Installing a radio in a Honda Silver Wing

The original write up of this install was lost in the great "JerseyBiker Web Crash of '04". Some new S'Wing buyers kept asking about it so I went back and found some of the info below. Since I did my install, I've spoken to others who avoided what took me the most time -- taking off all the Tupperware. Basically, their idea is to open the seat and using a straightened wire coat hanger, pass the wires inside the Tupperware to the bottom of the bike. The wires are then affixed to the bottom of the bike and the procedure is done in reverse to pass the wires from the bottom of the bike up into the front trunk space. It's an OK idea and I did it when I installed a power plug up front but it does leave the wires vulnerable since they are under the bike. One big strike from a kicked up rock and your music is gone. My way takes longer but I believe provides a better install. I ran the radio like this for about 1.5 years until recently when I took it out to begin installing an MP3 player. Doc -- Jan 05

I was able to find some I was going to start by saying, installing a radio in a Silver Wing is a real bitch. Then, upon reconsideration, I realized, it's not so much a bitch as it is involved and tedious. It's not a quick project, not one to undertake on a hot, high humidity day (as I did). It's a great winter weekend project or, if you have an air conditioned work area, any time project. Total time for me was about 6 hours. If I did it again, I could probably shave 2 hours off. Hopefully, this web page will help you shave off some time.

So, all that being said, let's get started.

First, you need a Silver Wing Scooter, then a radio, some speakers, some wire and some tools. A couple of friends and some beer might help too. For the radio, I used a Sony something or other that was laying around. Not only was it available (free!) but I knew it accepted the Sony wire remote I wanted to use. I'd installed a similar Sony radio in my Pacific Coast using the same wired remote and it worked great. A lot of rain poured into that remote and, when it was soggy it wouldn't work but when it dried, out, it worked just fine once again. (The install of the radio on the PC is also on this website.)

So, I called Crutchfield and ordered the Sony wired remote, and a pair of Blaupunkt speakers part number ???. I ordered these speakers since they appeared to be made entirely of rubber or plastic and I knew the speakers would be subject to the elements. I'd installed similar speakers on the PC and they saw a lot of rain and always played fine. Unfortunately, tha model speaker used on the PC install was no longer being sold. This model is the closest to it. Only time will tell if this model was a good choice but at $49 a pair, I wasn't risking a lot.

I had the speaker wire around so, the only thing left was to figure out how to cut the holes for the speakers. A trip to my local Home Depot took care of that with a 4" hole cutter. A bit pricey at a total cost of $24 but, I wanted a good clean cut. Turns out the 4" worked but was just a touch too large. You might want to do some practice cuts with different size bits to find the right size and hopefully you can borrow the bit from a friend and save yourself some money.

Now, with everything I needed in hand, I pulled out the service manual and got to work.

Since you'll want to hide the speaker wires beneath the Tupperware, there' s a fair amount of plastic you need to remove. That's the tedious part. You'll need to remove the rubber floor mats, then the bottom skirts, next the passenger foot pegs come off, then the floor step. Here's what it looks like :

All the photos below are thumbnails. If you click on any one you'll get the original photo which is quite large. I leave them large so you can zoom in to see detail if you'd like.

First take the seat off and the spark plug inspection cover

Next you'll take off the rubber floor mats (they just pull off) and the bolts and screws holding the floorboard on.

Here's everything off left and right side

The cover comes off as one piece

Measuring to find the middle. (Yes, I can read upside down) .

Hole saw used to cut the speaker holes.

The hole cut and the speaker I used. The speakers are made of aluminum and rubber so, they should be good in the bad weather.

Run the all the wires and use wire ties to keep them from moving around. You'll be installing the 4 wires for the speakers and the one thicker wire for the remote.

When you run the wires across the plastic where the seat closes, be sure and notch out a piece for the wires to sit in so they don't get pinched when the seat closes.

This picture show the notch and part of the radio under the seat.

In order to keep the vibration of the bike from harming the radio, I used a piece of bubble wrap between the radio and the luggage bucket. This could be done better but it's what I had handy. (Addition - the radio worked fine like this for over 1 year until I removed it.)

Here you see the radio, bubble wrap and the bungee cords I used to hold the radio in. I wanted something that would give and take as the bike moved around, the combo of the bubble wrap and the little bungee cords was perfect.

Here's another shot of the bungees. I just unbent the ends to about 90 degrees and drilled very small holes in the luggage bucket. Once I pushed the bungees in, they held just fine.

I wanted the install to be as flexible as possible so, instead of hard wiring the radio into the bike, I put a connector on the radio so I could use the battery tender plug already installed on my bike. This way, if I need to charge the battery, I can just unplug the radio and plug in the battery tender. A

An additional advantage. Afterwards, I put a connector on a cigarette lighter plug I bought at the auto parts store for about $2. This way, I could run my cell phone off the bike if I needed to do that.

When I installed the radio on the Pacific Coast, it didn't need a radio. I just ran a piece of wire out of the antenna plug and let it hang in the trunk. For some reason, that didn't work on the Silver Wing so, I took off the access panel in the back of the trunk and drilled a small hole in the Tupperware and installed an antenna. I again notched the panels so the wires wouldn't get pinched.

This shows 2 wires coming from the panel. One is the antenna, the other is from my Tap a Taillight to the LEDs in the GIVI trunk.

Here's the antenna on the outside of the bike.

Once all the wires are installed, put all the Tupperware back on.

The finished product.

Well, now that the job is done, was it worth it ? Absolutely ! I love cruisin' to tunes and the setup on the SWing works great.

Hope this helps.

Ride safe

DOC