I havent had a lot of time to play with mine. I accidentally had google maps turned on for directions on my I Phone and placed my phone in tour pack. The phone was connected to the blue tooth on my bike, i was listening to a song. It gave me turn by turn directions with my navigation screen turned on. They didnt work together but as my I Phone gave me turn commands I was able to follow along on the navigation system on my bike. LOL, it worked flawlessly. All this was by accident, but worked.

 

I'm lucky, I guess. to have been born back when you were required to read road maps and decide on your route yourself if you wanted to go somewhere. Thanks to that fact, I've never used my NAV and never will. No interest whatsoever in learning how to use it, either.

AFAIC, it's just a super-expensive brick in the fairing on my bike. I've never been sucked in to the high-tech-addiction-scene and I consider myself to be extremely fortunate in that respect.

Love everything else about my '15 Limited, though. Didn't buy it for the BS electronic whiz-box or any of its features, anyway, so I'm good with it.

 

It's not the worlds best system by any stretch, but it's never failed to get me where I need to be either.

Could it be better, sure. Is it the piece of crap people make it out to be, not even close.

If the nav is really that bad and the radio is no better than tons of people would have torn them out and went with aftermarket head units for better sound and used their phone for nav. A few have done it but nowhere near the number that removed the old hk radios.

If half the people that whined would read the manual and use the thing a few times they'd find it no better or worse than other systems, they all have their quirks. The thing has been out there for 4 years, no one should be surprised that it's not perfect at this point. Shut up and go ride. If you really hate it that much tear it out and replace it with whatever system makes you happy. Damn whiners.

 

You don't give much information about how you are using it or what your preference/avoidance settings are, so it is kind of hard to figure out what you are seeing. The NAV system, like anything else, is a tool and you need to know how to use it to get the most out of it. I can't say that I have seen exactly what you describe, but I have have placed a waypoint off to the side of the road and had the unit try to circle back around to pick it up. In this case, use "skip waypoint" to just proceed on to the next. If you haven't tried it yet, for more thought out trips rather than one-off 'get me to XYZ', go onto Ride Planner to plan your trips and upload them to the unit. Ride Planner runs using Google Maps and you can spend the entire evening designing your perfect trip rather than leaving it to some algorithm, which will always have some uncertainty built in.
True that, I have been all but blinded in early morning riding with the low sun over my shoulder. To the point that I am putting a Velcro cover in my bag for when that happens' it is about the biggest safety flaw that bike has. But that is not the NAV system's fault. You can't see tha radio station, or anything else on the screen either. That design is all on the MOCO.
Not really, but like anything else, it is a tool. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Once you figure out how it works, that, along with the several online trip planners that can export a gpx file, becomes a very effective tool for getting around. And, unlike cell phones and other GPS units, you don't need to buy maps for different areas of the country to get better resolution or hope that you can get a cell signal out in the hills somewhere to download maps on the fly like so many mobile phones do. The 48 states are all int here.
Well if it is anything like my Garmin unit, I do need to have Base Camp installed and need to buy maps to get real detail depending on where I am going. They aren't cheap. Besides, I don't think anyone -needs- to buy the map updates. Chances are the updates won't effect your riding at all. $150 for the whole US is pretty cheap compared with other options (not to mention compared to the cost of owning and upgrading a HD in general).
No offence, but it sounds like you haven't really tried to work with it. Anyone that expects the whole Boom system to be a magic box that does it all right the first time with no user investment will undoubtedly be frustrated. Me, I like flexibility and dials to tweak to get the experience that I want, not what is forced upon me. The Boom Audio almost to a fault lets the user mess with all kinds of settings to personalize the set up. I'd say get the manual out, watch some YouTube videos, experiment with the various online trip planners out there (beware, they have a learning curve too) and I bet you'll find that it offers more than you have seen thus far. Except for the sun glare, we're screwed as far as that goes. If nothing else, you'll have specific questions that can be dealt with rather than a vague "I hate it", which isn't worth much in trouble shooting. Or not, ignore the whole system. Which would be a waste IMO. I hope you didn't buy a bike that had a non-special option that did not include the 6.5 BA.

 

Got to say, I'm not in love with it either. Tried it out extensively this past holiday weekend. Had it set to take me to the Cherohala Skyway. I went in a little abnormally, but when I started using the Harley GPS, it had me on these tiny roads that eventually turned to gravel. I was in an area whrere I'm pretty sure if I listened hard enough I could hear "Dueling Banjos" playing. It kind of sucked. Though it eventually did get me where I wanted to go. It was set for "fastest" route as well. I just wasn't too happy with taking a loaded heavy bike up slightly muddy gravel roads in those hills.

 

I'm starting to think most navs are like that.. Just recently coming from Laconia bike week it routed me off i-87 in order to hit two other highways, and then back to i-87 to complete my trip. My friends were asking why didn't we just stay on i-87 all the way home?? Go figure.. But I get the same treatment from the GPS on my 17 X5. I also think there's a conspiracy with all navs to route you through all tolls possible. Unless I specifically select "avoid tolls" it will route me through any toll available even if it means going the long way to get to that toll. On some occasions I was minutes from my destination if I stayed on the course but the damn thing detoured me another path just take a frickin toll. That change added a few more miles to the trip. conspiracy!

 

I always wear polarized and can see it perfectly except, when the reflection of the sun is on it (RGS) but then a quick hand over the screen and there it is.

As with others, not perfect but has lead me down many a trips without fail. Got turned around in farm country the otherday while in a hurry and tried to force a location and due to settings, took me on every backroad along the edge of a rural hwy, arghhh.
For me, entering a location is the hardest (same with most) so I use RidePlanner and set waypoints to follow. seamless!

 

I would suggest you download software updates from HD.com
http://www.harley-davidson.com/conte...downloads.html


There are updates for the sound system / GPS system available for free...
download files - unzip folder - transfer onto flash drive - turn bike to ACC - install USB - bike will do the rest.
NOTE: If error message comes up - you've downloaded the wrong file for your system.
I have done mine and several friends... had issues with GPS locking up, losing volume control, ect. This will fix all issue to date.
My system is working great now... ;-)
There is also a upgrade available for dealer locations...

 

You need to get polarized lenses that are made for use with display screens. They are different than regular polarized lenses.

 

I for one do like the Boom system. It does take some time to learn. I usually make a route of my choosing so I can pick roads that look interesting to me and load it into the system.

I will admit that all of the steps it takes to load a route and get it to the GO button seems a little excessive.