Mounting the CD player on my 09' Venture

[Tennessee]

Excuse my rambling, but I think more information is better, and people can learn from my mistakes!

I know they are dated, but I still have a fairly large collection of CD's which I play mostly in my woodshop. But to be honest, I never thought I'd see a CD player on a motorcycle.

(As a sidenote - I worked for Time Warner Music Duplication in NE Pennsylvania for eleven years, (CD's, cassettes, and vinyl), we all used to say "When they figure out how to put music on a chip, we're all out of a job.")

How true that turned out to be...Came on board in 86', laid off in 97'. At least I got a decent pension out of it, which helps these days nicely!

 

In any case, my 09' came with a CD player, which was put back in the original box. It had been installed before, in the left saddle bag. I'm OK with the spot, I don't use those bags that often anyway, but the mount on this thing is an abomination.

 

The unit itself is surrounded by a thick rubber sleeve, about 1/2" thick, and harder than a car tire. I don't see how that will dampen anything.

Then there is a folding simple cage that is supposed to go around the rubber sleeve, and has one factory mounting hole in it that upon inspection, I found the hole it bolts to in the sidewall of the plastic tray that is molded into the bag inbetween the lid locks. As best as I can tell, the bolt holds it to the thin plastic wall of the tray, and the weight is allowed to swivel down until the bottom left is on the bottom of the saddle bag? I tried putting it on end, but the hole doesn't line up.

Ironically, the original car floor brackets are still in the box. I might put those in use before this is done. And all the instructions are there, in Spanish...The English ones are gone, probably put in the trash by the mechanic who installed it at the Yamaha dealer ten years ago!

 

Take a look at the pics of it installed...

 

Either way, there is a very clean hole in the back wall of the bag where the cable comes through, and it has a professional looking rubber grommet holding the cable as it comes through the hole. It looks factory. The hole in the wall of the little plastic tray also looks molded in, or one of the cleanest holes ever drilled into plastic.

 

I have a couple problems with this setup.

First, the metal bracket does not wrap itself properly around the rubber sleeve. I know the metal didn't get any smaller over the years, so I have to assume that somehow the rubber expanded a bit and now the bracket will not wrap properly and latch. You can see it in the pics.

Second, the bolt that goes into the tray wall, that is just too thin of a plastic wall and I think in the very near future the CD player will break away and I'll have a broken tray inside the bag.

The third and last thing is the ability to eject the cartridge even if the ignition is off. It is a feature of the unit. I had one of these exact same units in a car years ago, and the same glitch still exists - if the cartridge is empty, it keeps hunting, looking for a CD, even though there isn't one to be found. I always had to keep at least one in the player in my car unit, and this seems to be the same. Once it finds one, it stops at it, is happy, and stops using up your battery. No CD, keeps hunting in some sort of odd calibration setup or something.

 

This may be why the previous owner, (two owners back actually, the one I bought it from never put it back in), took it out, or maybe for luggage space, or maybe he just didn't use CD's anymore.

 

Ironically, the player plays exactly as advertised, and to be honest, it puts out a fairly high quality sound. I'd love to leave it in but not with that mounting system.

I know a lot of you that have these have put them in the trunk, but since I tend to put helmets in the trunk, I think I'd like to leave it in the bag. And I already have the one hole in my saddle bag, I am not inclined to put another in the back of the trunk.

 

I think I am going to look for a block of furniture cushion foam, (not cheap, by the way), that is a little thicker than the width of the inside of the bag. I'll take off the silly rubber sleeve off the CD player, and cut a block out of the foam, insert the CD player into the hole in the foam, and sit it on the floor of the bag with about two inches of foam below, and of course the foam all around the player, slightly tight to the inside walls of the bag. Should kind of float within the confines of the cushion foam, and help it from the bumps on the road. Keep it lower than the bag lid and all should be well.

 

I certainly don't think it hurts the value of the bike, as long as it works. We'll see how it goes.

[videoarizona]

Interesting thread. I like CD's too. But didn't want to go to the trouble of finding and mounting a player on the RSV. I went back to cassettes! At least now I can mix my own mixes....LOL! If I can figure out how to mount an SD unit and get it to play well with the controller...I'd be really happy. I just added an SD card to the Sierra truck and have around 5k songs on it. That would be a hoot to have on the bike!

 

As far as foam is concerned, It shouldn't be to expensive! Open cell or closed cell. If it's that bad in your area, find a Harbor Freight nearby and look in their sales stuff. They have instrument type cases on sale right now. Maybe cheaper to buy the case, take the foam out and use that. I don't know...just another off-the-wall-thought from me. But yea, building a simple foam insert for the saddlebag would be a cheap and easy way to go. It also looks like there's enough room to mount the CD unit on one end and leave the other end for tools, etc..

 

Good luck...keep us posted.

 

Notice the mounting angle limits....below

 

https://www.clarion.com/us/en/products/2007/audio/changers/changers/DC625/us-en-product-pf_1165294763815.html

Edited July 6, 2019 by videoarizona
found specs

[Tennessee]

Well, here is the result. The foam came from Hobby Lobby, on sale at 30% off it came to about $14. Surround the CD player with the foam, keeping it from taking all the hits from the roads when riding.

We'll see, I have it mounted and working, but have not taken it for a ride yet.

 

The CD player sits almost two inches above the bottom of the bag, supported by the foam.

 

Basically I sacrificed the left saddle bag, but now have a CD player that should be protected from the bumps from the road. Hooked up, it works fine sitting still.

Have to put it on the road to see if I am successful.

At least I am not trying to break off a tray wall inside the bag with a single bolt mount, as in the original setup. On the other hand, I have sacrificed a saddlebag for a CD player.

We'll see how it all goes.

[djh3]

Took up to much room for me on trips. Needed somewhere to put rain gear. But I think the bracket mounted to the outside of bag. Like where the fabric is to keep lid from hinging over. I used some larger fender washers to hold bracket. The hold down clip is an over-center type thing. I used a velcro type cable tie around it to keep it clipped. I really forget how it bolted in, but I think it was more to the outside of the bag. Never had a skipping issues unless like railroad tracks or something like that. Also some had relocated theirs to the trunk.

[Rafterd]

Or you could copy your disks to that chip in your phone, add one of these to your auxiliary input, then Bluetooth the connection and ride Sally ride.

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F192337924269

[AGrengs]

Or you could copy your disks to that chip in your phone, add one of these to your auxiliary input, then Bluetooth the connection and ride Sally ride.

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F192337924269

 

I'll second this idea! Best thing I ever added to a bike. Put the phone's music player on shuffle and listen to all my music.

[Tennessee]

I didn't really like the first time around, so cleaned up the foam a bit.

So now the front and rear of the bag have some room for something, should I need it.

 

I have an iPod, Fifth Gen that I pulled out of pawn shop, put a library of about 700 classic rock songs on it and plugged it into my Aux on my 02' Midnight. Also have the iPod charger cable going to a 12V USB plug I put into the 12V outlet on the bottom of the dash. OK, but not keen on the wires, and of course having that iPod hanging off the dash with velcro.

I like the CD's better, since it is all hidden.

 

There is a procedure available to put a USB port on any slightly out of date electronic radio, and a lot of people do it for car radios. I see no reason why this one couldn't have it done. Then you just plug in a thumb drive with your tunes, and have it set up to activate with the Aux function on the controller. I see the boards on eBay now and then. I've never been keen on using my phone and the Bluetooth function.

[Rafterd]

I'll second this idea! Best thing I ever added to a bike. Put the phone's music player on shuffle and listen to all my music.

 

 

 

I can ride ride and play music for around 8 days before it starts repeating songs.

[djh3]

These are the cats that made the ipod deal for the RSV the last 3 years or so they made them. This is what the factory deal looks like. Really thinking a Ram X mount for phone and a simple jack to plug into AUX plug @ cassette.

[Graywulf]

Don't know if it was a dealer fit, or factory. My 2006 the CD is in the top box, and has a 'sprung' metal plate attached to the back (hinge side) of the top box. I only get CD 'jump; on noticeable bumps.

[M61A1MECH]

I mounted mine in the trunk also, did not have the factory mount, so I pulled the cargo net off the front end of the trunk, fashioned an aluminum strap that cradled it and picked up a couple of factory fastener locations put some padding below and around it to protect from bumps. Using a couple of small black Ty-Raps I was able to attach the cargo net back around the CD player. Worked great , only the occasional skip on bad bumps. Still have pics someplace if anyone is interested I will dig them up.

[Tennessee]

Well, it might be ugly, but the foam surround seems to work great. The unit is sitting on about two inches of foam, and as in the second set of pics, surrounded by foam.

 

I took it out yesterday morning, purposely on a road that has a fair amount of little bumps, some sharp bumps, and even took it on the rumble strips on the side once or twice.

Had one slight jump in the music, not even a skip when I hit what actually was a small bump.

Ran it through the gears, let it lug, did about everything I could think of (within reason) to make it skip. Didn't go looking for potholes, but we don't have many of those down here anyway. Really could not make it skip.

So ugly it is, but I am happy. I just used up about 70% of one bag, but I don't do overnight trips anymore anyway, so I'm good.

[RDawson]

No issues with the unit overheating insulated like that? That would be my only concern. Nice retrofit though.

[Tennessee]

I don't think the motors in the CD player would suffer any overheating, and there is just not enough amperage going through it to overheat any board inside. I can remember having one of these in one of my cars, and in the summer the car would do the usual, get up to about 120' in the summer. Never had any problems.

[exarmypiper]

Do they still make those clarion cd players.Been lookin all over the net.Or just a hard to find object nowadays?