Hitchcocks Forum

Good evening gents,I'm considering fitting a car type ciggy lighter to my 05 classic 500 bullet so I can use my sat nav. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the best location bearing in mind weatherproofing. I plan to simply pop the satnav in the map window of my tank bag. Can I just wire it back to the battery + terminal with a fuse in line, and make sure the socket is well earthed?

You may have problems with water ingress, Tomtom used to make bike specific satnavs, but they filled up with water, or the ones we used did. If you use a car type satnav it may not respond well to bike type vibrations.

Going by the number of times my sat nav plug works loose in the car disconnecting the power you might be better off converting a power lead to a more secure plug and socket arrangement. You can get weather proof screw together plugs and sockets such as used on external marine fittings. How do you intend to hear the instructions?

I just wrap mine in a piece of Glad Wrap; or you could use a re-sealable type sandwich bag, both transparent and waterproof.

It also helps if it is mounted behind a windscreen, it will stay dry as long as the bike is moving.
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A complete BMW kit with bracket waterproof socket, wires and fuse is still available and fits neatly behind the bolt retaining the top of the rear left hand suspension unit. You can also use the socket to charge the battery, plug in camping lights,mini compressors, heated clothing etc.

Thanks for all your comments lads,l was going to take a chance using my car TomTom,hoping that it would be relatively vibration/waterproof in the tank bag map envelope. I can live without verbal instructions and intend to rely on giving it a quick squint when approaching junctions etc. My main worry was wiring and weatherproofing the socket. Any thoughts?

Hitchcock's part number 92088.

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Eight and a half of your Earthquids (plus VAT and postage).

I've just declared smartphone-as-satnav a failed experiment. The difficulty is getting the power lead to stay in the phone with all the vibration etc. It could be solved with a clamp that fits firmly over the power lead and phone, but that's too much faffing at the moment.

Tank bags and waterproof cases (you can buy them from RAM and other mount suppliers) have the problem of glare from the clear plastic -- it makes the display very difficult or impossible to see in anything but "it's about to piss down with rain" gloom.

I've reluctantly decided that motorbike satnavs are expensive for a reason. You need the weatherproofing, and you need to be able to clamp the unit firmly to the bike and the power supply firmly to the unit.

Thanks all,reckon it's probably not worth the hassle. Maybe I'll stick to good old fashioned maps.