Mounting a Lowrance GPS on the Concours
I tried using double-sided tape to stick the holder to the flat spot in the centre of the handlebars, but the Connie buzz soon shook it loose. I tried mounting the holder with machine screws through the black plastic side panel near my left knee. Great mount, but the GPS was almost impossible to read down there.
Finally, I tried mounting a 3rd-party gimbal mount to the handlebars, and this is working very well. Here are the details.
I purchased a commercial mount made for this GPS from RAM Mounting Systems. A double ball and socket system holds a cradle (not shown here).
The steering head cover plastic is shown here, removed and drilled to accommodate the mounting holes in the mount.
The lower two holes will be positioned over the steering head, and will just take small machine screws through the plastic. The upper two, however, are positioned over clear metal, and I’ll drill and tap the handlebars to accept a machine screw pass-through for extra strength.
Here is a side view of the shell. The long 10-32 machine screw protrudes below the shell to fit into the holes tapped into the handlebar. (Shown in green).
Since the upper surface of the shell isn’t flat, I also passed these screws through a small spacer tube (circled in magenta) to provide support and keep the ball mount flat when the screws are tightened.
In this photo the upper two screws are screwed into the handlebar metal (with LocTite), while the lower two just pass through nuts on the other side of the plastic.
It’s very sturdy.
With the cradle screwed onto the other end of the ball mount, the unit sits above the handlebars and is adjustable in all dimensions.
I ran a power cable from the bike’s accessory leads to the DC power plug on the back of the unit.