Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner GPS Mount Version 1

Wanted to make a GPS Handlebar mount, because buying one is just too easy, and I wanna make sure I find Dwights house on Friday. Started with some aluminium stock. Tapped a M10-1.25 so that it can screw on to one of my old handlebar risers and, after a lttile biot of timeo n the lathe, well, bam!

Thoughts, besides it isnt safe having an aluminium post aimed directly at my chest...that will be fixed on version 2.

Wow. That's neat.

That is pretty cool, but I still don't get how it mounted. How 'bout a pic from the other side.

using an old riser to mount it to, just brilliant! nice work

Hey Matt,
Like this...
The AL piece is tapped to accept the M10-1.25 threaded bolt that runs through the old risers I have laying around. So clamp the riser to your handle bars any where you want, then thread the adapter on, and pop your GPS clip mount on to the adapter

If your going to be going to Dwight's, the second version better have FINS!!

Great job!

ahh! now I really like it, that's purddy dern clever.

That mount is trick!

But the MAIN problem I had when mine was mounted to my handlebar was seeing it clearly with all the sun glare. Also, I don't know how well it can take the all day exposure to the heat from the direct sun ???

I'm trying to come up with some kind of sunshade/visor that kills the glare but still allows full vision of the screen, and blocks the direct heat.

I might use that idea to make a camera mount

Its mounted solid to the bar, but I'd be more worried about the plastic clip that attaches to the gps itself. I have the same one and know its only the little plastic fingers clicking into the dimples on the sides. The wind is pushing on the back of the gps pretty hard at higher speeds. At least its tethered by the power wire.

Great machining work though.

Last year I rode Yuma to Sedona with the plastic clip zip tied to the handlebar. I had no issue. this time it is slightly better protected from the wind by the speedometer. It didnt even budge on the 65 mile ride to work monday. I have the clip safety wired to the handlebar. Itd be nice to safety wire the GPS, but I dont think it will vibrate free of the clip.

As for heat concerns...most people mount them to thier car windsheild and leave them there 24-7 to bake in the heat. On the bike at least there is some convective cooling from the air rushing by, but glare is a bit of a problem.

I thought about using the same trick to mount a video camera, that would be awesome. A friend gave me a tiny sony video camera that records to internal memory then D/Ls video via USB directly to a DVD burner...might try it

Thanks for the complements onthe machining. I swear I have no idea what I am doing but I like to futz around and make stuff

Wish I had a machine to FUTZ AROUND with!

if you can form a shade out of G10 fiberglass that will help with the blocking the heat, as G10 has a CTE of zero (Coefficient of Thermal Expamnsion), read that as No heat transfer through the G10 so only ambient heat.

What a brilliant looking bit of hand made kit.

Nicely done...donely nice.

FYI... 3 days, about 800 miles, some seriously $hitty, and some intense heat in Phoenix and Tucson and the GPS mount was flawless. It didnt budge and the heat (106 in PHX) was not a factor. =)

right on man, good to know that clip holds up to that kind of abuse. I have the same one..haha

Cool.
Is that a motorcycle-specific GPS?
The Garmin Zumo MC GPS devices are pretty much all-weather and bulletproof, I'm not so sure about a car GPS on a bike.

Nah, it's just a cheap-o Nuvi that my sister gave me

That's really clever Ryan. Cool idea. I'm all about fabricating something instead of buying it.

What size lathe do you own or have access to? Do you do any work for fellow members?

Hi Edwin, I have a Emco Maximat V10P lathe with milling head. the lathe bed is 36" long and I believe 5 or 6" wide. I've only been turning items because I don't have the proper vise for milling but will hopefully be acquiring the proper vice/table in the next few months.
As of yet, I have fabricated a 50 caliber choke knob for Zach (MercKing), but haven't been asked to fabricate anything else.

I did turn some foot peg spacers to use when I relocated my rear foot pegs, and a few other bolt spacers that were necessary when I bobbed the fender and had to mount a new license plate carrier.