Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Twolanerider]

Great write up on the new radio Don. I'm really interested if the sound will be as good as our units. What is the wattage output of the new radio?

Dude, will let you know my ear's impression of sound comparison on the road as soon as the XM package shows up and I get it put back together.  Even I'm not so impatient to put the fairing back on and ride to listen to now and then pull it back apart for the XM package that should be at the door this afternoon  

If I remember correctly the amp in the new radio is supposed to be 20 watts. This is opposed to the 60 watt amp in the radio in the SEEGs stock.  Given what I heard in the garage last night, however, the new radio was sharp and crisp (with the HogTunes) well up in the volume band.  Given the size of the heat sink on the new radio I'm even wondering if the 20 amp rating might be on the low side again.  Hearing it on the road will be the only proof that matters though.  I honestly don't care what the amp is rated for so long as the package sounds good enough to hear on the road.  If it does, great.  If it doesn't I've already discovered that adding the accessory amp will be a pretty simple task to our bikes.

[jeffj]

When it comes to working on anything - I am: "Tim the Tool Man Taylor"

Awesome post as I felt I was working with you (OK drinking a cold one, while you worked) during the process of changing out the stereo.

When you get the XM Stereo hooked up go to channel 46 for some great music and channel 150 & 151 for some funny comedy.

[pj57]

The Don does it Again!  Congrats!  Excellent, excellent post, Twolane.  By the way folks you may remember I bought a radio from Chicago Harley and tried to install myself.  Once the whole notion of upgrading the software in the unit came up I knew I was sunk - Out $800+ or so I thought.  I contacted Tom at Roeder's and thanks to dropping Twolane's name, they are going to program my radio for $100 even though I didn't buy it there.  If I buy a couple of accessories, XM,CB module or navigation, they might even do it for free.  I'm hoping to have the radio back by the weekend to do the install - can't wait.  Ya' know? There haven't been too many issues that have come up on this site that we haven't been able to solve/resolve. I, for one, am very thankful for the collective minds we got here (plus I'm really happy I don't have to eat a $800 radio so I'm kissin' everybody's butt)  Also, as dealers come and go, Roeder's certainly has impressed me with their customer service -  PJ    

[Twolanerider]

Really glad you're getting things worked out PJ.  Tom at Roeders has proved to be a really good guy to work with.

And on to XM.  The XM kit arrived today.  Didn't feel like working late tonight so just stopped and did it.  Here's what you'll get in the XM package.  By the way, if this had arrived with the other parts its instruction manual would have told me where to mount the antenna bracket and I'd not have wasted ten minutes trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle.

[Twolanerider]

The new radio has rubber grommeted mounting holes along its front end that the rear of accessory pieces mount to.  See the grommets on top of the radio here.

By the way, sorry to some who might not care for the extra level of detail.  But there were a couple of PMs today from guys thinking about doing this who wanted a fair amount of detail.

The mounting grommets......

[Twolanerider]

The accessory pieces that will mount on top of the radio have nubs like this to mate to those grommets.

[Twolanerider]

And a screw that already exists in the back of the radio is removed and reused to complete the physical mounting.

[Twolanerider]

This image shows the new large harness plugged in to the radio.  As your seeing it now it's plugged in to the right side of the radio and draped down over the front tire.  That's a lot of harness to hang inside a small space.

[Twolanerider]

On an 06 bike one of the connectors on this new accessory overlay harness would plug in to a point that exists on the bike.  We don't have that connection point.  For XM there are two wires on this connector we have to pay attention to.  One is simply a ground.  The other is a 12v unswitched (always on) lead that allows the XM radio to hold memory of what channel it was on when the bike is turned off.
 
The ground wire is black with a blue stripe.  The 12v leg is red with an orange stripe.  That's also the same color scheme for two 12v unswitched legs that go to the radio itself that are used to maintain clock time and other functions while the bike is switched off.  So finding a mate to power this leg on the accessory harness isn't difficult.

[Twolanerider]

This is the main harness "stock" connector that plugs in the radio.  You can see a red/orange leg that is the mate to the one in the accessory harness.  That's what you'll splice from to power the accessory harness's unswitched power requirement.

[Twolanerider]

Don't be afraid of the word "splice."  You will accomplish this entire installation wthout cutting in two a single wire that is stock either on the bike to begin with or that is part of new accessory harness.  

At the new accessory connector you'll have two connections to make (the ground and the power connection).  At the harness connector that attaches to the radio you'll have one (to the red wire with orange stripe). Use a simple splicing connector like these.  They slide over the existing wire.  They then accept the new wire from one end.  After all the wires are in place just crimp it down to make the connection.  They can be removed later and the original wire is not severed.

Get two pieces of wire.  Preferably red and black.  But it really doesn't matter.  Cut them off plenty long.  

Make the splice connections at the accessory harness.  Then drape the new wires along existing paths for neatness and safety's sake to get the red one over behind the radio and the black one to a ground point.  Once they were cut to length I protected this new "harness" in a run of heat shrink tubing.  Not absolutely necessary if you tidy things up securely.  But protecting wires is never a bad idea.

[Twolanerider]

The harness that plugs in to the radio is protected with a large plastic wire wrap/insulator.  It will have a plastic wire tie holding it closed at the end.  Cut the wire tie to allow access to the wires inside.

Fish out the red/orange wire and make a splice connecting it to the red wire you draped over from the accessory connector.  This picture shows the new red wire tucked back in the harness wrap after the splice has been made and the insulator has been taped back closed at the end to keep everything tidy and protected.

You'll also see the ground wire diving beneath the radio.  We have a convenient grounding point down there waiting to be taken advantage of.

[Twolanerider]

Below the radio you'll see a screw with a 5/16" head already holding one ground wire in place.  This is a convenient location for our need.  Crimp a terminal on the new ground wire at the appropriate length.  Remove the screw.  Slide the newly crimped terminal over the screw along wth the wire that was there to begin with.  And put the screw back in.  

That's it for any wiring requirements for the entire job.  All done  [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]

[Twolanerider]

With everything is installed and all the wire laid in place it can all be tidied up surprisingly neatly and securely.  Use a few wire ties to hold things firmly where you'll want them permanently.  Loop the new harness along side the existing harness above the radio.  When done it becomes a surprisingly neat installation.

[Twolanerider]

At this point your back to reinstalling the fairing.  Before doing this activate the XM radio.  Just want to make sure it all works before you put the fairing on.  Surely you checked for continuity on your splices when you made them  [smiley=nixweiss.gif] .  But you can't discount the possibility of a bad new part.

Likely is that everything will work ok though.  Once you see the radio working put the fairing back on and go for a ride  [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]

As to the speaker question.  It's a 2 ohm radio. So using 4-8 ohm speakers isn't going to hurt anything.  This means that staying with the HogTunes if one is using them is ok.  Using 4 ohm spekaers on a 2 ohm radio may lose you a little mid range and high end.  (Note, you shouldn't go the other way though.  Using 2 ohm speakers on a 4 ohm radio could hurt an amp or speakers.)

Having said all this, I tried both the new speakers that come with the radio and the Hogtunes.  Perhaps it's because the Hogtunes have a bit bigger magnet or just my bad ears.  But the ostensibly "better" 2 ohm speakers really didn't sound any better or different in the areas they'd be expected to.  And when driven to higher levels the HogTunes still seemed a bit clearer; a bit less distortion.  So I stayed with the HogTunes.

Tomorrow I'll get the bike out on the road and see how the amp holds up for powering things to "listen-able" levels going down the road.  From what I've heard in the garage so far I think it's going to be ok.  But will know better whether the accessory amp will be deemed a necessity after the bike has been on the road.

For those wondering about time on the job.  Over the two days I spent just over 2 1/2 hours working on the bike.  Would've been a half hour shorter if I'd not have stopped regularly to grab the camera and jot a few notes to place this here for future use.  So, roughly, a two hour job to add the new radio and XM.  Second time would be quicker of course.  It always is.