Over the years, we have expanded the scope of vehicles we work on. One of the trends we see more and more of is three-wheeled vehicles. That is the case with this Can-Am Spyder. The owner stopped by with it to see if we had some options for upgrading the Can-Am speaker and amplifier system. It had a factory radio and speakers, but it did not play loudly enough to overpower the wind noise while riding. After a look at the bike, we were able to put together a plan that she was happy with, and we booked the job.
So Many Parts
Sometimes we get lucky with powersports vehicles, and the speaker upgrades are as simple as snapping off the grilles and swapping the speakers. With this Can-Am, we were not so lucky. Access to the front and rear speakers required the disassembly of practically all cladding plastic. There were a LOT of pieces (see the photo of the pieces on the tables!) We worked to carefully remove the pieces one layer at a time until we had gotten enough removed that we could finally access the speakers.
JL Audio Can-Am Speaker Upgrade
One of our go-to speakers for motorcycles is the JL Audio C2 line of speakers. The C2 speakers offer excellent power handling, crystal clear sound, and construction materials that do well in the elements. They were what we chose to use on this bike, in the form of a 5 1/4″ component set for the front and a 4″ coaxial set for the rear.
The factory speakers were all sized a little differently than traditional car audio speakers are sized, so we had to make adapters for them. For the front, we made adapters to fit the 5 1/4″ woofers in the factory location. The front tweeters were installed on 1/8″ thick acrylic adapters that we cut on our laser cutter. The 4″ speakers in the rear also needed adapters, those we cut from 1/4″ acrylic, again calling on our laser to do the cutting.
Once we had all of the adapters cut, we could finally wire up the speakers and install them.
Motorsports Amplifier Installation
Here at Pinnacle Autosound, we use a lot of JL Audio’s MX280/4 amplifiers. These amps have a small footprint, are very efficient, have a good amount of power, and are JL Audio’s most waterproof amps. So, when we needed an amp for this bike, the amp to use was easy to pick. Before we worked on the amplifier installation, we used our JL Audio MAX measurement device to analyze the factory signal. We found that the response was acceptable for our use and proceeded with the amplifier installation. An amplifier mounting location we have used in the Can-Ams is the floor of the front storage compartment. This was where we would again mount the amplifier. For this bike, we made a bottom mounting plate and then also added an acrylic top plate to protect the amplifier. We laser-cut slots in the acrylic plate to ensure the amplifier had good circulation.
Assembly, Cleanup, and Delivery
With all of the gear mounted, it was time to put all of the Can-Am Spyder pieces back together. Having all the pieces neatly organized made assembly reasonably easy.
Now that we had the bike back together, it was time to turn it on and set the controls on the amplifier. When everything sounded as good as possible, we cleaned up the bike and had it ready for delivery to the client.
The client was happy with how loud the bike played. She knew she would have no problem hearing the stereo while she was out riding.
Do you have a Can-Am Spyder or similar powersports vehicle and need an audio upgrade? Stop by with it or contact us here for more information.
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