Zumo 660 bike mount

JasonC

Guest
Hi All,

I'm hoping someone can help me with a quick question?

I purchased a Zumo 660 a few days ago to use on my Vespa and in the car, the car mount works great but I'm having trouble sorting the bike mount.

The bike mount has a wire coming from it which I do not need as my vespa does not have a battery, I will be using the Zumo's battery only. Is there an alternative mount to the one with the wire or do you think it would be ok to chop the wires off? I have unscrewed all of the screws from the back to see if I can remove the wires properly but the mount refuses to open so I think it may be glued.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Jason
 
Jason,

I tried to find a picture of a PX125 that did not look :ymca but gave up.

1509456940_188235ab95.jpg


I say, onto LHS mirror stem, undo and put RAM-B-272 (9mm hole) or maybe RAM-B-252 (11 mm hole) onto thread stem and re-tighten it, or above stem arm (before it angles) maybe try RAM-B-231Z u-bolt with RAP-319 shim, I would wrap a rubber strip around around stem arm to get some grip.
 
JasonC said:
Hi All,

I'm hoping someone can help me with a quick question?

I purchased a Zumo 660 a few days ago to use on my Vespa and in the car, the car mount works great but I'm having trouble sorting the bike mount.

The bike mount has a wire coming from it which I do not need as my vespa does not have a battery, I will be using the Zumo's battery only. Is there an alternative mount to the one with the wire or do you think it would be ok to chop the wires off? I have unscrewed all of the screws from the back to see if I can remove the wires properly but the mount refuses to open so I think it may be glued.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Jason
Click to expand...

Hi Jason

I've not seen any alternative cradles yet, but chopping off the cable is an irreversible option, especially if you wanted to sell it all on in time. Personally, I wouldn't recommend such drastic surgery.

However, in theory, so long as you did it in a fashion that let you insulate each of the wires against shorting out, you should be OK.

Could you not bundle up the wire and cover it in a simple bag of some kind? Might not look as sleek, but could save you a lot of hassle? Or, maybe route the wires behind one of the panels or something, so it just looks like it's wired in?

Yoy
 
Tie-wrap the cable into a bundle and hide under the scoot somewhere. Then cover the bare ends in self-amalgamating tape [1] to keep all the ends dry and protected.

[1] get it from Maplin/RS et al.
 
Thanks for your help so far. Below are a couple of pics of my Vespa front end to help you visualise.
I was thinking of 2 options for mounting and I have highlighted these in the pics below.

For the first option I was thinking of mounting to the stem like you say Ram-man but I have ordered RAM-B-231 for this and from looking around I was hoping it came with the spacer to mount it to smaller diameter bars, however, I'm not 100% sure you get the spacer as the places I looked to buy it did not specify that you got the spacer. The mirror stem is 10mm diameter. I also ordered a RAM-235 double U-bolt base which I was hoping might be a little more secure and give better grip than the single bolt if I have problems with that.

The 2nd option I was thinking is to mount it to the mirror mount bracket (see pic 2) using a RAM-B-252.

Regarding the wires.. I'm still unsure about these yet, you are right what you say about it being irreversible when I chop the wires so I might just try and bundle them and see how it goes, the only problem is that I don't have a lot of space on the scooter to put the wires away.

GPS Mount Options.jpg
 
:eek: you're mixing balls !

The bike mounts are B size ball, so parts in series, RAM-B-1xx mount kit or RAM-B-2xx as sub parts .. not RAM-235 its too big. RAM-B-231Z has shim in the kit, RAM-B-231 does not.
 
Ah right ok, balls! I'll have to swap 2 of the things I ordered then, I'll get the B-231Z and B-235, I wish they made it clear about these things when you order!
 
Ok my balls arrived today and luckily the one item that I did order correctly works great, pics below. Luckily, in the position that I have mounted the GPS the cables can be wrapped up and placed in the tray below the speedo etc without causing too much eye sore (not shown in pics very well).

Hopefully these will help someone else looking to mount the 660 on a Vespa.

One other thing... the GPS vibrates a LOT at certain revs, does anyone else get this and will this GPS handle it? here is a Vid showing what I mean, its not great quality but if you watch the Zumo logo you will see it vibrate at certain revs, it looks a lot worse in real life! - http://www.eventfloorplans.co.uk/personal/images/gps/GPS%20mounted%20on%20Vespa.mpg

DSC00151.JPG

DSC00152.JPG

DSC00153.JPG

DSC00154.JPG
 
Hmmm...

...that is a bit excessive, really.

These GPS' are designed for some vibration and the later ones (possibly the 660) are filled with some kind of silicon, to stop the components vibrating apart.

I think I'd call Garmin and see if you can send them that video, or at least describe it, to make a judgment call. Last thing you want is to invalidate a warranty.

I'm sure it would cope, but you could find the bracket fittings coming loose, so check it regularly, anyhow.

What's it like when you're actually riding?


Yoy

PS - you need fuel ;) :)
 
Yes it might be worth asking Garmin to see if they think it can cope. Its fine when riding along but its when the revs drop/increase close to idle that the vibration increases.

The mount seems sturdy enough, quite impressed with the Ram mount but I cant see any other way of mounting it to reduce the vibration, especially due to the fact that the whole bike vibrates!

The fuel gauge doesn't work very well unfortunately and there is plenty of fuel! this is one of the reasons I was going to use the 660 for because it has an electronic fuel gauge on it.

Thanks for your feedback.
 
It's a nice piece of kit (had one for another GPS) but that won't cope with that amount of vibration either, unfortunately.

To eliminate the shakes, you'll need to attach the mount to a solid 'item', like the centre of a frame rail or something. Then that mount will help absorb the high frequency vibes.

I know it wouldn't be as good-looking, but does the mirror arm shake as much?
 
Right ok, well I'm not spending £90 odd if it's not going to make much difference!

The mirror arm does vibrate, as does the whole top of the handle bar/speedo section but it might not be as bad near the mount point at the bottom of the mirror stem, I'll order the correct U-bolt mount and try it there instead. Will keep you posted.
 
Yes, sorry, it can be a bit hit and miss with mounting these things.

Good luck


PS - you can always flog the spare mounting hardware on here?
 
Yea its a shame there aren't any shops who have all the RAM stuff for you to try before you buy. Once I've got the mounts sorted I'll see what I have left over and either send it back or sell it on here if you think people might be interested.
 
JasonC said:
. One other thing... the GPS vibrates a LOT at certain revs, does anyone else get this and will this GPS handle it? here is a Vid showing what I mean, its not great quality but if you watch the Zumo logo you will see it vibrate at certain revs, it looks a lot worse in real life! -
DSC00153.JPG
Click to expand...

Looking at the way its been lashed up, I am not surprised and shall throw my last 2p in on this matter, as earlier input appears to have been ignored/dismissed. Scoots do not offer any friendly anchor point by the design. If you want to loose the mirror or offset then maybe the twist-n-turn RAM-B-360 may work, but as yet, I have not wasted me time fitting one on a scoot.

Joybringer made all the valid points, its the engine creates the vibration then it will transmit into anything its attached to.

The screws holes underneath the cowel that you've decided upon using .. it hold the tax disc bracket, so have you tried moving the RAM-B-252 so its sandwiched between cowel and tax disc bracket so it strengthens the mounting position. Have you looked to see if the holes on the underside of the cowel matches the holes in the cast bracket of RAM-B-309-7 bracket that came in the box, if it does then clamp across and add tax disc bracket and secure.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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