wiring amp into bike battery

[Karma]

Just sounds like a bad idea... what happens when you pull up at the lights and your bike is blasting out this music.

Don't even get me started on the acoustic properties of your fairings either... would imagine either the fairings would vibrate / crack, or the sound would be so distorted there'd be no point in it.

Save yourself some hassle mate and get an iPod or something. Or don't. Either way.

[Momentum]

if you want to do it look at getting speakers that they put in boats. they can handle the water better than others.

but i sell a really good mp3 player at work the Creative Zen Neeon that holds 3000 songs for $365 and its really small to not much bigger than a ipod nano and it hold 6 gig of music. Plays mp3's wma's has a fm radio and is a voice recorder too. And for you you computer people yes it is the same creative brand that makes the sound blaster cards for your pc. so they know what they are doing when it comes to music

[DogBreath]

Regardless of if bikes should have stereo’s, the problem your going to have is the current drain on the fxr's electrics. The battery will be ok for a short time (minutes) unless you plan to use low volume. The amp your looking at will draw around 8 - 12 amps so you'll end up overloading the bikes generator and probably will burn out the rectifier. (Read breakdown)
Still, if you don't running any lighting and don't indicate, and run the bike at full RPM it should be ok for a while.

Other things to consider.
The Amp’s Heat sink needs to be exposed to the air otherwise it will overheat if wrapped up for water proofing, maybe stick it under the seat.

Wire the power to the AMP directly to the battery via a relay (otherwise amp will discharge battery.

Use wire rated at 15 amps or greater for positive and negative feeds.

Make sure the speakers aren't paper based, polyprope door speakers are the way to go, the are designed with some tolerance to water.

The touring bikes with stereo's general have car size alternators and descent sized batteries and lower power outputs, hence are often used to annoy other rally goers until wee hours of the morning.

Personally, if you want good sound on a bike, get your self an Ipod nano, that way you can have loud music in your ears without subjecting your music to everyone else around you.

Yeah, wot he said, but the amp you linked to is a single channel PA, not stereo.
Also its only 70W, prolly not quite as much load as your existing headlight, but the bikes electrics may struggle to run both, no probs, pop a relay in yr light circuit and toggle between when the desire overcomes you.
BTW, nothing wrong with single channel, remix yr tunes to mono, itunes should be able to handle that. Careful if you use two speakers, the amp must only see 4 ohms impedance, else it will overhead and shut down (if yr lucky).
Just had a thought, are you taking the piss? Just indulging in a little geek-baiting perhaps?
(Disclaimer: all advice given without warranty, if someone breaks yr nose for making too much noise whilst waiting at the lights, thats your responsibility)

[zeRax]

What the fuck!?

as said, mp3's are your friend. one day you might be able to get yourself a goldwing, i hope this is a pisstake, its too dumbfounding to try think about a fxr with amp and speakers installed, nightmares tonight for zerax!

[Posh Tourer :P]

Regardless of if bikes should have stereo’s, the problem your going to have is the current drain on the fxr's electrics. The battery will be ok for a short time (minutes) unless you plan to use low volume. The amp your looking at will draw around 8 - 12 amps so you'll end up overloading the bikes generator and probably will burn out the rectifier. (Read breakdown)
Still, if you don't running any lighting and don't indicate, and run the bike at full RPM it should be ok for a while.

Other things to consider.
The Amp’s Heat sink needs to be exposed to the air otherwise it will overheat if wrapped up for water proofing, maybe stick it under the seat.

Wire the power to the AMP directly to the battery via a relay (otherwise amp will discharge battery.

Use wire rated at 15 amps or greater for positive and negative feeds.

Make sure the speakers aren't paper based, polyprope door speakers are the way to go, the are designed with some tolerance to water.

I second most of that. Firstly, you will need an amp to run on 12V electrics, which in a car amp I think you have. Secondly, you will need to uprate your bike's charging system (generator) and run some power directly from that through it's own voltage regulator (so you dont overload the original equipment). Thirdly, you probably want a bigger battery so that you dont drain the battery while you are idling at the lights, you might find you will have to recharge your battery every week as it is a bit overloaded, particularly if you ride round town, or on lots of short trips.
You will probably want to run the 160w speakers, so that alone draws 320W (the equivalent of around 8 headlights), plus the amp loading. That should give you some idea of how much extra power you will need to generate. I dont think the 20W speakers will give you enough power to be able to hear it at 100kmh, through your helmet. At best I think you will be able to hear something fuzzy at 60kmh with your helmet on (depending on how good your helmet is...) with the 20W speakers.

Quickly running through the way power is made on your bike sounds like a good idea. The battery is the store which allows you to press a button and turn the starter motor, as well as lighting up your instruments etc before you start the bike. Starting is normally quite power-intensive, so you wouldnt be able to have the stereo going while starting, unless you fitted a car-size battery. Then, once the engine is turning over, power is produced by the generator (running off the crank, kinda magnetic loop thingy). This then keeps the battery charged. At idle speeds it may not be providing enough power to keep the bike running properly, and it relies on the battery's stored power (eg on my BMWs.) This would be exaggerated if you are using lights, particularly the headlight and brake light as they are bright (20-40W bulbs, or more). The generator produces more and more power as it revs faster, thus there is also a voltage regulator to stop you frying your battery.

So. You are proposing at least a doubling of the load on the bike's electrics, perhaps 5-6x if you go for the 160W speakers. Hence the above advice.
Also, you will need to mount the amp somewhere strong, perhaps off the frame, which IIRC is hard to get at. However, it will need to be rubber mounted properly so that it isnt shaken apart. Also, you will need a good place to mount your CD player/Ipod/memory stick reader so that it isnt shaken apart. Both your speakers will need to be rubber mounted also, unless you want them to break in short order. As said above, paper element speakers are too susceptible to water. They will probably be facing upwards towards you, so will hit quite a lot of water when you are parked or sitting at the lights. Glad bags are ok, but if they get ripped on a wet ride, say goodbye to a lot of money. Also, you will probably need a new glad bag each time you go out, and fitting that might be a pain in the arse. Wind tends to make mincemeat of them.Are you going to put a drain hole in the bottom of your glad bag incase water does get in? You'd need to reinforce the hole (special purpose glad bags with a hole in them?) otherwise the bag would tear after a few miles of riding, especially at 100kmh.

What you propose would cost more than your bike is worth, particularly fitting a bigger battery somewhere (the back seat?) and trying to find a generator that would not only fit your bike, but produce the amount of power you need. I guess it'd have to be custom made. Oh and you might have to uprate all the wiring on your bike to a bigger core size just so your bike doesnt go up in flames instantly if you get a short or a failure......

Buy a big BMW (say an '87 K100LT jap import) or a Goldwing instead. Might even be cheaper....or failing that, why not just get an ipod and a $5 pair of earphones?

[jeremysprite]

yeah. Didn't think that the amp + speakers would drain so much on the battery, and overestimated the power of the 20w's. Thanks, think i'll jsut do the sensible thing and buy an mp3 player and headphones.

[Sniper]

yeah. Didn't think that the amp + speakers would drain so much on the battery, and overestimated the power of the 20w's. Thanks, think i'll jsut do the sensible thing and buy an mp3 player and headphones.

There is hope for you yet

PT

[SlowHand]

NAWWWWWWWWWWW! dont quit yet!

get a car, deck it out or whatever, then go into a fire station and ask to borrow their cool little toy. Now take the jaws of life and cut down the middle of car. Now you really look like a twat.

[skidMark]

when i use my mp3 p[layer on my bike i can hardly even hear it :| at flat out

it's a creative muvo 128 mb it's pretty loud usually...bike just drowns it out though

[Leong]

And the other advantage with the Ipod is that you can use it anywhere!! ie not just the bike

[jeremysprite]

mmm im also not liking how my riding is affected by music ie the other day i tried riding with a cd player (earbuds killed me ears, with glasses and tight helmet) and i was listening to Pillar (read:rock) and wasn't watching my speedo, then i was like ahh! 115! coulda lost my license....(that is, if the fxr speedo knew what the word accurate was)

[Posh Tourer :P]

that is what I find too.

Plus I prefer to be able to hear a bit of what is going on around me. I prefer riding without music....

[GNR]

1. I bet you te 160w speaker your talkin about, are really only 20 w RMS, or there abouts, most brands (all lower quiality brands) advertise there stuff as "max watts", which is the power handleing they can handle for not even 1 seconds, Watts RMS is the power a speaker can handle, which when buyin an amp, or speaker, is the power u should be loookin at, take for instance a Shitty Sony 222w amp, it really only puts out 70w RMS x1, or 35w RMS x2,,
on a bike you wouldnt use any more than 20 amps, ABsoulte max, for the stero, and that would be a powerful stero.

2. Most car amps can be run down to 2 Ohms, or 1 Ohms(if its a good amp), that (basscially) mean u can run 2-4 4ohm speakers, if the amp can handle it

3. you wouldnt need that musch airflow, Lots of amps are mounted under seatrs in cars wheres there none, its only when u get into huge amp that need coolin fans.

4. You would get pulled up for a cop and fined for havin your music to loud, simple as that

[Posh Tourer :P]

1. I bet you te 160w speaker your talkin about, are really only 20 w RMS, or there abouts, most brands (all lower quiality brands) advertise there stuff as "max watts", which is the power handleing they can handle for not even 1 seconds, Watts RMS is the power a speaker can handle, which when buyin an amp, or speaker, is the power u should be loookin at, take for instance a Shitty Sony 222w amp, it really only puts out 70w RMS x1, or 35w RMS x2,,
on a bike you wouldnt use any more than 20 amps, ABsoulte max, for the stero, and that would be a powerful stero.

Well, yes, but on the other hand, it is still a massive increase in load on the battery regardless. 'Wouldnt use more than 20 amps'?? or watts?? You'd be surprised how loud you'd need it to hear at 100... specially on a fixxer without that full fairing thingy...

[skidMark]

im possibly going to get a psp for christmas ....for the chopper

well mainly for when i put it in shows...(about to do her right up)

either that or temptation will get the better of me and ill use it at lights.... LOL