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Got The Garmin Mounted

377 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Banner Guy, 
Knucklehead
I didn't want to have my Garmin in a place where it could be subjected to wind and or rain, so I mounted it in the center of the handlebar cover. I like it! Easy to read, and it's protected from glare unless the sun is over either shoulder. Wearing dark clothing will also help regardless of where you mount it. This is the Nuvi 5" unit, about 10 years old, and is brighter than the newer 6" Garmin I have in the car, which is useless in daylight on a bike regardless of where it gets mounted. It's just not bright enough. Yes, I tried it with the brightness level on max, didn't help.

I used a short 17mm ball mount. Only had to drill one 1/4" hole. Easily covered if I need sell the bike and want to keep the Garmin. There are zero vibrations at this location. I route the USB power cable from the cigar lighter adapter to the ball, knotted around the ball's shaft to keep tension off the power port. Works great!

Anyway, here's the pic of the 5" Garmin in use, and a shot of where I was yesterday while trying this farkle out.




Plant Vehicle Motor vehicle Steering part Steering wheel
Sky Natural landscape Asphalt Road surface Plant
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Dave_J
That is one of the places where I'd put mine if I mounted it.

Picture 2.... It is amazing what a few 'Ice Age' glaciers can do to a landscape.

That whole area of Eastern Washington state got moved down the Colombia River basin to become Portland Oregon when the huge Missoula and Bonneville ice dams let loose 14,000 years ago. The science says that area was HEAVLY forested with Ginko and Cedar trees, 21,000 years ago.
The great Lake Missoula and Bonnevelle floods
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Cajun Cowboy
Knucklehead said:
This is the Nuvi 5" unit, about 10 years old, and is brighter than the newer 6" Garmin I have in the car
I used a short 17mm ball mount. Only had to drill one 1/4" hole. Easily covered if I need sell the bike and want to keep the Garmin. There are zero vibrations at this location. I route the USB power cable from the cigar lighter adapter to the ball, knotted around the ball's shaft to keep tension off the power port. Works great!
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Sweet!!! While I was getting my new back tire mounted in Rogers Arkansas recently they were showing me a cell phone mount made by SPC (i think) that goes on the brake fluid reservoir. It was a little pricey and I wasn't sure if I could swing it after buyin the tire and having it installed so I put it on the back burner for now. I'm curious if your mount would work for a standard cell phone or is it strictly for the Garmin? The SPC was sold in 2 different parts...one that holds the phone and the other was the base for the reservoir. They connected very securely but it was still possible to easily remove the phone at the end of your ride. I use WAZE on my phone as a GPS...
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wspollack
Cajun Cowboy said:
Sweet!!! While I was getting my new back tire mounted in Rogers Arkansas recently they were showing me a cell phone mount made by SPC (i think) that goes on the brake fluid reservoir. It was a little pricey and I wasn't sure if I could swing it after buyin the tire and having it installed so I put it on the back burner for now. I'm curious if your mount would work for a standard cell phone or is it strictly for the Garmin? The SPC was sold in 2 different parts...one that holds the phone and the other was the base for the reservoir. They connected very securely but it was still possible to easily remove the phone at the end of your ride. I use WAZE on my phone as a GPS...
Click to expand...
You might be referring to SP Connect:

sp-connect.com

Motorcycle | SP Connect – SP United USA

SP Connect Motorcycle Collection - discover a wide range of Smartphone mounts for your motorcycle - from phone cases to quick and secure mounts to charging on the go mounts - SP Connect has got you covered.
sp-connect.com sp-connect.com

It's one of four or five companies that I know of that make moto-mounts that have built-in or optional vibration dampening capability (which is a good thing to have, per Apple, for late-model iPhones, and perhaps for other makes).

German vlogger Scooteria (whom I follow) has been using SP Connect mounts for quite a while now.
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Knucklehead
Cajun Cowboy said:
Sweet!!! While I was getting my new back tire mounted in Rogers Arkansas recently they were showing me a cell phone mount made by SPC (i think) that goes on the brake fluid reservoir. It was a little pricey and I wasn't sure if I could swing it after buyin the tire and having it installed so I put it on the back burner for now. I'm curious if your mount would work for a standard cell phone or is it strictly for the Garmin? The SPC was sold in 2 different parts...one that holds the phone and the other was the base for the reservoir. They connected very securely but it was still possible to easily remove the phone at the end of your ride. I use WAZE on my phone as a GPS...
Click to expand...
The mounting ball is 17mm, fairly common for GPS units. Newer ones are 25mm, or about 1".

You can find ball mounts for cell phones that should work just fine. Just make sure that the orientation you want to use for the cell phone doesn't hit either side of the plastic cover.

My Garmin has about 1.5" of clearance on either side, and is a Nuvi 5" model, measured diagonally. Whenever you are looking at a phone or GPS unit you're taking your eyes off the road. The way this is mounted I'm looking straight down, just a bit lower than the instrument display to see my speed.

It helps to wear darker clothing. Light shirts, coats, etc, will reflect off the screen, making it harder to read the screen.

I haven't tried my 6" Garmin I use in the car, but I think there is enough room to fit, but the display is too dark during the day. The older 5" unit is much brighter. At night both units are the same brightness. At it's brightest, the 6" one is barely tolerable for day time use in the car, and nearly useless under sunny skies.
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B
Exactly where mine is mounted!
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