Control any music app on your iPhone from the handlebar buttons of your Honda. Spotify, YouTube Music, podcasts, audiobooks… whatever is playing. No Honda RoadSync app needed.
Honda RoadSync on iPhone only controls Apple Music. ScooterLink is a free iPhone app that replaces it, so the handlebar switch plays, pauses and skips tracks in Spotify and every other app. It works with Honda motorcycles and scooters that use RoadSync: CB750 Hornet, XL750 Transalp, CB650R, CBR650R, NC750X, X-ADV, Forza, ADV350, Rebel 1100, PCX and more.
Honda's RoadSync app is the official way to link a phone to the PCX dashboard. On iPhone its music controls only work with Apple Music. If you live in Spotify, the nice handlebar switch is useless for music. (iOS doesn't give apps a public way to control other apps' playback, so Honda took the easy road.)
My previous scooter did play/pause/next for whatever was playing. This one couldn't. So I reverse-engineered how the scooter talks to the phone and wrote a tiny replacement.
| Handlebar button | Action |
|---|---|
| Select | play / pause |
| Back | play / pause |
| Next | next track |
| Previous | previous track |
| Mute (on the scooter's own screen) | bring the phone screen back |
- Connects by itself. Turn the key and iOS reconnects in the background. No need to open the app.
- Switches the dash to phone mode automatically, so the buttons are passed to the phone.
- One press = one action. Holding a button makes the dash auto-repeat; ScooterLink ignores the repeats.
- Lean. No GPS, no network, no account, no timers. It only wakes up when the scooter sends something over Bluetooth.
The PCX dashboard has a Bluetooth Low Energy unit (it shows up as HONDA BTU …). The phone
talks to it with Honda's own little protocol. I worked it out by studying how the official
Android app talks to the scooter and by logging the traffic. Full write-up:
docs/PROTOCOL.md.
- Pairing. The first time, the phone sends a fresh RSA-1024 public key. The scooter answers with a random 16-byte AES key encrypted to it. ScooterLink keeps that key in the iOS Keychain.
- Every ride. The phone proves it still has the key with one AES-encrypted message.
- Button setup. The phone registers which button functions it wants (27 tiny writes).
- Phone screen. The phone asks the dash to switch to "phone mode". In scooter mode the dash keeps most buttons for its own menus.
- Presses. Every press arrives as a single byte (
01previous,02next,03back,04select …). ScooterLink turns it into a system-wide media command, the same kind Control Center sends.
Honda limited it to one app. Now it controls any of them.
- Get
ScooterLink-x.y.ipafrom the latest release. - Install it with a sideloading tool and your own Apple ID:
- SideStore or AltStore: on the iPhone, free Apple ID. They re-sign the app every 7 days for you (AltStore needs AltServer on your computer for that).
- Sideloadly: from a Mac or PC, free Apple ID (re-install every 7 days).
- Paid Apple developer account: no 7-day limit.
- Pair it with the scooter (see First ride below).
It can't be on the App Store: the "control any app" part uses a private iOS framework (MediaRemote).
Android? Not yet. If you want it, 👍 the Android issue. Android allows this officially, so it's very doable if enough riders want it.
- In the dash's Bluetooth menu, delete RoadSync's phone pairing (the scooter keeps one phone key at a time).
- Turn the ignition on, open ScooterLink, tap the wrench → Devices → Scan, and tap
HONDA BTU …. Accept the iOS pairing prompt. - Done. From now on it connects by itself whenever you turn the key. Don't swipe the app away in the app switcher, because iOS won't relaunch an app you force-quit.
Requirements: a Honda with RoadSync. Built on a PCX125 2025.
Does Honda RoadSync work with Spotify on iPhone? No. On iPhone, RoadSync's music controls only work with Apple Music. ScooterLink makes the Honda handlebar buttons control Spotify, YouTube Music, podcasts and any other app.
Which Honda bikes does it work with?
Honda bikes and scooters that use RoadSync (the dash shows up as HONDA BTU … in Bluetooth), such as
the CB750 Hornet, XL750 Transalp, CB650R, CBR650R, NC750X, X-ADV, Forza, ADV350, Rebel 1100 and PCX.
Do I need the Honda RoadSync app? No. ScooterLink pairs with the bike by itself. Delete RoadSync's pairing on the dash first.
Is it free? Is it on the App Store? Free and open source. It can't be on the App Store, so you install it with SideStore, AltStore or Sideloadly.
Android? Not yet. 👍 the Android issue if you want it.
You need a Mac with Xcode 16+ and XcodeGen.
git clone https://github.com/gdorgian/ScooterLink.git
cd ScooterLink/App
cp Config/Signing.example.xcconfig Config/Signing.xcconfig # put your Team ID + a bundle ID in it
xcrun devicectl list devices # find your iPhone's identifier
bash install-device.sh <your-iphone-identifier>Make it yours: drop a photo of your own bike into App/Sources/Assets.xcassets as an image set
called Logo (shown on the home screen) and an AppIcon (1024×1024), then set
ASSETCATALOG_COMPILER_APPICON_NAME = AppIcon in Config/Signing.xcconfig. That folder is
git-ignored, so your photo never ends up in a commit.
- AirPods noise control can't be switched. iOS accepts the private call from an app and then ignores it. Nobody has made this work on a non-jailbroken iPhone.
- No "now playing" text. iOS hides the current track from third-party apps.
- No speed from the scooter. The PCX doesn't send it over Bluetooth.
- Volume: the PCX switch gear has no volume buttons.
While experimenting, I sent the dash custom colour slots (IDs above 18) and a custom-drawn
screen. After that the dash refused to show the phone screen at all, even across ignition
cycles. The fix was to delete the pairing on the bike, forget HONDA BTU in iOS Bluetooth
settings, and pair again.
That's why the screen-drawing and custom-colour code in this repo is switched off
(Features in App/Sources/DashScreen.swift). If you experiment, change one thing at a time,
and never write to the firmware-update (DFU) service.
App/
Sources/SABProtocol.swift UUIDs, button codes, button/colour registration
Sources/SABCrypto.swift RSA → AES key exchange, validation, CRC-16
Sources/SABClient.swift CoreBluetooth: auto-connect, handshake, phone screen, buttons
Sources/ButtonActions.swift button → system media command
Sources/HomeView.swift home screen: status, last button, button map
Sources/DashScreen.swift dash screen encoder (experimental, off)
Tests/main.swift crypto/encoder self-tests (swiftc, runs on a Mac)
docs/PROTOCOL.md the protocol, as far as it's known
Run the self-tests on a Mac:
cd App && xcrun swiftc -o /tmp/sl-test Sources/SABCrypto.swift Sources/SABProtocol.swift Sources/DashScreen.swift Tests/main.swift && /tmp/sl-testScooterLink is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Honda. "Honda", "PCX" and "RoadSync" are trademarks of their owners. This repository contains no Honda code or files: only original code and a description of the Bluetooth messages, written for interoperability. Use it at your own risk, and don't fiddle with your phone while riding.
MIT. See LICENSE.