charlie.c
Member
With the frosty weather hitting us it's been frustrating just looking at the bike sat in the garage. Boxing day was fantastic though. Temp 7 deg and clear blue sky. Despite still suffering with this bloody cold I finally got out for my second long ride on the Ten. MK to Walton on the Naze to try a few things out. My main issue was sat-nav location. I had already tried the short arm on the Ram Mount fixed to the bar above the instruments. Completely and utterly useless!! The bar shakes a bit with the screen assembly and that all gets amplified by the arm holding the satnav. It doesn't matter how tight you do up the U bolt it just squashes the bar and the whole unit just flops down. So I have been busy making a more suitable bracket, see pics. This bracket is machined from billet aluminium. It's designed to easily clamp firm on the bar without squashing it. It attaches the satnav mount properly to allow the rubber bushes to do their job. This test one is just painted satin black but I've made a small batch that will be black anodised. All screws are stainless. My test route to the coast was on a wide range of roads and surfaces from bumpy slow narrow country lanes to smooth fast dual carriageway.
The results were infinitely better than the Ram set up. The bracket does not slip around the bar at all. Yes there's still some shake on bumpy roads but there's no amplification and the satnav is clearly viewable at all times. I've seen the screen stays that can be fitted to minimise shake but I really didn't want to go down that route. For me and my set up this works perfectly. I've tried it with both my Garmin 660 and 590. Both units are positioned to leave a clear view of the instruments including the indicator lights. The 590 can only fit this bracket in landscape mode, if there's enough interest I can do the portrait mode as well. If anyone is interested in one of these let me know, they will be available in a couple of weeks. I'm expecting them to sell for £38 but the initial batch will be on offer to forum members for £25. All I ask for other than that is some feedback.
The results were infinitely better than the Ram set up. The bracket does not slip around the bar at all. Yes there's still some shake on bumpy roads but there's no amplification and the satnav is clearly viewable at all times. I've seen the screen stays that can be fitted to minimise shake but I really didn't want to go down that route. For me and my set up this works perfectly. I've tried it with both my Garmin 660 and 590. Both units are positioned to leave a clear view of the instruments including the indicator lights. The 590 can only fit this bracket in landscape mode, if there's enough interest I can do the portrait mode as well. If anyone is interested in one of these let me know, they will be available in a couple of weeks. I'm expecting them to sell for £38 but the initial batch will be on offer to forum members for £25. All I ask for other than that is some feedback.
