[ndrew]

G'day from Adelaide, South Australia!

I picked up a 2017 Versys 650L just before Christmas. It's my first road bike, having only really spent time on chook chasers before, and I'm loving it! What a great machine.

One of my jobs was to mount a Quad Lock charger to it somewhere. Thought I'd share my experience here and contribute my brick to the wall.

I'd looked at the options – stem, mirror, handlebar – and didn't love how it'd look with any of them, so decided to grab a GPS bar so the phone could be above the instrument cluster, then use the Quad Lock handlebar mount to attach it to that. Grabbed a half-reasonable-looking GPS mount bar from AliExpress and sat by the letterbox waiting for my packages.

I haven't got my head completely around what outputs the factory accessory relay kit enables, but I've installed it (a whole $24 from my local Kwaka dealer) and picked up the power feed from the spare bullet connectors behind the instrument cluster. The overpriced Quad Lock 12V-5V converter sits in their cable tied up out of the way. I cut the factory ring terminals and crimped bullet connectors and shortened the cable – they give you enough length to run it all the way back to the battery. The Quad Lock converter has voltage sensing electronics in it, but I leave it switched to "ON" given the power feed is switched off the ignition.

The GPS bar comes with brackets that fit in the triangle cutouts in the windscreen bracket. Mine mustn't have been inspected at QC – they forgot to tap the holes! No trouble, a M6 tap and 5 minutes later and it was sorted.

I mounted the handle bar mount on the bar, removed the extension arm and then fitted their weatherproof wireless charging head. Pretty happy with the finished product!

Hope this is of some use to others down the track.

Cheers,

Andrew.

 

[Axel Johansson]

@ndrew
Welcome to the forum from Texas. That's a very good write up Andrew. Enjoy your new bike and stay safe
Cheers

 

[fasteddiecopeman]

WELCOME aboard!

 

[lightborne]

Depending on what phone you have, you may want to look into getting one of quad-lock's vibration dampeners. Lots of phone cameras use optical image stabilization these days, and unmitigated vibrations from the bike will kill the itty bitty motors that handle that stuff, leaving you with permanently blurry photos.

 

[ndrew]

Depending on what phone you have, you may want to look into getting one of quad-lock's vibration dampeners. Lots of phone cameras use optical image stabilization these days, and unmitigated vibrations from the bike will kill the itty bitty motors that handle that stuff, leaving you with permanently blurry photos.

Cheers, @lightborne – I actually bought one of their vibration dampeners when I ordered the rest of the stuff. It's back in its box – I didn't like how much further forward it made the phone sit. You make a good point about vibrations damaging the OIS componentry, and it's something that I hadn't thought about specifically, but it is a consideration for my ageing iPhone 11. Apple even mentions it. It's visibly vibrating at idle, but seems to settle down once you take off. I might have to reconsider my decision!

 

[V650VN]

I did the same setup and lost 02 Iphones + 1 google phone. The bike's vibration when we are on the road kills cameras without notice; until I open the cam to take photos. The damper really works for its purpose.

 

[ndrew]

I did the same setup and lost 02 Iphones + 1 google phone. The bike's vibration when we are on the road kills cameras without notice; until I open the cam to take photos. The damper really works for its purpose.

Well, @V650VN, you convinced me! 😂 Went ahead and installed the dampener. I'll get used to it! I'd love to have the phone in the same plane as the instrument cluster, but that might require I make my own GPS bar to better align things. Anyway, beats shaking the phone to pieces – the camera in that thing is the main device I snap pictures of the little fella with, and I'd be lost without it!

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[jpd]

This is the reason I use a dedicated motorcycle GPS unit. They are only several hundred dollars. Not the $1,000.00 hand held computer/phone I have in my pocket. I haven't had to do it yet but another reason to have the phone on your person is if you crash and you get seperated from the bike you may still be able to use the phone to call for help. My phone will bluetooth to the GPS for calls and music from my pocket all day long without needing to be charged.

 

[Artvarck]

This is the reason I use a dedicated motorcycle GPS unit. They are only several hundred dollars. Not the $1,000.00 hand held computer/phone I have in my pocket.

It's been a long time since I've used a Garmin or similar device...do you have to pay a recurring service fee?

 

[vagrantbiker]

No, and i just use car units with Ram h bar mounts.

 

[jpd]

I like to stay on smaller roads and with spotty cell service the satellite based nav is more reliable. The learning curve for Garmin BaseCamp is steep but now that I have used it for a while I can plan and upload a secondary road route to my GPS easier than using Google maps. Auto units work, even in the rain, but my motorcycle units will stream music to my helmet and turn by turn nav at the same time.

If you start looking for a GPS unit make sure it has lifetime maps. I have heard that you can get great deals at thrift stores and pawn shops. A lot of people are trading them in now that cars have carplay or android auto.

I upgraded first to an Auto unit mounted in the same location then to a Zumo above the dash.

 

[fasteddiecopeman]

It's been a long time since I've used a Garmin or similar device...do you have to pay a recurring service fee?

I have a Garmin ZUMO 395 GPS on each V650. Works PFG for me, and - NO - to extra fees.