If you've been following the saga so far, you've seen how a series of modifications to a mild mannered Eclipse tank bag have provided a source of twelve volt power and heat, light, radar detection, GPS, and music for a rider moving down the road. Good as these systems were, there was plenty of room for improvement. For example, the Starcom1 has a "feature" that will mute all but one channel of the sound inputs when a signal is detected on the un-muted channel. At first this gimmick might sound like a good idea, but in use I find that I can clearly hear all the sound sources when they're mixed together, and there's just no time when I want to hear only one of them. No problem, just turn the "feature" off, right? No Can Do because it's hard wired into the circuitry of the unit. Another "feature" was an automatic volume control that used the noise level on the audio output cord microphone as a gauge for boosting the output level. I'd get the volume just right when stopped, then find myself being blasted out of my helmet when I got up to freeway speeds. Again, there's no way to turn this "feature" off. The Starcom also had trouble hanging onto all the wires that connected to it. I seemed to be diving into the bottom of the tank bag to re-connect the power or audio out cable on a frequent basis, a real pain on a trip with a full tank bag. I tried making up keepers with velcro strips, but that just caused the signals to get scratchy and intermittent. Another issue was that the Starcom1 only had three audio inputs. When I added a satellite radio I'd have had to come up with some sort of dodge to get the radio signal into the mixer.

I'm using the past tense here, because the Starcom1 is history. It's been replaced with a Mix-It2 from IT Designs. John Brown, the owner and chief technologist, is a motorcyclist and music lover that just happens to have long experience in the television and recording industries. When he got fed up with make shift solutions to the problem he decided to build his own mixer, and fortunately for me, let others know about it. That led to a production version called the Mix-It, and just this year, the follow on Mix-It2. The Mix-It2 accepts up to four inputs, two of which are stereo, and none of which require special patch cords for connecting to the various devices in my audio arsenal. The stereo jacks are standard 1/8" numbers, just like the one on an iPod. The mono jacks are also 1/8", and patch cords are available from RadioShack for about six bucks. John includes twelve inch and thirty-six inch stereo patch cords with the Mix-It2, and sells extras at very reasonable prices on his web site. The new feature and main upgrade offered in the Mix-It2 are the two isolated mono input jacks, which eliminate the need for special cables when used with talking Garmin GPS units. This is a big deal, as these cables can be very expensive (Starcom sold them for $45 each!), and my installation required one for each motorcycle.

Space is important in a tank bag, and the small size of the Mix-It2 (2.75" x 1" x 5.5") makes it very easy to find room for. And since it will work on any DC power from six to eighteen volts, all it needs is a switched lead from the power buss I'd already built. (Photo left). The Mix-It2 will also run on a nine volt transistor radio battery, but since I wouldn't have access to the unit after it was installed in the tank bag, I just left it out and let the switched lead from the wiring harness control the power.

As good as the Mix-It2 is, I was still experiencing problems with the connectors coming out or being intermittent. A lot of this is caused by the curved top of a motorcycle fuel tank putting a curve into the bottom of the tank bag. When the junk in the top of the bag (usually too much junk) pushes down on the leads they tend to move around and get bent at bad angles. I finally broke down and made up a little plastic box (I used ABS from TAP Plastics) that was big enough for the mixer and leads.

TAP had some plastic hinges that I glued to the outside, and I use a couple of heavy rubber bands keep it shut. A hole in the end of the box lets out the cables (all six of them). Some low density foam keeps the cables firmly connected to the mixer.

I also added a quarter inch ID "O"-ring to the shaft of the volume control under the knob to provide some resistance to turning. I forced the knob down onto the "O"-ring as I tightened the set screw, experimenting a little to get the friction just right.

As received the Mix-It2 includes the same mute feature I'd come to dislike so much on the Starcom, but an email to John provided instructions for disabling it. That meant opening the unit up and clipping a transistor off the circuit board, a permanent fix, but one that is easily reversed by re-installing a 2N2222 from RadioShack.

It took me longer to get the mixer out of the tank bag than it did to open it up and do the clipping. While I was at it, I went after the rat's next of cables outside the box by shortening the cables and swapping out the straight ends most of them had for right angle connectors from the leads that John had supplied, at least on the stereo cables. All splices were soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing for long life and good conductivity.

A lingering problem is that of ignition noise in the earphones. The Mix-It2 has a built in filter that helped some (it was better than the Starcom1 at least) but I still had some. John sells an active filter for a modest fee of fifteen dollars, so I tried one. It goes in the tank bag along with the rest of the junk, and again it helped, but I've still got some noise coming through. Surprisingly, I hear it even when the audio equipment is powered down, so I'm pretty sure that the leads on the Etymotic ear phones are acting like antennas for the radio frequency noise generated by the spark plugs. The noise varies with engine RPM, and it's different on each motorcycle. It's mostly a static whine on the R100GS, but the R1200GS adds in a whirr when the brakes are applied. It's not a big deal, as it all but disappears when there's music playing and is only evident when there's a quiet passage.

While I'm talking about power, I'd also been having trouble with the cigarette lighter socket adaptor for the iPod coming unplugged, usually while the bike was on the move. Fixing it would mean pulling to the side of the road, digging under all the stuff at the top to lift up the partition at the bottom of the bag, and moving stuff around until I found the lose connection. Sometimes I'd manage to pull something else out before I got everything working again. It didn't take too many of these episodes before I decided to eliminate the cigarette adaptor by converting the plug to hook directly into the phone outlet power strip.

Unscrewing the fuse holder end of the MacAlly iPod adaptor and exerting a little pressure to split the shell revealed a small circuit board and the spring clip ground connectors. Both were held to the circuit board with a couple spots of solder, easily removed with a hot iron.

The hole for the positive lead is marked B+ while the ground is marked GND (the ground hole is full of solder in the photo above, but it's there). I made up a foot long jumper from old phone cord, snipped off the yellow and green leads from one end, and soldered the remaining black and red leads to ground and 12 volts, respectively.

When I was done I used a Dremel tool to pierce one side of the plastic rib that served to position the fuse and threaded a zip tie through the hole and around the jumper to provide strain relief. I used a pair of diagonal cutters to snip back the matching rib on the other half of the shell, making way for the zip tie.

I snapped the halves back together, and since the screw on cap would no longer thread over the phone connector, I used a piece of shrink tube to hold the end shut. In addition to removing one point of failure, the resulting power adaptor is shorter and lighter, both desireable features in the confined spaces of the tank bag. I used a similar strategy to convert the XM radio power adaptor, and ended up using one of the now spare cigarette lighter power sockets to power the portable battery charger that previously required one of the sound sources to be disconnected to free up the socket.

This shot shows the top of the tank bag looking pretty much like it does when I'm headed down the road. The map window covers both the remote display for the Valentine 1 radar detector (top left) and the Delphi Roady2 XM radio receiver and antenna (top right). Satellite radio might turn out to be the "best tech of the year" for 2005, as it provides a lot of information and entertainment from such a small package. As usual, I'd been watching and waiting on the satellite radio thing for most of a year, trying to figure out if Sirius or XM was the best service, and which receiver was most suitable. When I saw the Roady2 advertised for free after rebate on techbargains.com my mind was made up for me. Yes, it's another $13/month subscription, and I don't find myself listening to it much in either my car or my house, but it does a couple of things that I find invaluable on a motorcycle trip. First, I now have access to fairly good weather information, something that I just wasn't getting on long camping trips. Second, I get traffic and road condition reports for the greater San Francisco Bay Area (many other major metro areas as well), allowing me to steer around trouble or just brace myself for long sessions of lane splitting. Next is the variety of news channels that I use to stay up to date on what's happening in the world. But the thing I like the most are the comedy channels, especially when a trip calls for a long drone down the super slab. Sure, not every comedian is really funny, but the programming, especially on the adult channel, often has be breaking out in big grins and belly laughs.

Like most things high tech, there are some glitches with satellite radio, at least in my experience of it. The biggest challenge I've faced is getting reliable reception. The small patch antenna rides on top of the tank bag under the map window, and it really needs a clear view of the southern sky. If I'm pointed north my body can sometimes be enough of a shield to interrupt the signal. Or if the antenna drops below the map, again no signal. If trees cover the road, no signal. And if I'm riding along with a ridge or mountain to my south close by the road, again no reception. I suspect a lot of this has to do with the place I've chosen to mount the antenna, which was chosen more for convenience than optimizing reception. I also wonder if XMs geosynchronous orbit strategy might be a part of the problem, as it requires that southern view. Sirius uses more satellites that provide overlapping coverage, so I may look into them when my first year is up. I've also noticed that the quality of the sound, especially when listening to music, isn't really all that good, certainly not up to the quality of the mp3 files I listen to on the iPod. It's about like listening to a strong signal on an AM radio, without any of the static. Certainly good enough for news, weather, and the comedy and talk channels, and I do have the iPod for serious music listening.

Speaking of the iPod, I've replaced the Apple remote control with an AirClick from Griffin Technology. This little bugger plugs into the microphone and remote jacks on top of the iPod and receives radio signals from a separate remote control that I've zip tied to the front of the tank bag.

The buttons on the controller are bigger and spaced farther apart, making it easier to use with gloved hands. And since it communicates via radio waves, there's one less wire to run outside the tank bag. The only concession I had to make was to open up the top of the hard plastic case I use to protect the iPod from the rigors of tank bag life. A few minutes with a Dremmel tool was all that was needed.

Ever worn a white shirt around a motorcycle? Didn't stay white for long, did it? Now imagine using a white patch cable on your ear phones, and guess how long it is before they turn an ugly shade of brownish yellow. That's what I found with the white cables on the Etymotic ER6i, and after cleaning them with alcohol for the umpteenth time I decided I'd do something about it. My first shot was to email a note to Charlene at Etymotic Research, asking if they could swap out the cables for those on the ER6. She got back to me almost immediately, but explained that they don't do any alterations to the earphones, finding it simpler to just replace any that break. And I had no luck asking her to make up a custom pair of ER6i phones with black wire. So I turned to painting the wires with flexible vinyl tool handle dip. That worked for a while, but the tacky finish pulled at my hair under the helmet, and eventually started to flake and peel from the wire. So I tried plain old spray paint, but the two different brands I experimented with didn't stick any better. Finally I figured if it's the paint quality that's the problem, I'd try some of the automotive finish I'd been using on the motorcycles and see if it worked any better. After a thorough cleaning that this time finished up with lacquer thinner on a rag, I loaded up the airbrush and went at it. The next day I had some very shiny black wired ER6i phones, and the paint has held up well for these last three or so months with no sign of flaking or cracking. The wires are a little bit stiffer than before, but this actually works to my advantage as they've taken a form where they bend around the top of my ears and stay in place a little better.

Charlene was kind enough to include a wire keeper when she sent out the replacement 'phones (the ones without the rubber coating), and while it demonstrated the utility of such a device, it was very good at coming unraveled. A better solution is available from the Aerostich catalog in the form of the Cable Xcess, a cleverly fashioned bit of flexible plastic that keeps extra wire out of site under a little lid. You turn the lid up, wind the extra wire around it, then flip it back down ensuring that the wires exit the housing through little notches at each end. Another bit of cable management hardware I like is a stronger clip to keep the wires from flopping around in the wind. A couple of turns around the clip's strap keep it in position on the wire, and the jaws are strong enough to prevent slipping on my nylon riding gear. I anchor it just under my chin to the collar of my shirt or jacket. The last tip I'll share is to wind the wire around the outside of the Etymotic storage pouch instead of trying to cram it inside. This keeps it from tangling and its very fast to wind and unwind. It also keeps the kink in the wire just above my ear, as the 'phones do stay inside the pouch and the wire takes a bend as it exits, which turns out to be in just the right place for the kink.

The last fly-in-the-ointment I'm gonna cover is mounting the GPS unit. I was really hoping to keep it under the tank bag map window because that greatly simplified wiring and also gave it a little protection from the weather. That plan survived only as long as it took to roll the motorcycle outside the garage and into the bright sunlight, which completely washed out the screen. It wasn't just hard to read, it was impossible. After a little googling I ended up back at the Touratech USA web site looking at their aluminum GPS mounts to move the unit out in front of me to the handlebars. Sure, Garmin makes a little plastic gizmo, and I actually had one on hand that came with the motorcycle power cable they sell, but I didn't like the flimsy look of it. I could easily imagine the GPS sailing off into the bushes while the bike was hammering down a badly wash boarded dirt road, and the thought of never seeing the six hundred dollar unit again, or finding it bashed to bits on a rock, were more than enough to justify the stiff price Touratech gets for their brackets. During my googleing I also found that most folks are using RAM mounts with the Touratech bracket, so that's the direction I went as well. I use the handlebar "U" clamp, one on each bike, and a three inch mounting arm. A second ball bracket, just like the one on top of the bars but without the "U" clamp, gets bolted to the bottom of the Touratech mount. Shrink tube on the "U" clamp, and a bit of toolbox tray liner under the ball bracket, keep the bars from getting scratched and provide a non-slip grip. The whole mess is topped off with a sun shade that attaches with velcro dots to the top and side of the GPS unit, over the Touratech bracket.

Since I opted for the RAM mount, I didn't see any sense in using the locking Touratech bracket (a couple of twists on the RAM clamp and it's bye-bye GPS). What I hadn't counted on was the weak spring tension in the Touratech bracket. No, I never saw it loosen enough to let the GPS slip, but then I never really gave it a chance to. For a while I was using a zip tie through the cam lock lever, but that meant I'd have to cut it off every time I used the GPS in the truck. I got to looking at the bracket and figured out all it really needed was more pressure on the back of the locking lever to keep it from opening. The junk drawer held plenty of springs, and after selecting one of moderate tension and clipping it to an appropriate length, I shot a couple of holes into the bracket and was in business.

The last change I've made in my GPS strategy is to route un switched power to the unit's patch cable. I'd found myself making route changes or entering new waypoints quite often, frequently taking my time to scout around the display to check out alternate ways or looking for nearby attractions. The R1200GS has a delayed cut off to the ignition after you shut it off, but more often than not I'd lose power right in the middle of my editing session. Leaving the ignition on for extended periods is frowned upon by BMW, and it was a simple change to make, but one that I've really appreciated.

So after all this messing around, how well does it all work? At this point I'd have to color myself pretty satisfied. The original drive to just listen to music has yielded a bumper crop of additional entertainment options, along with the very useful voice prompting from the GPS and wallet saving beeps and braps from the radar detector. On long trips I can stay as in touch with current affairs as I like, and no longer have to guess in which direction the good weather lies. I have less noise than ever before thanks to the excellent protection offered by the Etymotic foam tips, and the black wire blends nicely into my riding gear instead of announcing "iPod Geek" everywhere I go. The GPS slips quickly into and out of the bracket for easy transfer from bike to truck. Loosening the RAM mount is even quicker, and is the option of choice when leaving the bike unattended. Yes, having all this racket going on inside my head can be a bit distracting at times, but that's what the off button is for. In contrast, I find myself more alert while on the road, and also more relaxed in heavy traffic since I'm enjoying the time even though I may not be moving as fast as I'd like. At the end of the day I'm not as tired, and I have yet to suffer the shell shocked feeling that hundreds of miles of freeway riding can bring on. The bottom line for me is that the time, effort, and dollars have been very much worth it, and I look forward to each ride almost as much for the sound as for the ride itself.