Friday, April 28, 2006
XM Radio
The long ride from SoCal to northern Washington for WFO-4 last year highlighted the limitations of an iPod for on-the-road entertainment. A lot of guys at WFO-4 had XM radio's installed, and I picked one up at a Best Buy in Bellingham during the meet. I wasn't able to kludge together a working install until I got back home.
Here's my setup:
- Delphi Roady 2.
- Hardwired Car Adapter from myradiostore.com
- Satellite Radio Mount from Motorcycle Larry
- RAM-B-309-2 RAM mount for clutch bolts
The Roady 2 model has been discontinued, but is still the best for use on a motorcycle, because the mounting bracket makes a hard connection to the unit. Newer models use a drop-in cradle that does not securely hold the unit in place without an add-on strap. You can still pick up a Roady 2 unit at car stereo shops (Al & Ed's in SoCal, for example), or on eBay.
I installed the hardwire module behind panel B, with velcro to hold it down to the bottom of the bay. I connected the unit to my barrier strips (positive under panel B, negative under panel C), which recieves power through an ignition-on relay directly from the battery. (See this article on the FJRTech website for details.)
I installed the RAM mount on my clutch bracket; I got the two-ball unit, but only use the second ball on rare occassions with a RAM-mount cup-holder, of all things.
The Roady 2 comes with a 20' antenna cable. You can buy shorter cables, but a $39 cable for a $29 radio just didn't work for me. I wound up the long antenna cable into a 2" diameter circle, held together with three cable ties at 120°. This fits neatly around the RAM mount bracket. The antenna mounts on the shelf built into the mounting bracket.
I use Shure e2C sound isolating earphones. These come with a variety of sleeves - foam, hard plastic, and soft silicon, each in three sizes. The large silicon sleeve works well for me - I wore them for 17 hours on my SS1K ride back in March. These have an MSRP of $108, but can be found for around $70. I got my last pair for $68 from GadgetFreeks, with no sales tax and $6 shipping.
I connect the earphones in a couple of different ways, depending on the ride. For rides where my radar detector isn't in use, I plug in directly to the headphone jack on the Roady 2. Actually, I ran a 1-foot coiled headphone extension cord down the left handlebar, and used a cable tie to hold the female end in place down by the steering head. I plug the male end of the extension into the Roady 2, and plug my earphones into the female end. I put a few twists into the earphone cord to shorten it before plugging it in.
If I'm using my radar detector, I have an Amplirider mixing amplifier mounted in my tank bag; headphone cords connected to the Amplirider pass through small holes in the tank bag and plug into the Roady 2 and radar detector output jacks. In this setup, the earphones plug into a female cord that connects to the Amplirider's output jack.
Pictures of the on-bike setup follow.
The vehicle mounting bracket included with the Roady 2 package is bolted to the MotorcycleLarry sat radio RAM bracket:
The antenna cable is wrapped into a 2" diameter bundle, secured with three cable ties, and passed through the RAM mount arm:
The coiled audio extension cord is cabled-tied to the clutch line; the female jack is secured for easy headphone connection, down by the handlebar mounts:
