After running the CABDR in December I decided that the iPad was just too cumbersome. I loved the system of Gaia Maps / Bad Elf for GPS and the ability to pull into a Starbucks and do some actual work (Web Dev stuff) if I had too.
What I didn’t like was:
- The iPad couldn’t run all day on a charge. It also wouldn’t charge off of the USB port – something about needed a steady state charge and not a pulsed charge. I adapted by having it go to sleep after a few minutes. Doing this I could ride along a road and then fire the map up with a tap of the iPad button when I needed it. This way I could get the iPad to go a full day and recharge it off the brick at night. It worked fine when I was riding by myself. When I was riding with Mike T on the CABDR it was too slow of a system. He had a fully charged GPS running all the time and could see exactly what was coming up.
- My Ram Mount for the iPad mostly held together. There were quite a few drops along the way. When I got home I realized that both the top and the bottom rails had broken.
So I started looking at the Trailtech Voyager Pro. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. Mike T has a Garmin Zumo XT. Neither are as big as the iPad mini but both solve a bunch of problems that I had with the iPad. Both are brighter, both are weather and crash resistant, and both work with gloves – the iPad didn’t do so well there.
I have a 2014 and not a newer 690 because, it’s all I could afford at the time AND it has a full dash with tach, temp and all those things. It also doesn’t have the complicated traction control and other tech that I really don’t need.
The Voyager Pro, ties into your bike computer if you have a newer bike, and can then display RPMs, Temp, Gas and all sorts of things. I just don’t need those things or already have them on my dash so for $200 less it’s the Garmin for me.
Here’s my current cockpit. The stickers are from LAB2V of my Daughter and my Wife, Her Boyfriend (the daughters boyfriend of course), and of all things, her Bunny.
I have the KTM Powerparts windshield, stock bars with HBD hand protection that ties into the HBD top Clamp. I have a little dash off that Top Clamp that holds a USB charger with voltmeter and a small button for the heated grips. I have 2 ram balls mounted right next to the Top Clamp and if I had my iPad one would be for that and the other for the Quadlock.
I want the new GPS mounted securely, always on a charge, and easy to see. Something just like this. I just took that image and photoshopped a Garmin into it about the right size.
I could just use another Ram Mount type for the new Garmin. That would be the easiest but I want better. I want stronger and more of a permanent fixture on the bike. A Ram mount would also be to one side or the other.
I’ve been looking at clamps that some people add to non adventure bikes for this kind of thing. Adventure Spec does a mini fairing addon that also doubles as a nav mount. It clamps onto the bars. I’d be tossing away the fairing part but this is the general idea.
But I found better. a little company up in Canada does mostly rally equipment. They have better looking, stronger looking, bars that would work perfectly. They even show a 690 like mine with them. https://www.rallymotoshop.com/products/universal-navigation-clamps
In their picture, they show a stock looking KTM 690 with the full size dash like I have. It’s also got stock brush guards.
So I ordered them. Less than a week later I got them in the mail and rushed out to give them a try. The clamps themselves are wonderful looking.
I have the beefiest thing hand guards I could find – the Highway Dirt Bikes Hand guards that also attach to HBD Top Clamps and that whole system makes a super strong unit. Immediately I had a problem.
There’s no way the clamps are going to clamp onto the bar where I need them to. There HBD aluminum brush guard attaches to the side of the Top Clamp. While I can almost get the clamp into that space it needs to be rotated almost 90 degrees forward (first arrow) and the HBD block is right there (second arrow).
Another option would be to move the clamps out to clear the HBD Top Clamp. Something like this.
There’s a problem with that too. If I go as close as I can to the Top Clamp, I’m into the area where the bar starts it’s bend upwards.
And there’s no way that will clamp solid.
I’ve reached out to Rally Moto Shop to see if there was a solution and they got back to me pretty quick. Not with the answer I wanted but BIG KUDOS to them! Thanks Matthew! They are a great looking product, just not one that works for me.
So now I’m looking for something that will work.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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