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Before my trip I wanted to get a GPS and after a lot of comparisons decided to buy a Zumo 660 which is a motorcycle friendly model. The reason for going this route was that I wanted a GPS that would give directions to a bluetooth headset (my Scala Rider) and still allow me to connect to my phone. None of the cheaper Nuvi's would do that. I'm not attempting a full review but just some impressions after using it on a 1600+ mile trip.
The 660 ships with a handlebar mount and a bare wire connection for power. It also has connectors for audio out etc. You can download the Zumo 66 manual online for more details., but the mount is a RAM mount.
The Zumo 660 has a user replaceable battery and it will run the GPS for around 5 hours. Running all the Bluetooth connections and making phone calls will shorten the time somewhat. You can charge off the USB computer, car/bike adapter.
The Zumo will hold 20 custom routes on the main board which was enough for my planned trip to Yellowstone and through South Central Utah and will take more on a SD card. It will also hold some quadzillion (1000) number of waypoints. Waypoints would be like a diversion off the main route to say a national park on the way to the motel for the night.
For me, an important feature was ride planning. Although the unit has shortest, fastest type routing, that will not take you to the road less well traveled. The unit comes with it own computer based planning software but IMHO it sucks. For my planning I used the Harley Davidson Ride Planner which worked flawlessly and it will upload routes directly to the Zumo.
The Zumo also has mode of travel function and I've noticed that when you select motorcycle vs car it will make changes to the route. What it is based on I have no idea, nor does looking at the routes give me a clue. Its been a topic of conversation on the Zumo board as well and evidently Garmin isn't saying.
The Zumo map set is pretty good based on what I can tell and the POI file is huge and you can also load custom POI's from other sources. For example I loaded Harley dealers and 2M Ham radio repeaters in mine. One problem though is say you want to know where gas stations are along the route. You can hit menu, hit where I am then select fuel and it will give you a text list, but on the default screen, it doesn't show them until you zoom way in. It will however show you every stinking airport in the world. I guess someone at Garmin is into airports.
I really wish you had a way of selecting say gas stations to display so you could easily plan ahead as you are riding. You can do it but not as safely as I would like when you are riding. As it turned out the Garmin did direct me to a closed gas station one time which the locals say shut down last year. But that can happen to any GPS.
The Garmin paired easily with the Scala and worked without fail the entire trip. My Blackberry was a bit more finicky and would occasionally drop the connection to the GPS. The audio on the directions was excellent while with the phone it ranged from good to not so good and I don't know why it varied. I also noticed an occasional lag using the phone.
Some users have complained that they can't see the screen in bright sunlight. All I can say is I had no issues. My Zumo is mounted on the dash of the fairing and that may well be the reason. If it was lower and tilted upward, that may well cause glare.
I rode one day for 240 some odd miles in drizzle to pouring rain and the Zumo didn't miss a beat. That said, the Zumo has open connectors on the back of the main unit as well as on the face of the mounting bracket. The mounting bracket comes with a watertight cover to protect those connectors from getting wet when the GPS isn't mounted. I've heard that if you lose it, you're SOL because Garmin does not sell them as a separate item. Boo on Garmin for that.
Although the menu items on the main screen are smaller than the Zumo 550 buttons, I really didn't have too many issues getting my gloved fingers on the selection. My main beef is the number of soft buttons you have to push to find things like gas or food etc.
The phone feature works by touching menu, then a phone icon, then it has a default button for home, poi's, call history, voice dial and a phone book. With my Blackberry, once it paired and I made a call, the GPS evidently downloaded all the numbers on my phone which was pretty slick.
The voice directions provided are pretty good although in most cases it gives about a mile warning for upcoming turns which normally is fine but in heavy metro traffic on a slab at 60-70 mph, I would prefer a bit longer time to get set up to make lane changes. It does however show the next turn immediately after the last turn made.
One minor complaint is that the road detail is lacking unless you zoom in. It typically doesn't show cross streets or road names unless you are zoomed in quite a bit.
The Zumo 660 also has traffic advisories which I haven't used. Like most high end units it has an mp3 player and will hold pictures on the mini mem card. I think 4GB is the largest card it will take.
The main difference between the Zumo 660 and 665 is that the 665 has in addition to traffic, XM radio and weather. The weather would be neat since it overlays radar on the map, but to me that wasn't worth $150 plus the subscription price.
Have any other questions, feel free and I'll try to answer them.
The 660 ships with a handlebar mount and a bare wire connection for power. It also has connectors for audio out etc. You can download the Zumo 66 manual online for more details., but the mount is a RAM mount.
The Zumo 660 has a user replaceable battery and it will run the GPS for around 5 hours. Running all the Bluetooth connections and making phone calls will shorten the time somewhat. You can charge off the USB computer, car/bike adapter.
The Zumo will hold 20 custom routes on the main board which was enough for my planned trip to Yellowstone and through South Central Utah and will take more on a SD card. It will also hold some quadzillion (1000) number of waypoints. Waypoints would be like a diversion off the main route to say a national park on the way to the motel for the night.
For me, an important feature was ride planning. Although the unit has shortest, fastest type routing, that will not take you to the road less well traveled. The unit comes with it own computer based planning software but IMHO it sucks. For my planning I used the Harley Davidson Ride Planner which worked flawlessly and it will upload routes directly to the Zumo.
The Zumo also has mode of travel function and I've noticed that when you select motorcycle vs car it will make changes to the route. What it is based on I have no idea, nor does looking at the routes give me a clue. Its been a topic of conversation on the Zumo board as well and evidently Garmin isn't saying.
The Zumo map set is pretty good based on what I can tell and the POI file is huge and you can also load custom POI's from other sources. For example I loaded Harley dealers and 2M Ham radio repeaters in mine. One problem though is say you want to know where gas stations are along the route. You can hit menu, hit where I am then select fuel and it will give you a text list, but on the default screen, it doesn't show them until you zoom way in. It will however show you every stinking airport in the world. I guess someone at Garmin is into airports.
I really wish you had a way of selecting say gas stations to display so you could easily plan ahead as you are riding. You can do it but not as safely as I would like when you are riding. As it turned out the Garmin did direct me to a closed gas station one time which the locals say shut down last year. But that can happen to any GPS.
The Garmin paired easily with the Scala and worked without fail the entire trip. My Blackberry was a bit more finicky and would occasionally drop the connection to the GPS. The audio on the directions was excellent while with the phone it ranged from good to not so good and I don't know why it varied. I also noticed an occasional lag using the phone.
Some users have complained that they can't see the screen in bright sunlight. All I can say is I had no issues. My Zumo is mounted on the dash of the fairing and that may well be the reason. If it was lower and tilted upward, that may well cause glare.
I rode one day for 240 some odd miles in drizzle to pouring rain and the Zumo didn't miss a beat. That said, the Zumo has open connectors on the back of the main unit as well as on the face of the mounting bracket. The mounting bracket comes with a watertight cover to protect those connectors from getting wet when the GPS isn't mounted. I've heard that if you lose it, you're SOL because Garmin does not sell them as a separate item. Boo on Garmin for that.
Although the menu items on the main screen are smaller than the Zumo 550 buttons, I really didn't have too many issues getting my gloved fingers on the selection. My main beef is the number of soft buttons you have to push to find things like gas or food etc.
The phone feature works by touching menu, then a phone icon, then it has a default button for home, poi's, call history, voice dial and a phone book. With my Blackberry, once it paired and I made a call, the GPS evidently downloaded all the numbers on my phone which was pretty slick.
The voice directions provided are pretty good although in most cases it gives about a mile warning for upcoming turns which normally is fine but in heavy metro traffic on a slab at 60-70 mph, I would prefer a bit longer time to get set up to make lane changes. It does however show the next turn immediately after the last turn made.
One minor complaint is that the road detail is lacking unless you zoom in. It typically doesn't show cross streets or road names unless you are zoomed in quite a bit.
The Zumo 660 also has traffic advisories which I haven't used. Like most high end units it has an mp3 player and will hold pictures on the mini mem card. I think 4GB is the largest card it will take.
The main difference between the Zumo 660 and 665 is that the 665 has in addition to traffic, XM radio and weather. The weather would be neat since it overlays radar on the map, but to me that wasn't worth $150 plus the subscription price.
Have any other questions, feel free and I'll try to answer them.
