djroger wrote:
I was thinking of mounting the speakers to the front of the hard bags, pointing up towards my ears. Can anybody give me a reason not to place them there? I'd like to keep the handlebars clutter free.

Thanks,

DJR

Being the passenger on MS1700's bike (which recently had the Shark radio speakers mounted to the handlebars), we did a lot of brainstorming about where to possibly put speakers. I think that if you mount the speakers on the front of the hardbags, they will be in a position to be easily kicked by a passenger, especially if you have passenger floorboards. Also, they would be mounted right over the exhaust, and would be competing with the pipes to be heard, and probably sound would be blocked by any passenger you would have with you. Not to mention that if you wear a helmet, hearing the radio clearly at high speeds may be hindered, because the sound is coming from behind you.

I have found that I don't hear the speakers from the handlebars nearly as good as the driver because I'm over the exhaust, his body and head are between me and the speakers, and the wind buffeting adds more noise. And with a helmet on, I hear even less. So unless the volume is WAY up, or we're traveling at slow speeds, I don't hear much of the radio.

The plus side: I can control the volume with the remote, so I can turn the volume up to hear at high speeds, and turn it down when we slow down.

My .02 worth