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2018 Harley Davidson Ultra Custom Stereo Build

 

This was the last bike I've owned.  I was really happy with how the whole bike came out, but I was especially happy with how the stereo system build came out.  I sold this bike in late 2019 as the startup I was working for folded up almost over-night and putting some money back in the bank became a priority, then the Zombie Apocalypses hit and and saving / having a nice cushion kind of stayed the priority.  I really wanted to buy another bike this spring/summer but (again because of the Zombie Apocalypses) bike prices/availability are just stupid.  Maybe next year things will have leveled out some 🤞

 

Anyway, I spent a while day-dreaming up the build and this is what I ended up going with:

 

  • Sony XAV-AX100 Head unit.  This unit, while not explicitly listed as marine grade, is/was one of the best units for this application.  There are YouTube videos of people dousing it with a water hose and it never misses a beat.  I threw down a fair number of miles/hours wet-weather riding and the HU was flawless.
  • Rockford Fosgate DSR1.  I did a little EQ work with it, but it was mostly so I could easily run the 2-way bat-wing faring speakers active with the 6.5s setup with a bandpass filter and high-pass for the tweeters.
  • Rockford Fosgate TM400X2ad 200x2 RMS amp to run the front 6.5s
  • DD Audio D4.75 micro amplifier (only 2 channels used to drive the tweets)
  • Rockford Fosgate HD amplifier installation kit (mostly for the front fairing mounting bracket and heatsink bracket)
  • A pair of Rockford Fosgate PM100X1Ks (they really work, I was very happy with them)
  • Scosche HDSWC2 handle bar integration unit
  • SCOSCHE HD14UDDBN batwing fairing double-din kit
  • DD Audio AW6.5s for the batwing
  • DD Audio T2A tweets for the batwing
  • Infinity Kappa 60.11CS 6-3/4" Components (I liked these because the woofers have a dust cap to help with weatherproofing and the grills are made so the tweets can be snapped in so there was no need for grill fabrication for the trunk speakers)
  • Stinger SPX925-HD AGM battery

 

Once I had all the stuff, it only took a couple of days from start to finish.  The system got LOUD and was crystal clear.  Over the ~20k miles I put on the bike, I never encountered riding conditions that could drown out the sound.

 

 

I didn't get great build-log pics as I was working on getting it in so I could ride, but I got several decent pics of what it's like trying to force 45lbs of gear into a 10lb bag LoL

 

My 3-legged cat enjoyed supervising the project:

 

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You can just BARELY make out the 4 gauge B+ line in the lower right of this picture.  Both the B+ and the ground runs went from the battery up to a distro block under the fairing:

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Here are a few shots of installing the detachable trunk amps/crossovers/speakers:

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You can see the spacers I had to fab up to get the depth I needed for the trunk speakers.  I routed them out of expanded PVC:

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Here's what the trunk looked like once it was done:

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I never had an issue with the passive Rockford amps overheating and there was a very significant difference between just HU rear channel output and with these hooked up.  I will say, they are picky about their ground.  I ended up having to run a 12-gauge (1 wire for both amps) run straight to the ground post of the battery to clean up the sound.

 

 

Here are a couple of shots of how the Sony HU went in along with the grills I fabricated.  I dremeled out the tweeter mounting holes out of the metal grills and then routed the tweeter leads down the inside of the grill straight down wrapped in thin black closed cell foam.  In direct sunlight if you were looking for it you could tell the wires were there, but somebody that didn't build or spend a lot of time with the bike would likely not notice.  Luckily, the way the grills are mounted on these bikes are actually decoupled from the speakers leaving enough room to not worry about about the tweeter wiring interfering with the woofer surrounds:

 

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And here are the shots of all that equipment crammed into the nose of the bike:

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Here's starting to button it up making sure all the RCA interconnects are sealed with heat shrink and packing possible trouble spots with hot glue:

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And here is the bike all buttoned back up:

 

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My tripod cat approves:

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All in, I really liked the bike.  I went with the HD Stage IV high HP motor kit, their dynamic tuner, Vance & Hines High Output 450 slip ons, the Agitator front wheel, CVO style rear fender and bags, 10" bars and a ton of other bobbles and bolt ons.  Hell, even posting this build-log really gives me the itch to go buy a bike tomorrow but I told myself I would wait until next calendar year.  I think I might would go with a very similar build to this bike and then get it wrapped a gloss grey color maybe.  The bike before this one was a CVO street in Gunship Grey and I was painfully in love with that bike.  Had to sell that one to bail out a family member going through an ugly divorce (ain't life grand?).

 

Anyhow - hope you guys like the build and would love to hear what you would have done differently.

 

✌️

 

 

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Oh, and I somehow forgot to mention - for the DSR-1 and the handlebar control module, I had to loose their ABS housings and enclosed them in some pretty big/gnarly heat-shrink filling either end of the heat shrink ends with hot glue to seal them up.  That was the only way I could get the equipment inside the fairing.  Both modules worked great the entire time I had the bike and as I understand it, the guy who ended up with the bike is still really enjoying it (I didn't pull the system when I sold the bike) 😵

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It has always amazed me how on motorcycles, fitting all that behind the front ferring. There's no room for it. Yet.... there's room for it🤣 awesome setup! 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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Looks nice man! I had a bit of an easier time since my Road Glide's fairing has an easier place to mount an amp. I did the rockford bag lid kit but I am running all MMats speakers in my bike. I left my tour pack empty though, mostly because I really only use in on longer trips.

 

F150:

Stock :(

 

2019 Harley Road Glide:

Amp: TM400Xad - 4 channel 400 watt

Processor: DSR1

Fairing (Front) 6.5s -MMats PA601cx

Lid (Rear) 6x9s -  TMS69

 

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10 minutes ago, MrSkippyJ said:

Looks nice man! I had a bit of an easier time since my Road Glide's fairing has an easier place to mount an amp. I did the rockford bag lid kit but I am running all MMats speakers in my bike. I left my tour pack empty though, mostly because I really only use in on longer trips.

 

Thanks MrSkippyJ!

 

The Road Glides are a lot easier (relatively speaking) as they do have more room under their shark-nose.  I think the shark-nose fairing get's better overall bass response than the batwings as well, but I'm just a batwing kinda guy.  I've been looking at the MMats since DD discontinued the AW6.5s and have heard good things about them.  There seem to be a lot of people that go with Hertz as well.

 

If you decide to trick out your trunk, those RF PM100X1Ks really do work.  I set the whole thing up with an XT30 connector for the ground so it wasn't too hard to pull the trunk off.  Those passive amps take an input from the head unit (which you already have in the trunk on the Ultras), have an output for the speakers and then need a solid ground connection and that's it.

 

That said, it's kind of not a big deal if you already have the bag lid setup.

 

I'm curious how the new Rockford Fosgate Harley Boom setups sound.  The Boom setup on my CVO bike was really nice, but it just couldn't hold a candle to the system I installed in that black Ultra - both in volume and in sound quality (the boom system would crack and distort at high volume) plus having Android Auto on the head unit was really clutch.

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9 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Have you seen fosgate came out with a subwoofer kit for the side bags on 2014 Harleys and up? I wonder how that would sound

 

I haven't seen that!  I always thought it would be cool to have a project bike for shows/audio competitions.  For me personally, when it comes to throwing miles down, a sub on a bike seems like diminishing returns.  As soon as the bike starts moving any amount of bass is inaudible in my experience, by the time I'm up to highway speed, I'm just trying to direct the sound at my ears as best I can so I can hear the mids and highs.  On that black bike, I think I had the 6.5s crossed up from somewhere in the low 70s to make sure they weren't thrashing at high volume.  The trunk had a decent "bass response" sitting still just because it's a trunk but honestly, the only time I heard them was when I would shoulder check, if my head was facing forward, all I could hear was the front stage.

 

Still a cool idea though, definitely going to check it out!

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47 minutes ago, Arthur79 said:

 

I haven't seen that!  I always thought it would be cool to have a project bike for shows/audio competitions.  For me personally, when it comes to throwing miles down, a sub on a bike seems like diminishing returns.  As soon as the bike starts moving any amount of bass is inaudible in my experience, by the time I'm up to highway speed, I'm just trying to direct the sound at my ears as best I can so I can hear the mids and highs.  On that black bike, I think I had the 6.5s crossed up from somewhere in the low 70s to make sure they weren't thrashing at high volume.  The trunk had a decent "bass response" sitting still just because it's a trunk but honestly, the only time I heard them was when I would shoulder check, if my head was facing forward, all I could hear was the front stage.

 

Still a cool idea though, definitely going to check it out!

https://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/hd14-sbsub/

 

Designed and engineered for easy integration and superior flexibility, the 800 watt, dual 10-inch subwoofer kit is built for true motorcycle, on-road performance. The plug-and-play design paired with freeway speed output create the best in class on-bike, bass experience. 

Who knows how it actually sounds, but I feel like if Rockford fosgate is doing it, they have enough motorcycle audio experience to make it work. And for that price... sheesh! It better work lol

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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I actually had to run the rear speakers wires to mine, the regular road glide doesn’t have rear speakers. But it came with the Rockford kit.

 

the MMats soind pretty good, no real complaints. They sound A LOT better than the rockfords that came with the kit.

 

as for the new Rockford subwoofer kit, at over $2k it’s a bit much for my taste.

 

F150:

Stock :(

 

2019 Harley Road Glide:

Amp: TM400Xad - 4 channel 400 watt

Processor: DSR1

Fairing (Front) 6.5s -MMats PA601cx

Lid (Rear) 6x9s -  TMS69

 

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10 hours ago, MrSkippyJ said:

I actually had to run the rear speakers wires to mine, the regular road glide doesn’t have rear speakers. But it came with the Rockford kit.

 

the MMats soind pretty good, no real complaints. They sound A LOT better than the rockfords that came with the kit.

 

as for the new Rockford subwoofer kit, at over $2k it’s a bit much for my taste.

 

18 hours ago, Dafaseles said:

https://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/hd14-sbsub/

 

Designed and engineered for easy integration and superior flexibility, the 800 watt, dual 10-inch subwoofer kit is built for true motorcycle, on-road performance. The plug-and-play design paired with freeway speed output create the best in class on-bike, bass experience. 

Who knows how it actually sounds, but I feel like if Rockford fosgate is doing it, they have enough motorcycle audio experience to make it work. And for that price... sheesh! It better work lol

 

No joke, at that price point, I feel like I could make $2k go a lot further in a competition bike.  I'm sure they're selling them, but that is definitely steep.  And on top of that it looks like you loose all of the bag space.  I pack too much gear on my baggers to loose the saddle bags like that and I'm still skeptical that you could even hear them rolling down the road.  Maybe I'll get lucky and get a chance to hear them in person.

 

Glad to hear it on the MMats - which ones are you running in the front fairing?

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