Home » Lifestyle

Pimping The Road King Classic

30 March 2009 5 Comments

I am heading back to the UK in May to pick up the Road King Classic and bring it back to Almerimar. Apart from the fact that I miss it, Sands and I want to use it as our main mode of transport rather than the Jeep. Part because the Jeep is so old and consumes so much fuel (think green, think skint!!!), part because it is just so much more fun to use the Harley than a car!

I am also planning to do some more work with the Long Way Round Andalucia this year with some road tours that we are setting up, so it will be a great opportunity to earn some money and combine the pleasure of the Road King Classic with the pleasure of taking Photos and Videos ….. a pretty good scenari to me; sun, Harley, Photos, Video, Mac’s, income!!!

All of which is a reason excuse to pimp the Road King Classic a bit with some technology I reckon!

Fisrt up will be a Sat Nav. Am going with the Garmin Zumo 550 as it has been designed specifically for bikers with the buttons on the left (right hand required to operate the throttle at all times on a bike ….. well not true on the Road King Cassic as it has cruise control), and Harley themselves do a branded one NOT that I will paying extra for that ‘honour’ thank you very much. I was also very impressed with Ben Sinclair’s excellent article on how to get Garmin working with your Mac, bith with and without Mapsource. As my partners in this venture use Mapsource on a PC and we want to be able to uplaod routes direct to clients GPS systems this is pretty vital for me. The Zumo has a good mounting for the Road King Classic, and will work with a bluetooth headset which may be useful. I need to figure out the power supply though (see below)

Second, I want to figure out how to mount the iPhone. As with the Zumo power will be an issue and I am hoping that I can create something that will enable me to use the Crystal Jacket. I plan to do some tweeting, Qik video, 12 secondsTV from the Road King, and of course hooking it up to the intercom will allow me to listen to some music as well. I think a combination of the clasp on the back of the Crystal Jacket and some tie wraps should do the trick!!!

Finally I am interested to see if I can fashion a mount for the JVC Everio GZ-MG130 as we will be offering the clients a DVD and Photo package of their trip. I haven’t even started to figure that one out yet though, so any sugegstions much appreciated!

As for the power then I reckon I have two challenges. I need to get power to the Zumo 550 and the iPhone, so a double cigarette lighter socket will probably be the best. Hook that up to the battery, and then can plug both devices in directy. I am also thinking of running a direct feed off the battery attached to a multi socket which I will fasten into one of the saddle bags so I can charge items up when riding.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas please give me a shout!

Related posts:

  1. Garmin GTM 21 FM TMC Traffic Receiver & Garmin External Microphone I really like the Garmin Zumo 550 that I...
  2. Riding Your Motorbike In High Winds About the only negative of riding a motorbike in...
  3. Post Ride Recovery Tips: What Is Likely To Ache After Long Motorbike Ride The last time I was in the UK I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...


5 Comments »

  • Chris Marshall (author) said:

    Zumo has arrived in UK. Will get my hands on it on Thursday, very excited!

  • Garmin Zumo 550 | Chris Marshall said:

    [...] mentioned before that I wanted to add the Garmin Zumo 550 to the Road King Classic. Well having installed it last [...]

  • La Barbera To Apartment By Road King | AlmerimarLife said:

    [...] that I will explain another day, and which will become apparent over time on the site, I have been pimping the Road King Classic recently. The final task was to get it recording video while I was riding it! Back in June , thanks [...]

  • Trip To UK - Technology | AlmerimarLife - Online Blog & Community For Expats In Spain said:

    [...] going to be a lack of power on the ferry. Everything can be charged up in hotels of course, and the Garmin Zumo 550 GPS is going to be hard wired into the Road King as well as having an AC and car charger. The [...]

  • Sat Nav: Handheld or Fixed | Chris Marshall - My Life said:

    [...] Driving down to Almerimar from the UK recently in the Toyota Prius Hybrid gave me an excellent opportunity to compare the inbuilt the Sat Nav system in the Toyota Prius Hybrid with the portable Garmin Zumo 550 and Garmin GTM 21 Traffic Receiver that I use primarily on the Harley Davidson Road King Classic. [...]

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

Additional comments powered by BackType