Anxious to hear how hard/easy it is to see the GPS screen while
riding due to mounting it to a less than rigid mounting area.
Also....would like yto know what happens when the sun is in such a
position that you have to tilt the GPS screen to get away from the glare.
(stuffing rags behind the windshield bag comes to mind).
Good idea, the bag mount...not practicable in my mind.

 

Well, this is my follow up to the Nuvi and the Velcro windshield bag mount idea. Although it did work basically as expected and I rode the Tail of the Dragon with this setup, a number of issues lead me to finally use a ram mount as a permanent installation of the GPS.

The 'problems' with this mounting idea that came up are:

1- Glare, at certain angles the sun reflects off the screen and it's like a mirror. Had to move it to a slight different position,

2-Battery Life, while Garmin claims 4 hrs in reality it's more like 2. That's all fine and well but I want to have it on more than just occasionally. Therefore, a power cable needs to be run and that will not work with it on the windshield bag.

3-Vibration, although I was never concerned about the unit falling off, it did shake (more than vibrate) quite a bit and especially over rougher roads. Made reading it difficult at times.

SO, while it's a great temporary solution and a easy way to mount a GPS, it has given way to a full ram mount with a mini USB cable for power. A photo of the new and permanent mount is below.

I've documented in photos how I ran the power cable and also the modifications necessary to the Nuvi cradle I had to make to accommodate the right angle mini USB plug.

I also did not use the RAM supplied handlebar mount but one from a fellow who has a much nicer one, but naturally more expensive. You can see it in the photo.

This mount basically disappears when viewing from the riding position and the windshield bag provides limited shade to the Nuvi The power cable is barely noticeable. All in all, a much better and more secure way to attach a Nuvi to the bike.

(note, for those thinking I ruined my windshield bag, I will be able to remove the Velcro strip and it should be fine. That is if I remove it. I sort of like it for holding things on a temporary basis.)

I'll post a link to some photos of running the power cable on a Heritage Softail as I see very little information for Softail owners, mostly for Touring models.


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Nice work, Cap'n.

 

I hit a pothole once and lost my I-Pass which was attached to the windshield with Velcro. It stayed there fine through thousands of miles of riding - just that one big jolt did it in.