Aggressor Pro 880 Installation Guide

THIS INSTALLATION ARTICLE COVERS THE AGGRESSOR PRO 880 TWIN WOOFER KIT

Your Aggressor Pro 880 kit will come with several parts. The Aggressor kit is sold as a two woofer kit for a single bag. Most users will purchase a twin (left & right) kit for a total of 4 woofers. For the sake of simplicity, this guide will describe the installation of just one kit for one bag.

STEP 1

REMOVE THE BAG FROM THE BIKE AND REMOVE LID AND ALL HARDWARE.

Tape up the bag with a quality delicate surface specialty tape (3M Edgelock works best) to protect the painted surfaces of your bags.

POSITIONING THE MOUNT IN THE BAG

Lay the bag down on a flat surface with the hinge side facing up.Tip:Tape the inside of the bag with a bright colored masking tape. 3M makes a nice yellow tape that can be found at any auto body paint store.

STEP 2

VERTICAL ALIGNMENT

When determining the vertical alignment of the woofer mount in the bag it is critical that you take into account clearance for the woofer at the bottom of the bag, as well as the mount. To do this, temporarily bolt the woofer to the mount and place the entire assembly in the bag. Note how far down the assembly will go in the bag before either the woofer frame touches the half round extrusion at the bottom of the bag (see pic below) or the woofer mount touches the bottom of the bag. It is a good idea to allow a couple off millimeters of space between the woofer frame and the bag and the woofer mount and the bottom of the bag. Also note that the bottom corner of the bag has a radius between the vertical wall and the bag bottom. You do not want the woofer mount bottom to be on this radius as it will not allow the mount to sit flat. This is a not as big of an issue for plastic bags but some aftermarket fiberglass bags have a large amount of fiberglass material in the corners that well exceeds the material thickness in the rest of the bag.

NOTE FOR DIAMOND AUDIO HXM SPEAKERS

Diamond Audio HXM speakers require that you use a spacer in front of the speaker so that it sits flat on the mount. The black speaker plastic ring that comes with the speaker is perfect for this. Make sure that you take this into account when determining the vertical location of the woofer mount. Put this spacer ring on the speaker before bolting the speaker to the mount. Additionally you will need to gasket between the speaker and the ring as well as between the spacer and the woofer mount so that it is airtight. Gasket material is included in your kit. The gasket material will make the speaker/mount assembly thicker. So be sure to gasket the speaker before you put the assembly in the bag to mark its position.

NOTE FOR INSTALLATION OF RAZOR WOOFERS

Match brand Razor woofers require aluminum spacers (included) between the woofer mounting tabs and the woofer mounts. Installation and future service is a made much simpler if you add a very small piece of masking tape to the threads near the head of the screw. This will make the screw a snug fit inside the aluminum spacer which will keep the spacer from falling off of the screw during installation.

HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT

When determining horizontal (front to back) placement of the woofer mount you want the half round notch at the top rear of the woofer mount to be centered on the rear bag fastener hole as pictured below. Or close to it. The front to rear alignment for the ‘13 and down bags is slightly different than the ‘14 and up bags.

Align the woofer mount from side to side in the bag so that the forward grill opening is centered on the rear shock extrusion inside the bag. Be sure that the mount is square to the bag and not rotated. If the mount is rotated so that the front speaker position is higher or lower in the bag, the forward grill opening may not line up correctly with the shock extrusion in the bag.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Once you have the woofer mount aligned from top to bottom and from side to side, mark its position with a Sharpie so that you can put it back into position if it gets bumped.

At this point it is a good idea to place the woofers onto the mount and test fit your lids (with speakers in the lids if you have them). Make sure that you don't have any clearance issues with any of your other equipment including lid hardware. Do this before you commit to drilling holes into your bags. Once you cut the grill holes, there is no going back. Measure twice and cut once.  Be aware that the rubber blocks on the underside of the bag have nipples that protrude into the inside of the bag. Sometimes these can get in the way. You can trim them down a bit if they are hitting the woofer frames and keeping you from locating the woofer mount as low in the bag as you would like.

Now that you have the woofer mount positioned correctly you can mark all 8 through bolt holes (​not the speaker mounting holes​) with a 1/8" drill bit by hand. This will leave a visible mark in the tape. Read more about that below.

There are 8 mounting screws used to fasten the woofer mount to the bag. See pic below. The holes marked in red are the four front mounting screws (.75”) and the holes marked in blue are the four rear mounting screws (1.5”). Mark these holes as shown with a ⅛” drill bit by hand and then drill through and drill these holes through the bag.

Tip:​ A real easy way to avoid accidentally mistaking the speaker mounting holes for the through holes that need to be drilled into the bag is to temporarily plug the speaker mounting holes with the speaker screws while marking the through holes in the bag.

Be sure not to drill through the speaker holes. These holes are only to fasten the speakers to the mount. See pic below. The speaker holes are marked in orange. Kits for Razor woofers will have a slightly different speaker bolt pattern.

Be sure to keep your drill bit at a 90 degree angle.

The mount pictured below may be different than your kit.

Once all 8 of the mounting holes have been marked, remove the woofer mount and drill the holes out with an angle adapter and a 3/16" hex shaft drill bit. You can find quality angle adapters at your local hardware store for about $20

BOLT IN THE ROUTER TEMPLATE

Bolt the MDF template to the outside of the bag with the diamond shaped grill opening to the rear. The countersunk holes for the template hardware and the letter indicating the left or right bag should be facing away from the bag.

Use the four holes around the rear grill opening to bolt the template on the bag using the included 2” zinc plated #8-32 machine screws and the nylock nuts on the inside of the bag. The template is secured to the bag using the four rear screws only.

CUTTING THE GRILL HOLES

Drill a 1/2" hole near the corner of each grill hole for your jigsaw Blade. Cut out the grill holes with a jigsaw leaving 1/8" - 1/4" of material all of the way around.

Once both holes are cut out both holes need to be trimmed with a router. Use the included router bit with a ½” plunge router. A router table with the router mounted underneath is the easiest way to do this job. The router bearing will ride along the MDF template leaving a laser sharp grill opening in the bag.

CAUTION!     Always wear eye protection and use common sense safety practices when using any power tool. Also double check that the set screw for the bearing collar on the router bit is secure before you begin.

FINISHING IT UP

Now that the holes have been cut, use the supplied double sided grill tape to bond the grills into the bag from the inside. The grill tape is only used to temporarily hold the grills in place but don't underestimate the strength of this tape. Make sure that you get the grill positioned correctly the first time. It might not be so easy to get it back off if you get it wrong.

Picture below shows installation of the rear speaker grill.

Use the supplied 1/4" double sided gasket tape to bond the grills into place inside the bag. Then use the supplied ¼” wide speaker gasket to lay down a seal around the grill openings in the woofer mount and also to cushion between the woofer mount and any hard surface of the bag that will come into contact once installed.

Put the woofer mount into place and evenly tighten all 8 mounting screws. Make sure to use the correct length screws in the forward position or damage to your speaker may occur.

INSTALLATION/SERVICE TIP FOR ALL VERSIONS OF THIS WOOFER MOUNTING KIT

The woofers can be removed and reinstalled in the bags while the bag is still on the bike and without removing the woofer mount from the bag. However it is much simpler to remove the bag from the bike and unfasten the entire mount and woofers as an assembly, and then remove the woofers from the mount. With the woofer mounting kit removed from the bag, removing and reinstalling the woofers is effortless.

DIAMOND HXM8 SPEAKERS

If your kit came with diamond speakers, be sure to use the black spacer rings that came with your new speakers. Gasket both between the speaker and the spacer, as well as between the spacer and the speaker mount kit.

HXM8 THIN SPACERS

Thinner spacers made specially for the Diamond Audio HXM8 speakers are now available. These new spacers allow the speaker to sit a 1/2" closer to the woofer mount. This allows clearance at the bottom of the bag so that the possibility of the speaker frame coming into contact with the channel at the bottom of the bag is no longer a concern. This also makes it easier to get a half helmet inside the bag with the lid closed.

RGB LED WIRES

HXM8 speakers come with RGB LED lights built into the speaker. As cool as these are, they do not work with the Aggressor Pro 80 or 880 woofer mounting system. You simply can not see them through the grill. You may choose to snip off the LED wires so that your installation is cleaner. If you do, be sure not to cut the RED, Green, Blue, Black wires that run from the speaker magnet to the speaker input terminals. This wire loop is required for the speaker to operate. Cutting this wire loop will void the manufacturer's warranty and render the speaker inoperable.

Cut Here:

Do Not Cut In These Two Spots:

HORN TWEETERS

If your kit came with bullet tweeters, they can be mounted either in the side of the bag pointing into the wheel along with the woofers, or they can be mounted in a number of other places on the bike such as the gauge holes in the fairing.

THAT'S IT!

If you have any questions or comments about this installation guide, please contact us. 

Feel free to contact us with any questions that you might have.

4051 Alvis Ct. Unit #4

Rocklin, CA 95677

Call: 1(888) 311-0016

Email: customerservice@americanhardbag.com

Notice:​ This guide was written specifically for Razor subwoofers but does apply to any 8” or 10” bag woofer installation.

HOW TO PROPERLY SET UP RAZOR SUBWOOFER SYSTEMS

Please take the time to read and fully understand this article if you want to get the most out of your Razor subwoofer system.

IT’S NOT A CAR

American Hard Bag subwoofers systems are designed specifically for Harley Davidson saddlebags and they are not designed to be setup the same way a subwoofer would be setup in a car or a boat or in a home. There are very important differences. The subwoofers are a completely different design so what you might already know about subwoofer systems will not likely apply here.

DSR1 OR OTHER EQUIVALENT SOUND PROCESSOR

It is highly recommended that you use a digital sound processor in any sound system that is large enough of a scale to include subwoofers. Subwoofers on bikes in particular can benefit greatly from the added tuning flexibility that a good DSP adds to a system. You can find lots of information about how to best setup and use a DSR1 at https://www.americanhardbag.com/pages/installation-guides

THE BASICS:

• Crossover Settings

• Radio Settings

• Amplifier Power and Gain Settings

• What to Know About Lid Speakers When Using Subwoofers

• Relative Speaker Phase

You need to have the above conditions optimized if you want to get great results. A subwoofer on a bike is not as simple of a setup as it is in a car. If it is not setup correctly you will not get impressive bass.

CROSSOVER SETTINGS:

Razor subwoofers must be ​high passed ​(not low passed) at 40hz. This can be done using the crossover built into your amplifier but we recommend using a quality external crossover instead whenever possible (like the one built into the Rockford Fosgate DSR1). It is a very common mistake to low pass the subwoofers like you would with a car. ​DO NOT LOW PASS THE SUBWOOFERS.

Below is an example of the typical crossover settings that you will find on an amplifier. In step one set the crossover selector switch to HP (High Pass). In step two set the frequency dial to 40hz.

This will cut all music below 40hz. That is a critical step in getting high volume bass out of your bike. Below 40hz there is no bass that you will be able to hear on a bike. Not high passing the subwoofers at 40hz will result in the subs beating themselves to death and a much reduced output. This can also easily lead to overheating the subwoofer which voids its warranty.

Below is a screenshot of how these same settings should be made when using a DSR1 processor instead of the crossovers built into your amplifier. The crossover settings in the DSR1 are much more accurate and effective than the crossovers that you will find on any amplifier. Do not use both the amplifier and DSR1 crossovers!

THERE ARE THREE SETTINGS TO MAKE HERE:

1. Set for high pass2. Set the slope to 24db. Always use 24db per octave crossovers for all speakers ona bike system.3. Frequency (40hz)

WHY WE DON’T LOW PASS THE SUBWOOFERS:

The Razor subwoofers have an unusually smooth frequency response between 40 and 2khz. Subwoofers in other applications (car, boat, home) have a high voice coil inductance that makes the frequency response from 100hz and up sound very bad. So in those applications a low pass crossover is used to block out those frequencies. There is a distinct advantage to not low passing the Razor subwoofers. Allowing the subwoofer to play well into the midbass and lower midrange frequencies adds a lot of energy to that range of sound. Additionally the midbass energy (punch) is greatly increased when you have a single (or group of identical) speakers producing a wide frequency range without crossovers in that range. This has to do with the phase shift that all crossovers introduce into the audio signal.

Any frequency response corrections that we want to address for the subwoofers above 100hz should be done with the EQ.

WHY WE HIGH PASS THE SUBWOOFERS:

By eliminating the lowest frequencies that we can’t hear more energy can be focused on the region that we can hear. This amounts up to louder bass.

RADIO SETTINGS:

Factory Harley Radios (‘14 & Up)Factory Harley radios need to be flashed using the Rockford Fosgate flash or a DSR1 with an American Hard bag tune must be used. Alternate flashes that are done with the factory Harley flashing system are not ideal for subwoofer systems.

Bass tone controls must be set to zero (middle) and the speed controlled volume feature has to be turned off. Bass boost from the factory radio should never be used.

Aftermarket Radios

Tone controls, loudness, and other “sound enhancement” features should not be used at the radio to boost bass. If using the subwoofer output of the radio, make sure that the output is ​not low passed​.

AMPLIFIER SETTINGS:

Amplifier Power

It is a myth that more power gets you more output. A certain amount of power is required to get the speaker moving at maximum mechanical potential. ​That ideal amount is 100 - 150 watts depending on the music selection and recording quality. After that point driving the subwoofers with more power (Power = capable amplifier + volume level) is only creating heat in the voice coil and mechanical stress on the moving parts of the speaker. This does not result in more output or bass.

Amplifier Gains

The gain control on the subwoofer amplifier should always be set last after the gain settings for all other speakers have been set and the bike is screaming loud. Then and only then turn the gain setting for the subwoofers so that the level of the subwoofers matches and compliments the rest of the system at high volumes. Starting with the subwoofer gain and then raising the rest of the system is not going to get you good results.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT LID SPEAKERS WHEN USING SUBWOOFERS:

The Razor subwoofers work really well with lid speakers as long as the lid speakers have the mechanical power to push back on the air pressure generated by the subwoofers. The cone material of the lid speakers needs to be sufficiently rigid and the surround of the speaker needs to be somewhat stiff. A loose bouncy speaker with a soft cone is a bad combination with any subwoofer.

Air Space

The exact airspace inside the saddlebag and the effect that a lid speaker has on the available air space inside the bag when used along with Razor woofers is not critical to the performance of the Razor subwoofers. This is because the Razor subwoofers use a high Q design (resonant magnitude) that allows the subwoofer to operate just the same in a very wide range of enclosure volumes with minimal to zero effect on the subwoofer performance.

RELATIVE SPEAKER PHASE ​(ESPECIALLY LID SPEAKERS):

The following does not refer to how a speaker is wired. The speaker wiring must also be phase correct but the following refers to how in multi speaker systems the signal phase between channels is often out of alignment.

The most misunderstood aspect to setting up a subwoofer system on a bike​, especially with lid speakers is the subwoofers phase relative to the lid speakers (and other speakers on the bike). Phase refers to the direction of cone movement of one speaker in relation to the direction of cone movement of other speakers in a system. Speakers make sound by moving back and forth and pushing air. If you have a two speaker system and one speaker is pushing air in the opposite direction as the second speaker, the two speakers will at least in part cancel each other out. This is a much bigger potential problem when dealing with subwoofers than when dealing with smaller size (high frequency) speakers. So lid speakers that are out of phase with subwoofers can kill the bass.

What Causes Speaker Phase Issues?

The phase of a speaker is dictated by the phase of the signal. The signal path of a typical system starts at the radio then goes to the processor (DSR1) and then goes on to the amplifier and speakers. Whenever a crossover or an equalizer is used that signal channel ends up with a delay on it (milliseconds). That delay of the signal results in a phase shift relative to the other channels of the system.

Example:

​12db crossovers like those found on most amplifiers are notorious for inverting a signal (180 degrees). That is the equivalent of wiring your subwoofer backwards! So once you engage that crossover your subwoofer might very well be out of phase with the rest of the system.

If your radios subwoofer output has a crossover that can’t be turned off you have another potential inversion of phase. If you use any equalization the signal gets shifted again. On each channel. So at the end of everything, phase of various speakers in a big system can be all over the map.

In the real world we don’t know what the final phase result of a multi channel system is until we listen to the system and manually switch phase back and forth on various channels to see what the results are.

How Do We Do That?!

If you have a DSR1 processor it’s easy. The DSR1 has a feature that allows you to flip (invert) or incrementally adjust the phase of any system channel with a simple tap on your smartphone. This is a bit lengthy to explain but in practice ​a baby can do it​. This is because the result is instant and the effect on the sound is usually profound. You don’t even have to really understand what is going on. Just try different combinations until you get the best bass.

I highly recommend reading our article on our website “DSR1 Practical Phase and Time Alignment Tricks”. You can find it here: https://www.americanhardbag.com/pages/dsr1-practical-phase-and-time-alignment

This is just another one of the many advantages of having a DSR1 sound processor in your sound system. You definitely can build a killer system without a DSR1 but If you don’t have one you are missing out.

WARNING: Drilling, sawing, sanding or machining wood products can expose you to wood dust, a substance known to the State of California to cause cancer. Avoid inhaling wood dust or use a dust mask or other safeguards for personal protection. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/wood.