Lifestyle Cycles Product Review: Aquatic AV Head Unit

 Today, we're going to talk about the Aquatic head units, both the 5T and the 5BT. These are great, bulletproof radios. It's kind of near and dear to my heart because, back in the day when I had my own company manufacturing detachable fairings, we used to have a radio made for us for those fairings and the factory touring bikes. Those radios ended up having some problems, and I started using Aquatic AV’s universal radios for the detachable fairings.

At some point, I went to Bob, the owner of Aquatic AV, and said, "Hey Bob, I need a radio for the factory fairing bikes. It's killing me; I've lost all these sales." So, Bob and I sat down and created an idea where we were able to make a radio for both the universal market and the spa world, which is a really big market for him. Then he took that same appearance, changed some electronics inside, put the Harley connectors on it, and now it was completely plug and play to work with all the factory hand controls and everything else. That was back in 2011. We've sold a ton of these, and I was actually really happy that I was able to bring this stuff in here to Lifestyle Cycles because we've sold a ton of these at my old company. It’s a great, tried-and-true, damn near bulletproof radio that you can throw in. It just plugs in; you don't need any special knowledge. There's nothing specialty about it.

This one is the entry-level 5BT. It has a really cool feature of a removable faceplate and a USB charger on the inside, so if you need to put your phone inside and charge it, you can. It does not transfer data, though, so it will not play thumb drives, and you can't plug your phone into it. Then you just pop the faceplate back on and make sure you hear two clicks, ensuring it's on there nice and tight. This one has a monochromatic screen, so you can see it no matter what the glare is or anything like that. It fits any factory fairing bike from 1996 through 2013. For the '96 and '97 models, I make an extra special plug that converts the older style connectors on those bikes. But you '96 and '97 guys, you can now have this radio.

It’s AM, FM, Bluetooth, and it has an auxiliary input on the back, so if you've got the old '96 through 2005 cassette player, throw that sucker in the trash. If you've got the '06 to '13 CD player that just has an aux cord and terrible sound quality, this is true Bluetooth. It has 2V RCA outputs, so you can add an amplifier to it really easily. One of the coolest things I really like about this radio is that it's waterproof.

Now that we’ve covered that, let's switch over to the upgraded head unit, the 5UBT, and I'll go over the options for that. So, we took the 5BT radio out. I'll show you how easy this goes in. Plug it in with the factory connector, and I'll come back and put the four bolts in that hold it on the side, just like the stock radio came out or the one we just took out. It lights right up.

Alright, now you can see we've got the 5UBT installed. This is a full-color screen that can actually be in a white mode or a dark mode, depending on your preference. Both radios have a dimmer feature if the brightness is too much while you're riding at night. Let’s go through some of the options on this radio. We can go into our menu, choose audio, Bluetooth, system settings, or EQ. Let’s go back to Bluetooth. One of the cool features is that I can toggle through all my different sources right here on the screen—radio, Bluetooth, or satellite radio.

I’ve got all my hand control functions—ability to change songs, etc. Everyone's always wondering if the hand controls work. Absolutely! No extra modules, no extra harnesses—it's directly plug and play. Alright, some other cool features on this radio that are a bit better than the 5BT: When this radio face comes off, it actually has a tray that comes out. You can open it up, and these little jaws will ratchet down and hold your phone. This USB on the inside allows you to plug your phone in and charge it, and it will also transmit data, so you can play music from the phone or put a thumb drive in there.

Another nice feature of the 5UBT is that it comes with a secondary faceplate. When you're away from your bike, you can just throw this on. It clips in just like the radio and has a nice trim piece that sits in there when you're away from your bike, so you don't have to worry about someone stealing your investment.

Alright, guys, to sum it up: these are the two Aquatic AV head units. I've loved them since 2011, since they came out. You’ve got to get one of these! Get rid of your cassette player, get rid of your CD player with an aux cord and terrible sound quality. This has 4V RCA outputs, plugs into an amplifier, or just runs on deck power if you want. It’s got more than double the power by itself compared to your factory Harley radio. So, if you do nothing else but this, it will be louder and cleaner going down the road. But keep in mind, if you want to hear at 80-90 mph, an amplifier is always recommended.

Aquatic AV also has a full line of amplifiers, speakers, 6x9 cutting kits, amplifier brackets—everything you need to complete your installation. If you buy the complete kit from us here at Lifestyle Cycles, we actually turn them into 100% plug-and-play for you. There’s a reason you want to come to Lifestyle Cycles. When you buy from Lifestyle Cycles, anything you purchase from us earns you 5% in Mega Bucks towards future purchases, and for orders over 50 bucks, you get free shipping. Order yours today and enjoy an upgraded sound system on your bike. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me, Kevin, or anyone here on the team. We’ll put a kit together for you.

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