So, I finally got my hands on that Harley I’d been dreaming about for ages. Big, shiny, and it had this fancy-looking infotainment system. I was picturing it, you know? Long rides, tunes blasting, GPS guiding me to new adventures. Seemed like the future, right there on my handlebars.
Well, let me tell you, the honeymoon phase with that screen didn’t last too long. First few trips out, things started getting… quirky. The touchscreen would sometimes decide it needed a coffee break, right when I needed to change a setting. And the GPS? Let’s just say it had some creative ideas about the quickest route, occasionally sending me on scenic detours I hadn’t planned for. Not exactly the smooth experience I was sold on.
Diving Down the Rabbit Hole
I’m not one to just sit back and grumble, though. Okay, maybe I grumbled a bit. But then I decided, “Alright, let’s see what we can do about this.” So, I dived into the internet. Forums, owner groups, you name it. Figured someone must have cracked the code on these things.
- First thing I tried was an update. Seemed simple enough. Download a file, stick it on a USB, plug it in. Sounds easy, right? Ha! Took me a couple of tries. The bike had to be just so, the battery charger connected, chanting the right incantations. Felt like I was defusing a bomb.
- Then there was the Bluetooth. Oh, the Bluetooth. My phone and that system had a love-hate relationship. Mostly hate. Calls would drop, music would stutter. I tried every trick in the book – forgetting the device, re-pairing, standing on one leg while doing it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it just laughed at me.
- And don’t even get me started on trying to get custom maps or routes loaded easily. Felt like I needed a degree in computer science just to plan a trip the way I wanted.
Honestly, there were days I was ready to rip the whole thing out and strap an old-school map to the tank. I spent more evenings tinkering in the garage, staring at that screen, than I care to admit. My wife started calling it my “other relationship.” She wasn’t entirely wrong.
After a lot of fiddling, and maybe a few choice words muttered under my helmet, I sort of found a rhythm with it. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot. I learned its quirks. I figured out which USB sticks it prefers (yes, apparently it’s picky). I know the exact sequence to get my phone to connect most of the time. It’s more of a truce than a victory.
What I really learned through all this? The infotainment is just a gadget. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it’s a pain. The real deal is the ride itself. The wind, the rumble, the open road. That’s the part that never disappoints. That screen? It’s just along for the ride, sometimes behaving, sometimes needing a bit of… persuasion. So yeah, that’s been my little adventure with the Harley infotainment. Hope yours is smoother, but if it’s not, well, you’re not alone!
