My iPhone Motorcycle Installation

So I needed a long distance iPhone/music solution for my motorcycle. Charging, music, weatherproof...

I bought the following things:

1) one of those cheap $4 adjustable PDA/Iphone mounts on ebay
2) DLO iPhone car charger from Best Buy - $25
3) 6' Headphone 3.5mm gold-end cable from Radio Shack - $15
4) female cigarette power receiver kit from Checkers - $9
5) 3M black electrical tape - $3
6) Scosche RF remote control kit with pass through receiver for power - $30 on ebay
7) 1/2" Flexible wire loom - 3' - for $3
8) random electrical connectors, use of my soldering gun and solder...
9) use of an unused digital camera wrist strap
10) some extra 3m Dual Lock strips I had from another project

about $90 in total...

this was about a 2 hour install... once I realized my bags would close with the flex loom wiring harness entering my left saddlebag, things went quickly...

I loomed the headphone audio cable and power to the cigarette lighter receiver from the battery area to the left bag via tie wraps and routing around other wiring harnesses... the cable in totality was not more than 4.5 feet in length... fully loomed...

in the bag I mounted the cig lighter receiver via the 3M dual lock mount... and the iPhone a few inches from that... the bag is contoured in side to adhere as closely to the frame and bag mounts of the moto, so I used an upper ridge of the bag to mount these mounts still leaving plenty of room on the outer edge of the bag for my laptop and other items...

the remote control and its mount mounted nicely on the handlebar against my clutch fluid reservoir and to prevent accidentally knocking it out at 85mph, I used an old digital camera wrist strap to tie it, via its mount to my left mirror.

works great going down the road and keeps the iPhone charged...

the ONLY thing that doesn't work as it should is that the iPhone 3g doesn't recognized the remote sensor and turns off the cell coverage, but i can control the ipod and get power... so its not a huge deal, maybe they will make a patch in the future...

pictures below:


Headphone jack that I've wrapped in electrical tape to keep the gold metal end from scratching tank:


remote control before I realized I needed to tether it to mirror, JIC...




left bag closed



looking top down on bag, you can see loom scaling the back side of bag


same vantage angle, but with bag open... you can see the wiring and mounts... very secure actually... I can't just toss tools on top but extra shirts or liners and gloves, no issue...

the bike? 2007 Yamaha Stratoliner Midnight

mikedor said:

How did you wire the power? Did you run it through a fuse, or did you run it directly from the bike's battery?

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I do run this through an inline fuse, modern auto 10a.

I have it currently wired directly to battery, but I'm thinking I may change it to the switched source as I didn't realize till after the install the 12v iPhone DLO cigarette power adapter has a colored light that tells you if its charging or on standby, afraid that might drain my moto battery down...

I'll be riding a 5k mile loop in August, hope this setup will do the trick!

fastbite said:

Nice bike! But it seems like quite a lot of work. Still, looks great.

Click to expand...

spent 10 times as much tryin' to find which crummy, crappy built iPod accessory was the least crummy least crappy, most durable iPod accessory to subject to the harsh environment of living on a motorcycle...

non-moto people don't realize how easy it is to work on motos and add things like this... I spent an hour building my wiring loom and another installing it, taking my time, testing and putting my tools away...

shame the only things halfway durable in this NEW TO ME again Apple World, are the Apple made products...

but this setup works... I can cruise down the tollway in the morning at 85mph with my laptop in the same bag as my iPhone listening to podcasts, all controlled wirelessly, in a weatherproof container...

I'll get to test the hell out of it next month on a 5k mile loop to the PCH...

mikedor said:

I'd love to get a first hand look at it when you're in the neighborhood. I commute PCH every day from Long Beach to Newport on my bike, and I've got sortof a makeshift solution for my podcasts and tunes. Drop me a line when you're close, and I would gladly show you some great eating spots in exchange for your knowledge.

Michael
562.846.4488

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Mike,
I won't be that far south... I live in Denver and will hit the PCH near SanFran and then up to Canada from there...

Update...

I was wrong above in my assertion that cellular activity would not work with the Scosche RF remote, it works fine... I got a call rollin' down the road yesterday, but I didn't have my Apple headphones with a mic in to answer it... not that i would take a call on my bike...

it just gives the notice that its not an approved accessory and that it might cause interference would I like to put it in airplane mode... I chose no and got an SMS and a phone call... and then i could here that someone left a message...

Just wanted to update that all works as planned...