Photo: BMW Motorrad
Because of the way they are made, motorcycles come with a series of challenges when it comes to integrating certain features car drivers take for granted. Given enough time and ideas though, most of those challenges are eventually overcome.
Since we modern humans can’t do anything unless assisted by our smartphones, the motorcycle industry had to devise ways and tools for these gadgets to become integrated into the bikes. Most of the time, these solutions come as aftermarket gizmos, but from time to time bike makers themselves do get involved.
The latest to do so is BMW Motorrad, which this week unveiled a sort of fancy smartphone holder for its bikes. Aptly called ConnectedRide Cradle, the system transforms the smartphone into an additional central display for the two-wheelers.
The cradle can be attached to the bike by means of adjustable side clamps, and can hold “many different smartphone sizes.” It comes with a maximum of 7.5 W inductive charging, and that’s a nice feature to have around, but also wired charging of the same capacity via a USB-C connection.
According to the Germans, the cradle is suitable for new rides, but also for older BMW motorcycles, all the way back to the R 1200 GS K50, and bikes fitted with hardware meant to support navigations systems. The R 1200 RT, R 1250 RT, K 1600 models are not suitable for the cradle.
BMW says that aside from providing the perfect platform to use the phone as a navigation screen, the Connected App and Multi-Controller will also turn the phone into a tool to show things like lean angle, acceleration, and deceleration.
As for the phones that can be deployed on bikes using the cradle, we’re talking everything newer than the iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy A3, Huawei P20, Pixel 2, or HTC U11.
You can find the full list of phones in the press release section below. At the time of writing, there is no info on price or availability.
The latest to do so is BMW Motorrad, which this week unveiled a sort of fancy smartphone holder for its bikes. Aptly called ConnectedRide Cradle, the system transforms the smartphone into an additional central display for the two-wheelers.
The cradle can be attached to the bike by means of adjustable side clamps, and can hold “many different smartphone sizes.” It comes with a maximum of 7.5 W inductive charging, and that’s a nice feature to have around, but also wired charging of the same capacity via a USB-C connection.
According to the Germans, the cradle is suitable for new rides, but also for older BMW motorcycles, all the way back to the R 1200 GS K50, and bikes fitted with hardware meant to support navigations systems. The R 1200 RT, R 1250 RT, K 1600 models are not suitable for the cradle.
BMW says that aside from providing the perfect platform to use the phone as a navigation screen, the Connected App and Multi-Controller will also turn the phone into a tool to show things like lean angle, acceleration, and deceleration.
As for the phones that can be deployed on bikes using the cradle, we’re talking everything newer than the iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy A3, Huawei P20, Pixel 2, or HTC U11.
You can find the full list of phones in the press release section below. At the time of writing, there is no info on price or availability.
Google News