Garmin zumo 660 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Motorcycle Navigator Review

Garmin’s zumo 660 is a GPS navigator which has been specifically adapted to survive the elements while mounted to a motorbike or scooter. It has been designed for the ease of use of a rider wearing a helmet and gloves.

Garmin zumo 660 motorcycle GPS navigator

A primary adaptation applied to the Garmin zumo 660 is the use of glove friendly large icons on the specially designed navigation interface. Providing suitably large and well spaced icons is made easier by the large 4.3 inch (10.9 cm | 480 x 272 pixels) TFT touchscreen which is sunlight readable for bright conditions. A 4.3 inch screen gives 70% extra display area compared to a 3.5 inch one. This translates to easier to read map displays and menus and clearer navigation icons and instructions.

The zumo 660 is waterproof to IPx7 to survive an environment which may at times include driving rain, UV rays, fuel splashes, dust and assorted grime. To pass IPx7 certification requires an enclosure which will resist submergence for 30 minutes in a meter (3.3 feet) of water.

A speaker would compromise the enclosure and a rider is helmeted, the zūmo 660 utilizes Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit navigation instructions and phone calls to a Bluetooth enabled headset or helmet. To make music playback sound better, the Bluetooth technology includes Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for streaming stereo-quality audio. Navigation instructions include spoken street names as the 660 has text-to-speech capabilities. It provides the safety bonus of being able to confirm one is on route without taking one’s eyes from the road ahead.

As nobody would appreciate having to purchase a second GPS navigator for their car, Garmin have designed the the zumo 660 with an automotive mode. Included with the zumo 660 are both motorcycle and automotive mounts with power cables.

The nominated battery life for the Garmin zumo’s rechargeable battery is 5 hours which some may consider is not a full day out. However, using the included power cable quickly dismisses this problem.

This covers the motorcycle significant adaptations. However, the Garmin zumo has a premium suite of navigation functionalities as follows.

Navigating with the Garmin zumo 660

The garmin zumo 660 provides turn-by-turn voice directions with a choice or 2-D or 3-D map display.

You can select a destination by the usual options as well as Garmin Connect Photos which have been geotagged. There is a database of some 6 million Points of Interest (POI) to search which can be added to with your own customized POIs.

Tools to customize your route planning include;

Route avoidance (avoid highways, tolls etc.)
Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road)
Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation)
Auto sort multiple destinations (provides most direct route)

A safety feature of the zumo 660 is “Where am I?” which instantly shows you all the emergency services nearby.

Lane Assist

Lane Assist is a recent and popular feature with GPS navigator shoppers. The popularity is no doubt fuelled by first-hand experience of the frustration of finding oneself caught in the wrong lane shortly before your exit. Lane Assist provides a 3D Lane Assist Junction View with the recommended lane shown clearly so that you can move into it well before you need to exit.

Entertainment Options

To ease the monotony along the way the zumo 660 will play back MP3 digital music in full stereo thanks to the Bluetooth A2DP technology. You can also listen to books being read using the audio book player. If you have pictures to show those you might visit then the picture viewer will come in handy.

Navigation by Photos

Garmin Connect Photos is a free service from Garmin for customers to search for photos by address or location from a large collection of geotagged photos on the Panoramio website. Once downloaded and transferred to a compatible Garmin GPS navigation device they can be used to enter a destination for turn-by-turn directions based on the geotagged with location coordinates.

GPS users can also make use of a feature available with Google Maps and Mapquest which lets you to download a location you’ve found (GPS coordinates and address).

Other zumo 660 Features in Brief

microSD card slot (expands memory beyond internal solid state memory capacity
3-D building view (displays buildings in 3-D)
Speed limit indicator (displays speed limit for most major roads in the U.S. and Europe)
Built-in travel kit (picture viewer, world clock, currency and measurement converters and calculator)
HotFix (automatically calculates and stores satellite position data to reduce satellite acquisition time)
Garmin Lock (anti-theft feature – disables unit until the user types in a specific 4-digit PIN or takes the unit to a predetermined secure location)
FM traffic compatible
MSN Direct compatible

Garmin zumo Maps

The zūmo 660 offers full coverage mapping for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The preloaded map data features nearly six million points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.

In the Box with the Garmin zumo 660

zūmo 660
Preloaded City Navigator NT for North America or Europe (full coverage)
MapSource City Navigator North America NT DVD or City Navigator Europe NT DVD (full unlock)
Motorcycle mount with integrated power cable and mounting hardware
Automotive suction cup mount
Automotive power cable
Carrying case
Battery pack
USB cable
Dashboard disk
Quick start manual

(City Navigator North America NT DVD included in North American Version; City Navigator Europe NT DVD included in European version)

Final Thoughts

The Garmin zumo 660 covers all the bases for use on motorcycles or scooters and includes a premium feature set. The battery life for the unit is short for longer rides but can be handled. Pricing for the Garmin zumo is on the high side and those looking for a bike GPS should have a look at the TomTom Rider 2 which has a more moderate cost with a reasonable feature set.

If you’re interested to the extra dimension of usability that XM Radio could bring (news, weather and traffic) then have a look at the zumo 665 which has an XM receiver on-board.