Modern Vespa

Peak Design has updated their phone mount - it now includes a charger and mirror mount (without having to buy a bunch of RAM parts). It's powered by a USB cable with a 5mm jack. I'd like to install one on my HPE Touring.

I park outside. I don't really have access to a garage, so I'd like to do this with as little disassembly as possible to still have a nice-looking result. I took a peek at some of Robot's disassembly videos, and I think I have a plan:

1. Take off the left knee cap.
2. Punch open the big access panel behind it.
3. Open the glovebox.
4. Use the access panel to find a safe place to drill a 5mm hole in the glovebox, to the left of the fuse panel.
5. Drill commensurate holes in the knee cap and the space behind it.
6. Route the cable through the holes, along the front windscreen pegs, and to the phone mount.
7. Plug in the USB cable, tuck away any access cable, and seal everything up.

Does this seem like a reasonable approach? Is there a better one that I'm missing?

So the cable will come out of the knee pad and run vertically up to windscreen mount then the mirror?

If so, would it just make more sense to install another USB outlet into the knee pad and plug the mount in when you need power.

I realize this is an extra step when you might just want to attach your phone and hit the road.

Yeah, buying a thing and installing a thing and plugging it in every time sounds like more hassle than I'm interested in.

Plus maybe having the other end of the USB cable be immersed in the bodywork might be a theft deterrent. I'm reasonably sure someone stole my last mirror because they thought my Peak mount was some fancy thing worth stealing.

Then I would drill and run it out the glovebox, out the top of the leg shield cover, up the headset and then drill a hole in a mirror cover or some other location on the headset cover.

I would not want a wire running vertical from the kneepad to the windshield bracket for fear the wire could snag tug taught on my steering.

This is assuming I understand your routing.

I think you're limited to 0.5A charge rate less any losses. Mine is wired to the kneepad mounted power outlet. Usbc outlet supposed to be enough to support qi2 rate. I may rethink things as wireless induction charging doesn't work well in Texas summer heat when the battery gets hot.

Good catch! - page 82

ignoring the lower amp of the stock usb why not running it up through the neck?

It looked like more of a project to do it that way, with not much gain.

I thought I was being super careful when I snapped the plastics back together, but the USB-C cable still seemed to get caught.

I just took everything apart again and ran a new cable. Watched this Robot video as a refresher on how to get the headset open.

- Popped the Piaggio badge off with a screwdriver
- Unscrewed and removed the horn cover
- Unscrewed the back of the headset - there's a T25 screw hidden behind the horn cover
- Removed the tiny Philips screws underneath the controls at the front of the headset
- Removed the windshield and mirrors

As Robot shows in that heated grips video, you can then rock the back of the headset open without reaching for the plastic tabs he talked about in the other videos. Those tabs were a pain last time. This felt much simpler.

I left the windshield posts in place, so I couldn't take the whole back of the headset off. I ended up rocking the headset open and draping the USB cable over the top of the windshield posts. Ran one end out the brake lever side and the other down the neck.

Peak Design's cable is only something like 1/8" in diameter at the mirror end, so I could poke it through the mirror hole with no problem. Not sure if a normal USB-C cable would clear the mirror socket to make it through the hole.

All this ended up being moot, because the Peak mount doesn't charge a Pixel 7 Pro. 😭