This page explains how products are chosen, researched, and ranked on Handlebar HQ — and what this site does not do.
What we cover
Electronics riders mount on or wire into a motorcycle: CarPlay and Android Auto displays, GPS navigators, phone mounts, dash cams and helmet cameras, intercoms and headsets, GPS trackers, USB chargers, and tire-pressure monitors. We don’t review helmets, apparel, tires, or motorcycles themselves.
What we don’t do
Handlebar HQ does not claim to install products on a motorcycle and ride with them. Reviews on this site are research-based, not hands-on. We think that’s more useful than it sounds — a single tester’s one unit on one bike tells you less than a season of reports from several hundred owners — but we state it plainly so you can weigh our verdicts accordingly.
How products are chosen
We start with what riders are actually buying and asking about — forum threads, owner groups, and search demand — and cover the products most people are choosing between, plus any credible alternative we think is being overlooked. Being an affiliate merchant does not get a product onto a list; not being one does not keep it off.
How we research
- Manufacturer documentation. Published specifications, manuals, compatibility lists, support articles and firmware changelogs. When a maker doesn’t publish a figure — brightness is the usual one — we say “not published” rather than guess.
- Independent tests. Reviews from outlets that get units onto bikes (Bike EXIF, Ultimate Motorcycling, ADVrider, Bennetts BikeSocial, MCN and others), cited in the article where used.
- Owner reports. Hundreds of reports per product category from ADVrider, brand-specific forums, Reddit, retailer reviews and Trustpilot, weighted towards riders who’ve had a unit for months. We look for patterns — the same complaint from many owners — not single anecdotes.
- Price checks. Prices are checked at the time of writing and dated in the article. They change; check the retailer before relying on a figure.
How rankings work
Roundups (“Best X”) rank products on the weight of evidence about real-world performance first, then value, then warranty and support. Affiliate commission is not a factor. Products can and do rank below others that pay us more, and every review has a “who shouldn’t buy this” section.
Updates and corrections
Articles are updated when firmware changes behaviour, when a model is replaced, or when owner consensus shifts. The “last updated” date is shown on each article. If we’ve got something wrong, tell us; factual corrections are made promptly and noted at the bottom of the article.