I have an 05 FLHRI Road King and have been looking at music options. I am going to bike week in daytona and plan on seeing what is available. I know Harley has a system that will mount on the handlebars, but I am not sure how good it is. I have also seen speakers you can mount on the handlebars that are chrome from 3rd party vendors.

I want to be able to play an MP3 through speakers. What are my options? What are the best speakers to use? What about an MP3 with earphones and not do the speakers?

 

I'd take a look at the 2 wheel tunes setup. http://2wheeltunes.com/ I was going to buy one of these systems before I traded off my sporty. It's small and unobtrusive yet is supposed to put out excellent sound and works with mp3 and satellite radio.

 

I bought the Rumble Road system last year before Sturgis and am satisfied with them. I am running an MP3 thru them with a headphone booster and for all intents and purposes they work well. I dont ride with it on at all times but on them long stretches of road some good tunes make a good ride better. This is not going to be your home stereo quality, but the stereo seperation is good, i can hear most songs up to 65 - 70 mph. Above that the wind noise makes it difficult. But i found that with earplugs in it cuts the wind noise and we are hearing the music once again.

MIke
03 white pearl ek
103 ci
chrome doo dads
S &S 570 gear diriven cams

 

I took a sony arm band stereo and attached a cord where the ear phone plug goes and put it wih a set of sony mp3 speakers and attached both together.Both are battery operated and together cost less than 90.00 .It can be located anywhere you want to put it .I have mine on the lower windshield.When you want to use ear phones,just plug them in the radio.Sounds pretty good except at very high speeds .all together it is about 8 ' long and 2 'high .It also fits in a windshield bag ...Panasonic also makes speakers but a little larger box(circuit city has both).

 

I had researched speakers for a long time and ended up splurging on the 2wheeltunes system for my Heritage. I'll admit, the speakers looked fantastic...hardly noticeable, infact...because they are only 2 inches in diameter and they use the Deuce turn signals as housings. I got tons of compliments on how awesome they looked. However, I did not find them to be loud enough and also had some "noise" issues (I was using them with an iPod)and ended up removing them and sold the system to a friend. Another problem that I had with the system, is the amplifier. It uses the same mounting bracket that my engine guard does, thus it hung down several inches below the guard. One day I hit a really bad pothole and discovered that the amp put a nice dent in the back of my front fender. That sealed the deal for me and the system came off the next day.

My results with the 2wheeltunes system doesn't seem to be "typical", though...as I've read numerous positive testamonials about it. Maybe I just had a bum pair of speakers...who knows. I'm not saying that it's not worth trying...just offering up my personal experience with it. The owner of the company is a good guy and very helpful. It just wasn't the right system for me.

A good option would be to just get a decent mp3 player, preferably one that utilizes flash memory such as the iPod Nano and get yourself a pair of custom earplugs w/speakers. It would be like killing two birds with one stone...not only would you have your tunes to listen to, but you would be blocking out the windnoise on top of it. Custom plugs aren't cheap...they'll run you about $190-200, but not only will you be able to block damaging wind noise, you'll also be able to keep the volume down on your mp3 player cuz you won't be fighting to hear it over the wind noise...which will further save your hearing in the long run.

 

When I had my RKC I used to use an Ipod with only one earpiece in for safety. Put in my shirt pocket and ran the wires under my jacket. Kept the bike clutter fee and no worries about vandalism, weather,etc.

 

If you have seen any of my other posts, you already know I have to have tunes on the road. Good quality tunes at that. The radio was one of big reason I bought an EG. The fact that it sucked is the reason I spent about $700.00 on an amp and speakers for it too. Now I can haul *** down the road, and hear every note that's played. I've tried several different things on my RK. Best combo I come up with, was a good MP3 player, and a set of ear buds. Key to the whole thing working is the ear buds. Don't waste your money on cheap ones. You get what you pay for. I play in a band, and use the SHURE E5's on stage. They run about 379.00 a set. (Remember you get what you pay for!) Westone has been in the hearing aid business for ages. They actually make all of SHURE's products. They sell thier own stuff now. You can pick up a pair of Westone UM2's (equal to the SHURE E5's) for about 299.00 on Ebay all day long. They are what I use when I'm on my RK. The sound is truly incredible. With a good MP3 player, and a good set of UM2's, you'd swear you were setting at home listening to a 2 grand stereo system at 80mph on the road. You really just have to hear them to believe them. The whole speaker thing sounds ok when you are standing in front of a display at bike week. Truth comes out once you hit the road. Just my .02, but I've spent a whole lot more than that coming to my conclusion.

 

Heres a link to some pics of my set up. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/edsaws...saws/my_photos
Its a Ron's Road King Radio http://www.granpas.com/pics.htm scroll to the bottom of the page. Anyway it sounds good has a cd player detachable radio face and a cover. Works for me although I'm not sure about the mp3.

 

I don't know if you use a windshield or not on your RK, but if you do, you may want to consider a quick-detach fairing. These mount on your detachable windshield mounts and in seconds you go from a RK to an EG. I know the radios are pretty expensive, and this isn't that much more. With a top line radio I think they are around $1400.00 unpainted. Dragonfly is one mfg., I know there are others. Here's a link, I have been thinking about getting one myself.

http://www.dragonflycycleconcepts.com/

 

I have had speakers on a bike and also used earphones/headphones. I find there is no comparison, in the ear is much better. I use a set of noise cancelling head phones, but these are only good with a half helmet. With road noise, wind noise and engine noise I can't enjoy speakers at all. I would suggest picking up a set of earbuds or headphones and trying out this method before spending a bunch of money on speakers and a bike mounted system