Yamaha Music 'n Motion Radio
Yamaha Music 'N Motion radio
CYCLE WORLD EVALUATION
One benefit of the current almost-silent motorcycles is that now motorcyclists can listen to other things. You can listen to the sounds of the other cars, trucks and busses on the highway. You can listen to the panicked screams of your passenger when those cars, trucks and busses get too close. Mostly you listen to the wind rushing past your helmet, and after you’ve listened to it for a few hours, you might like to listen to some music.
That’s where the Yamaha Music’N Motion radio and tape player comes in. No fairing is needed for this music maker. It fastens right to the mirror mounts, so even motorcycles with strange handlebars can be equipped for sound.
As add-on radios go, this is the most compact setup we’ve seen. It fits on nearly any size and brand of motorcycle, and it does so with a minimum of adaptation. And when it’s attached, it makes as much sound as any radio we’ve heard on a motorcycle. Installing the Music ’N Motion takes about an hour of simple wrench-twisting for the hardware part, plus whatever time is spent finding a hot wire. In our case, the Honda Nighthawk 550 we used kept most of its wires hidden in a rat’s nest under the headlight and finding a suitable wire took the better part of an hour. Then it turned out our hot lead was a cold lead when the ignition
was turned on. Okay, we’re not going to mdke money working at flat rate.
The stock mirrors are removed, replaced by speaker-equipped mirrors. Between these replacement mirrors is an adjustable bar. On that bar is a tiny plastic housing that contains an amplifier, transformer and a small portable cassette player. Included with the Yamaha kit is a Toshiba cassette player, and with that comes an FM radio cartridge. The cassette player can be easily removed from the carrying device. It’s held in with Velcro. And when it’s out, it is a normal portable cassette, so you get two radios in one, really.
We ordered the optional mirror mounts that adapt the Yamaha system to the Honda mirror mounts, and we also asked for the auxilliary antenna. The mirror mounts worked fine, the antenna gave us some problems. There were no instructions with it, and every time we plugged it into the radio, the main fuse of the Honda burned out. We ended up not using the auxilliary antenna and found that the radio could pick up stations from a distance of about 50 mi.
Figuring out the tape player and radio required more than a little patience. You don’t just turn one switch on this. Start by turning on the power amplifier switch under the housing. Then the radio cartridge can be inserted into the tape player and locked in place by sliding another switch. Another switch must be moved to the Radio position, then you select between stereo and monaural, and finally a button can be pushed to turn on the radio. It took a while before we could turn it on without fumbling through all the switches. And when you pull the radio insert, there’s no place to store it.
When the music maker is working, though, the sound is something to behold. Just crack the volume control a millimeter and people in the next lane will be rolling up their windows. Parked in the driveway, we got complaints from the neighbors with the volume about a third the way up the scale. The sound quality is excellent, too, and we found no distortion at high volumes.
Mounting the speakers on the mirrors puts them close to a rider’s ears, so it’s not difficult to hear the radio over wind and road noise. Sound quality was equal to a medium-good car stereo, though there are no balance or tone controls.
Those mirrors have their own problem. The range of adjustment is adequate for most bikes, but the Nighthawk 550 has the mirror mounts at an odd angle on the hand controls. Even the stock mirrors can’t provide a good view behind the bike for all riders. The Yamaha mirrors have less adjustment and couldn’t be bent up far enough to see anything other than asphalt.
The radio housing was waterproof enough to protect the radio, but it also subjected the radio to extreme heat on sunny days. That could be a problem, though our test radio held up without complaint. Vibration didn't bother it, and there was no interference from the engine. When the engine wasn’t running, background noise was noticeable at low volume levels, and there are no controls for muting or sound filters.
In performance, the Yamaha Music ’N Motion is excellent. The tape player worked just as it should, and the sound was super. But so is the price. List on this is $329.95, and that’s an enormous amount of money for a motorcycle radio. Whether it's too much is up to you. S3
