I recently installed a sound system on my 2000 superglide....it sounds great as far as mids and highs but i was thinking of adding a powered sub to my saddle bags.....I know with cars if you add too much stereo, the charging system will not keep up and your battery will drain even while the car is running....the fix for that is adding a high output alternator....anyone have an idea how much stereo is too much for my charging system to keep up with???

 

The correct fix for a car with a high wattage stereo system is to add a capacitor, I don't see why you couldn't use a small car stereo capacitor for your cycle. They are both 12 volt systems. A capacitor is easy to install, it just hooks up inline with the amp to battery power cable.

 

+1 on capacitor, not to be confused with a flux capacitor

 

you are right about the alternator. a cap will help with temporary high draw situation like a big bass hit. you shouldent need one but if you do plan on going that big the cap should be hooked up inline with the ground side of the battery...it also will act as a noise filter...do you know the output of your charging system you may be all set if you dont go to wild. if you plan on listening to the radio while the bike is not running i would suggest a high capacity battery since most motorcycle batteries have very little reserve capacity..good luck pm me if you need help with the math.

 

I dont plan on listening while the bike is parked. My first idea was to add a 10" powered sub as i have seen some low profile models that would fit in my saddle bag.....however, I just got back from an audio store and the guy there said that there is no way i will hear any low end sound (bass) while riding and he didnt want to rip me off and take my money anyway. Commendable attitude but I regularly hear bass from vehichles that pass by me when im riding.....why can i hear other peoples bass but, if it was on my bike i wouldnt hear it.....I question that statement and this may be another one of those lessons in life i have to learn by seeing for myself.....any opinions would be appreciated

 

that guy should have thaught about it a little longer...can you send me some pics of your dash where your speakers are... you may be able to get some smaller really good midrange/lowrange only speakers then add a crossover and some tweaters for your highs...you might not even need an amp if you went that route...also i need to know the size of the speakers that you currently have and the rms output of the stereo itself...pm me

 

heres a link to a post showing my system....I need bass not mids or highs....the tweeters you see are more than acceptable as far as the sound quality....the shark speakers could be better for mids but heck they were only $50.....I need some low end sound to fill things in a bit https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...urns-pics.html

 

I think I read somewhere that the stock alternator pumps out 32amp. So at peak you've got about 400 watts. But you don't want to ride around maxing your system. Cut that in half, or less.... I would advise a nice 8" sub with a parallel 2-channel 100w amp.... if you really need more thumping than what your pipes provide.

 

a capacitor will take care of the issue, problem is low frequencies will not be able to be heard while you are moving, you will feel them when the sub hits but they will not travel to you on the bike from a saddle bag, i am putting a 8inch sub in my fairing and porting it to me on the bike, so i can have it blasted into my face and may get a bit from it before it gets lost in the wind, the sound waves will not travel forward while you are moving. A 20hz frequency has a wave length of about 56 feet whereas a 1khz frequency wave length is just over 1 foot. a typical big car stereo sub is around 12, while your typical car speaker sub has 4. you will not get close to that on a bike, just no room. so basicly you need to figure how many feet per second your travel on the bike to match the amp and sup to keep the sound where it can reach you while riding.
you can in a car because the car acts as a enclosure... i have a monster stereo in my truck and even wiht the windows down it takes away the boom, in my old wrangler i ran over 1000 watts to each 12 in solo square and with the top down it was much much quiter on the highway, so much so that i put another 10 in my center counsol.

 

I found this post on another forum


Re: Motorcycle subwoofer build

I just put this in my bike yesterday - look for it on Crutchfield

Blaupunkt-THb-200A

I have a 2001 FLTRSEI2 - Screamin Eagle Road Glide. Check out this 8" self contained subwoofer from Blaupunkt with a 70 watt amp. It accepts high level inputs, right and left, so you can just splice this in without hurting your system impedance. It has a phase adjustment on it as well as volume and crossover.

I have a removable tourpak so I will keep the sub in the tourpak when I have it on the bike. When I don't I can just slide it in one of the saddle bags. I have some padding around the edges to protect it.

It works great, as long as you don't completely seal the enclosure - I know, that's a problem. I may try to vent the inside edge of the saddle bag but for the tourpak, I haven't exactly decided how to allow the sound to escape. With the tourpak lid sligltly ajar - say, less than an inch from being closed - this thing adds TONS of bass to the system. It is very noticeable when driving.