deilenberger
A bozo on the bus
More details will probably appear on my website when I get around to it and in an article in the Owners News.. I got the idea from a friends R1200GS Adventure GPS mount.
This can be done by people who have the BMW "Touring Shield" bracket (used with the BMW shield, or the Cee-Bailey shields that fit it.) It requires a slight modification of the touring shield bracket.. basically twisting off the pointed plastic caps and drilling and tapping the plastic that remains in the tubing making up the mount. I suspect if you used the BMW Touring shield - the top of the GPS may be close to the top of the shield. The Cee-Bailey I have in the photos is the lowest one they offer - the 16" one.
The cross-tube was made from 1/2" aluminum tubing, bought at Home Depot. I used my bench-vice with smooth jaws in it to shmoosh(tech-term) the ends of the tubing flat. I then drilled holes in the tubing ends, rounded and finished them off a bit.
The GPS mount is a Garmin mount, mounted to the clamp block that BMW uses on their mounts. http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=0398&mospid=49569&btnr=65_1455&hg=65&fg=13 shows the mount - the square block in the center splits into two pieces and clamps on a piece of rod very slightly less than 1/2" diameter. As an alternative to this - what I've used on other bikes is some 1/2" electrical cable clamps - the ones shaped like a "P"..
http://www.newark.com/jsp/Interconn...OLOGY/SPC11155/displayProduct.jsp?sku=34C1958 (they are available from othe vendors in less than 100 quantities..) - These work well with the standard Garmin GPS mounts. Two of them on the back of the mount using the bottom holes in the Garmin mount around 1/2" rod work just great. BTDT on my old R1150RS.
I can't see any reason this same idea wouldn't work with the BMW Navigator series, or a Zumo.
BTW - the black thing tie-wrapped to the lower bar on the front of the touring shield bracket is my "EZPass" transponder. Works great there, can't loose it, be very difficult to steal, and painted black it's not too noticeable. Three large-tie-waps hold it on quite securely.
Tried it on the road - for the first 20 seconds it was so in my face as to be distracting.. then I started the bike :wink: Works great. Good position, not distracting, and very easy to glance at while keeping an eye on the road at the same time - photo below is roughly what it looks like from the riders eyeball position - with the BMW factory bag in place. The GPS position the BMW mount offered would have the GPS buried in the front of the BMW bag..
The impetus for doing this is the stock BMW mount plops the GPS right over the front of the tank. It makes using any but the smallest tankbag (which is the RKA 7-Liter I show a bit of in the photos) impossible. I just picked up the official BMW tankbag for the R1200R - and no way it would work with the official BMW GPS mount for the R1200R (guess those departments aren't talking to each other a lot.) Moving it up to this position allows me to use whatever tank bag I like. I like the RKA bag for daily use - but would want the BMW bag on for trip use when it would have things like a tire inflation/fix kit in it, my Camelbak and other trip necessities.
I may remake the cross-piece out of some stainless thin-wall tubing, which will polish up nicely. Or not.. the black part on it is some shrink wrap - just put it on to cover the bare aluminum and dress it up a bit.
BTW - the tie-wrap on the fork leg in the center photo isn't holding wires in place (duh..) It's there 'cause I wanted to see what the max compression I'm getting with the Hyperpro shocks is. If anyone would like to help me a bit in a project/article - a measurement of a stock setup would be useful. I think BMW lies on the actual travel (based on some rather simple math and measurements of the suspension and their shocks. A tie wrap on the fork tube will get pushed up to your max-compression point after riding a bit - then a measurement from the bottom of it - to the top of the rubber fork boot would give me the actual travel of a stock suspension. TIA if you decide to help out!
This can be done by people who have the BMW "Touring Shield" bracket (used with the BMW shield, or the Cee-Bailey shields that fit it.) It requires a slight modification of the touring shield bracket.. basically twisting off the pointed plastic caps and drilling and tapping the plastic that remains in the tubing making up the mount. I suspect if you used the BMW Touring shield - the top of the GPS may be close to the top of the shield. The Cee-Bailey I have in the photos is the lowest one they offer - the 16" one.
The cross-tube was made from 1/2" aluminum tubing, bought at Home Depot. I used my bench-vice with smooth jaws in it to shmoosh(tech-term) the ends of the tubing flat. I then drilled holes in the tubing ends, rounded and finished them off a bit.
The GPS mount is a Garmin mount, mounted to the clamp block that BMW uses on their mounts. http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=0398&mospid=49569&btnr=65_1455&hg=65&fg=13 shows the mount - the square block in the center splits into two pieces and clamps on a piece of rod very slightly less than 1/2" diameter. As an alternative to this - what I've used on other bikes is some 1/2" electrical cable clamps - the ones shaped like a "P"..
http://www.newark.com/jsp/Interconn...OLOGY/SPC11155/displayProduct.jsp?sku=34C1958 (they are available from othe vendors in less than 100 quantities..) - These work well with the standard Garmin GPS mounts. Two of them on the back of the mount using the bottom holes in the Garmin mount around 1/2" rod work just great. BTDT on my old R1150RS.
I can't see any reason this same idea wouldn't work with the BMW Navigator series, or a Zumo.
BTW - the black thing tie-wrapped to the lower bar on the front of the touring shield bracket is my "EZPass" transponder. Works great there, can't loose it, be very difficult to steal, and painted black it's not too noticeable. Three large-tie-waps hold it on quite securely.
Tried it on the road - for the first 20 seconds it was so in my face as to be distracting.. then I started the bike :wink: Works great. Good position, not distracting, and very easy to glance at while keeping an eye on the road at the same time - photo below is roughly what it looks like from the riders eyeball position - with the BMW factory bag in place. The GPS position the BMW mount offered would have the GPS buried in the front of the BMW bag..
The impetus for doing this is the stock BMW mount plops the GPS right over the front of the tank. It makes using any but the smallest tankbag (which is the RKA 7-Liter I show a bit of in the photos) impossible. I just picked up the official BMW tankbag for the R1200R - and no way it would work with the official BMW GPS mount for the R1200R (guess those departments aren't talking to each other a lot.) Moving it up to this position allows me to use whatever tank bag I like. I like the RKA bag for daily use - but would want the BMW bag on for trip use when it would have things like a tire inflation/fix kit in it, my Camelbak and other trip necessities.
I may remake the cross-piece out of some stainless thin-wall tubing, which will polish up nicely. Or not.. the black part on it is some shrink wrap - just put it on to cover the bare aluminum and dress it up a bit.
BTW - the tie-wrap on the fork leg in the center photo isn't holding wires in place (duh..) It's there 'cause I wanted to see what the max compression I'm getting with the Hyperpro shocks is. If anyone would like to help me a bit in a project/article - a measurement of a stock setup would be useful. I think BMW lies on the actual travel (based on some rather simple math and measurements of the suspension and their shocks. A tie wrap on the fork tube will get pushed up to your max-compression point after riding a bit - then a measurement from the bottom of it - to the top of the rubber fork boot would give me the actual travel of a stock suspension. TIA if you decide to help out!
