Alarm interference problems

Just got back from a weekend trip to France. We took the ferry from Portsmouth (in the UK) to St. Malo. I generally love weekends in france on the bike, however this was my first trip on a Vrod and it had a surprise waiting for me.

A few days later we rode like bandits to the French port in Cherbourg just in time to catch our ferry back to the UK.

I stopped for GAS at the Ferry terminal, and got a nasty cold wet surprise as we tried to light up the engine and ride onto the boat. I tried the key fob to turn off the alarm ... and nothing happened.

Ok cue panic, tried the other Key fob by SO olways carreis a spare set of keys incase I lose the primary set.... nothing happened.

OK start panic, stried the override procedure... alarm set off... try more override codes... no luck

Panic in full swing.. SO runns over to the ferry terminal to ask for help I call HOG and try again

...

nope you guessed it nothing, the happy little key light kept on flashing and the alarm kept goin off every time the bike moved or everytime I wasnt fast enough with the manual procedure. After a while the alarm just started makin a single beep and while flashing the indicators, like it was possessed.

Missed the ferry... what a pisser!

HOG assist showed up an hour later (not bad really), pushed the bike away from the gas station metal roof and is started. I kept it running until/ignition on until we could get onto another ferry (+ $150 ARGHHH). Once the bike was on the boat, turned off and tied down I tried the alarm again, no luck. Luckily the bike started once we got to Portsmouth and seemed fine when I parked it in London 2 hours later.

Called my dealer to get a new alarm unit. Turns out that this is a known problem, Vrod (maybe all HD) alarms don't work at some ports, at Crystal Palace in London, and at some locations near Heathrow. The tech put it down to radio interference.

I'll still take the bike in to get it checked out, but if true, then this is a pretty crappy alarm failure... having your bike just not start at a ferry terminal or airport is a huge problem.

:soapbox: So watch out all of you Euro bike riders, unlike the US spec bikes the HD international alarms **cannot** be switched off, they will **always arm** better keep the manual disarm code at the ready. That is if you wanna be able to ride up that ramp onto that boat.

So much for product testing. :spank:

rodman