Delphi SA10035 Roady XM Satellite Radio Receiver
How to make motorcycling across Kansas on I-70 bearable
My wife bought the Roady for me for my birthday in anticipation of a three-week motorcycle tour through the West.<br>I had it installed by Sean Franklin of Cyclegadgets.com, using a Hoon mounting bracket that secures the Roady to the top of the brake fluid reservoir on the right side of the handlebars of my '03 BMW K1200GT. The mount has a little platform where the magnetic-based antenna sits and the power source is hard-wired into the bike's accessory plug.<br>I use custom molded in-ear monitors made for me by an audiologist, so they deliver stereo sound while acting as earplugs to block much of the external wind noise.<br>Sean initially thought I would need to run the Roady signal through a radio or a Boostaroo amplifier. However, when I plugged my in-ear monitors into the Roady I was surprised to discover the signal was actually a bit too loud. As a consequence, I'm running an in-line volume control between the Roady and the monitors to back the volume off a bit. You can also use the &quot;menu&quot; button to access an output volume control.<br>I'm writing this from a friend's home in Alma, Colo., some 10,680 feet above sea level, having spent two days on the road from my home in Indiana.<br>I've made this ride many times, but this was the most pleasant ever, thanks to the Roady and XM satellite radio. The best way I can think of to describe the sound quality is &quot;ear candy.&quot; The traffic/weather channel for St. Louis helped me avoid delays and the incredibly diverse music and talk offerings kept me from being bored at any point during the 1,300-mile journey.<br>The Weather Channel forecasts were especially nice to have, since weather is a major issue for long-haul motorcycle touring.<br>At my age (59 next week), I need reading glasses for close-in small reading, but I found the Roady display was quite easy to read without my glasses. Likewise, the controls are easy to work with a gloved hand.<br>(The unit comes with three sets of decorative trim - red,blue and silver faceplates and edging. I found the edging wouldn't stay put and interfered with my operation of the channel selector knob in the upper right corner of the unit, so I removed the edging.)<br>Cyclegadgets.com also has a rain cover for the Roady. Also, the unit is easy to unplug and stow in a tank bag, saddlebag or pocket if you're worried about rain or theft while you're away from the bike.<br>I expected to lose the satellite signal coming up U.S. 24 through the canyons from Colorado Springs, but it never faltered. About the only time I dropped the signal was under a gas station awning.<br>During the few pre-trip days that I had the Roady, I used it in the car and my wife immediately became an XM convert, so I expect there's another Roady in our future once I return home. Fortunately, XM has a family plan that lets you add units to your account for an additional $6.99/unit instead of the base monthly rate of $9.99.<br>The Roady is more compact than the Delphi SkyFi and way smaller than the Sirius receiver I watched a mechanic install on a Gold Wing.<br>Prior to the Roady, I'd used a Sony MiniDisc player with several hours of MP3 music I recorded from my collection. I ended up carring the player and maybe 20 discs, which took up a lot of space in my tank bag. I left that all behind on this trip.<br>XM gives me access to a nearly infinite variety of music, including a lot of new stuff I would never hear otherwise.<br>So, if you're a touring motorcyclist looking for a way to ease the tedium of hours on the superslab, the Roady may be the answer for you too.   ***********************************************   July 27, 2004:   I just returned from my 6,000-mile motorcycle ride through the West and have some observations to add.   I got caught in a rainstorm in southern Idaho and couldn't pull over before the Roady got a little wet. The moisture caused the buttons to stop working. The good news is that once I got beyond the rain into hot, dry desert air, itdried out quickly and returned to normal functioning with no apparent ill effects.   Loss of signal was very rare - sometimes when a large semitrailer truck was close enough to block the line-of-sight angle to the satellite and when in a deep canyon or a tunnel. (I missed a couple of minutes of the long version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida while going through Glenwood Canyon and its tunnel system on I-70.)   Among the details I found useful was the &quot;tune select&quot; feature: When you hear a song you think you'd like to hear again, you can select it by pressing the little wheel in the upper right corner. That puts it into memory and the next time it's played on any of the music channels, the unit will beep and ask if you want to switch to that channel. You can ignore it, or press the wheel to go hear your song.   If you hear a new song that you'd like to know more about later, press the &quot;memory&quot; button and it will memorize the artist and title - a handy feature since it's kinda dangerous to be scribbling notes on a motorcycle at 70 mph.   The original Roady is being blown out at discount prices now, since the Roady2 is coming out. The units are physically identical - the only difference I can discern from the promotional material is:   1. The Roady2 has an built-in FM modulator that puts out a signal your car radio can receive, eliminating the need for a separate modulator. Even so, hardwiring or the cassette adaptor deliver better results, and   2. The Roady2 has a personalized stock ticker that will display up to 20 stock quotes.   Those features are pretty much irrelevant to the way I use the Roady, but you might find one or both worth waiting for the Roady2.