World's first subwoofer on an ST1300!!!

viperx

Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Messages
13
Location
Redmond WA
So I think this is the first farkle of it's kind on an ST1300, but if it isn't please post some pics or links!

I used a GIVI Monolock E33 top box to house a JBL 8" subwoofer and a Sony Dual amplifier. I ported it a whole bunch of different ways, and eventually ended up with a 6th order bandpass enclosure. I use pipe plugs to keep everything dry when it is raining. I have the whole thing linked to an Ipod or Sirius Satellite radio via a homemade control box. I have a separate 50 watt amp connected to 2 polk db400's up at the front of the bike. Thanks to the people that posted how-to's for the Polk DB 400 mounting!
Pics of the control box, radio, and ipod mounts are in my personal photo album.

This is probably one of the silliest farkles I have done yet. But it is worth it when people stop and look around, searching for the source of the noise, not even thinking that the bike is source. Brings a sh$t eating grin to my face when I go down the road! :D It also sounds pretty darn good...

The whole thing puts out about 200-250 watts rms, and you have to be cruising for the alternator to be cranking out enough juice to keep the headlights from pulsing. It shakes the bike pretty good, so I isolated the monolock adapter plate with a few rubber washers to keep it from tearing the bike apart. The adapter plate is mounted to the bike with a mounting plate I made that shifts it back a few inches so that it does not interfere with the Corbin seat.

And to those that ask why I did it- because I could. And an engineer should never be told something isn't possible...
 

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Had some trouble getting the pics up. View my personal gallery if they are not showing up. Cheers!
 
Sorry GOPHER but maybe you should lighten up a little. The great thing about this site is that we can all have our differences and still get a long. There is a lot nicer ways of getting your message across with out hurting feelings. While I may not agree with what he has done I think he has shown great ingenuity and has great potential.

Keep on exploring viper. :)

PB
 
Why would you want to dis someone anyways? It's to each their own . Obviously Viper likes his tunes and personally I think it took ingenuity to build that thing.
 
And I thought I liked bass...lol That is too cool man.

Think about the back massage the passenger could get with that thing!!
 
Way to go ViperX, interesting, nice job, good for you. Don't let anyone tell you what you can do...
 
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Well I did not make the sub woofer to make people angry. It does have a volume control. Anyways, I made it so that I could FEEL the music when the sun is overhead, the sky is blue, and the horizon is empty of all the annoying commuters. That is why I ride- to feel alive. I am thinking of U2- It's a Beautiful Day.....

And by the way, the SO does like the massage...
 
viperx said:
Well I did not make the sub woofer to make people angry. It does have a volume control. Anyways, I made it so that I could FEEL the music when the sun is overhead, the sky is blue, and the horizon is empty of all the annoying commuters. That is why I ride- to feel alive. I am thinking of U2- It's a Beautiful Day.....

And by the way, the SO does like the massage...
Click to expand...

I'll always give a thumbs up to a unique farkle. But please remember to keep it down in residential areas. We have a kid on our block that can literally shake the earth with his subwoofers. We also have a police officer on our block. Word is he had a nice talk with the kid and we no longer hear his boom boom. ;)
 
Reminds me of how I invented the boombox in late 1959. I wired one of those big old stadium speakers -- the ones with the big horn and the grapefruit-sized driver -- up to a shirt-pocket Hitachi transistor radio.

Believe it or not, that little 9V radio would drive that big speaker loud enough to be heard for miles. Of course, I did it because I was an engineer, and I wanted to annoy folks.
 
Congrats on putting your creative talent along with your engineering skills together in designing a very unique piece of equipment.

I'd love to hear how it sounds. Next time you are crusin' the I-5 heading North, pump up the volume.
 
Probably no worse than loud pipes. How long will your battery last with that running? Can it make it all the way through a single song without the engine on? That's some crazy **** man.........

If you show up at WeSTOC, that's probably a guaranteed "Most Unique Farkle" winner for the show and shine. I know one of the judges!
 
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thats pretty sweet. i'm curious as to how it actually sounds since it's in an open air environment. the amp looks huge in there! maybe you could small it down some by powering your two polks with a T-amp and use a smaller (in size) 2 channel amp bridged for the sub. i understand space is a concern on bikes so it might be worth looking into. of course, if it doesn't bother you, don't mess with it. :p

what did you do for the box to stiffen it? if you didn't stiffen it (can't tell), you could try a couple layers of a product called Peel n Seal that you can find at lowes. it is a window and roof flashing sealant strip about 6" wide and 30' long.


anyways, way to go. looks sweet and thats a great farkle. i dont want it on my bike (i like to keep my bass in my sound deadened car or my home), but it's still cool.
 
Quick replies to several posts...

1. Yes, I could put a capacitor in (to minimize the drain on the alternator). However, since the amp is wired directly to the battery, it would be working to level out the spikes in amp draws when I exceed the RMS rating for everything. Which means I need to turn it down more than anything else.
I should prolly put a voltage meter on the bike to keep an eye on things too.

2. The box is made super ridgid by the piece of medium density board that seals the upper chamber (the one that the speaker appears mounted to). However, that board and speaker are held in piece by 4 pieces of all-thread that are mounted to flanges attached to the top lid of the GIVI box. The all thread bolts use tension to hold the board up against the inside of the top box. Since the board is sealed with glue all the way around the perimeter, it makes the GIVI box extremely rigid.

3. The amp setup is as suggested by Juddspaintballs. The amp is a bridged two channel amp. It also cost $30, which is why it is so enormous. This was a "prove people wrong" project, so the budget (initial...) was very small. I aimed for $100 total cost, not including the givi box that i already had. Wiring, swapping amps, speakers, building multiple styles of porting to get it right, and building mounts that held the monokey universal adapter, and the control box for the whole thing turned it into a 3 weekend project that probably ended up costing $250. I could spend more and get a smaller amp, but it would increase the frequency response from a range of 55-195Hz to a range of 50hZ-195 Hz. A 5Hz change in the low end response because of the increased space in the amp side of the enclosure was not worth spending 200+ bucks on an amp at this time. But good tips!
 
I love it! I would like to see some of those tuner teenager guy's reaction to that thumpin sound.
 
Cool, new fangled farkles are what its all about. Nothing like riding across an empty back road watching the sunset with some really good blues on. Thanks for sharing..I really like the reason....because I could...no other reason necessary
 
To each his own, but I personally detest the kids in their "hot" riceburners with the 500 watt stereos inflicting their idea of music on everyone else. I have no issue with anyone listening to whatever they want. I do have an issue with people forcing ME (or anyone else) to listen to what THEY want.

Listening to music on a bike is what earphones are for.....
 
ViperX
Kool idea, don't worry it's an age thing. People your grandparents age told us we wee wacky too
 
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