INNOVV K1 Motorcycle dashcam install on 2015 Goldwing GL1800

FORWARD

I like to tinker! Recently an idiotic car driver decided he could ignore the traffic lights and decided to run the red as I was coming through the intersection. Fortunately my public safety training save us both from a nasty situation. To that end when the local police came they were unwilling to charge the gentleman without evidence. As you know the first thing that happens after an accident is the truth disappears!

Without clear-cut definitive proof that the car driver was in the wrong they would not charge him based on just my say so. That being said I decided to do something about it and spoke to one of our counties legal minds about if I had a dash cam installed would that have made a difference.

The short answer was a definite maybe! (typical lawyer speak for he did not know) further research into the case law in Florida seemed to indicate that Law Enforcement and the State Attorneys are more likely to charge someone when there is definitive proof of wrong doing, although dash cam evidence in and of itself is not necessarily definitive! I decided to go ahead and put a dash cam on Honda Gold wing GL1800.

With all of the road rage and motorcyclists being targeted in the news lately I wanted a better way to ensure that if someone tried to make me a victim that I would have documentation of what went down in order to ensure the aggressor went to jail and not myself.

RESEARCH

I look around at various platforms and there were a couple of winners. One was a cheapie and the other was an Innovv K1 dual camera system. I bought the cheapie camera first and promptly received it. Unfortunately when I went to install it the "brain" of the system was DOA. I had waited a couple of months prior to installation and my return window had closed. I contacted the manufacturer and they replaced it.

My experience with the cheapie dash cam left me unsure as to the durability of the product, although many have had good results, and I decided to order the K1 from Innovv. The replacement cheapie camera sits in the garage waiting for a good home.

Part of my research led me to believe that it was a "good thing" to have front and rear cameras with audio recording enabled. This info was from Judges, Law Enforcement, and State Prosecutors although they warned me that each state has different privacy laws about recording audio/video when others are involved. That being said if you are the victim of road rage the law has a great deal of latitude. The simplest way around this is if you are involved in an accident and the perpetrator decides to talk to you inform them they are on camera.

Also Law Enforcement will want the SD card if they charge someone. The nice thing about the Innovv is you can let the officer see what happened on the scene.

A word of warning! While all motorcyclists never ever exceed the speed limit or do stupid things while riding the “sword cuts both ways”, so if you were doing something stupid when you got into an accident the video can also be used against you! Tom King

UNBOXING

It took about a week to get my order from INNOVV who are located in China. They used DHL and it was delivered directly to my door in a prompt and courteous manner. Be warned you need to include a valid phone number when you order it or they won't use DHL. I used my cell phone number and DHL texted me with delivery updated etc.... highly recommended. The product was well packaged and intact.

They included everything you need for a standard install except the micro SD card. They sent a bonus along of a micro sd card to USB reader!

EXTRAS

I had ordered a 64gb class 10 micro sd card as well as several 5 wire micro USB extenders in

case the camera cables we not long enough. I bought mine on Amazon and you have to specify "5 wire" not the standard 4 wire ones. I could only find 1 foot length so I ordered 3 of them

I also had a mini HDMI to HDMI cable laying around from another project and you might want to buy one of these to play the Innovv motorcycle dashcam recorder through a stock television.

TESTING

Being I hate to install things that don't work I put everything together on my bench and insured it all worked. Everything worked flawlessly right out of the box! This bespeaks of good quality control by Innovv.

MEASUREMENT

I noticed that the front camera cable is long and the rear camera is shorter. I suppose that most of the people put the DVR portion under the seat and this would work. I spoke to the factory prior to ordering the K1 and they assured me that they had lengthened the cables sufficiently for Goldwing installs. (at this juncture I daisy chained the USB extenders I had bought to ensure the cameras would work through them... NO PROBLEMS!) I decided to place the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) portion of the system in my glove box immediately above the fuel tank door. I had already a 5 volt power supply to charge my cell phone installed so no need to run more wires. When I test routed the camera cables the front was too long and the rear was too short, so I swapped them around and they just fit. Initially I was going to mount the front camera at the top of the nose piece and run the cable behind it into the compartment. Not a good place to mount it as the GPS and XM radio antenna are just under it! Instead I had to mount it on the bottom of the nosepiece between the headlights.

INSTALLATION

You will need to remove the following in order to be able to snake wires:

Nosepiece of the bike
Right fairing pocket cover
Seat
Fuel tank fairing piece
Left and right side panels

You will also have to drill a hole (YIKES!!) in the glovebox to run a power wire up and the two camera cables.

FRONT CAMERA

After you remove the nosepiece from your Goldwing you will need to drill a hole along on the nosepiece so the bolt that comes with the kit will fit. The hole is offset slightly to the right however the bolt and nut will fit between the plastic tangs on the nosepiece. Use the photos as a guide.

In order for the wire to fit I used a dremel tool to cut a small channel on the underside of the nose piece. The wire will run up the right side UNDER the nosepiece and you will use the plastic clamps that come with the kit to guide the wire so it stays in place. The wire should be fed through the RIGHT mirror area so it comes out in the Right fairing pocket area. Then replace the nose piece and mirrors. Ensure the camera is loosely bolted onto the L bracket.

You will be able to move the windshield up and down so long as you keep the wire along the lower groove of the frame that runs up to the RIGHT mirror. Ensure you use RED thread locker on the bolt that holds the L bracket to the tupperware. Snake the camera cable into the hole you drilled in the glovebox.

REAR CAMERA

I have a standard tubular trunk rack with some minor modifications for some other equipment. I fabricated a bar that goes across the center gap and pop riveted it in. The camera goes underneath it on the supplied L bracket. I ran the camera wire along the trunk rack frame and secured with tie wraps and ran it down the back of the rear seat pad. From there it runs along the natural channel on the right frame to the front of the bike. I used a stiff piece of wire to "fish" the cable up. Having the fuel tank fairing piece off is required. Follow the pictures below.

Ensure you use RED thread locker on the bolt that holds the L bracket to the crosspiece. Feed the cable down the back of the seat and along the ride side frame. You can then fish the wire up into the area by the gas tank cover and then into the glovebox.

Now the fun begins! Using an offset drill bore a hole in the plastic near the bottom of the cavity. It need to be big enough to run the mini USB connectors through it as well as a couple of wires that go to your ground and Switched B+ one the fuseblock. Once the hole is drilled fish the front and rear camera wires up as well as the power wire.

There are several more pieces to mount:

The first image is the GPS/Speaker and the second image is the Power/Indicator button. The GPS/Speaker unit is NOT waterproof! This is a notable oversight by the factory and needs to be corrected. Providing a clear view of the GPS satellites and keeping the unit dry was a tough choice so I decided to mount the GPS/Speaker unit on the underside of the cover that goes over the glove box. Not the best choice but it works fine. Notice in the picture that you see 3Mtape this is actually the bottom of the GPS/Speaker unit. You have to mount the unit so the GPS antenna is oriented to the sky. I used some Dual Loktape on TOP of the unit and attached it to the underside of the glove boxcover. I did not cover the speaker with the tape so you can still hear the announcements at least when you are stopped.

The power switch IS waterproof so it can be mounted externally and since everything else is in the glovebox what better place than on top of it! You will need to drill a hold that is large enough that the mini USB connector can pass through. This is a large hole but don’t panic you can always buy another glovebox lid if you don’t like this. Here is a pic of it installed on the left hand side of the glovebox lid.

The velcro above it is for my garage door opener. Once the hole was drilled I fed the mini USB connector through the hole. The wire is fed from the center of the button which makes for a neat install. The button has a variant of 3M sticky tape already installed so I prepped the surface and “stuck” iton. I then turned over the glovebox lid and filled the hole on the underside with marine grade silicon seal and covered it with a piece of painters tape for later removal.

There are a LOT of extra wires! I tie wrapped everything up and used some tie wrap anchors to hold most of the extra wires to the lid.

The picture above shows the underside of the glovebox lid. Once everything has been tested I will wrap everything in heat shrink to make it neater. Pay no attention to what looks like a RJ45 network plug in the foreground it is not part of the camera system. This connector plugs into the bikes PAN system……. Just kidding it is the connector for the control head of my amateur radio which is also installed on top of the glovebox lid. Yep I like to drill holes!

Digital Video Recorder (DVR) Install

Now comes the easy part! The rest of the install is simply plugging in everything in to the DVR.

There are 4 mini USB ports on the DVR and they are Front Camera, Rear Camera, GPS/Power Switch, and Power. The cable labeled “Front” plugs into the rear socket on the DVR (remember we took the camera with the longer cable and used it on the rear). The cable labeled “Rear” plug into the front socket on the DVR. a Y cable that comes with the kit which is used to join the GPS/Speaker unit and the Power switch unit into a single cable. Plug the GPS/Speaker and Power switch cables into the correct ports on the Y adapter and then plug the other end into the GPS port on the DVR.

Lastly you need to plug the short USB mini power cable into the PWR port on the DVR. Next if you have not already installed the included 12 volt to 5 volt USB power supply connect it to the ground and switched B+ wires you ran from your fuseblock into the glovebox. Plug in the short USB power cable into the USB power supply.

Ensure you have installed a micro SD card of sufficient capacity for your needs and turn the system on by turning the ignition key to the accessory position. Follow the manufacturers recommendations for setting up the system. Now would be a good time to aim both of your cameras and then tighten them down. For the moment I do not recommend thread lock on the screws that go into the camera as you may need to adjust them over time.Just ensure you use a lock nut on the screw going into the camera housing.Turn off your ignition and insert the DVR into the case provided. This helps ensure that the mini usb connectors don’t come loose in your travels.

IMPRESSION

After having it on the bike for a few weeks it works flawlessly as it should. I showed it to several colleagues in Law Enforcement who ride motorcycles and they though it would be a good thing for their scoots also. The video is clear and shows an amazing amount of detail. I showed the video to the original LEO who took my accident report and he stated he would have charged the “moron” who ran the red light if this evidence was available at the scene.

All in all a good purchase. I think I am going to install the cheapie camera on my R1200RTP and see how it works…. Bet it wont be long before I buy another INOVV Motorcyle dash cam system.

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