Groo
The Endless Font of Useless Knowledge...
Ok, a very (maybe overly) detailed description of how I mounted my Smartire display to my ’05 FJR…
I bought a Smartire system for installation on my ’05 FJR before my trip to Reno (to make keeping track of tire pressure a bit easier). By the way, Gary McCoy sells it for less than anyone else (and less than the price marked on the box).
I took some time to figure out where to mount the display to make it easily visible. I came down to 2 options, mounting on top of the Brake reservoir under my V1,
or on top of the fairing over the speedometer, like is shown on the Smartire webpage.
I chose the reservoir cover for a couple of reasons, including visibility, ability to reach/push the front panel switch, and ease of wiring.
Per a conversation I had with Jestal, I dremeled off the lettering from a strip of the top surface on the reservoir cover.
I then got some industrial Velcro and attached it to the stripped surface,
as well as to the underside of the display. Mounted it up… job done, right? Well, not quite…
Turns out that the blue background on the display fades out badly if you’re not viewing it head on, or close to it.
This is how it should look.
So I needed to angle the display up so that it pointed more at my eyes while I was seated on the bike.
Turns out that about a 23 degree angle would do the trick quite nicely.
So what to use? I know Toecutter mentioned once that he used a rubber wedge that used to be a doorjam. I found 3 for a dollar at the Dollar store, but they were hollowed out inside… so no go.
Found some dark plastic dividers that were about 3/16” thick that were basically unused (not really sure what they were originally used for… but they fit the bill for what I had in mind). I marked off 1” wide sections, and cut the strips on my bandsaw. Then cut a few 1.625” long sections.
Continued in the next post....
After stacking them up, it turned out that 4 would allow me to make a wedge with a 23 degree angle. Glued them up, clamped them, and waited a couple hours.
The result was a bit “unsquare”,
so I evened that up at the oscillating spindle sander.
Now that I had a rectangle that seemed to fit in the space I had targeted, I marked a 23 degree line,
and cut it on my bandsaw.
This gave me 2 pieces (in case I somehow screwed up the first one, or somebody ever asked if I had an extra…).
Once the cut wedge got sanded to the right angle, it appeared to fit,
so it was epoxied to the cover,
and screwed back onto the reservoir. Cut a piece of industrial sticky-backed Velcro for the slope,
and attached the display. Note, the wedge looks a lot darker than in the pictures… Now I’ve got a perfect head-on view of the display, and it’s easily visible and out of the way at the same time.
I bought a Smartire system for installation on my ’05 FJR before my trip to Reno (to make keeping track of tire pressure a bit easier). By the way, Gary McCoy sells it for less than anyone else (and less than the price marked on the box).
I took some time to figure out where to mount the display to make it easily visible. I came down to 2 options, mounting on top of the Brake reservoir under my V1,
or on top of the fairing over the speedometer, like is shown on the Smartire webpage.
I chose the reservoir cover for a couple of reasons, including visibility, ability to reach/push the front panel switch, and ease of wiring.
Per a conversation I had with Jestal, I dremeled off the lettering from a strip of the top surface on the reservoir cover.
I then got some industrial Velcro and attached it to the stripped surface,
as well as to the underside of the display. Mounted it up… job done, right? Well, not quite…
Turns out that the blue background on the display fades out badly if you’re not viewing it head on, or close to it.
This is how it should look.
So I needed to angle the display up so that it pointed more at my eyes while I was seated on the bike.
Turns out that about a 23 degree angle would do the trick quite nicely.
So what to use? I know Toecutter mentioned once that he used a rubber wedge that used to be a doorjam. I found 3 for a dollar at the Dollar store, but they were hollowed out inside… so no go.
Found some dark plastic dividers that were about 3/16” thick that were basically unused (not really sure what they were originally used for… but they fit the bill for what I had in mind). I marked off 1” wide sections, and cut the strips on my bandsaw. Then cut a few 1.625” long sections.
Continued in the next post....
After stacking them up, it turned out that 4 would allow me to make a wedge with a 23 degree angle. Glued them up, clamped them, and waited a couple hours.
The result was a bit “unsquare”,
so I evened that up at the oscillating spindle sander.
Now that I had a rectangle that seemed to fit in the space I had targeted, I marked a 23 degree line,
and cut it on my bandsaw.
This gave me 2 pieces (in case I somehow screwed up the first one, or somebody ever asked if I had an extra…).
Once the cut wedge got sanded to the right angle, it appeared to fit,
so it was epoxied to the cover,
and screwed back onto the reservoir. Cut a piece of industrial sticky-backed Velcro for the slope,
and attached the display. Note, the wedge looks a lot darker than in the pictures… Now I’ve got a perfect head-on view of the display, and it’s easily visible and out of the way at the same time.
