Infotainment system headache
State of the art? It's the best built-in motorcycle system on the market. No other manufacturer has anything even close.
Still, it's a gen 1 system. Not unlike the first in-dash car nav systems when they first became available. They were slow, difficult to use, etc. Auto nav systems are now much better, but many of them are now gen 3 or later. It's unfair to compare stand-alone or auto in-dash systems to HD's built-in system. Name another motorcycle manufacturer that has a built-in (not add-on) system with as many features.
Only Bull$hit is your blanket warranty it statements when the problem's laziness to learn how to operate the system.
No issues with mine either.
There is a reason these bikes have a separate owners manual just covering the Boom Audio System.
It is complicated, and not something that you just turn on and figure out as you go.
Quite a few of the issues people are having, also happen in most car audio/nav systems.
Most of the issues people are having can be resolved with some more practice.
I'll admit that some are having real issues, so I am not making a blanket statement that everything is perfect about this system.
It is new, and there will be a few bugs to iron out.
But there are far more people out there using this system without any issues, than there are having trouble.
State of the art? It's the best built-in motorcycle system on the market. No other manufacturer has anything even close.
Still, it's a gen 1 system. Not unlike the first in-dash car nav systems when they first became available. They were slow, difficult to use, etc. Auto nav systems are now much better, but many of them are now gen 3 or later. It's unfair to compare stand-alone or auto in-dash systems to HD's built-in system. Name another motorcycle manufacturer that has a built-in (not add-on) system with as many features.
Only Bull$hit is your blanket warranty it statements when the problem's laziness to learn how to operate the system.
It could be that there is a problem with this unit. Other then the issue at hand and the AVC problem everyone else is having I like the system. I am glad yours is working for you.
It could be that there is a problem with this unit. Other then the issue at hand and the AVC problem everyone else is having I like the system. I am glad yours is working for you.
Thanks again
Last edited by IUOE ROB; May 1, 2015 at 05:51 AM.
When I first got it, it would come on with the weather band about 95% of the time.
After studying the manual some and playing with different settings (one was turning off weather alerts), it has never defaulted to weather band again.
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
State of the art? It's the best built-in motorcycle system on the market. No other manufacturer has anything even close.
Still, it's a gen 1 system. Not unlike the first in-dash car nav systems when they first became available. They were slow, difficult to use, etc. Auto nav systems are now much better, but many of them are now gen 3 or later. It's unfair to compare stand-alone or auto in-dash systems to HD's built-in system. Name another motorcycle manufacturer that has a built-in (not add-on) system with as many features.
Only Bull$hit is your blanket warranty it statements when the problem's laziness to learn how to operate the system.
I simply use the current state of the art and say why? Why give me less than what is available as off the shelf components? Why go cheap on the software and make me the beta tester?
As for the "learn the system" comment. I was a software engineer, now turned computer science professor. I have designed and built software for a living. I program for fun, and I know how to read the manual. The initial manual sucked major A$$. the '15 manual is marginally better. And even pouring over the system it is still a kludge.
I lived on my bike for 5 months straight, traveled in excess of 17,000 miles from coast to coast and back. I dove into every menu, sub menu and more, and when having issues more often than not I ended up teaching the dealer mechanics how to work the freaking thing. I have watched the software updates fix horribly broken things, and break things that worked fine (aka the XM weather maps).
My system had all kinds of issues, and "read the manual" doesn't explain the system locking up while riding, the GPS freezing, volume control locking up etc etc. So no, I do not blame the user. I blame crappy software design, cheap *** hardware (really a sub second buffer for XM? WTF?)
These systems were not ready to be released. They are fundamentally flawed and needed years more design and testing. And the dealers needed way more training to even begin to understand them.
Those folks who have no problem I envy your perfect knowledge and perfect system. Mine however is not. And worse yet, every radio complaint at every dealer is NEVER entered into Harleys system. It gets a generic "issues" comment. So no wonder Harley has no clue - they can't even go through their own system and find the issues.
So please, climb down from your horse. Understand there are several varients of the Infotainment system out there, as well as other software systems on our bikes. Your's may just be a varient that is stable, but I know too many other people that have issues that are still unresolved.
I simply use the current state of the art and say why? Why give me less than what is available as off the shelf components? Why go cheap on the software and make me the beta tester?
As for the "learn the system" comment. I was a software engineer, now turned computer science professor. I have designed and built software for a living. I program for fun, and I know how to read the manual. The initial manual sucked major A$$. the '15 manual is marginally better. And even pouring over the system it is still a kludge.
I lived on my bike for 5 months straight, traveled in excess of 17,000 miles from coast to coast and back. I dove into every menu, sub menu and more, and when having issues more often than not I ended up teaching the dealer mechanics how to work the freaking thing. I have watched the software updates fix horribly broken things, and break things that worked fine (aka the XM weather maps).
My system had all kinds of issues, and "read the manual" doesn't explain the system locking up while riding, the GPS freezing, volume control locking up etc etc. So no, I do not blame the user. I blame crappy software design, cheap *** hardware (really a sub second buffer for XM? WTF?)
These systems were not ready to be released. They are fundamentally flawed and needed years more design and testing. And the dealers needed way more training to even begin to understand them.
Those folks who have no problem I envy your perfect knowledge and perfect system. Mine however is not. And worse yet, every radio complaint at every dealer is NEVER entered into Harleys system. It gets a generic "issues" comment. So no wonder Harley has no clue - they can't even go through their own system and find the issues.
So please, climb down from your horse. Understand there are several varients of the Infotainment system out there, as well as other software systems on our bikes. Your's may just be a varient that is stable, but I know too many other people that have issues that are still unresolved.
Yes, it has slow processors & the interactive boot process is a software nightmare. But it will work if you let it. This round of hardware was dictated by bean counters. I expect improvements with gen 2 hardware. But until then, this is the equipment we have.
You can argue & fight with the dealer techs until hell freezes over, but it won't change anything. What will change things is learning how to live with the system you have. If you don't want to do that, sell your bike & buy a Honda, Victory, Indian, BMW, Kawasaki or whatever other brand you think has a better system & enjoy that.
You need a reality check. This HD system, with all its' faults, is easily years ahead of its' motorcycling competition. And just because other industries (with vastly more extensive resources) have advanced their technologies, don't expect it to happen instantly with a company comprised of much more limited financial and engineering resources to get it perfect first time out of the box. Not one of the automotive companies got in-dash nav right the first time either. If you don't want to acknowledge that I understand, since you're a "professor" & you have all the answers.
Last edited by Hammz; May 1, 2015 at 11:28 AM.










