Re: Dead Center Fairings:
My personal recommendation is: DO NOT BUY!!!!
I purchased a Dead Center fairing for my wife's Road King in Sept. '09. With a custom paint job to match the bike and a 12V lighter plug I paid just under $2500.00. Their licensed dealer told me I could add chrome hand controls to the stereo system later for about $450.00.

I received the fairing 4 weeks later with a botched paint job. I had to ship it back to Dead Center to be retouched and they did that at no charge, but it took another 3 weeks. Too late to ride with the snow flying so I put it to bed for the winter. I have to admit the final custom paint was awesome.

I installed it this spring and my wife found the stereo faceplate controls difficult while riding and dangerous to deal with on the highway. I asked Dead Center what parts I would need to add hand controls and the owner told me I needed a new stereo radio as the one they sold me could not be converted to hand controls. WHAT SANE FAIRING MANUFACTURER WOULD SELL A STEREO SYSTEM FOR A BIKE THAT CAN'T BE CONVERTED TO HANDLE BAR HAND CONTROLS?

So now I have to buy new switches, switch housing, an interface AND A NEW STEREO RADIO at an additional cost of about $700.00 total. There is an Aux input for an Ipod or MP3 player, but it is located on the back of the stereo, inside the fairing. In my opinion that's stupid engineering and thoughtless care for basic motorcycle customer needs. This is not a manufacturer I would ever deal with again.

Please do your research carefully before buying from Dead Center. In hindsight I see many better options available on the market at a very much lower price with better features.

 

Obviously I'm partial to Dragonfly's fairing. I had the "first generation" stereo that sat behind the weather door but felt it looked like an afterthought.

Now I have their new LCD JBL version along with Sirius Satellite and the hand controls. This thing rocks! I especially like the USB that I ran into my left side cover. This option gives me endless playlist capabilities AND it has 1 gig of internal memory for mp3 storage.

 

Greatings from Dead Center Cycles,

I'm only piping in here to clear up a couple of inaccuracies in the post by HDnutcase. We certainly appreciate any customer feedback, good or bad, as it helps us help our future customers.

MP3 input:

Every fairing with the Jensen Deck installed by DCC comes with a mini jack input for auxiliary devices including MP3 players. The cable for connecting such devices is also included. The current location is now on the face of the Sony deck that replaced the Jensen (discontinued by the manufacturer).

Thumb controls (Availability/cost):

Our previous generation of the fairing did not have the capability of handling thumb controls due to the Jensen Stereo. The new Sony deck is capable of handling thumb controls. Customers with the Jensen deck that want to add thumb controls would need to replace the Jensen deck with a deck that comes with a wired remote and is supported by one of the various aftermarket fairing/stereo component manufacturers that offer thumb control kits.

Our offered solution in this case (And for any current customer that wants to upgrade to thumb controls that currently has the Jensen deck) is this:

New Sony: 140.00
Nomad Thumb Control Kit: 350.00

Total: 490.00

Thank you!

 

Dead Center prominently tells you their features making their product sound complete, but they don't tell you the important drawbacks unless you ask. The MP3 jack is on the back of the stereo inside the fairing and they don't bother to bring out a jack for access. Radio reception absoluteley SUCKS as supplied by Dead Center. You have to install an external antenna and they don't tell you that or supply one. Hand controls cannot be added. In my opinion they sold this cheap radio for years after better radios were available because they could make it seem like a good radio for a bike while its cheap cost increased their profit margin.

They are now switching to the Sony CDX-GT540UI. Even the 5 star reviews on Amazon list it as having a difficult menu structure, small and difficult buttons and hard to read LCD screen. Not good for a bike, especially if you need reading glasses. I'm shopping for a radio with all the Sony features but with easier to see/use controls.

There are many reputable fairing manufacturers out there. In my opinion Dead Center is not one of them!

 

That's the radio I have in my Woody's fairing. Works great, and very easy to use in my opinion. Only drawback is that it isn't set up for a hard wired remote, which means you can't hook up hand controls. They make another unit just like it (don't recall the model number right now), that's a step up, and is made for the hard wired remote. I'll be upgrading to it at a later date so I can add the controls.

 

I will add my 2 cents worth.........go with Dragonfly IMO........I added one to my last bike, a 2000 FLHRCI and was amazed at the quality of the Kenwood stereo and 6x9 speakers....and that was w/o an amp. I also had the Sirius satellite radio installed also with factory Harley stereo controls on the handelbars. It had the internal antenna for the radio so I never did have to add an external one.

 

I put a dragonfly fairing on my 04 Road King Classic. Purchased their marine grade deck along with controls that wired right into the factory Harley controls. Also got the iPod hook up and Sirius satellite radio and 6x9 speakers with it.

 

Been trying to order a Woody's fairing for a week or so now, no reply from them. Anyone know whats up?

 

Give him a call........

 

Hi TT, shot you a PM just now. For the most part I answer all emails within a working day so I'm not sure what's up, maybe my reply got stuck in a Spam filter?

Cuda, would you mind deleting my ph. # from your post? Thx. I give all customers my ph # but I'm a 1-man band and I just can't answer a phone all the time and still get anything built-especially if I'm in gloves & mask, etc.

As far as the original thread; I'm the owner of Woody's so I may be biased, but I think any sane mfr. wouldn't be afraid to offer or recommend radios that don't work with hand controls depending on circumstances. If you asked about that and they lied I can see being upset. I'm not sure why anyone would assume all radios would work with the hand controls their bike didn't even come with. My fairings don't come with a radio, as there are so many choices out there and so many different needs. I'm often asked about "what one to go with" and I actually recommend the Sony GT540 to folks as a lower priced unit with great sound and features like a 3.5mm aux input & USB port plus a large **** that's easy to work with light gloves on. No it doesn't work with hand controls, but I've seen it for as low $119 at Best Buy and that's a huge plus for some folks.
By the time you get a more pricey radio, the Biketronics module, and the H-D hand controls themselves, you've probably doubled the price of my fairing, so that's not always an option for some folks. Many radios have wired remotes available, others offer RF remotes that don't require line-of-site to operate, etc. Some have built-in Bluetooth or HD, others can/can't use satellite, iPods, what-evers. I think the basic concept goes both ways-folks need to be educated consumers and ask a lot of questions, then look up the particular item being offered and get the info they need to make a decision. Mfrs. need to be helpful and explain things honestly, and so far I haven't read anything that says Dead Center did otherwise. Would a Dragonfly be a better choice for you? Quite possibly, the new ones are a very good product. Would you be happy with one costing half as much? Maybe not, but a lot of other folks are.