Engineering For Motorcycles

Mounting a GPS on a motorcycle always seems to be a complex set of design compromises driven by available space, ease of use, fuel cap accessibility, sunlight readability, tank bag considerations, electrical power cable routing, and so on. There just does not seem to be an easy answer. I have always found the tank bags with the integral GPS pocket to be somewhat lacking in practice, for I do not like turning my head so far down and taking my eyes so far away from the road while riding. Until such time as the motorcycle manufacturers provide us with rain-proof aviation-quality sunlight-readable digital touch-screen instrument panels with embedded GPS and an iPhone-style user interface we will continue to struggle to find the best solution.

German manufacturer SW Motech, well-known for quality luggage systems, makes the Universal Mount Kit M8 (the M8 refers to the 8 mm handlebar clamp screws), which can be coupled with the Bags Connection GPS / PDA bag to make a very simple lightweight and minimal-impact GPS mount. There is also an M6 version of the mount kit for those with 6 mm handlebar screws. There are three different sizes of Bags Connection GPS / PDA Bags:

A model: 145 mm x 100 mm x 76 mm
B model: 140 mm x 90 mm x 30 mm.
C model: 160 mm x 110 mm x 35 mm.

So between two versions of the mount and three bags, there is lots of flexibility in this solution. For my TomTom One XL wide screen GPS I used the B model bag shown in the photo.

The materials used in both products are high quality. The SW Motech holder mechanism, both ball joints, and the mounting plate for the bag are all made from cast-aluminum with good material thickness. The handle for the tightening screw is thick plastic with a metal thread insert and should have a long life under normal use. The mounting screws and nuts are all steel. The Bags Connection Bag is ballistic nylon with a good quality plastic zipper that includes an integrated tight-fitting zipper rain flap. The zipper pulls are large soft rubber pulls that can easily be gripped while wearing motorcycle gloves. The clear plastic in the bag is typical of what you find in good quality tank bag map covers.

The Bags Connection Bag is attached to the SW Motech mount using the back plate included in the SW Motech kit and the included four small bolts with metal nuts incorporating a plastic thread lock. It is necessary to drill your own holes in the bag, but this also gives you the opportunity to mount the bag vertically or horizontally, with some lateral offset adjustments as desired as well. Drill four holes, install the screws through the back of the bag and through the mounting plate, and the two are attached. The one small nitpick I have here is that the screw heads can scratch the back of your GPS, so I also put a layer or two of duct tape over the screw heads to protect my GPS. Don't forget to install the hidden screw for the ball joint BEFORE you mount the plate to the bag.

One of the screws holding the handlebars must be removed so the GPS holder ball joint can be installed. The SW Motech kit comes with two long stainless steel screws to attach the ball joint, just pick the one most suited for your installation. This ball joint is the only part of the GPS mount that becomes a “permanent” part of your bike, although if you think it is unsightly when not using the GPS it is a quick matter of a hex key and a couple of minutes to remove it and go back to your original bolt.

The other ball joint is screwed into the back of the mounting plate, and then it is just a matter of tightening the spring-loaded clamp on the two ball joints to mount the GPS in the desired position. It is quick, easy, and firm. This photo shows the clamp and the ball joints without the bag so you can see how this works.

You can see that my TomTom One XL wide-screen GPS is mounted in the bag. The camera angle is pretty close to normal eye view, so you can see that while a bit of the instrument cluster is cut off, it is minimal.

The Bags Connection bag has a cable slit with rain flaps on the side, and it is necessary to run your GPS's power cable into the bag before placing the GPS in the bag.

I ride tested this installation up to our 80 mph European motorway speed limits. The GPS stayed put in the wind and did not vibrate. Even at 80 mph the zipper pulls did not flap around. While this mount does nothing to improve sunlight readability, it is no worse than any of the other solutions on the market. Incidentally, the SW Motech Mount Kit is also sold for the purpose of mounting a camera on your handlebars, so you have an either / or mount.

Overall I think this is a good quality minimal-impact solution with minimal visual impact when the GPS is not mounted - just the bottom ball remains. Prices in Euros are 40€ for the Mount Kit (roughly $54) and between 13€ and 23€ for the bags ($17.50 to $31.) Looking on the Internet I found several mail order companies in the USA that carry them.

SW Motech and Bags Connection have a joint marketing agreement. You can visit them both at:

http://www.sw-motech.com/swmotech2010/index.php

The North American importer and distributor for SW Motech products is Twisted Throttle:

http://www.twistedthrottle.com

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