I ran across a nifty mod to the Zumo bike mount that I thought I would pass along. The security screw was a major pain for me to loosen to remove the Zumo, and the tool never seemed to want to fit well enough to enable me to remove the GPS without a fuss.

I ran across a security thumb screw on Zumoforums that I ordered and installed. It made removal much easier by simply giving the screw 6-7 twists, but another Zumo owner came up with an even better idea.

Instead of a security screw, I now have a security lever, which is even simpler to use than the thumb screw. It is made from SS spring steel, painted, and coated on the tip to prevent scratching. The main objective of a screw or lever is to keep the top clip from popping up during a hard jolt, like a pothole, and causing the Zumo to fling out to an uncertain fate. With this lever the clip cannot pop up unless the lever is pushed toward the front of the bike, away from the Zumo. To remove the GPS you just push the lever forward and pop up the clip.

As for security from theft, none of these devices are much of a deterent to a thief who really wants the GPS. The thumb screw and lever admittedly make it easier for both you and a thief to remove the GPS, but it might not be readily obvious how to do it, and time is a critical factor in theft. Anyway, even if the clip was locked all a thief would have to do is clip the wires, remove the Ram-mount bolt, and voila!, he has the Zumo and the mount. That brings into play the Garmin security lock, but even that isn't a foolproof deterrent.

Here is a discussion of the lever on Zumoforums. I've included some photos below, but want to point out that the lever appears to not match the tone of the mount or Zumo. In reality, i.e. to the eye, it blends in nicely. For some reason the lever photographs darker than the GPS and mount.

Oh, the price? Well, yes, I could fabricate a lever, but by the time I find some SS spring steel of the right size, bend it, drill it, paint it, and coat it on the top I might as well pay the £7 (British pounds) price asked by the chap who came up with the idea. That includes shipping from England and translates into $10.64 at the exhange rate for my order date. He's obviously not trying to get rich on his concept, so why bother with a DIY mod?

 

Where are the pictures and links?

 

Click on the light blue text for the links. The photos should be visible on the bottom of the message.

 

+1

Got mine a couple of weeks ago. Exchanged some emails with him on a Saturday, PayPal'd on Sunday, he posted it on Monday and I had it on the bike that next Saturday.

Works like a champ, especially with winter riding gloves on!

 

I have the thumb screw, works great, lever looks interesting too....
I installed a waterproof connection between the power plug and the GPS, I just unplug and remove the whole setup, mount, GPS, GMX antenna as a unit( RAM mounting)...works good too, plus allows me to move the GPS from bike to bike very easy....

 

I just removed the security screw, and dont bother, 1000's miles covered with mine. It wont pop up, but just in case I do loop the lanyard over the mount.

 

Mine never came with a security screw, just the itty bitty screw driver for it. Mine has never popped up.

 

I did the exact same thing on mine, I wasn't a fan of that security screw, it really doesn't stop someone from loosening the ball mount, cutting the wire and taking the whole shebang with them.

 

Does anyone have detailed pictures of the 92365-08 Harley mounting kit? I have a Nuvi 500 and want to see if I can adapt the HD mount to work with it.