Sirius Radio options?

[FatNakedGuy]

Got several long rides coming up and would like to pick up a Sirius radio to pass the hours.

Can anyone recommend a make/model that works well on the bike? I will be piping the audio into the audiocom mixer.

Am interested in places to buy from as well.

Thank you!

 

[Bounce]

Just about any will. Lay it inside the tank bag and Bob's your Uncle! No need to hard mount it or worry about water proof-ness.

I used the Sirius this way for years and the receiver still works. It's simple. It's shock padded (laying on top of a towel used for cleaning the face shield), it's water PROOF (inside the tank bag), and it comes off easily (with the whole tank bag).

 

[Tim05fjr]

I have the starmate 4 mounted to the left bar. I used a motorcycle mount kit from Amazon.

Kit comes w/ wire harness, antenna, cradle, and rain cover. Then I use velcro to stick the remote to my tank bag. I run the output cable into the tankbag to a Boostaroo amplifier.

Setup wotks great.

Tim

 

[Neil San Diego]

I used the Starmate 4 for a while. I would put it into the cradle and remove it at least once a day, 5 or six times a week. (I don't like leaving it on the bike at work, even though there is secure parking) The thing lasted 4 months and then the antenna connection in the radio itself went toes up. Figured it was a fluke, got a replacement radio under warrantee, and tried again. Four months later, the same damned thing! Got another replacement under warrantee, and tried again. A few months later, and the same damned thing again! Got a fourth radio under warrantee!! This one stays in the car, and doesn't get removed from the cradle very often, if at all.

I now use an iPod on the bike. If I could find a reliable radio from Sirius, I would be all over it since I really like the format of the sattelite radio. However, since the warrantee is now over, I don't intend to spend money to beta test all of their radios until I find one that will hold up to being removed form the cradle daily. Since all of their radios use the same cradle interface, I rather doubt the any of the other radios will be different.

That said however, I still have my Sirius setup for the bike, and it will only take a few minutes to reinstall it. If we ever do a long trip on the bike, I will put the sat radio back in for the trip. But I won't use it for day to day anymore. YMMV.

 

[Silent]

I can't respond to the Sirius bit, I use an XM Roady II. The one thing I do want to add tho is to make sure nothing is blocking your antenna. I had mine mounted to close to my reciever on the way out to NAFO, and in the middle of big sky country my signal was cutting in and out. I moved it about 3 inches, and now it rarely cuts out.

 

[Wild72]

I had a Starmate4 mounted to the brake resrvoir, and it worked out great. Ziplock sandwich bag kept the rain off. I have a mount which held the Starmate cradle, and the antenna, and was hardwired into the bike for both power and audio through the Autocom. I did get a replacement under warranty when the display died after only a couple of weeks.

Recently purchased a Garmin 2730, GPS which has XM radio included, so the Starmate and TomTom Rider2 have been retired for now, giving a much cleaner look to the control area of the bike.

 

[BikerGeek99]

I have a Stiletto II. I have a cradle in the truck, at home attached to my home stereo, and one on my desk at work.

Before our trip over Labor Day, I wanted to figure out how to use it on the FJR via the Starcom.

I bought a vehicle kit and put the cradle into the cell phone pouch on the tank bag. The vehicle kit comes with a cigarette lighter power adapter, so I bought one of the DIN-to-cigarette lighter dongle thingies and use the lead for the battery tender to supply the power, rather than running another lead off the battery.

For the antenna, I just used velcro on top of the front brake reservoir and ran the cord to the under-the-seat area for the 750,000 feet of extra antenna length.

There's also a audio-out cord going from the cradle to the Starcom under the seat. The under-seat area is kinda messy (Starcom, cigarette lighter power adapter thingy, 750,000 feet of extra antenna wire coiled up) but I don't care.

So, I have 3 wires (audio out, antenna, and incoming power) running from under the front of the seat into the little Audio access hole in the front of the tank bag (Rapid Transit something-or-other magnetic), just enough extra of all 3 wires is inside the tank bag allowing me to swing the bag out of the way for fuel, and into the cell phone pouch to the cradle.

So far, so good. We ran 1200 miles over Labor Day weekend riding from Columbus to the Finger Lakes and back, and ran 1100 miles this past weekend at EOM, all while listening to live Sirius radio. Since the Stiletto is so small, when we would stop and go, say, inside a restaurant, I would just power it down, pull it out of the cradle, and put it in my pocket or Givi bag.

The only drawback to this setup is it is difficult to change the channel while moving. I think I could do it, but it would require me taking my eyes off the road longer than I'm comfortable doing.