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Radio or Speaker Mount

Dan_Lockwood

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Joined
Sep 5, 2024
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35
Location
Clare MI
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I've seen some European scoots/bikes that have their GPS and or radio/speakers mounted over the instrument area on a cross bar of sorts. I've tried all possible searches online and have come up with nothing.

On my '20 C650 GT, there is a RAM ball mount on the black center BMW cover, similar to what I'm guessing is the OEM type of ball mount. I'm kind of leaning towards just using my iPhone for the GPS and XM streaming to a Bluetooth speaker. JBL has a very nice cylindrical shaped waterproof Bluetooth speaker that I'm sure I can mount up under the windshield area on the mounting system I'm trying to find... :)

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas what might work for me? I've done several searches here for possibilities, but again, come up short.

Thanks in advance, Dan
 
I've seen some European scoots/bikes that have their GPS and or radio/speakers mounted over the instrument area on a cross bar of sorts. I've tried all possible searches online and have come up with nothing.

On my '20 C650 GT, there is a RAM ball mount on the black center BMW cover, similar to what I'm guessing is the OEM type of ball mount. I'm kind of leaning towards just using my iPhone for the GPS and XM streaming to a Bluetooth speaker. JBL has a very nice cylindrical shaped waterproof Bluetooth speaker that I'm sure I can mount up under the windshield area on the mounting system I'm trying to find... :)

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas what might work for me? I've done several searches here for possibilities, but again, come up short.

Thanks in advance, Dan
I am looking too.. this site is not very interactive.
 
I've seen some European scoots/bikes that have their GPS and or radio/speakers mounted over the instrument area on a cross bar of sorts. I've tried all possible searches online and have come up with nothing.

On my '20 C650 GT, there is a RAM ball mount on the black center BMW cover, similar to what I'm guessing is the OEM type of ball mount. I'm kind of leaning towards just using my iPhone for the GPS and XM streaming to a Bluetooth speaker. JBL has a very nice cylindrical shaped waterproof Bluetooth speaker that I'm sure I can mount up under the windshield area on the mounting system I'm trying to find... :)

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas what might work for me? I've done several searches here for possibilities, but again, come up short.

Thanks in advance, Dan
I have a '23 C 400 GT, not a 650, but I have a few possibilities for you, or at least may give you some idea for crativity:

1) WunderlichUSA has a few mounts for the C 650 GT, for specific devices (which, unfortunately, doesn't seem to apply to your situation):


2) On my 400, I used a behind-the-windshield mount that I picked up on AliExpress:


I ditched the part that holds the bar, and drilled a hole in the other part, in order to mount a standard 1" RAM ball. If you're curious, I have seven pics and captions describing my work on this project, starting with this image in my 400 gallery:


3) Unfortunately, I just looked, and AliExpress doesn't seem to offer anything analogous to that for the 650. For the 650, I found these two products, is all:



4) Of course, I also found a lot of general-purpose phone holders there, with mounts that clamp around handlebars or short brackets with a hole to be held in place by a mirror stem.

But this sort of thing is nothing that you can't build with RAM products or RAM-compatible products found on RAM's site or hundreds of other places. If you're not familiar with those products, you might be interested in an introductory article I wrote about such devices, eight years ago for webBikeWorld (when it was under its original management):


5) You might want to be careful mounting modern -- and expensive -- phones. A few years ago, Apple issued its first warning about possible damage to a camera's stabilization hardware, when mounted on a moto.

There are a number of major players that have vibration-dampening mechanisms -- optional or built-in -- in or for their phone holders, such as Hondo Garage, SP Connect, Quad Lock, Peak Design, and RokForm. (I have an aging mount from Hondo Garage, and just bought a new mount from Peak Design over the winter).

6) An alternative to phone mounting is to get one of a slew of recently introduced CarPlay/Android Auto devices, which allow you to keep your phone in your pocket, or charging in a cubby, etc. These come with their own mounts, typically handlebar clamps, but of course you can alter that situation with mirror-stem mounts, etc., etc.

I recently bought a low-end, relatively inexpensive, unit like that from Aoocci, to introduce myself to the world of CarPlay. I mounted this on my Royal Enfield Meteor 350, and have a few pics and captions in my Meteor gallery, starting with this image:


More expensive such units are becoming increasingly popular, particularly those from Chigee and Carpuride. (I didn't want to go all out on this stuff, because I wanted to just dip my toe in. Also, almost all of the time on my day trips I don't really care where I've been, where I am, or where I'm going.)

That's all I got. Good luck with your project.
 
I have a '23 C 400 GT, not a 650, but I have a few possibilities for you, or at least may give you some idea for crativity:

1) WunderlichUSA has a few mounts for the C 650 GT, for specific devices (which, unfortunately, doesn't seem to apply to your situation):


2) On my 400, I used a behind-the-windshield mount that I picked up on AliExpress:


I ditched the part that holds the bar, and drilled a hole in the other part, in order to mount a standard 1" RAM ball. If you're curious, I have seven pics and captions describing my work on this project, starting with this image in my 400 gallery:


3) Unfortunately, I just looked, and AliExpress doesn't seem to offer anything analogous to that for the 650. For the 650, I found these two products, is all:



4) Of course, I also found a lot of general-purpose phone holders there, with mounts that clamp around handlebars or short brackets with a hole to be held in place by a mirror stem.

But this sort of thing is nothing that you can't build with RAM products or RAM-compatible products found on RAM's site or hundreds of other places. If you're not familiar with those products, you might be interested in an introductory article I wrote about such devices, eight years ago for webBikeWorld (when it was under its original management):


5) You might want to be careful mounting modern -- and expensive -- phones. A few years ago, Apple issued its first warning about possible damage to a camera's stabilization hardware, when mounted on a moto.

There are a number of major players that have vibration-dampening mechanisms -- optional or built-in -- in or for their phone holders, such as Hondo Garage, SP Connect, Quad Lock, Peak Design, and RokForm. (I have an aging mount from Hondo Garage, and just bought a new mount from Peak Design over the winter).

6) An alternative to phone mounting is to get one of a slew of recently introduced CarPlay/Android Auto devices, which allow you to keep your phone in your pocket, or charging in a cubby, etc. These come with their own mounts, typically handlebar clamps, but of course you can alter that situation with mirror-stem mounts, etc., etc.

I recently bought a low-end, relatively inexpensive, unit like that from Aoocci, to introduce myself to the world of CarPlay. I mounted this on my Royal Enfield Meteor 350, and have a few pics and captions in my Meteor gallery, starting with this image:


More expensive such units are becoming increasingly popular, particularly those from Chigee and Carpuride. (I didn't want to go all out on this stuff, because I wanted to just dip my toe in. Also, almost all of the time on my day trips I don't really care where I've been, where I am, or where I'm going.)

That's all I got. Good luck with your project.
 
Thanks Bill... :)

I did a bit or fab work and started with just a single rear brake master cylinder top plate and RAM ball sideways for my iPhone. THEN... I found the Carpuride 702W and bought that. That required a rethink of my options. I then created double master cylinder plates with a 5/8" square aluminium cross bar. I figured I could drill the cross bar and mount a stud RAM ball to support the display, which it did... :)

BUT THEN... I still wanted speakers. I bought the JBL Cruise self-powered Bluetooth speakers. They work okay at moderate speeds, up to say 65'ish, but then they run out of volume. But in my opinion, they are the best-looking speakers and easiest to operate. Since the volume control of the Carpuride display is very difficult to find and operate while riding, I mounted the main JBL speaker with volume control on the left side. This gives my free hand something to do. :)

BUT AGAIN... I already had the dual mounted cross bar and since the speakers were an after thought, I had to improvise once again. I made two overlay top aluminium plates that attached with the top two master cylinder plate screws and also tied into the brackets for the cross bar. IF I had known all that I ended up doing, the brackets would have just been one piece versus the two pieces per side I ended up with. But after all of that, they look as good as aftermarket speakers can. They do work well, just not great.

Not as smooth of an install as my Harley, but more than adequate for my 2020 C650 GT. I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Dan
 

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Thanks Bill... :)

I did a bit or fab work and started with just a single rear brake master cylinder top plate and RAM ball sideways for my iPhone. THEN... I found the Carpuride 702W and bought that. That required a rethink of my options. I then created double master cylinder plates with a 5/8" square aluminium cross bar. I figured I could drill the cross bar and mount a stud RAM ball to support the display, which it did... :)

BUT THEN... I still wanted speakers. I bought the JBL Cruise self-powered Bluetooth speakers. They work okay at moderate speeds, up to say 65'ish, but then they run out of volume. But in my opinion, they are the best-looking speakers and easiest to operate. Since the volume control of the Carpuride display is very difficult to find and operate while riding, I mounted the main JBL speaker with volume control on the left side. This gives my free hand something to do. :)

BUT AGAIN... I already had the dual mounted cross bar and since the speakers were an after thought, I had to improvise once again. I made two overlay top aluminium plates that attached with the top two master cylinder plate screws and also tied into the brackets for the cross bar. IF I had known all that I ended up doing, the brackets would have just been one piece versus the two pieces per side I ended up with. But after all of that, they look as good as aftermarket speakers can. They do work well, just not great.

Not as smooth of an install as my Harley, but more than adequate for my 2020 C650 GT. I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Dan
Thanks Bill... :)

I did a bit or fab work and started with just a single rear brake master cylinder top plate and RAM ball sideways for my iPhone. THEN... I found the Carpuride 702W and bought that. That required a rethink of my options. I then created double master cylinder plates with a 5/8" square aluminium cross bar. I figured I could drill the cross bar and mount a stud RAM ball to support the display, which it did... :)

BUT THEN... I still wanted speakers. I bought the JBL Cruise self-powered Bluetooth speakers. They work okay at moderate speeds, up to say 65'ish, but then they run out of volume. But in my opinion, they are the best-looking speakers and easiest to operate. Since the volume control of the Carpuride display is very difficult to find and operate while riding, I mounted the main JBL speaker with volume control on the left side. This gives my free hand something to do. :)

BUT AGAIN... I already had the dual mounted cross bar and since the speakers were an after thought, I had to improvise once again. I made two overlay top aluminium plates that attached with the top two master cylinder plate screws and also tied into the brackets for the cross bar. IF I had known all that I ended up doing, the brackets would have just been one piece versus the two pieces per side I ended up with. But after all of that, they look as good as aftermarket speakers can. They do work well, just not great.

Not as smooth of an install as my Harley, but more than adequate for my 2020 C650 GT. I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Dan
That is Awesome!!
 
I've enjoyed my 2020 C650 GT very much for over 1,600 miles. But... as I believe I posted elsewhere, I'm selling it and going to get a new Harley Tri Glide in the spring. The C650 GT has been great for the wife and I to ride. It keeps up with the nephew's Harleys and never do we fall behind.

As this post thread has shared, I wanted to upgrade my Beemer to have tunes while we ride. I bought a Compuride 7" waterproof Bluetooth screen with Apple Car Play and Android Auto. While riding I stream XM from my iPhone, and it works flawlessly. The only downside is that the volume control on the screen takes a bit of button pushing to get to, but once there, the volume is fully controllable from the screen. To help with this issue, I mounted the JBL Cruise speakers such that the one with the on/off button, skip and volume control buttons, was on the left side. This makes it very easy to reach while riding and lowering the volume when coming to a stop. Eazy Peazy!

I bought the chrome JBL Cruise Bluetooth speaker set and developed a dual sided master cylinder mounting system. It has a 5/8" square aluminium cross bar with the standard RAM mount ball in the center. This mounting system is very rigid and works and looks great. Some asked if I could duplicate it, but that was never my plan. BUT... since I'm selling my Beemer, the added sound system means squat to "most" potential buyers. So, I am putting the sound system with mounts up for sale.

Like I said, Compuride 7" screen ($150), JBL Cruise speakers ($300). I have $450 invested into the system, PLUS all of the brackets I made and labor to develop the system.

If anyone is interested, I would take $400 for the entire system, PLUS shipping. I believe this would easily fit in a USPS medium Flat Rate box for around $24. I would be happy on pack and ship if needed, again plus the shipping charge.

The JBL Cruise speakers have a fused harness consisting of just two wire, black/negative and red/positive. These were hooked directly to the battery posts. I have slide on spade ends so you do not have to take the battery screws all the way out, just loosen them and slide in the wire terminals. The Compuride wiring is basically the same, two wires. These I ran to the left side and hooked them into the 12v power plug in the left side glove box. Both were a breeze to install/wire etc.

To mount the crossbar plates to the top of the master cylinder reservoirs, loosening the lever clamps and slightly rotating them so the left side is parallel to the right side. This didn't take long. I have included four (4) 4M screws that replace the four Philips head screw in the covers.

Thanks for the help here on the forum. By the way, my 2020 C650 GT Beemer is now priced at $7,000 and it has 8,600 miles with less than a year-old Michelin tires and new drive belt. Also, with it will go the clutch retaining tool from BMW that holds everything while you loosen the variator and clutch nuts. Also is a full set of brand-new Dr. Pulley 36gm slider/rollers. I installed them and they worked great. WAY more mid-range and take off power. BUT at the sacrifice of about 2k rpms at 70 mph. They came back out and the as new original rollers went back in.

Here are some of the pictures of the system, installed and off the scooter. If anyone is interested at $400 plus shipping, the system is yours. New this past summer. $400 is my bottom $$$. If it does not sell, I have a sand rail project that it would work great in, albeit the cross bar would not be used.
 

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