The Trip

I’m probably getting a little ahead of myself here, but that’s not unusual. As part of my thoughts about communications and electrics on the bike, I’ve been thinking about the PTT (push to talk) switch for a UHF radio. There’s a few options, from more permanent fixtures through to velcro-on buttons. My current radio was a wonderful investment from Aldi (not known for their communications or motorcycle accessories – but it was cheap), and it came with helmet speakers, a flexible boom mic and a PTT switch which you could velcro to the handlebars or to your finger. Either way, it wasn’t great. The finger Idea was just fiddly, since it got in the way of gloves (on the outside, not the inside), and there really wasn’t a practical place to mount it on the handlebars. A friend roughly mounted his over the standard indicator switchgear, but that was awkward, and it was still quite hard to press the button while riding. Sadly, the StarCom1 comms integrator that I’m looking at ships with the same switch.

Thankfully I’m not the first person to think of this (lets assume that goes for most things, eh?). There’s a range of after-market switches available. Most resemble a plastic “kill” switch or a cut down version of the indicator/lights/horn switchbox. The trouble with all of these is that they take up handlebar real-estate, which means that either the after-market unit or the original indicator switch is going to end up too far from your left hand to make it useful.

Some of the cleverer solutions offset the switch housing above or below the handlebars, and mount to the bars with a thin clamp – thin enough that the indicator switch is not pushed too far to the right. Another (beautiful) solution is a polished aluminium slimline switch housing. This one comes in single and double swich configurations, and is just stunning.

But the more I think about it, I reckon this one might be the best yet. It places the button right where your thumb would reach if you fully extended it, which means it’s out of the way, yet completely accessible without moving your left hand. The switch comes as an accessory for some freakish quick-shift device, which lets you change gear without easing off the throttle or touching the clutch, from what I can tell (there’s something about that which makes me not want to ask questions). It’s a shame that a simple switch like that sells for around $US100. It makes much less compelling options suddenly seem more viable. Still, I might be able to get one for less when the time comes.

I’m figuring that most of my gadgetry on any trip would be kept in luggage, rather than bolted to the bike. This will allow the entire setup to be removable, not to mention water and dust resistant. The most logical place or all that is a tank bag, or better still a self-contained padded bag inside the tank bag, that can be moved to a larger or smaller tank bag (or somewhere else entirely) fairly easily.

So the next challenge is getting the power into the tank bag itself. I’m planning on placing power outlets on the handlebars of the bike, so the power source will be close at hand.

This page at Eastern Beaver gives a great outline on how to power a tank bag. I’d follow this procedure almost exactly, though I expect that I’d run an SAE connector cable to the inner bag, and distribute power from there.

The other thing I’d add to the outside of the tank bag is a couple of these Power Ports. One at the front of the bag would allow the GPS on the handlebars to connect to an integrated comms system inside the bag; another on the back would allow connections to a helmet microphone, speakers, and a helmet camera.

The inner bag (or perhaps a compartment in the tank bag… but let’s go with the inner bag idea) would need be split into two sections: one for the fuse box, plus wiring for each device I wanted to power; and the other for the devices themselves. At the moment, here’s my list:

• iPod: a Belkin cigarette lighter adapter would be perfect. It has a line out and a volume control, which will allow the iPod to connect into the integrated comms system. The adapter and the audio wiring would all be hidden in the wiring section, with only the dock connector visible. This will need a cigarette lighter socket.
• Mobile Phone: on shorter trips (where I wouldn’t bother with all this kit) I’d pair the phone to the Bluetooth radio on the GPS, and pair that to the bluetooth headset on my helmet (more on that when I work out what GPS I’m after). In this scenario, though, I’ll pair the phone to the comms system, and power it off the bike. Wiring would either be a cigarette lighter socket or a direct connection, depending on the voltage.
• UHF Radio: power and comms would be wired to the radio. This will probably be 6v, so an adapter will be required, I guess. Which means another cigarette lighter socket.
• Comms Integrator: there are a number of these units available. The handle noise supressions, and route sound to and from the helmet to the various devices. I’ll look into these in greater detail another time.
• Helmet Camera recording unit: the latest helmet cameras record to SD card, rather than connect to a DV camera. I’ll generally keep mine in the tank bag, an while it is there it might as well be charging. Don’t know yet what connector I’ll need for that.
• Charger: a small charger for AA and AAA batteries
• Video Camera or Camera Battery Charger: the plan is to video the trip, so I’ll want to have my DV/HDV camera handy. Again, since it is in the tank bag anyway, it might as well be powered.

With all of that, the simplest approach might yet be to have a mounted strip of cigarette lighter sockets inside the tank bag, and protective cases for each of the gadgets.

Time and testing will tell. More on that when I’m ready to start shopping.

Spent a little bit of time looking into communications and power solutions for the bike. To me, an integrated solution is the only real way to go. That means that the GPS, mobile phone, UHF radio and iPod would all need to get to the helmet’s speakers (or the rider’s earphones) in some order of priority, and the rider’s microphone would need to get to the mobile phone, the UHF radio and the helmet or bike-mounted camera recorder. Sounds tricky, but it seems that it can be done. I’ll cover that in more detail another time.

The next issue is how to power it all. Ideally everything would be rechargeable, but would power or charge from the bike’s electrics. The KLR (and bikes of its size) can power high intensity driving lights at a pinch, so a collection of small gadgets shouldn’t be too much of a strain. Still, it will be important to fuse things properly, so that one mishap doesn’t wipe out the whole bike.

How to mount and store things will also be a challenge. Some devices aren’t waterproof, dust-proof or shock-proof, so they can’t afford to be mounted on the handlebars. Besides, some of them won’t need to be accessed while riding. At this point it looks as though a GPS would be the only thing that needs to be on the handlebars of the bike. Everything else can be stored in a tank bag.

Power distribution
There’s a number of 3rd party fuse boxes on the market. One great resource (for research, and probably for buying), is Eastern Beaver, a site which specialises in motorbike electricals. There are a number of fusebox options, but this one can be easily mounted and is reasonably well protected. My only concern is that the contacts are simple spade connectors, rather than screw-in wires.

What I’m not sure of yet is whether I’ll even need something this elaborate on the bike. Since most powered items will be in the tank bag, I might only need a couple of inline fuses on the bike, and the rest can go in the bag itself.

Power outlets
It appears that there are two main classes of power connection for a bike. The first is the cigarette lighter connection. The limitation of these is that they are a little large, and there aren’t as many options for rugged, waterproof sockets. The advantage of these though is that any device that needs a custom power adapter – to alter voltage, for instance – can connect directly to the socket.

The other option is commonly referred to as the BMW outlet, presumably introduced or made famous by BMW motorcycles at some point. These are smaller and better looking, and there are more mounting options available, but devices with power adapters will need to be modified to use them. Since most of my gadgets will be in the tank bag, these are still the preferred option for me.

Of the available BMW-style outlets, I’m most impressed with the Powerlet Powerbar Plus. This block will clamp on to most standard handbars, and the wiring trails out the bottom of the unit into the body of the bike. A RAM Mount ball can also be fitted to the other half of the unit, making it a mounting bracket for the device that it is powering. Sockets mounted flush to the bodywork are significantly cheaper, but since I need 2 sockets at the front, and I want one of them to power and mount the GPS, I might as well make both of them the same and not have to drill into the fairing.