Motodan Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 Anyone had the BMW radio and radio prep kit installed on a R1200RT. Cost for all parts and labor? Where did you get radio and who did the work? Satisfied? Thanks
hotroddon Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 My bike came with the radio so i can't comment on cost - but I will tell you I'm a little disapointed. The Automatic volume control is not very good, the CD player skips on every little bump and the regular volume control is not very sensitive. The Standard Harmon Kardon that came on my Harley is far superior.
Deek Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 My bike came with the radio so i can't comment on cost - but I will tell you I'm a little disapointed. The Automatic volume control is not very good, the CD player skips on every little bump and the regular volume control is not very sensitive. The Standard Harmon Kardon that came on my Harley is far superior. While I have not had my 1200RT with the OEM radio, my CD player works were well, no skipping at all. I do have the same issue with the volume control. It was changing the volume too much at setting SV2, so I changed it to SV1. That made it worse! I'm going to try SV3 and see if that works. If not, I'm turning the Auto Volume OFF!
Yukon Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 No problems with the stock unit on my 07. Auto volume works well and CD player is great. Radio picks up my Sat radio FM signal good too.
Crank Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 No problems with the stock unit on my 07. Auto volume works well and CD player is great. Radio picks up my Sat radio FM signal good too. I'd like to hear how you have the XM radio set up on your bike. What equipment/receiver do you use? Maybe a photo, too. I would love to have XM on my RT. Thanks, Crank
John in VA Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 My bike came with the radio so i can't comment on cost - but I will tell you I'm a little disapointed. The Automatic volume control is not very good, the CD player skips on every little bump and the regular volume control is not very sensitive. The Standard Harmon Kardon that came on my Harley is far superior. You should take yours to the dealer for replacement. My radio/CD works great, no skipping. The weather band is especially useful.
Effjay Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 Likewise, my OEM radio/CD unit works great. Some CDs do skip but I've found it's specific CDs - not all I carry and play. Gripes? The 3-series radio unit BMW spec'd is not MP3 data disc compatible. I've burned several CDs by genre with 100+ MP3 cuts per disc which I can play in my 2006 Nissan truck but can't in my RT - bummer! I do have all those MP3 cuts on an SD card in my Zumo, but I'd really like to play them in the BMW unit. Jeff
Crank Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. BTW, I've had no problems with my CD or radio, and my CD does play MP3 Cd's, too. I wish there were a plug in for my MP3 player though. Crank
RedMac Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 WHAT??? Your BMW CD player on the bike plays MP3 CD's??? ACK! Mine does not. That was the first thing I tried and I have an 06 too. How are you burning yours??
John in VA Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. It's in the radio owner's manual. Pressing the AM button repeatedly alternates between AM and weather band. Unfortunately, my "Professional 2000" CD can't play MP3s.
Deek Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 No problems with the stock unit on my 07. Auto volume works well and CD player is great. Radio picks up my Sat radio FM signal good too. Do you know your SV setting for the auto-volume? I've tried 1 and 2 and they are not what I need. Plan to try 3 the next time I ride.
Effjay Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 WHAT??? Your BMW CD player on the bike plays MP3 CD's??? ACK! Mine does not. That was the first thing I tried and I have an 06 too. How are you burning yours?? Yes, do tell...
FLTRI Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. It's in the radio owner's manual. Pressing the AM button repeatedly alternates between AM and weather band. Hmmmm, I just tried it on my 05 radio. I don't seem to find a weather band toggling the AM button. I don't remember it being mentioned in the manual, and I'm too lazy right now to go dig it out. Maybe this feature wasn't on the 05's???
Crank Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 As far as the Weather Band goes, yes, the AM switch toggles betw AM and WB. However, I did go through the "Operating Instructions (US Model) - Audio System BMW Professional 2000" manual and there is only ONE vailed reference to the Weather Band. I had never noticed it before and I bet most people wouldn't. It is not mentioned in the Table of Contents or in the Index. But, if you go to page 20, the first column, at the bottom, it does say "Every time the button is pressed, the radio switches between AW and WB." Now, that is the only mention in the entire manual! Very cryptic! I never noticed the WB and wouldn't have known to translate that to Weather Band. Plus, it uses the term AW??? I think they misprinted AM as AW. If not, what the hell is AW??? Maybe Air Wave? That is the only mention that I could find in the manual. But the good news is that IT WORKED!!! I got tonight's and tomorrow's forecast...very nice for a gazillion dollar bike! Where's the radar? Hope this helps somebody else. Thanks for mentioning it! Crank
Crank Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 WHAT??? Your BMW CD player on the bike plays MP3 CD's??? ACK! Mine does not. That was the first thing I tried and I have an 06 too. How are you burning yours?? Yes, do tell... Be of good cheer! I use Napster to burn my CD's and I have never had a problem with MP3's, in fact, that is all I listen to - my self-burned CD's, except for MP3's that don't have the Digital Management thingy...a.k.a. pirated songs. So, your success is just around the corner. Crank
Kerry in Mpls Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. BTW, I've had no problems with my CD or radio, and my CD does play MP3 Cd's, too. I wish there were a plug in for my MP3 player though. Crank Hmm, let's make sure we're on the same page here. I think that by "MP3 CD's" you probably mean CD's which contain MP3's that have been converted to the CD audio format, ending up with a little over an hour of music per disk, right? Many newer CD players (e.g. cheapo portable players on the shelf at Target) can also play MP3 files that have been copied directly to CD. The MP3 format permits over 10 hours of music per disk at high quality (or lots more if you trade some quality for space). The question is whether any of the CD players from BMW have that capability.
Effjay Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The question is whether any of the CD players from BMW have that capability. Exactly... My CDs burned from large MP3 playlists read: "Disc Error" or somesuch when inserted into the RT unit. No sound, no playback, nada.
blkvelvt Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. BTW, I've had no problems with my CD or radio, and my CD does play MP3 Cd's, too. I wish there were a plug in for my MP3 player though. Crank I burn CD-R CD's from I-Tunes on play them on my 2005 radio. Some CD skipping but not too bad. Biggest complaint is the less than acceptable speakers. I'm looking to replace them with better units.
Yukon Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 No problems with the stock unit on my 07. Auto volume works well and CD player is great. Radio picks up my Sat radio FM signal good too. I'd like to hear how you have the XM radio set up on your bike. What equipment/receiver do you use? Maybe a photo, too. I would love to have XM on my RT. Thanks, Crank No prob. I mounted a Roady XT utilizing a BMR co-pilot shelf and satellite radio arm. I would recommend using the Roady vs the Roady XT as the Roady is easily attached to the arm. The XT takes a bit of creative work to get it mounted. I have it attached to a amplirider to amplify the sound into my helmet speakers for higher speed riding like on trips and such. Around town I just unplug the amplirider and use the receivers build in FM modulator through the BMW radio and speakers. Works great. Here's a pic of my set up with the Roady xt on the left of the pic. The xm radio antenna is on right side atop the GPS with the larger GPS external antenna on the left.
Yukon Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 No problems with the stock unit on my 07. Auto volume works well and CD player is great. Radio picks up my Sat radio FM signal good too. Do you know your SV setting for the auto-volume? I've tried 1 and 2 and they are not what I need. Plan to try 3 the next time I ride. No, not sure of which SV setting I have set. Volume increases with speed and works for me.
Yukon Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. BTW, I've had no problems with my CD or radio, and my CD does play MP3 Cd's, too. I wish there were a plug in for my MP3 player though. Crank I do seem to remember a thread about attaching an IPOD to the factory radio using a part number sourced from BMW. Allows use of the handlebar controls if I remember correctly. Try this link: http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=331654&fpart=1
FLTRI Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The weather band is especially useful. Weather band? Geez, I keep hearing good things about this bike! OK. Where is the weather band? I've got the radio, but don't see any buttons for the weather band. I'll check the manual out, too. It's in the radio owner's manual. Pressing the AM button repeatedly alternates between AM and weather band. Hmmmm, I just tried it on my 05 radio. I don't seem to find a weather band toggling the AM button. I don't remember it being mentioned in the manual, and I'm too lazy right now to go dig it out. Maybe this feature wasn't on the 05's??? Disregard, I figured it out. When I was 'toggling', the radio would go into scan mode and I thought it was just searching the AM band. Turns out it was searching for a weather band. It finally stopped on channel two, and when it did I got the familiar computerized voice telling me that in July, Las Vegas is hot. Imagine my embarrassment...
Crank Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 >>>>I think that by "MP3 CD's" you probably mean CD's which contain MP3's that have been converted to the CD audio format, ending up with a little over an hour of music per disk, right?<<<< Yep, that's correct...not the "10 hours of music per disk" that you mention.
yempaul Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 The question is whether any of the CD players from BMW have that capability. Exactly... My CDs burned from large MP3 playlists read: "Disc Error" or somesuch when inserted into the RT unit. No sound, no playback, nada. I have the same problem too. But what I have been doing is turn it off immediately when I get the error message then turn it back on and then it'll play. I don't know why but it always works this way.
FLTRI Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 Nothing like a hijacked thread.... Look at it this way, you got three pages of folks interested in the topic, at least... As to your original question, I bought my RT used, and it already had the radio. I believe the radio is $1500 I seem to remember reading somewhere that the prep kit is around $400 but I think that is the price as an option from the factory. Adding the kit to a bike to add the radio seems somewhat redundant, IMHO... Try looking here BMW Parts for the radio, antenna, speakers etc. Part numbers and prices are quoted. As far as labor, I do all my own work. I would guess about 4 hours labor X whatever your shop charges per hour. My best guess to buy all the parts from BMW, and labor to install at around $2500 If it was me, I would try to either find a wrecked bike I could strip, or go aftermarket. There is a article on this forum about adding an aftermarket radio under FAQ's, but I think it was for an 1150??? Personally, I would not click the radio option box if I was ordering a brand new bike. It's kinda neat to have, but I cant hear it over 65 MPH anyway...
Dave_in_TX Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 Rather than spend the bucks for the BMW radio, I installed a Pioneer automotive unit and a wired marine remote control. I used information on this site to add adapters to the radio outputs to connect helmet speakers or ear bud speakers. Toyal cost was about $300.
Crank Posted July 20, 2008 Posted July 20, 2008 There have been a couple of times when my speakers/radio stopped playing anything at all while I was riding. No sound at all from the speakers. It took me a couple of times to figure it out, but apparently when the speakers get to a certain decible level that is going to damage the speakers, the speaker circuit shuts off to protect the speakers from damage. You have to turn the bike off, and back on, and it resets and works just fine. Anybody else experience this?
Jack90210 Posted July 20, 2008 Posted July 20, 2008 Anybody else experience this? Yes. I think that what happens is that when the radio is cranked up it draws more power than the CANBUS thinks is acceptable, and it shuts it off. I have found that by turning the bass down (which just makes the sound boomy at speed) I can prevent the shutdown from happening.
yempaul Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Anybody else experience this? Yes. I think that what happens is that when the radio is cranked up it draws more power than the CANBUS thinks is acceptable, and it shuts it off. I have found that by turning the bass down (which just makes the sound boomy at speed) I can prevent the shutdown from happening. Thanks for the tip John. I get that all the time. Will go easy on the bass.
hotroddon Posted July 22, 2008 Posted July 22, 2008 I did find a lose connection and now my auto volume is working well on SV-3. CD still skips on the smallesy irregularity in the road, ones I can't even feel. Think I'll take it back to Irv Seaver and see what they say.
Yukon Posted July 23, 2008 Posted July 23, 2008 Nothing like a hijacked thread.... Question asked; question answered. Just trying to help a bro out. Isn't that what the forums are all about??
tallman Posted July 23, 2008 Posted July 23, 2008 Anyone had the BMW radio and radio prep kit installed on a R1200RT. Cost for all parts and labor? Where did you get radio and who did the work? Satisfied? Thanks Cost? A lot. Value? Subjective. Many riders don't care to have a radio or ride around blasting music through speakers. Many more seem to want to listen to music, discretely, through earbud or helmet speakers. This has been covered in many threads. Add Sat of choice, run through mixer or intercom, voila. Much cheaper in cost, much better in sound quality, and you can move it to another bike. I prefer to couple the Sat Rad w/GPS unit so only 1 farkle to maount, then run it through my Autocom. This has worked well for years allowing both me and passenger to listen to music, cell phone, GPS, radar, B2B, w/out anyone else being bothered by it. Best wishes.
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