Garmin Maps Question

[andrew882]

Another question for the ABR cogniscienti...

I've just managed to pick up a Garmin 660 (my bike came with the mount but no actual satnav!) and I'm not sure how long it is since the last update...I've just had a look on the Garmin website and am quite surprised at the cost of an update, given that it'll be out of date pretty well as soon as it's downloaded!

So the Q is - are there any alternatives that will work with the Garmin?

Cheers

Andrew

[Tiggymonster]

Hi Andrew, the 660 you picked up, is it the 660LM with the Life Maps, if it was the updates are free. Have you tried?
My 660 is LM and I plug it in the computer every now and again and it does its thing. Actually did mine yesterday and there was nothing to update and that's they way its been for about 2 months! I've also got the TomTom 400 and that needs updates almost daily.
Rob

[Andi_Archer]

Alternatly the free version of TalkyToasty routable maps should load on Garmins

[DanielS]

My personal favourite based on OSM are: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

[bikenav]

beaten to it as above but already written so- Hello there I use an old zumo550 I have never bothered with map updates myself perhaps if I was regularly in Cities looking for specific locations it may be worth while, but for the more rural riding I do UK and Euro I've never found "outdated maps" any problem. You may find something newer from the website Ioffer.com a lot cheaper than Garmin unsure if they are the newest version though. Alternatively have a look at OSM products free to download you can use them as an alternative to Garmin product or parallel as you chose, see my choice of maps on my mapsource screenshot below(the box top left) you can do similar with the 550 I guess the 660 is similar.

Screenshot19.png (428.56 KiB) Viewed 2669 times

[andrew882]

Thanks very much all, I don't think it's an LM (it's not advertised as such), but will plug it in and cross my fingers!

If not the alternatives you've suggested will hopefully do the job!

cheers

Andrew

[DaleC]

My personal favourite based on OSM are: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

+1 to this - they have been absolutely brilliant, for the price. Free!