Hogtunes Speakers And Dakota Digital Gauges

7. With the fairing still off, James moved on to swapping out the stock gauges for Dakota Digital's MCL-3006OT (MSRP $1,199.95). The kit is a complete 6-gauge.	8. Here's a look at the stock, analog, white-face gauges. The ambient air temp gauge on the lower left is nice to have, but bottom line is when it's hot, you know it, when it's cold, you know it, and when it's average you don't care. The air temp gauge will be replaced with a more useful oil temp gauge.	9. Removing each gauge was pretty straightforward; James simply discon-nected the wiring and then unbolted the gauge from the inside of the inner fairing.
10. The stock gauge was then pushed through the front of the fairing and removed. Then the Dakota Digital gauge was installed and bolted into position.	11. To make installation as easy as possible and to minimize any confusion, each gauge is marked on the back, identifying whichstock unit it replaces.	12. Also, each gauge has a connector to work with the stock wiring. James plugged in thecorresponding sensor to each gauge. There is a smaller connector (arrow) on each gauge; this is to supply power forthe LED in each gauge.
13. The only modification (very minimal) James hadto do was install the oil temp senderplug/wiring. The plug and wiring came with the gauge kit.	14. The oil temp sender replaces the stock oil drainplug and threads into the oil pan.James routed the plug wires from theoil pan up through the middle of the frame/seat area. Then he loosened the gas tank, fed the wires under the gas tank along the backbone and up into the inside of the fairing.	15. After connecting the wiring to the oil temp gauge, James removed the oil pan drain plug andinstalled the oil temp sender.
16. The installation was then complete; all that was left to do was turn the bike on and calibrate each gauge.	17. Dakota Digital supplies a very thorough instruction manual, which explains operation and calibration of each gauge. Here James is calibrating the tach. You can see that the tach also has a gearindicator, a nice addition that wasn't available with the stock gauges.	18. You can really have some fun and gain usefulinformation with the additional datafeatures these gauges offer, such as 0-60 time, 1/4 mile time, 1/4 mile per hour, and high speed recall. They also display cruise on and cruise engaged, security, ABS, and check engine lights. The indigo blue LEDs are very easy to read at night (and actually self dim at night for a softer glow) as seen here.
19. With the fairing back together, James took the bike for a ride on the highway. He said with direct sunlight hitting the gauges they were still very bright and easy to read. He also told us that even with his full-face helmet on, he could hear the Hogtunes speakers clearly, with no crackling or distortion. He didn't even have the radio turned all the way up.