Farkling the F6B
Jun. 29th, 2015 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizillaLast year Steve bought a new Honda F6B. He's now ridden it enough to know what farkles he wants, and most of them are things we already had in the garage. :-) It has integrated side bags, but it's getting a Givi topcase mount. It is getting several power outlets - a panel-mount dual USB in one of the fairing pockets (to charge phone and Sena), cig lighter on the dash (to charge GPS) and a panel-mount coax outlet for his heated jacket. It is getting an analog voltmeter. And a Ram mount for the GPS.
The F6B, with its Goldwing pedigree, is easier to wire farkles into than any other bike I have worked on. (At least, once you get the plastic off.) There is a switched power connector already there next to the fairing pocket, and I had the right connector to elegantly wire it right in, so the dual USB connector looks factory. And there is a spot in the fuse box with two screw terminals for a second accessory wiring connection, so the cig lighter routes to that. The jacket power just plugs into the harness he'd already installed; the only difference is the nice clean panel-mount to replace the dangling pigtail.
The GPS is new - it is a Garmin 2757, which is a car GPS with a huge screen. Not waterproof but many people just put plastic bags over them, and the cockpit of the F6B is well protected. And since this GPS costs a quarter of what you pay for the motorcycle-specific ones, he could drop three of them in the lake before he spent that much. The annoying thing is that Garmin doesn't include audio out or bluetooth out in any of their non-motorcycle-specific GPSs. Yes, Garmin makes the 2797 which is this same model plus bluetooth - but it's not the correct direction of bluetooth. It will let you route your phone calls to the GPS speaker, but it won't let you route the GPS voice to your wireless headset. The only Garmins that talk to headsets (either bluetooth or hard wired) are the extremely expensive motorcycle-specific ones. There are websites that describe how to open this GPS and solder in an audio-out connector, and maybe Steve will do that. We have all the parts. There are also websites that describe how to waterproof them. It seems crazy that Garmin quadruples the price for devices that come with these two things from the factory.
The F6B, with its Goldwing pedigree, is easier to wire farkles into than any other bike I have worked on. (At least, once you get the plastic off.) There is a switched power connector already there next to the fairing pocket, and I had the right connector to elegantly wire it right in, so the dual USB connector looks factory. And there is a spot in the fuse box with two screw terminals for a second accessory wiring connection, so the cig lighter routes to that. The jacket power just plugs into the harness he'd already installed; the only difference is the nice clean panel-mount to replace the dangling pigtail.
The GPS is new - it is a Garmin 2757, which is a car GPS with a huge screen. Not waterproof but many people just put plastic bags over them, and the cockpit of the F6B is well protected. And since this GPS costs a quarter of what you pay for the motorcycle-specific ones, he could drop three of them in the lake before he spent that much. The annoying thing is that Garmin doesn't include audio out or bluetooth out in any of their non-motorcycle-specific GPSs. Yes, Garmin makes the 2797 which is this same model plus bluetooth - but it's not the correct direction of bluetooth. It will let you route your phone calls to the GPS speaker, but it won't let you route the GPS voice to your wireless headset. The only Garmins that talk to headsets (either bluetooth or hard wired) are the extremely expensive motorcycle-specific ones. There are websites that describe how to open this GPS and solder in an audio-out connector, and maybe Steve will do that. We have all the parts. There are also websites that describe how to waterproof them. It seems crazy that Garmin quadruples the price for devices that come with these two things from the factory.
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Date: 2015-07-02 11:23 pm (UTC)Ooooooooooooooooooo... Of all the Goldwing permutations over the years, the F6B is the bike that comes closest to drawing me back into the Large-Ass Motey-Bike Market... I will have to pick Steve's brain about how arduous or satisfying F6B ownership is...
Or is not; whichever.
-R
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Date: 2015-07-03 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-14 04:08 pm (UTC)Mine will be purple, I'm afraid.
-R