Hi.

I wanted your opinions on the ability of an iPod being able to survive Harley vibration. I had a Road King and added a Dragon Fly fairing to it. The radio (Kenwood) had zero ability to play a CD. No prob, I plugged my iPod in to it. Why not, there were 3000 songs instead of 12-15 that a CD would give me.

Very quickly I found that the iPod just couldn't handle the vibration. It kept on locking up. In this particular case, the Kenwood had the ability to take a thumb drive. I loaded a couple of hundred songs and it was all good.

Things changed. I sold the Road King and bought a Road Glide, (...and I love it.) Very quickly got tired of messing with CDs and thought I'd go back and try plugging in the iPod. Went up to Laconia and half way through the day, the iPod locked up. Bummer.

So heres the question. Who or how many have experience with iPods on your bikes? I only have one iPod view of this and before I buy another, hoping for a more robust device, I wanted to ask here.

Not to mention the Harley iPod interface cost a boat load of money. I don't mind spending it so I can keep a iPod powered and also be able to see the playlists/music on the HK stereo. Of course, if everyone says that everytime you use an iPod on your bike, it always locks up, I'll trash the whole idea.

So, what says you...?

 

I have an '11 Road Glide Ultra and have used a shuffle, a nano, and an iphone w/ no problems ever.. I don't even have a mount for them.. normally just stick them in the glove box with the aux cable connected ..

As a note, my shuffle and my nano are both about 4 - 5 yrs old.. not sure why you are having the lock up issues w/ yours.. they seem to be pretty good w/ the vibration..

Wayne

 

Thanks for the input Wayne. I think I'll grab a Nano and give it a shot using the aux cable. If it works well, I may invest in the Haley interface so I can use the stereo controls on the bike.

RickO

 

One issue COULD be that the iPod Classic is hard drive based (albeit a 1.8" drive), where the nano/shuffle/touch models are all FLASH memory based- so no moving parts whatsoever on those models. That might be one reason you're getting lockups and issues with the iPod- the hard drive having issues dealing with vibration/jarring.

 

I have a 2nd gen ipod, and I used to secure it to the handlebars and plug into the aux port and never had a prob. I have since replaced with a sony deck that stores the ipod inside the radio and uses hand controls