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Apple CarPlay and Android Auto have quickly become must-have features in modern cars, providing an interface from your smartphone while you drive. The technology is also becoming available on bikes, but the rollout has been slow and buggy.
Carpuride is a company that provides alternatives, standalone devices that provide the latest technology features for bikes that don’t come with them as standard, and the company has installed one of its 7-inch units on the Australian Road Rider for testing (there are also 5-inch units if you want something smaller).
I wasn’t expecting much, as third-party CarPlay units for cars are extremely expensive and I didn’t really think Carpuride (a company I’d never heard of) would be able to produce something that would do the job and be designed for bike riding on the cheap, but that’s exactly what they’ve done. You order the units directly from Carpuride and this one retails for $279.99 (about AU$415).
I had the unit mounted and working on my FJR1300 in minutes, even though I already had a RAM ball mount setup… without it I wouldn’t have been able to mount the Carpuride at all, as the supplied handlebar mount simply wouldn’t have worked with the shape of the bars on the FJR.
The device is powered via the bike – there are no batteries – so you either need to run the supplied cable to the battery (or in my case to a Healtech Thunderbox relay) or use the USB power cable (also included).
Then you need to pair your phone via Bluetooth to the device and that’s it. As an iPhone user, the device now boots up when I start the bike and goes straight to CarPlay.
Other features include an mSD card slot, which can play music and display photos and videos. I was hoping to use this to view my GoPro and drone footage that I film while I’m on the road and touring, but the CarpuRide W702 wouldn’t display these photos and videos due to the format they’re in.
The W702 is waterproof and fairly well built. It’s not the same quality level as an iPhone or a Garmin GPS, but it’s also a lot cheaper than those devices. And I think it’s built to a standard that should last for many years. You can also use any glove with the W702. You don’t need touchscreen units, which makes a huge difference in being able to choose the gloves you want. Additional charging cables are available at a low cost, making the W702 easy to transfer from bike to bike if you have more than one.
Check out the different Carpuride devices at carpuride.com and watch my video below.