Garmin's zūmo 660 motorcycle GPS shipping this month
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 19th 2009 9:24PM
posted Apr 19th 2009 9:24PM
[Via I4U News]
posted Apr 19th 2009 9:24PM
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That really does not look like a motorcycle on that screen
i know. it looks more like a guy getting oral from a pineapple with eyes.....
@kamil...thats something i would pay 800 dollars for
@Michael
That's something I did not want to know
For $800 ($1000 Canadian) I'd rather design an ITX motorcycle computer, buy all of the ITX components and assemble it, buy a decent GPS module with an antenna, and use a touchscreen to control it all.
Alternately, To save time I could just buy a new laptop, strip off the screen and keyboard (and sell them), then buy a touchscreen and wire it up for the motorcycle. There's plenty of space under the seat, and I'll use SSD so I don't have to worry about data problems.
This is the story of "The First Windows 7 Enabled Motorcycle"
@RoboDan: Plenty of space under the seat? Wire up a touchscreen? What and where do you ride? I wanna make sure my bike and I are not in the same time zone with you and yours when you do it.
Suzuki SV650s First Gen.
There's enough space under just my passenger seat for my bike tarp, bike lock, tools, etc.
Wiring is a breeze on this baby - especially when you have the shop manual with wiring diagrams. A touchscreen would likely require a parallel connection due to power usage - so I'll look for a 12V one and wire it directly to the battery. It won't be on unless the bike is already running - I don't want to kill my battery.
The touchscreen will either be mounted just hovering over the top triple on some medium-density foam padding or may eventually replace my instrument cluster, depending on if I can find a way to route the information from all of the sensors (ie. gas, oil pressure, spedometer, tachometer, neutral light, odometer) to be translated into something the system can understand and display.
This is just the first step, too. Once cheap OLEDs are on the market you can pretty well say goodbye to physical instrument clusters. With LED lighting all around and technologies like regenerative braking (not required, but useful) the E-Bike (no not iBike) will be a reality, to be followed shortly thereafter by fully electric motorcycles - just you wait to see what kind of designs will be coming out!
The convergence of the motor vehicle and the computer is just around the corner (less than 3 years, mark my words)
Wow, RoboDan, you really thought this one through.
I myself ride a '99 BMW K1200LT--with an instrument cluster that is wide, flat, and absolutely abysmal in terms of readability and accuracy. It is aching to be replaced with an LCD panel. It would neatly eliminate all the "farkles" that us supertourer pilots bolt onto the cockpit of our machines (like CBs, satellite radios, radar detectors, and the like) making it look like some absurd Mars rover.
The huge fairing can more-than-accommodate an ITX PC chassis, with an i-Pac controller from Ultimarc providing human input from the left grip-mounted 4-way and mute combo--a perfect input device--and the eight stereo control buttons on the faux tank.
There wouldn't be any need to modify any of the bike's senders--all pertinent data ends up at the cluster's existing harness. A Fusion Brain from fusioncontrolcentre.com would be able to provide the PC with four voltage inputs from the four analog gauges--speed, tach, fuel, and temp--and the nine on/off continuity detectors required to determine if any of the idiot lights are on--as well as input from my Valentine One remote (#@^&!* you, Virginia Highway Patrol!!!), all over USB.
The sunlight-readable LCD display (there are so many input buttons on the K1200LT that a touch-screen isn't really necessary) would be well protected inside the fairing, as would the ITX chassis. It would display a customized gauge cluster, as well as MP3 ID3 information or Sirius/XM channel information.
The only two components I'm missing is a PC-based interface for an XM radio receiver, and an instant-on OS with a decent GUI. I already know that the OS would NOT be Microsoft.
However, I hadn't decided whether or not to use it for navigation--I don't know how many turn-by-turn GPS apps are written for non-Microsoft OSs and am hesitant to roll my own; I don't have the time, experience, or patience for such an endeavor.
I've been thinking about this, too... :-)
P.S. I've purchased all of the parts and it came to under $500CAD ($400USD) - so I can build 2 Motorcycle/Car PCs with: touchscreens, GPS, Wifi (for web, e-mail, weather, etc.), Cameras, voice-control, phone-integration for hand-free dialing, anti-theft (by Wifi lojack), Windows 7 RC1, MP3 capability, 320GB shock-mounted hard drive with accelerometer (Seagate G-force), Dual core (Atom 330), radio, tv, video player... (and soon tachometer, odometer, spedometer, functions)
FOR THE PRICE OF ONE OF THESE MONSTROCITIES!
Die Garmin. Die a slow death.
P.S. You already are dying. Expand your offerings or perish
I really hope this thing has voice nav.
Voice nav? Unless you have a helmet-mounted headset, ain't no way you're going to hear the thing above 15mph...
why is this worth $800?!
Because it was designed by apple.
Now hand over your money and be happy. You know you want to.
Read these: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=135&pID=15000#specsTab
Do you even ride?
In short: Water Resistant, brighter screen. Otherwise its the same as any other GPS and they find this good reason to charge a heck of a lot more.
i could be wrong, but everytime I notice the GPS image on many of these units..the city happens to be Chicago..why is that?
annoying exhaust? come on....
loud pipes save lives
Tell that to a motorcycle with straight-pipes
You're either an idiot or a troll. Or both. Whatever the case, you're decidedly wrong. Loud pipes DO NOT save, lives, They're just idiotic noisemakers that make us bikers look bad.
Agreed ^
3D building views looks like a really cool feature!
My $50 gps in a zip-lock bag serves me just fine, proving we need cheaper GPS, not more expensive GPS with 3d buildings.
What model GPS? And where do you mount it on your ride? And how do you seal it when you have to mount it in a plastic bag? And how do you keep the condensate out of the inside of the bag when it rains?
Uh huh. I thought so.
Upside down, baggies are great.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=168512&l=55af470679&id=1240633809
You zip-tie the windshield mount to your handlebars and the gps clips on with the baggie on it.
So far condensation has not given me issues.
Hah! Wow, you learn something new every day. I'm sorry I ever doubted you! :-)
I opted for a $1,000 Garmin 2730 with the integrated XM receiver--but being the cheapskate I am, I waited a few years until I could pick one up on eBay for $250. :-D Before that I had a Garmin 2610 that had a slew of condensation issues. Garmin finally corrected them with the 27xx line.
Cool bike, BTW.
Since we're sharing, here's my 2730 on my K1200LT--on Florida's Turnpike. You can't see the GPS very well in the video, but at least I'll get some street cred (pardon the pun) and y'all won't think I'm a troll. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvjbKdfv3E
Other Engadget-relevant info: The video was shot with a VZW BlackBerry 8330 Storm.
Yep. I'm nuts.
try one of the air tight bags. will work better.
Don't forget about Daytona Beach, FL in October.
Holy smokes, Bike Week is just NUTS in Daytona!!! What a blowout!
My $50 gps in a zip-lock bag duct taped to the handle bars serves me just fine
lol
As someone who lives in Chicago (displayed on the nav screen) and grew up in Myrtle Beach, I suggest you go to Chicago instead of Myrtle Beach. Especially during bike week.
$800!!! Dont they know we are ina recession?
That looks totally sweet!
I personally wouldn't use the Bluetooth phone stuff, though. When I'm on the bike, I would rather save my concentration for the road, not answering the phone. Motorcycling is why God made voicemail! :-)
....or you could get a Garmin NuVi 500 (or 550) from Amazon for ~250...waterproof, portable, and 1 / 3 the price...works fine on my bike, and you know what? A box of Ziplock bags from Wal*Mart is under 3 bucks. Keeps out the weather if you're worried.
and yellow and blue make green.
Hmm, seems like they used iGO2008 with another skin for a more userfriendly expierence. Nice...
What an upgrade over the Zumo 550. They removed XM radio support, removed the buttons which make it possible to use the unit while wearing gloves and not looking at the screen, cut the number of routes you can store on the device, and from the looks of it, made it more difficult to type in letters while wearing gloves. That's progress.
I noticed all that too, after I went to Garmin's site and read up on it.
I'll stick to my 2750, thanks. :-)