Hey, so you are wondering how my navigation bracket was built?

Well, here it is, a quick description of how my rock solid mount was built!

Yamaha XT660Z Tenere Navigation Setup 1 — Picture: Yamaha XT660Z Tenere Navigation Setup

To start with, you need to know what it’s based on, and in short, it’s a mix of Touratech GPS bracket and Ultimate addons case and bracket.

Early Versions

In early days i have used Ultimate Addons phone case (and my old Samsung S6 Edge phone), on top of the mirror mount (it’s similar to handlebar mount just it’s designed to fit the stem of the mirror, that is smaller in diameter than handlebars), mounted on XT660Z bracket above the Dash.

Used it with a straight USB plug and cheap usb charger from Ebay- don’t use straight plugs – learn from my mistakes!

Not the right fit

After some time i have realised that it doesn’t really sit comfortably on that mirror bracket, and phones screen was not pointing where i wanted it to, mainly because of a small space between dash and windscreen, so i had to come up with a different solution. For that I have used a Touratech bracket.

Touratech GPS Bracket wasn’t quite the right fit as when i bought it i didn’t check what diameter bar it fits (bought it used for peanuts so can’t complain) but on arrival it was clear to me that for much wider than the bracket on XT660Z… anyway, that was fixed with stips of aluminium, and it worked fine!

Lessons Learned

Another lesson I have learned the hard way, that when equipment is fitted high up like that, on multiple mounts, it will vibrate, a lot! It might not look like it, but with time – vibrations will ruin charging ports and cameras – don’t ask me how i know that!

At this point I had fitted everything in this order: xt660z Bracket < Touratech Bracket < Touratech GPS Bracket< and Ultimate addons case. Charger was hiding somewhere behind the fairing. And it worked fine, but with time Ultimate Addons case started to make squeaky noises, and soon it just fell apart, leaving my phone hanging on the charging cable!

Final Setup

My final setup is similar to what it was before, with few minor changes. Touratech bracket mounted on top of xt660z bracket, where it clamps – managed to squeeze L shaped aluminium bracket cut and shaped to size (Painted in black too) – as a USB charger holder.

By the way, the USB charger was taken apart and filled with Dielectric grease – to stop water from getting in.

Yamaha XT660Z Tenere Navigation Setup 3 — Picture: Yamaha XT660Z Tenere Navigation Setup

Ultimate addons case was modified. Instead of clipping in with their 3 prong quick fit mount, I simply took it apart and screwed only the part with the ball joint mount, and filled it with epoxy glue. On top of that, instead of using old ball mount, i drilled 2 holes on both sides, pushed Touratech’s aluminium bar thru it, filled it with epoxy, and once it was hard, drilled a hole right thru it, cut the thread in there and screwed a long bolt with massive washer – thats to stop it from working its way out and moving up and down.

For charging used 90 degree charging cable, filled the side of the Ultimate Addons case with silicone, pushed the charging cable in, and tied it with cable ties to eliminate any kind of movement.

Verdict!

So far, I’m very happy with it, done some funny hard miles with that setup and it’s still alive and well! Obviously mistakes were made, and lessons learned, but in essence: no matter what you will use for navigation, for as long as it has a solid mount, and no cables are bouncing around, it should be safe!