General topics » Nav mount development - Honest input required

Hi all,

OK, yesterday I fitted the 1250 development Nav Mount sample to a bike and put some miles on it.

Due to the size of the TFT there is less height to fit the Nav between the top of the TFT and under the screen, the mount itself fitted the bike fine and with a slight rotation of the clutch reservoir (3mm) cleared the bottom of the Nav on full right steering lock.

So far so good.

OK, I am 189cm just over 6'2" tall and the bike had the normal seat not the higher sport seat. So with it all mounted I got on the bike and realised that the very top of the display was hidden by the base of the Nav. This meant the range remaining and mode selected was not visible.

Someone a couple of inches shorter may not have this issue, I found that just dropping my head a couple of inches allowed me to see the info but the question I am asking is would be be a deal breaker for you?

Your honest thoughts and ideas are most welcome, I don't want to go and spend £5K on tooling and fabrication and it not be what the market wants, I want to get it right and therefore welcome your input.

My initial thoughts are that this isn't good enough so I intend make some extensions for the arms that hold the Nav unit to bring it forward and up and hope to meet up with Graham to understand how much this extension would need to be if I can find a length that works will get my CAD man to run it through some FEA modelling to see what the load does to the strength.

However, if everyone says it's ok as it is then that's great, I am often accused of over thinking things but ultimately I would rather have a product that meets the needs of the market than £5K of scrap aluminium.

Please see attached some images of the install, The image which shows the mode and range was took stood by the bike, the one that is obscured was taken from my sitting position. Also there isn't a lot of room to lift the nav and keep it behind the screen. All of these comments relate to the screen in the lower position.

So what do you think?

Many thanks
Phil

Phil
I can understand that you're not happy with this "problem". I would feel the same, however ...

Can you establish how tall you have to be before the problem occurs and then take a view on whether further engineering is required? According to the Office of National Statistics, the average height of a man in the UK is 5ft 9in.

If I bought it and the top of the display was hidden I would be disappointed, unless it had been made clear in the product description that riders over a certain height might experience the "problem".

Phil,

I congratulate you on the candid approach to market testing.
I am under 5'9" but favour the tallest sports seat - so might also experience a problem . I tend to agree with Ray, the point about re-locating the Satnav is to solve the problem of crap positioning, swapping the original problem for another problem does not seem like a solution , and some customers might be annoyed to send their hard earned and end up with less than perfect answer.
But the pictures certainly give a clear view of what to expect. On balance I would probably not buy as is . Good luck

Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #1

---

Someone a couple of inches shorter may not have this issue, I found that just dropping my head a couple of inches allowed me to see the info but the question I am asking is would be be a deal breaker for you?

---

For me, dipping my head a little to see the info wouldn't matter one bit. I'm constantly moving my head around anyway in order to gain information about what's going on so a small dip to read seldom used info - no issue.

Looks nice , Phil. And yes, the obstruction would bother me. I ran through 3 different versions of my home made mount (for my '16) to get the position just right to clear the bars and then not cover the top portion of the OEM display while seated on the bike. Of course, as has already been stated, results will vary according to seated height of the rider. Wishing you success on the finished product

Personally I’d suggest you try and tweak the design to improve the clearance and line-of-sight for taller riders. I think that so long as you need to give a “disclaimer” on the visibility of the TFT for taller / longer torso riders you will limit the appeal of your product.
You appear so close to a perfect fit - good luck Phil.

hi Phil, just read your post, after fitting the mount & moving the clutch & brake assemblies down to clear the sat nav I didn't like them in that position. so I made 2 s/s brackets about 40mm long, this moves the sat nav slightly forward & up. I then could move the levers back up. maybe something along these lines may help. this is with the screen on its lowest setting , it makes no difference to wind noise etc IMG_0547.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #1

---

OK, I am 189cm just over 6'2" tall and the bike had the normal seat not the higher sport seat.

---

The last photo seems to put the Nav in the same place as the Vortex on my RS. The Vortex had articulation with different length connecters that look like simple extenstion straps moving the Nav back towards you. It was a pressing, so the 2 straps were 1 piece. No issue with levers etc. That adjustment allows fine movement to reveal the BMW display.

simple remedy and it works. Excellent.

simple but effective. Excellent Neilgw.

Maybe the answer is to provide some spacers to hold the screen a little further forward and provide more clearance!

I am still waiting for my RS, but have bought an MV mount which I will try, though I am intending to pair it with the Tourotech height extender I used on my GS which you can see in the picture below. I am expecting the advantage of this is that I will have two angle adjustments - one where the height extender clamps to the MV bar and one where the Nav (in my case a phone) clamps to the upper bar on the extender via a Quadlock mount. This should provide considerable flexibility in positioning, as it did on my GS.

I can't tell from your pictures if the height extension parts of your mount are fixed to the support bar or if their angle can be changed, or alternatively if the support bar can be rotated, but if not, it is going to be difficult to suit all users with just tilting of the Nav mount.

I think a problem with all these solutions is that the weight, particularly the of BMW Nav and its chunky BMW mount on the end of a longish height extension is likely to cause some flex and vibration. I am hoping that my lighter and smaller phone based satnav solution will be both easier to position satisfactorily and less likely to vibrate.

When I made my first relocation mount... the bottom of the mount obscured the top of the speedo.... I thought at the time oh I will just dip my head... I dont ride that fast.. but on my European tour i found it to be very annoying... and actually was using the upper half of the speedo!

On my return I remade the mount...and i didn't have to dip my head and after a second trip away... it was a pleasure to use..

As I am 6'4" with the sport seat... on my 1200RS

If I were to upgrade to a 1250 and buy your mount I would be be irritated that it obscured any of the dashboard TFT.. my solution was to junk the locking mechanism as it adds a little to the overall size of the nav screen at its upper edge... again not a solution everyone would be happy with..
I used thin washers under my screen to lift it 3mm too.
Good luck with the market research... You are doing sterling work on this... I think it will only need a minor tweek (up).

JR

Hi Everyone,

Many thanks for the feedback and it is aligned with my initial thoughts, do it right from the start.

Neil, thanks for that image, I will make a couple of those and once I have the correct position will redesign the arms so everything is a solid assembly.

Back to the CAD, just need to get this week of vacation out of the way

Thanks for all the answers guys