Garmin Zūmo 660 GPS

One for the road, the zūmo 660 isn’t the “perfect” navigation device yet, but it has enough enhancements over the zūmo 550 and competitors’ products to make it a contender.

The zūmo 660 is larger, brighter and the very crisp display is one of the best features for me.

Outside of the odd time-out when processing, the system is darn fast and responsive, especially when drawing the maps and features, including 3-D mode.

But newer is not always totally better and depending on what the individual consumer or user is looking for, the 660 will be just about perfect, or seen to be lacking certain necessities.

The choice is yours.

I do not regret buying one and even though it does not have everything on my adventure-touring requirements list, I hope Garmin will see fit to evolve it to the extent possible….
Part 1: Introduction

Garmin has come a long way since an informal beginning in 1989, although its goal, “to create navigation and communication devices that can enrich our customer’s lives” has remained unchanged.

Their innovative and comprehensive product listing provides something for virtually every application and lifestyle imaginable and their user base is truly global in nature.

The extremely popular zūmo (Spanish for “juice” or “squash”; i.e., to get the most out of something) products are marketed under Garmin’s “On the Road” category that covers automotive, motorcycles, trucking and traffic services.

The GARMIN ZUMO 660 is the latest in the Garmin motorcycle GPS lineup; for almost three years, the zūmo 550, later joined by its now discontinued younger 450 sibling, occupied this unique user territory.

Garmin touted the zūmo 550 to an eager audience as having been designed specifically for ‘bikers”, aka motorcyclists.

In very short order the 550, along with one or two other competitors, became the navigation standard for motorcyclists and so many other powered transportation enthusiasts and all for good reason.

Between the box contents, the device features and an ability to survive prolonged periods of rough use, the zūmo models remain complete packages.

They were truly made for life on the road — either mounted on a motorcycle, used in a four-wheeler or dismounted for portability.

But in fast-forwarding to the latter part of 2009, the zūmo line (or rather some of its features, depending on user requirements), became limited and ‘long in the tooth’.

And with the 450 discontinued, the 550 remained the only motorcycle-specific model offered by Garmin in a continually expanding market.

Last year there was a fair amount of confusion over whether the zūmo line was going to be extended or if something from the Garmin nüvi product line was going to be pushed forward.

Trying to find out and figure out what Garmin was up to proved to be somewhat frustrating. In the end however, we were presented with the zūmo 660.

Garmin’s extensive nüvi GPS line is relatively mature and it is upon this baseline that the zūmo 660 is built. Leveraging newer technologies have resulted in a more modern device with lots of enhancements, albeit more evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Building it to withstand the rigors of motorcycle use makes it unique.

Anyone familiar with navigation devices, especially those built for motorcycle use will quickly recognize the Garmin zūmo 660 for what it is. Opening up a zūmo 550 box was a give-away in determining its intended use; opening up a 660 kit does nothing to change that.

All the basic bits-n-pieces needed to install the device on most motorcycles and get the user navigating out of the box are still there.

From a user perspective, some key features of the zūmo 660 include lane assist, 3-D building view, photo navigation, Where Am I?, Bluetooth wireless, vocalization of street names and optional FM traffic alerts.

The kit also includes preloaded street maps for North America.
A Rocky Start

My initial experience with a zūmo 660 was not exactly positive.

Anxious to get an early look at one, I had borrowed a fellow BMW club member’s unit for a couple of days earlier this summer, just to see how/if it was going to work with the Bluetooth Communications Systems that I was evaluating at the time.

This initial effort ended quickly when the Bluetooth feature disabled itself after my initial pairing attempt with the Biker Com Control Box (review) and refused to come back.

Resetting the zūmo 660 didn’t work and it finally took a “Clearing User Data” reset to recover the system, with some resultant loss of data.

A “Clearing User Data” reset is engaged by holding a finger on the lower-right corner of the screen while turning on the device.

Keep the finger pressed on the screen until the query message appears, touch “Yes” to clear all user data. Note: this deletes all user-entered information and all original (factory) settings are restored.

Strangely enough, this experience finally drove me to order a zūmo 660 for myself. Five days later I had my own unit to try and break. I repeated the initial pairing attempt — with the same result.

Even with the system restored, it refused to pair with any of the sets on hand, even though I knew it worked with the Cardo Q2 system (review),, as that is what the club member was using.

While the zūmo 660 saw the devices, a secured connection could not be established…hmm. But to be fair, the unit was fresh out of the box and I knew that Garmin had been busy releasing updates on a regular basis.

A few minutes of letting the Garmin WebUpdater application work away brought the zūmo 660 up to the latest baseline.

What a difference! The device ran appreciably faster and best of all the Bluetooth feature performs comparatively or better than the tried and true zūmo 550 and Navigator III+ devices. A new ball game begins…
Uniqueness Counts

The first thing I noticed about the zūmo 660 is its weight…it feels heftier even though it is actually close to the same weight as the 550.

Its svelte 16:9 shape, symmetric case and understated styling makes for a good first appearance; having lots of new worth-while features doesn’t hurt either.

Although relatively new to market, the Garmin zūmo 660 may be on its way to joining its older sibling as a highly desirable device. This will be due in large part to its design, build and durability.

These traits are important, especially when the device is exposed to the elements for prolonged periods of time. A tradeoff of sorts is that the device tends to be slightly larger and typically heavier than other less qualified units.

Motorcyclists are typically an ingenious lot.

As such, many have adopted other navigation devices of all types for use and, the accessory market has been pretty quick in responding to providing innovative solutions to help these devices cope with the elements.

Part of this situation comes about due to the limited market for motorcycle specific devices and the additional costs associated with designing, producing and marketing said devices.