Gizmos!
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:43 am
Hehehehe, not that kind. The fun kind, at least for our purposes.
Here is a comparison between what the stock cockpit looked like and what mine is now.
The newgen Ninja lacks any accessory plugs so the first step was finding some that would support the power cords for the GPS and phone. I could have done the usual 12v accessory plug and used the cig-lighter plug I have in my car, but I was worried that the constant vibration would cause those to fall out. Plus it's just huge and I didn't like it. After some searching, I found BurnsMoto who had weather proof USB plugs and a neat little boot that covered the cable, sealing out any weather.
Now that I had something to plug my gizmos into, I needed to get power to them. I didn't want them to be hot all the time and end up with a parasitic draw on my battery if I left my GPS on accidentally. Digging around some more, I found FuzeBlocks that would allow me to plug in gizmos and either have the power hot (on all the time) or switched (on only with the bike). Perfect!
Finding a place to put this little box was interesting and I eventually found a cubby under the rear seat lock. Got it all wired up and a quick test showed I now had six lines of power available to me. I got the two USB plugs installed up under my windscreen and stuck down with double sided industrial strength Velcro.
Got the gizmos, got the plug, got the power. Now how do I mount them? The GPS was easy as I already owned the RAM cradle from my geocaching days (just removed the windshield suction cup and arm) but the phone took some searching. Eventually found a company called SlipGrip. These mounts seemed beefy and appeared to hold the phones in place in a iron grip. I ordered the RAM mount version in case I wanted to use it elsewhere - beautiful thing about RAM is versatile - removed the ball mount and bolted both cradles on either side of the KOSO gauge.
Viola!
Now that I have a larger touring windscreen, the only thing I really wish I had was a separate weather display, so I'm thinking of getting a GPS with NEXRAD weather and maybe a Sirius radio. Hey I can dream!