We were recently asked by a reader what was involved in installing a 12-volt power point capable of powering a GPS unit on a motorcycle. The answer is less than $20 in parts, a half-hour to spare, a bit of knowledge about how bikes generate electricity and an idea of how devices like GPS units, cell phones, media players, etc. use it.



We've rigged a number of 12-volt power adapters on various bikes using everything from $3.99 lighter adapters from the auto parts store (photo: right) to relatively expensive marine grade adapters (photo: center) to bike specific units with handlebar mounts and a wiring harness (photo: left). They'll all work just fine and the choice of which to use comes down to time, inclination and the desire (or lack thereof) to build a wiring harness and engineer a mount.



For our CRF450X we chose the Trackside Universal 12 Volt Power Adapter, recommended to us by reader Jimmy Stocker, available at We've rigged a number of 12-volt power adapters on various bikes using everything from $3.99 lighter adapters from the auto parts store (photo: right) to relatively expensive marine grade adapters (photo: center) to bike specific units with handlebar mounts and a wiring harness (photo: left). They'll all work just fine and the choice of which to use comes down to time, inclination and the desire (or lack thereof) to build a wiring harness and engineer a mount.For our CRF450X we chose the Trackside Universal 12 Volt Power Adapter, recommended to us by reader Jimmy Stocker, available at cyclegear.com . We chose this unit because it comes with a wiring harness and a handlebar mount for less than $20. We mounted our Trackside Adapter on the frame of our 8" HID



This entire installation took a grand total of 30 minutes, 10 of which was spent looking for a small screw we dropped that rolled underneath the bike lift. race light where it's out of the way and wired the spades on the other end of the harness to the hot side of our light switch and a frame ground. Since our lighting system is DC HID this connection is the same as hooking the adapter directly to the battery.This entire installation took a grand total of 30 minutes, 10 of which was spent looking for a small screw we dropped that rolled underneath the bike lift.