"Gadget-Glide"?

At Jack's Place in San Jose the other night, I pulled up on the new toy, and got a subtle dig from one of the regulars - tantamount to him questioning my manhood, or suggesting that I secretly ride Japanese cruisers... he looked at the new FLHX and said "Oh, it's the new Gadget-Glide".

It stings because as my friends know - I am a gadget freak. Some of my favorite blogs are gadget-related (Engadget & Gizmodo to name two of the best). And yes, I did equip the new Street Glide with the Advanced Audio System, and the MP3 player, and am about to place an order for the GPS. (Truth be told - it's the new Ultra-Glide that has been nicknamed the "Gadget-Glide" by the H-D faithful, but I'm still guilty as accused).

Sigh.

Personally, I find it very cool to have something so raw and lo-tech as big, air-cooled V-Twin rumbling away, but the bike having well-integrated modern conveniences. Having a bunch of random crap hanging off it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. At least the items I'm talking about are seemlessly part of the bike, and probably wouldn't be noticed unless I pointed them out to somebody.

Which brings me to the point about the GPS...

I am debating equipping the FLHX with either the new Road Tech (read: H-D badged Garmin) external GPS pictured here, or with the new integrated GPS navigation built into the Advanced Audio System. Problem is, on the AAS you only get directional arrows and text prompts. Down on the radio's LCD.

Standalone GPS:
Pros: Large color screen, sits better in the line-of-sight, easy to program waypoints & routes on the PC and upload them.

Cons: Big honkin' thing hanging off the edge of the fairing. Even when removed to be locked away, you've got an ugly-ass bracket sitting there.

AAS Integrated Navigation:
Pros: Clean - no extra doodads hanging off the bike to ugly it up, and less invitation for theft.

Cons: Harder to read, practically impossible to program waypoints without going through some obscure sequence of buttons.

Your thoughts people?

The New Ride - '06 FLHXI

Well, at long last, my first new Harley.

Picked up a brand, spankin' new 2006 FLHXI Street Glide this past weekend at House of Thunder Harley-Davidson in Morgan Hill, California. To say that there's a permanent grin affixed to my face is an understatement. After months of renting HD's on the weekends, its sooooo nice to have a new baby to call my own.

Struggled for a long time with which HD to get. Everything except the two ends of the spectrum was under consideration (no Sporster, no Ultra). The new Street Bob is great - particularly with al l the changes they've made to the Dyna platform for '06. Goodness knows I was more impressed with the VROD I rented in Switzerland this summer than I'd expected to be. The new fat tire Fat Boy certainly has it's attractions. Decisions, decisions.

It all came down to my wanting a bike for the long haul, but still "streetable". Plus the slammed look just says "bad ass" to me more than most other models (though the Low Rider, Night Rod and Street Bob all do the same in their own way.)

Was only able to put 270 miles or so on it, and seeing as how I have to be back on the East Coast this weekend, I'm gonna be eager when I get back to put some miles on it.