Harley Bagger Audio for South Los Angeles

AMS Pods is the Harley bagger-audio side of Audio MotorSports, 22025 S Avalon Blvd Ste A, CA 90745 — the same Avalon Boulevard that runs through South Los Angeles, just further down it. Eleven miles, twenty to twenty-five minutes, no freeway needed. Street Glide, Road Glide and Road King, built around the Hertz Neo speaker and a crash-bar bracket that comes with the pods.

South Los Angeles is 11.0 miles from the Avalon pin. Avalon Boulevard north-to-south surface the entire way, or Vernon and Slauson over to Avalon south to the pin. Twenty to twenty-five minutes on a bagger. The alternate is Central Avenue south to Rosecrans, then Avalon. Maps pin 22025 S Avalon Blvd Ste A, CA 90745.

South LA has as much car and bike culture per block as anywhere in the county, and it is the kind that gets built rather than bought. A bagger here lives on Central, Figueroa and Avalon at stoplight speed, and then takes the 110 down toward the harbour when there is somewhere to be. The two halves of that make opposite demands. At a light with people around, the bike is being judged on how clean it sounds and how finished it looks. At seventy on the 110 nobody can see it and the only question is whether you can hear anything at all.

AMS Pods start at $649 a pair. Chrome or gloss, crash-bar bracket and screws included, built to order in-house, about three weeks. Nothing gets invented beyond $649 a pair — the rest of a build is quoted on your bike at the counter. A full bagger build is usually up to about ten business days in the shop.

Richard makes them in Carson, in-house since 2003 and in the trade since 1998. That is the reason a pod looks made rather than adapted, which in a neighbourhood where people can tell the difference is not a small thing. Hertz Neo goes inside — small neodymium magnet, weatherproof, clear at volume. Street Glide and Road Glide take a fairing amplifier and a tank pull. On a Road King the pods carry the job and the amplifier lives in a bag on a carpeted board with an AMS quick disconnect.

Street Glide, Road Glide and Road King. Harley radios in the shop are Diamond Audio, plus Sony and Soundstream. Bag bass is the part people look at closely here — cut lids, concave drilling, carpeted spacers, inverted speakers, soldered quick disconnects and lock ties. Finished properly it holds up to somebody crouching beside the bike at a light, which is the only inspection that matters on this stretch.

There is a lot of half-finished bagger audio on these streets, and it usually failed for the same reason: the parts were right and the mounting was improvised. A speaker held on with a bracket meant for something else moves, and a speaker that moves sounds worse every month until somebody decides the speaker was the problem. Pods that are made for the crash bar, with the bracket and the screws in the box, do not develop that problem — the mounting is the part that was designed rather than the part that was worked around.

A bike that sounds clean at a stoplight and is still audible at seventy on the 110. Mounting that was designed rather than improvised. Bag work finished to be looked at. Weatherproof pods. Nothing showing along the frame. And the whole trip is a straight run down the same street you are already on.

Straight down Avalon, or Vernon and Slauson to Avalon south — 11.0 miles, twenty to twenty-five minutes, no freeway. AMS Pods from $649 a pair, about three weeks built to order. The mounting is the part that fails when it is improvised.

Same bay, same trip. Car audio is LA Car Beats at lacarbeats.com — plenty of cars here already have a half-finished system that needs redoing properly. Window tint is LA Car Tint at lacartint.com — 3M Authorized Dealer, Solar $249 and Solar Ceramic $329 installed. Vehicle security is LA Car Alarm at lacaralarm.com — a built car at the kerb.

Monday through Saturday, 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Sunday closed, walk-ins welcome. Pods are about three weeks built to order, so the first visit is a measurement and a conversation rather than an install. Nick writes the quote, Zack runs the floor. A Payment Plan is available at the counter once the bike is quoted. Google shows 4.8 from 654 reviews.

If your bagger runs Avalon and Central, keep going south on the same street — and bring the mounting problem that everybody else worked around. Call or text (310) 513-8800 and ask for Nick. 22025 S Avalon Blvd Ste A, CA 90745.