My (poor) experience regarding the Zumo 660

[alan_sh]

So, toc celebrate buying a new bike (CBF1000 if you are interested), I thought I'd update my old Zumo 550 to a 660. I really wanted the facility to know the correct roadspeed and that has it.

So, purchase arrives and I'm pleased - al the wires terminate under the seat so much neater. It all gets installed and it's connected to my Autocom system.

Then I go to connect my phone. Now, with the 550, the phone connects to the zumo and then the Zumo forwards all phone calls to my Autocom BT device. Do you think I can get this to work with the 660? Not a chance. It turns out that Garmin removed this feature. So, I spend £22 on a lead from Autocom which they say "should" work. But, of course, it doesn't.

Next issue - music. Sometimes the 660 reads my SD card, sometimes it doesn't. Turns out this is a well known problem (18 pages of it on the Zumo forum) but no solution.

Next issue - map quality. It seems like Garmin have lowered the display quality of maps so you don't necessrily see the side roads as you are navigating. Not sure what is going on here but it's not so good.

Final issue (for me) - useability. With my 550, if I want to change the volume, I press one button at the side and then can increase/decrease as much as I want. I can do this without looking at the screen. With the 660, I have to go back to the main screen, then press the Volume icon and then I can change it. But try doing that without looking. It just can't be done.

Also, the size of the numbers for the speed are much smaller. And, apart from the road speed display, you can't actuall have any more information on the screen at any one time than the 550. Sure, you can change what you see, but you still get the same number of items.

So, before spending hard cash on a 660, work out why you might need one. They can be very good, but not if you've already had a 550 (IMO).

Alan

[dickins]

Mate, I sympathise with you,although my experience is only with tomtom units,I still find the same frustrations i.e. features added at the expense of something being removed,phones which won't connect,bluetooth connections which work only sometimes etc.
The ideal motorcycle satnav will take the best features from various models and meld them into into one decent unit,which will be worth spending our hard earned cash on. Until then,we will have make do with the compomises which are available today
Nice bike by the way

[coconut]

I have a Garmin Zumo 660 fitted on my new model Triumph Trophy, and I love it !

( Not having experienced any sort of motorcycle Sat Nav previously, I have nothing to compare it with though ).

Using the Garmin POI Loader it's fairly easy to update the Speed Camera database before each major trip,
but you do have to remember to deselect Garmin's own camera database, or you end up with
lots of out of date and duplicated warnings, and not much Sat Navving !

What I really like is that the 660 is "hard wired" into the audio system of the Triumph Trophy.
The Sat Nav instructions and Speed Camera audio warnings are transmitted via the Trophy Bluetooth audio system
to my helmet ( Interphone ) Bluetooth receiver.

I have my iPhone paired by Bluetooth to the second bluetooth channel of the Trophy audio system,
although I have tried pairing it directly to the 660, and that seemed to work OK first time -
I just prefer to operate my Phone through the handlebar controls,
rather then lean forward to access the touch screen of the 660.

There's plenty of information on the Triumph Trophy Garmin 660 installation on the Triumph Trophy forum,
where there is a section for Sat Nav issues :

Triumph Trophy Audio, Sat Nav, and Intercom


_________________
iPhone SE, TomTom Go 5000, Garmin Zumo XT.

[bogbody]

I've recently updated from a Nuvi 350T (in my tank bag) to a handlebar mounted Zumo 660.
Pros - easier to see as its positioned properly
- waterptoof (Nuvi was not, plastic bags rule! but you can't see it)
- being able to share routes with my rideout mates is very usefull.
I act as sweeper in our drop-off system. Knowing where the ride
has gone is very useful.

Cons - very expensive for basicaly being waterproof.

One thing I did need to do was update the original Autocom unit to the newer BTM-02A as the original BT module did not handle the phone correctly. Even when directly connected to the BTM-02A bluetooth volume is far too low and the Zumo cant pair to the phone (or did not appear to).
You now have to pair the phone to the Zumo *NOT* the autocom module.
The zumo appears to handle the phone OK, volume is OK.
One snag I discovered was that the bletooth volume was a little low, I now feed the zumo directly to AUX3 on the Autocom. I could hear the Zumo at 30mph but at 70mph it was a little indistinct.
By the way, updating the Zumo to version 5.00 of the firmware improved the phone/call handling.
Phone is a Galaxy S3 on its latest Andriod firmware (V4.3)
Bike is a Honda ST1100 (Pan European), known as "The Blue Wonder".

One little trick I do with The phone/zumo is to set my mate as the "Home" number so that I can get hold of him if he goes out of PMR range.
He also has an autocom/hands free unit on his ST1300.
This is emergencies only by the way, general "need a pee/cuppa/fuel" chat is via the PMR (2-way radio)

The new BTM-02A was £80 from chainspeed.co.uk but I sold the old one on Ebay and recovered half the cost of it so not too bad.

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