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I've been pondering the addition of cruise control on my deluxe since I purchased it a few years ago. It's the only downside of my bike. I love the big bars and at 5'9 they put my hands slightly above my shoulders. Long trips this does become tiresome and it would be great to be able to put my right arm down for a minute or two as well as the consistent speed. I know there are throttle locks, and I do have 2 of them. The standard twist in that goes in under the controls, and the style that is on the grip and rests on the brake lever.
Now I realize that I can't just slap CC on and go. While the bike is fuel injected, it is also DBC and not DBW like the touring models. I know that I will need a new throttle body, new buttons/controls, the correct wiring up to the throttle for both the DBW setup and the CC functions, potentially and ECM, and of course any other parts I have currently overlooked in the differences. My biggest questions currently relating to potentially making this work are as follows.
1) Has anyone attempted this? I'm not really looking to reinvent the wheel here. I'm just spit balling and curious if this is a project that just isn't worth the time and money, maybe there is a solution out there already, or with some time I could make this happen. Purchasing a new bike isn't something I'm currently interested in doing just for CC.
2) Would a road king setup fit onto the bike? Take the throttle body, controls, and wiring. Possibly the ECU if they are different part numbers? After all they did come with the 96" setup.
3) Are the ECU's all the same? Just which functions are turned on/selected are different? I know chevy vehicles fairly well and know that unlocking the ECU I can change functions or activations quite easily, is the HD similar?
I appreciate the feedback, I'm interested to see what everyone has to say here.
CJ
I've researched this pretty extensively. For me it is cost prohibitive. Just the parts
alone will add up to $800-$1000 and I would loose (or have to buy a new) HD
combo speedo/tach since it's 'married' to the current ECU. I also have
a tuner that I don't think would work...
Bottom line, it'd be a whole lot easier to just buy a newer bike that is
already 'ready' for cruise control.
Good luck in your research. There are a few older threads about this
but you'll have to search for a bit to find them and they come to
the same conclusion....
I hate to be the guy to say lower your bars, lol. I have a Heritage, I did 14's and they put my hands a click below my shoulders, I'm not at as tall as you, but I can tell you I have all day comfort, I've ridden up to 9 and 10 hour days on mine, all back roads so I'm not hanging on like I would be at highway speeds, but they are perfect, for me anyway. I'm not one for the throttle lock on the throttle side, but I did use it coming across Rt 11 in upstate NY, it was a long straight shot for miles, most of the time I sat back and relaxed. But it does work well, just use it with extreme caution.
I think it depends on how long your rides are.
On our trip to Texas ( from WA) it came in real handy.
Did I have to have it no, was it real nice to have Yes.
I appreciate the responses, I have been in discussion with mccruise now and this I believe is the way I'm going to go. Should come to around $1200 Canadian all said and done. Figure that's it's better than the price of another bike and switching over/restarting the process of making the bike my own.
I currently don't plan on lowering the bars, I definitely agree that it'd be an easier thing to do. But I can't take away from the overall look I'm going for LOL.
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Cruise Control
