1. This
shows where I've put the FM Unit. It is up under the left
fairing. Being worried about moisture, I attached all the
electrical plugs to the FM electronics unit, then put a
"freezer" (heavy duty) plastic bag on it and wrapped it
with duct tape. Then I folded the wires over and put on a
SECOND bag with the opening in the opposite direction and duct taped
that all up. If that doesn't waterproof it I figure nothing
will.
2. This is the battery side. It
took longer to do this because I installed this extra fuse set on
the Battery. I now have a number of fused power outlets that
are only "on" when the ignition is on. There are two
power wires for the CD player, one yellow and one red. I made
the mistake of connecting them both to the switched power BUT that
meant that whenever I turned the bike off, the CD player
"forgot" which CD was in - real annoying so I wired that
wire directly into the battery (at the positive 30 amp fuse (not in
picture)). The wire comes with a 3 amp fuse in-line so I'm not
worried about any shorts.
3. The whole front part of
the bike has to come apart. Of course, as always when you
start in on this, the seat comes off, then the side panels.
Then the fairing pockets (only the left one has to come out but the
right one needs to be loosened), then the pieces of plastic around
the handlebars, then that piece of plastic that covers the ignition
switch. Finally, the large piece that holds the radio has to
be loosened. It would probably be easier to just remove it but
having done that in the past, I chose to work around it once it was
all loosened up and move it around as required.
4. Another shot of the
battery side that also shows a grey cable that is peeking out close
to the backrest. This is the thick cable that connects between
the FM unit and the actual CD changer. It is rather long so in
the end I coiled it up and wire wrapped it, storing it under the
seat in that area on the rear fender that slops down (so that the
co-rider wouldn't actually "sit" on it).
5. This
is my first FULL TEST of the unit. I hooked everything up to where
it would eventually be (well, other than the changer itself) and
made sure that everything worked OK. I probably did this 3 or 4
times as I slowly went through the process. I wanted to make sure
that it would all work and if for any reason it didn't, I wanted to
know what the last step was that cause it to fail. Being an
"old" computer programmer, this is the same way I develop
code, bits and pieces at a time. Then, if there is a problem,
you only have to debug a small portion. Oh, everything worked
GREAT!
6. This shot was taken a
couple of days later and shows what the CD Changer looks like when
the assembly has been completed!
7. A
close-up of the bottom of the CD Changer shows some interesting
things. First off, in order to give a little more isolation
from shocks, I cut up some old bicycle inner tube, folded it over so
I'd have two layers and then used that as a washer / isolation
mount. Then, to run that thick grey cable, I didn't want to
drill a hole in the base of my Trunk so, I just used the hole that
is there to access the emergency release for the right saddlebag.
Then I used some good old duct tape again in a couple of layers to
close up the hole to make sure no water can get in. I first
put down one layer of tape across half the hole (nearest the player)
and under the cable, then taped over the whole thing. My
thought was that would give some additional protection to the cable
and should waterproof it a bit. I also figured that there
wouldn't be a lot of water in this area so I didn't have too much
worry.
8.
From the top you can see that I've left a bit of clearance
between the unit and the actual trunk. This ensures that there
isn't any vibration from the trunk itself that gets to the unit.
Plus, in order to get the "self-taping" screws in, you
have to get some leverage and have to move the unit out a bit.
This unit only mounts horizontal, vertical or at 45 degrees so I
wasn't able to match the slope at the back of the trunk. I've
since found it handy to put extra gloves, neckerchiefs and other
such soft articles there. Your trunk bag (supplied when you
bought the bike) will no longer fit! I've seen other people
who purchase some carpetting for the trunk and I may do that later.
If I had thought of doing it before then I likely would have used
that for isolation instead of the rubber inner tube. But
having seen that, I think the rubber helps more than a carpet would
(right now I've just got an old towl in the back on the bottom).
9. I've mounted the remote
above my CB unit on the left. I originally mounted this (you
just use Velcro) just above the radio, between the handlebars but I
found that at night I had a HUD (Heads Up Display) of the green
backlight. I could see exactly what was on the unit but of
course backwards. I don't think that the unit is that
waterproof so if it rains, it is a real simple matter to just tuck
it up in the left fairing pocket. I've routed the wiring for
the unit out with the CB cable, seems to fit fine. The other
advantage of this setup is when I stop, I can put this in the
fairing pocket and there is ZERO evidence that I have a CD Changer
installed - increased security from my perspective.
10. This is a second shot of
the remote. There is a bit more reflection from the camera
flash but, you can see that I'm on track one of CD 3! This
unit is a 6 disk changer. I figured that I didn't want to give
up the extra inch or so to go to a 10 or 12 disk unit and, more
importantly, this was on sale! Six hours or so of music will
take care of most day trips that I take so I'm not concerned.I am very happy with this unit overall. I've only had it installed for a few weeks now but I have used it far more than I thought I would already! The only time I get a skip that is predictable is when I approach a stop sign that has rumble strips before it. At a certain speed, the 5 spaced out strips will cause a moments hesitation. From a bumps perspective, I've hit dips that I've figured would cause skip but they don't! I've ridden two up and again no problem (although I did find that firming up the rear suspension helps to ensure no skip when you are 2-up.
Overall, I figure I spent about 2 hours in putting in the extra electrical stuff (and rerouting my electric vest). Then this install took about 4 hours I'd guess. But, I went pretty slow and double checked a lot and took a few breaks to do other things. I'd recommend that if anyone were doing this that they pick a weekend day to do it or 2 to 3 consecutive evenings. That'll give you more than enough time and working during the day gives you much better light. Starting this on a Saturday morning also lets you get "extras" that you forgot or suddenly figure out that you need. Of course everything is included but, I wanted to do some additional electrical and because of a mistake needed to do some soldering etc.
UPDATE
OK, I installed this unit in May 2000. Overall I've been very happy with it. The only skip I ever get is at "certain" speeds over certain "bump" conditions. In general I get very little skip but there is one road that I ride on that has cracks in like expansion joints that are pretty evenly spaced out and doing a certain speed on that creates some kind of resonance harmonic that causes skip.
BEWARE OF WATER
When I went to WingDing this year I hit torrential rain and left the remote sending unit mounted on my left fairing without thinking about it. When I glanced down at it I could see some water IN the unit. Well sure enough, after drying out I had problems. The unit would work fine except some of the buttons on the remote unit wouldn't work (I couldn't skip to the next CD, I couldn't repeat a song and I couldn't select random). I took the unit in for servicing and close to 2 months later it was finally ready!