How NOT to add subs to a Harley bagger

[Arthur79]

So this was a total FAIL.  It was also the first time I tried to add subs to a bike.  I love the show-bike audio scene, but the bike this was built for was not one of those.  The local shop asked me to take a crack at adding a pair of DD 506ds to the trunk of a Harley bagger.

 

The bike overall is a Hodge Podge of pawn-shop gear, bailing wire and duck tape.  Don't get me wrong, anything that get's you on two wheels is a winner in my book and whatever makes the rider happy (assuming it's safe) is A-O-K.

 

This trunk was a 2nd hand ebay special that was missing the latching hardware, all scuffed up and the owner was on a "budget".

 

I started off by filling all the low spots in the trunk with Bondo-hair and punching a bunch of holes to make a moc-grill on the bottom of the trunk (in an attempt to protect the cones from the elements as much as I could)  The sub mounting plate is 3/4 inch expanded PVC bolted to the trunk bottom with the mounting bolts for the subs epoxied in place

 

 

Curing some glass laid up with SunFlash to try and strengthen the trunk bottom

 

 

So I didn't have any carpet and the shop that asked me to take a crack at the build only had scraps that I had to piece together.  It didn't look as crap in person, but it still didn't look good

 

 

Subs in and some replacement latches.  I ran the speaker leads down and soldered them to a set of XT60 connectors.

 

 

 

So it didn't look horrid, but it didn't look very good either.  The worst part though, is that on the bike, the 3/4" expanded PVC mount plate broke down and failed mechanically within a month.

 

The "box" has been rebuilt with a bigger budget (FWIW, I took this job for $65 - only took it because I thought it would be fun) since then, but it will come as no surprise that it doesn't make enough bass when the bike is on to notice.