The nice thing is it's easy to upgrade those systems. The bad thing is it's not quite there yet. I hope Harley doesn't charge to upgrade the system.

And please, for the love of God and all things that are holy and mortal, let's use the term "onboard computer," rather than "infotainment."

 

Do we know who is actually providing the OS for the GPS???? I for one like GPS because I tend to ride out getting lost & tell the GPS send me home lol

 

will all be dead within a generation or two.
live now...

 

Make a nine day trip into a nine part GPS file. When I make route plans I divide it up into riding days. if your days are still to full of waypoints to work, make the files day1AM and Day1PM etc. That should work.

 

As someone said, the gps is pretty important to me for a couple of reasons - I hit 44 States last year, rode Key West to Deadhorse, Alaska, and covered Maine and California along the way. I'm retired. I'm lucky. I ride. And I couldn't do the kind of riding I do without a gps.

Cell phone gps's are fine for what they are, but I'm very often in places with no cell phone coverage especially out west here, so generally not an option.

Top that off with the fact that Harley didn't price that built-in gps at $0. If I'm paying for something, I want it to work, and if it won't work the way I expect, I want a work-around. I don't want a damn $1,000 brick in the dash that prevents other good technology from working.

And I did get into riding for the winds, the smells, and the sounds of my bike - and to get out of my neighborhood, wayyyyy out!

 

I wish I understood GPS like the OP does. I barely am able to set a destination in the "Where To?" part. I just have an old Garmin 550 that my brother gave me when he upgraded to that 665. I sure do like having GPS though, keeps me from getting lost.

 

Keep it up! Man, that is awesome! I wish I understood what you are talking about, but I am horrible with that stuff. My last attempt at GPS help was printing out some directions and taping them to my tank. I thought I was fancy.

I read your post and you are very well versed at what you're doing. Keep us all informed. Even if some guys disagree with the need, who cares. Many others are interested, like me.

And I am impressed with the milage and the riding. Wish I could do that. You are inspiring !

 

OP I hear you, most of my miles are road trips and I plan them out using a GPS, carry a laptop with me and use custom routes. Hopw they improve that ability, in my car I just want to get there but on my bike I pretty much only use custom routes and pick as many waypoints as I need to get there. I guess I would get used to the new system being built into the bike but I like taking the GPS into the house/hotel room and loading it from my laptop; guess I'd have to brings the routes to the GPS instead. Looks like I would still use my current GPS and the built in one would be a backup for me. I'm sure HD will address this eventually.

I used to knock GPS on a bike, heated gear, radios, cruise conrol, windshield/fairing, ABS and a slew of otherwise new technology and now I embrace it. Because of all of these things it allows me to ride longer, be safer and not have to deal with the little things that add up when doing many long distance days.

Thanks for sharing the information.

 

Amen. Frankly, I don't understand all the lambasting you were receiving. I, like you, ride to get out of the neighborhood and a limited GPS will have you doing it on the highway because it's the easiest fastest route. That sucks! Ten different people can have 100K miles on their bikes, and each of those miles was clocked in a different fashion. I may not have chosen the same routes as someone else's 100K and they might not have chosen mine (and I am by no means saying I have 100K on a bike, just making a point!). We all ride for our own reasons... yet we all ride for the same reason: because we love riding.

The point was simply that the MoCo failed miserably on something that should have been easy and a no brainer to get right. Setting your waypoints allows the route you want to ride... It is pathetic to me that the MoCo can take advice from riders about the redesign, but not take into consideration riding friendly suggestions such as GPS routing. Dragging a route on a touch screen should be a simple technology... and I bet they are saving it for the 2015 Road Glide (to be sold as an update for the 2014 bikes with nav of course!)

And for what it's worth (little I know), I still use paper maps, the GPS on my phone, and my Garmin unit equally. All depends where I am and what I'm looking for.

 

Thanks for the writeup. I have been wondering about the capabilities ( or lack thereof ) of this system.

So little info out on this right. Wondering about the BT capabilities and if a standalone gps unit could connect via BT for voice directions.