Adding a New MP3 Player to the Wing
A few Goldwing riders came by the house today and we worked on bikes and basically fiddled around for the afternoon. It rained in the morning, so unfortunately, many of the riders had to cancel.
My project was to remove the existing Sirius satellite radio that is on the bike. I took it off for a few different reasons, the primary one being that we are cutting back on non-essential items while I am unemployed.
Secondly, I didn’t really use it all that much. The reception with the OEM antenna was spotty at best, and it seemed to cut in and out a lot, especially when I rode down a tree lined street.
And thirdly, I had tried to use a cable to connect it to the AUX plug on the bike, but I got a lot of engine noise with the longer cable and didn’t want to pay $25 for a noise filter. When I used the FM Transmitter mode, and I rode for longer distances, I was always looking for a blank channel to use. It was just easier just to take it off.
I picked up an MP3 unit that I am replacing the satellite radio with. This unit makes use of an unused CD player outlet to route the sound to the bike’s sound system.
The company offers the MP3 player, which has a built in MP3 player that uses either a standard SD card, or a USB jump drive. You can just copy your music from your computer onto the SD or jump drive, and pop it into the player.
They also have an iPod interface that lets you plug your iPod into the bike’s sound system. There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems.
We took the seat off and plugged the MP3 unit into the empty CD player plug.
I wanted easy access to the player so I can change my music files when I want to, so we tried a few different places, and ultimately decided on sticking it to the inside of the trunk lid with Velcro.
This was the easiest way to go, and it did not require any drilling. I just cut a notch in the rubber seal for the trunk lid to accommodate the cable.
I copied some songs to the SD card, and plugged it into the unit. (The player has been tested with SD cards up to 8GB. Larger cards may work, but have not been officially tested yet.)
We turned the bike on and selected the CD player on the audio system. The display thinks it is a CD changer, so you just use the button on the handle bars to change “CD” or track. The CD corresponds to the folder on the SD card, and the track corresponds to each song. Pressing the track button on the handle bars changes to the next song. Pressing and holding the button switches to the next folder or “CD”.
The display looks like this:
This shows that I am playing the 4th song in the first folder.
When you change the display to the Nav screen, it looks like this:
You can see the song information in the bottom left hand corner.
Depending on your personal preferences, there is a down side to this particular configuration. Since the Goldwing display does not support text display, you cannot see the specific song information, only the folder and track that is playing. If this is a deal breaker for you, then you probably want the actual iPod interface. The down side to that is that you have to mount the iPod on the handlebars, or some place where you can see it. I am personally willing to have the unit tucked away safely in the trunk. Not seeing the names of the songs is not a big deal for me.
I will be testing this out in the coming weeks and will post my results here. But so far, it looks like a slick little unit at a reasonable price.