Well it has been a good run with my stock Harman Kardon stock head unit on my 07 Road Glide. It has worked flawlessly since I purchased the bike in September of 2006. Yesterday I was riding and the LCD display went blank but the stereo continued to play. I stopped and re-started the bike and LCD display came on for about 10 seconds and went black. All of the functions work on the head unit accept the display. I have researched the forum and have seen that others have had their LCD quit on them.

I have the extended warranty for the bike which covers the bike for five years. I have added an amp (Elf Audio) and 6.5 speakers and hopefully Harley does not try to say that the amp caused the display to fail.

I noticed that many of you have added a Sony head unit. How has the detachable face plate held up to the vibration of the bike. Reason why I am asking is, my buddy has a street glide that he replaced the stock head unit with a Jensen head unit and after riding for a year the controls on the face plate will not work until he jiggles the face plate around. He believes that the vibration of the bike has caused the contact points on the face plate where they mate to the head unit to become loose. With those of you that have replaced the stock head unit with a Sony have you encountered any problems with the controls on the faceplate due to the vibration of the engine at idle.

If I go the after market route, is there any other option besides Biketronics to retain the use of my radio controls on the handle bars? It appears from their web site that the module only works with Sony head units.

 

I can't answer the aftermarket questions but I had the same think happen to my HK headunit. I sent mine to Iron Cross audio for their rework and had them add a rear aux input and preamp outputs. They rework the radio and make it more water resistant. I was very pleased to have the HD HK headunit but reworked to be more reliable. Working well for me.

 

Biketronics now makes an adapter that works with almost any HU & works on any year bike, I think it's $20 more than the other models, seen them on ebay for $199 or best offer.

 

+1 I've heard alot of good things about Iron Cross audio. I have a Kenwood head unit (bike is a Standard so didnt come w/ radio) CD's skip bad, display almost impossiable to see during the day and "0" water resitance rating. Just some things to consider on repair vs. replace.

 

You'll probably have no problem getting the HK unit replaced with a refurb unit with the $50 deductible; the face plate problem is common on bikes without amps, and the amp does nothing except amplify the speaker signal, i.e. the face plate and amp have no relationship electrically to each other.

Hawg-wired makes an adapter similar to Biketronics; allows aftermarket head units to work with handlebar controls. For headunit compatibility, check with BT and/or HW directly.

Had a Sony/Biketronics setp-up for 4+ years/50K miles and no issues with the products.

Carl

 

My radio did the same thing a year ago on my 06 FLTR. I still have the extended warranty, however the radio unit is not covered under the extended warranty according to my dealer.
It cost me over $300 to get it replaced and took over a month.

 

Just to make sure I pulled out my warranty paperwork and under the touring package it covers the following: CD player, receiver, tape deck.

I remember my wife asking me why I was getting the extended warranty since I did not purchase the extended warranty when I bought my deuce. I told her it was in case there were any electrical issues mostly for the radio.

I read many good things about the folks at Iron Cross and if there are any issues I will have them fix the head unit along with adding a pre-outs for the my amp.

 

I have no problems with my sony head unit. I went with the hawg-wired install kit that mantains full handbar controls.

 

Grunt, congrats on reading the ESP; amazed that more folks don't for some reason or other and accept as gospel what they're told it covers or doesn't cover.

Iron Cross Audio did a great repair job on my HK unit (software problem that HD's tech services was unrepairable) and added the AUX on the back.

 

Harleypingman how hard is it to put HK HU into a 04 bike? I was thinking the HK wasn't in the bikes until 06 or am I wrong?