobile friendly GPS models, so you really do not need another one for the car. It also has a 5 hour battery life if you want to take it on a hike as well.
Overall, a highly technologically advanced Garmin GPS for your motorcycle (or car), if you can afford the high price tag. What do you think? Leave a comment!
| Zumo 660 | ||
| Physical & Performance | ||
| Unit dimensions, WxHxD: | 5.3″W x 3.3″H x .9″D (13.5 x 8.4 x 2.3 cm) | |
| Display size, WxH: | 3.81″W x 2.25″H (9.7 x 5.7 cm); 4.3″ diag (10.9 cm) | |
| Display resolution, WxH: | 480 x 272 pixels | |
| Display type: | WQVGA color TFT with white backlight | |
| Weight: | 9.5 ounces (270g) | |
| Battery: | removable, rechargeable lithium-ion | |
| Battery life: | up to 5 hours | |
| Waterproof: | yes (IPX7) | |
| High-sensitivity receiver: | yes | |
| RoHS version available: | yes | |
| Maps & Memory | ||
| Basemap: | yes | |
| Preloaded maps: | yes | |
| Ability to add maps: | yes | |
| Built-in memory: | internal solid state | |
| Accepts data cards: | microSD™ card (not included) | |
| Waypoints/favorites/locations: | 1000 | |
| Features | ||
| Voice prompts (e.g. “Turn right in 500 ft.”): | yes (internal speaker) | |
| Speaks street names (e.g. “Turn right on Elm Street in 500 ft.”) : | yes | |
| Speech recognition (navigate with voice commands): | no | |
| Lane assist (guides you to the proper lane for navigation): | yes (with junction view) | |
| 3-D map view: | yes | |
| 3-D building view (displays buildings in 3-D): | yes | |
| Auto sort multiple destinations (provides most direct route): | yes | |
| Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation): | yes | |
| Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road): | yes | |
| Route avoidance (avoid highways, tolls etc.): | yes | |
| Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest): | yes | |
| Hands-free calling with Bluetooth® wireless | yes | |
| FM traffic compatible: | yes | |
| MSN® Direct for U.S. compatible: | yes | |
| XM® Navtraffic (includes basic weather) & Radio for U.S. compatible: | no | |
| TomTom Mapshare compatible: | no | |
| Help Me! (find closest hospitals, police & gas stations, nearest address & intersection) | no | |
| Where Am I? (find closest hospitals, police & gas stations, nearest address & intersection): | yes | |
| Garmin Locate™ (marks position when removed from windshield mount): | no | |
| Photo navigation (navigate to geotagged photos): | yes | |
| MP3 player: | yes | |
| Audio book player: | yes | |
| Document Viewer | no | |
| Picture viewer: | yes | |
| Garmin Garage™ (select car-shaped icons for map navigation): | yes | |
| Current Location Icon Choice | yes | |
| World travel clock, currency & unit converter, calculator: | yes | |
| Touchscreen: | yes | |
| Qwerty or ABC keyboard (choose keyboard layout): | yes | |
| Remote control: | no | |
| FM transmitter: | no | |
| RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver | no | |
| Headphone jack/audio line-out: | yes | |
| Dead reckoning: | no | |
| Garmin Lock™ (anti-theft feature): | yes | |
| Motorcycle-friendly: | yes |
