R1150RT home grown Ram mount

[Phil50]

I've been fancying one of those Ram mounts that Migsel make. I've always been too mean and made do with a RAM-B-252U pinched onto one of my handlebar studs with a bit of tube and homemade rubber gasket (to stop it rubbing).

 

I found a length of 20mm x 3mm stainless steel in the garage and decided to use this to make myself a mount to sit under the wind shield. The Ram (RAM-B-252U) fitting is stuck to the steel using a mixture of epoxy and microfibres (I have a boat so have this stuff to hand). I sanded the steel and the base of the Ram fitting on a belt sander to clean it up and create a really good key. I just bent it by hand untill it fitted perfectly. I'd previously drilled 3 holes in the stainless, 2 are obvious the other is to form a peg into the base of the ball which already had a recess that a cleaned out. I'm not sure this was necessary but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I painted it with special metals primer and Hamerite flat finish paint but made a "pigs ear" of the paint job so ended up sanding the whole thing off. I'll put some clear lacquer on when I'm feeling in the mood.

 

Anyway here are some pics. If I'd had to buy everything the steel would have cost $2 the fitting $13 and who knows what the epoxy and microfibre would have cost.

 

 

 

I'm posting this here in case it provides an idea for other members.

[ltljohn]

Nice, it is very similar to one I made out of scrap aluminum a couple of years ago.

[dazzz]

I was looking for a one inch ball ram mount yesterday for my 1150. Ram Mounts Inc. has a ball that comes with three different length bolts. You remove a bolt from your handlebars and replace it with the ball and longer bolt (Ram-B-367u). Pretty clean. Only $11 for the ball but $12 shipping! They said it would be weeks before I could get it. Well I found one in stock at Express Mounts USA for $9.95 and only $2.49 shipping. It was shipped yesterday. Just another solution to the same problem.

[Sweendog]

Very nice mount!

 

On my R1100RT, I just used the RAM ball mount with the hole in the middle. It comes with three sizes of 8MM allen-screws that are a direct replacement for one of the handlebar screws. It works great, is out of the way when I don't have the mount on, and cost about $9. I'll snap a pic later and post it.

[Phil50]

I had my satnav mounted on the handlebar for 3 years and it was OK. Simply shifting it to the new position under the wind shield puts it in the perfect position.

 

The point is for you guys with the handlebar mounts if you have 8 inches of 20mm x 3mm stainless or aluminium and some epoxy you can make your handlebar mount into one that puts your satnav into the perfect position.

 

--

 

I wish I'd washed the bugs off my wind shield before I took that pic.

[Ian]

Phil,

 

Why did you offset the mount to the left?

 

Ian

[dmottv]

I picked up the brake/clutch reservoir cover mount. I put it on the clutch side with a short arm extension to my Aquabox. Easy to install, quick, and works well for now.

[Phil50]

Why did you offset the mount to the left?

 

Hi Ian,

 

It goes either way but to the left seemed natural to me for some reason. I was thinking that if I ever needed to mount another gadget I could put another at the other side.

 

If you mean why didn't I put it in the middle, it is simply because I wanted to put a screw/stud through the fitting and it was easier to have it at one end. That is rather than have to either use a countersunk fixing or stand the assembly the thickness of the head off the fairing (if you see what I mean. You could just use the RAM fitting and a fairing screw but it had a tendency to swing. The stainless steel bar just holds the thing in a more stable position.

 

It is easy to position the satnav in the middle with the amount of offset that exists and you wouldn't therefore gain anything by having the fitting in the middle.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

[awagnon]

I did essentially the same thing except put the metal bracket inside above the the black plastic dash. Epoxied the metal bar to the dash. Pretty rigid now.

 

 

[Phil50]

Hi Al,

 

That is so neat! I wish I had the confidence to get my drill out.

 

I wonder why Ram don't do a ball that would just screw into one of the tupperware screw holes. I'm sure they would sell loads of them.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

 

PS I've just bought a Garmin 62s so I need to buy a new cradle for my Ram mount. Perhaps I should buy another ball and mount it next to the TomTom then they can argue amongst themselves

[Ian]

Phil,

 

Looks real neat. I'm still pondering buying a Tourotech mount for my ancient Garmin V.

 

Ian

[Trav1150]

Has anybody attached an Aldi 'Go Cruise' GPS unit to their R1150RT? If so do you have a picture of your mount? I made a steel bracket almost identical to Phil's but find that the GPS unit vibrates at highway speeds. This is probably due to the fact that I had to weld a piece at right angles to the centre of my bracket to attach the 'Go Cruise' unit, which results in the GPS unit being a little too far from the fairing. My GPS unit obviously has a different mounting system to most other GPS brands.

[BIWOZ]

Hi Trav ... yep, I have exactly the same thing mounted on my 1150RT (great little unit ... apart from the crappy cheap mounting bracket, which needs reinforcing). I also have a mount for the two-way radio (with a grip-mounted PTT switch, so it's not permanently live) and one for the Drift Innovation HD movie camera. I'll wander down to the car park and see if I can get a picture. The mounts are there on the bike anyway ...

 

Bruce

 

Photo 1

Here's the GPS mount on the LH handlebar. (My next job is to shorten the tightening bolt to something a bit more elegant.) There is no vibration, especially after I wrapped a couple of layers of gaffa tape around the ball mount first (just visible as something white in the photo). This stopped the vibrations and also holds the cradle more securely. The mount above it is the two-way radio cradle, using a RAM "gutter grip" mount onto the windscreen and a RAM universal GPS mount.

 

 

Photo 2:

Same two brackets, different angle. The camera makes them look closer together than they actually are. The cable is normally velcroed away out of sight, but I actually am using the two-way today, hence the elegant draped look.

 

 

Photo 3:

Here's everything mounted. The camera (right) sits on a RAM mount that connects directly to your brake reservoir. The orange "square" on the right handlebar is the camera remote control.

 

When I'm seated on the bike, I actually look down over the top of the GPS, between the others ... nothing is cut out of my view. Nothing clashes with steering and I have full lock from side to side. (Note this is just a demo -- it's much neater when I bother to tuck everything away )

 

 

 

 

 

[Phil50]

Has anybody attached an Aldi 'Go Cruise' GPS unit to their R1150RT? If so do you have a picture of your mount? I made a steel bracket almost identical to Phil's but find that the GPS unit vibrates at highway speeds. This is probably due to the fact that I had to weld a piece at right angles to the centre of my bracket to attach the 'Go Cruise' unit, which results in the GPS unit being a little too far from the fairing.

 

Hi Trav,

 

I think that the one down side to mounting equipment anywhere on the fairing is that you do get more vibration than mounting somewhere on the handlebar. I've found that on some road surfaces I get vibration on others there's very little. I'm riding mainly on twisties though so don't get the build up of vibration you get going at a constant (high) speed on a highway. It could be that your setup is causing vibration to build up in a way similay to the Millennium Bridge in London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAXVa__XWZ8. A bit like if you keep strumming on a bass string the sound builds up.

 

If vibration is an issue it might be worth trying out mounting on the handlebar rather than trying to fix what you've got.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

 

[tazplas]

Here's one i made out of ali.

 

 

Mounted, i get very little vibration and i have a Nuvi 1250 that works in all weather.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Phil50]

Hi Steve,

 

Very neat. I guess that the extra thickness provided you with the opportunity to sink the head of the stud (or whatever you used) into the bar. I think I can just see it in your picture.

 

Is the material aluminium? and how thick is it?

 

If I'd seen yours before I think I would have taken your approach and bought the relevant ball from Ram and some thicker aluminium.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

 

 

[Selden]

It's always interesting to see clever solutions. I'm going with the aluminum GPS stem mount that Jakfrost makes. I like the location (don't like the idea of adding high mass to the left handlebar), and I try to avoid drilling holes in bodywork unless absolutely necessary. I'm hitting the road on Thursday, and hope it arrives before then, but international air mail (even between Canada/US) may stymie me. Re RAM component prices, I found that GPS City had good prices and lower shipping charges than dealing directly with RAM Mount.

[Phil50]

One of the reasons I wanted to move the mount above the speedo and rev counter was because my GPS obscured some of the warning lights when I had it mounted on the handlebar.

[BriSco]

I ordered the Migsel mount for m R1150RT.

I had the Jakfrost mount and really liked it until I added a a flip up tankbag with power that had the SAE connector on the front. It was then a chore to add fuel.

I didn't really have any issues with the dash lights or guages. I used a 2" RAM arm with my Nuvi 550.

[Trav1150]

Thanks for the various suggestions. The ball that is attached to the base of the Aldi GPS is less than 1 inch in diameter so the RAM Mount would not appear to be suitable for Aldi GPS units. I have removed my existing steel bracket to redesign it so that it fits closer to and slightly above the dash. The new design will incorporate a shorter piece of steel welded to the flat piece that is screwed to the dash. The flat piece is attached to the dash using the existing two screw holes but with slightly longer screws. I am hoping this arrangement will reduce the vibration. If it does I will attach a photo for anyone interested.

[tazplas]

Phil, the material is 6mm ali. The mounting hole for the RAM ball was counter sunk as were the other two on the front.

The bracket has since been painted matt black and hardly noticeable.

 

Works a treat.

 

Cheers

 

Steve