Just had an unfortunate experience that is worth passing on so no one else will make the same mistake I did.
Couple of weeks ago I emailed Biketronics about the RetroRadio unit they offer. I was wanting to add XM and do it in the head unit. Their unit seemed a good solution and had been reviewed favorably here and elsewhere.
Donna at Biketronics exchanged several emails with me and one phone conversation. I'd listed what my bike was and asked a few other questions. I was a little disappointed in that the list of "approved" radios they had for the RetroRadio were all older models. Since they all hooked up to the samewired controller input on the radios any newer current model utilizing the same input seemed likely to be ok. Didn't seem ti shoudl have been an issue. For Biketronics, however, it seemed to be.
In any case after the exchange of several emails and a phone conversation I'd decided on what hardware would do what I wanted. Found access to a radio on their approved list that did everything I wanted. Had red buttons to match the bike and was a good CD/MP3 player along with being able to run the XM hardware.
So yesterday I ordered the CDX-M8800 Sony radio, the XM tuner and digital adapter, a short unilink cable and a Sony XA-300 auxiliary input adapter to allow audio inputs to the radio from not just the XM hardware but from the GPS unit and from a portable audio player if need be. All tolled it was about $450.00 worth of hardware already bought and paid for and on it's way via UPS.
Called Biketronics this morning to finish getting the last of the pieces. The RetroRadio unit and a weather sealing cap to cover the radio face in times of bad weather. As I said previously, the bike model had been discussed with them before in both email and on the phone. Now, as I'm placing the order however, I mention again that it's a Screamin Eagle Electra Glide. The lady pauses and says "oh, our unit won't work with that."
It seems the better radio kit that is stock on our bikes won't work with the Retro Radio kit from Biketronics. I mentioned to her that I had previously told them what the bike was and it had never been pointed out to me that their unit wouldn't work. Her response was that she realized it wouldn't and just never answered my last email.
I looked back over the email we'd exchanged. There was never any hanging question in our last correspondence. The bike model had been mentioned two emails before. There was absolutely nothing to lead a prospective customer to believe there was any problem or question pending.
So because she thought that not responding to an email that didn't ask a question (in other words just bailing out) was sufficient I've now got all the other Sony hardware for the bike and can't use it because Biketronics was untenably remiss in pointing out a known fitment issue. The lady was nice enough to suggest that if I could supply them with the technical R&D to teach them the difference between the pin-outs on this bike and a stock one they could manufacture an adaptor. The time lost and the effort involved being apparently irrelevant as it compounded the problem.
She was so unhelpful and, seemingly, unworried about the fact that their not supplying basic info that they knew had just cost a potential customer several hundred dollars that I finally rather abruptlly just ended the conversation. It was that or take the risk I might say something ungentlemanly to the lady if the conversation continued.
So, I don't know if the 04 SEEG's use the same radio kit as the 05s do. But with the kit that's in our 05s if you're considering the Biketronics upgrade to control a new radio you're out of luck. Hopefully, however, you'll at least not be out the expense that I've accrued by making the mistake of relying on the vendor to adequately discuss and disclose their product.
Don Carey
Author
Topic: BikeTronics--Problems with RetroRadio (Read 10822 times)