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From: don (Calgary) on 7 Aug 2010 15:12
I have been riding with a GPS ever since I bought the Venture six plus
years ago. My first was a Streetpilot III. It was ok for its day.
The processor was slow and the screen hard to read in the bright sun.
It ran the Mapsource software though and was fully functional for
routing and finding places.

I upgraded to a Garmin 2730 three +/- years ago. The Streetpilot III
was working fine but I liked the idea of having my MP3 player built
into the GPS and thought I'd give XM Satellite radio a try. More
important than all that the price for a refurbished unit was right.

Until the screen delaminated and I started getting more and more goofy
information on the screen, I was very pleased with the 2730.

Right or wrong I have become very comfortable riding with a GPS. I
depend on it for routing, motel/hotel information, fuel stops, actual
speed, places of interest etc. These things do so much more than just
replace a map.

The 2730, and I think the same could be said for the 26xx and 27xx
series, is a practical and fully functioning GPS. Aside from not
having a battery it did pretty much everything I wanted.

IMHO the Zumo 660 is a bit of a step backward from the 26xx and 27xx
series.

First what the Zumo 660 does better:
1. Larger and brighter screen.
2 It has a built in rechargeable battery.
3. It has a few other features I may find useful such as a fuel
indicator, but the jury is still out on that stuff.
4. The 660 can take a SD card for extra map storage or more music.

What the 660 does not do better
1. There is no way to lock it into the stock cradle. The 2730 had a
little torx set screw that would lock the latching mechanism. Granted
if you happened to have one of those little torx drivers you could
easily steal the unit, but how many people carry one of them around.
The Zumo has nothing to secure it in the cradle. It takes less than a
second to remove it. You can set a pin code in the unit which would
render it useless for anyone wanting to steal it, but that would be
small consolation for the guy who lost it.

For $200 bucks +/- you can buy a Tour Tech lockable mount, but aside
from the cost the thing looks like something from the movie Alien.

I will have to find something to make it more difficult to remove the
unit from the cradle. As it is now I'd feel compelled to lock it up
every time I stop to take a leak.

2. The Zumo doesn't have hard buttons like the 27xx or 26xx series.
If you are deep into the navigation menus on the 660 you have to back
your way out through up to three screens. The 27xx and 26xx series
have a hard button to return you to the map screen. They also have a
hard button for Finding Nearest Places. Very handy.

3. You cannot set the 660 up to show as much information on the screen
as you can with the 27xx and 26xx series. The Zumo, with the latest
firmware upgrade only allows four boxes, with a single line each, for
GPS information. By using multiple lines in the 2730 I could list 6
to 8 lines of info. Granted the font is larger in the Zumo screen
which is a good thing for aging eyes like mine.

4. Short of using the SD card the Zumo is limited to storing ten
routes. I am not sure what the limit was in the 2730, but in three
years I never found it.

5. You have to remove the battery cover (not an easy thing to do) to
plug in the USB cable to connect the unit to a computer.

Both units seem to have similar speed for re-routing or refreshing the
screen.

Given my limited experience with the 660, to date I think the 27xx and
26xx series are better units for a motorcycle. After I get used to
the 660 I might change my mind.

I will probably look into getting my 2730 refurbished and hang on to
it for a while. As long as it can take the map updates it is a
terrific little gadget.
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