Helmet Bluetooth
Discussion
Have thoroughly enjoyed my first week of bike ownership following a 15 year break despite the weather - thanks to those of you who contributed to my thread about improvements in armour whilst I've been in remission.
I'm interested in getting a Bluetooth headset in my helmet. Prices seem to range from £30 or so for an unknown brand Chinese thing to £200+ for a Sena setup. My needs are pretty basic - voice prompts from a Satnav app and answering the occasional call from my wife telling me to come home - I have no immediate need for pillion or group rider chat.
How much do I need to spend ?
My helmet is also in need of replacement - is it worth getting a Bluetooth prepared one with voids for a proprietary Bluetooth module ( Nolan?). Are the speakers under the headlining in non-Bluetooth ready helmets uncomfortable ?
I'm interested in getting a Bluetooth headset in my helmet. Prices seem to range from £30 or so for an unknown brand Chinese thing to £200+ for a Sena setup. My needs are pretty basic - voice prompts from a Satnav app and answering the occasional call from my wife telling me to come home - I have no immediate need for pillion or group rider chat.
How much do I need to spend ?
My helmet is also in need of replacement - is it worth getting a Bluetooth prepared one with voids for a proprietary Bluetooth module ( Nolan?). Are the speakers under the headlining in non-Bluetooth ready helmets uncomfortable ?
Seight_Returns said:
Have thoroughly enjoyed my first week of bike ownership following a 15 year break despite the weather - thanks to those of you who contributed to my thread about improvements in armour whilst I've been in remission.
I'm interested in getting a Bluetooth headset in my helmet. Prices seem to range from £30 or so for an unknown brand Chinese thing to £200+ for a Sena setup. My needs are pretty basic - voice prompts from a Satnav app and answering the occasional call from my wife telling me to come home - I have no immediate need for pillion or group rider chat.
How much do I need to spend ?
My helmet is also in need of replacement - is it worth getting a Bluetooth prepared one with voids for a proprietary Bluetooth module ( Nolan?). Are the speakers under the headlining in non-Bluetooth ready helmets uncomfortable ?
Congrats on getting back into it I'm interested in getting a Bluetooth headset in my helmet. Prices seem to range from £30 or so for an unknown brand Chinese thing to £200+ for a Sena setup. My needs are pretty basic - voice prompts from a Satnav app and answering the occasional call from my wife telling me to come home - I have no immediate need for pillion or group rider chat.
How much do I need to spend ?
My helmet is also in need of replacement - is it worth getting a Bluetooth prepared one with voids for a proprietary Bluetooth module ( Nolan?). Are the speakers under the headlining in non-Bluetooth ready helmets uncomfortable ?
I’m in the Sena camp. I use mine rarely, pretty much per the use you describe. Although when we did go out with the kids on Spyders we had open comms with 4 of us and they were great and very clear. I can’t really comment on cheaper systems to be fair.
I would say keep away from in built ones. With those you won't be able to easily upgrade if you outgrow yours or even if they break or anything. I have a Schuberth helmet and the Sena’s are imperceptible, you really don’t feel them. I’ve just upgraded mine from the 20s Sena which is excellent to the 10c evo Sena, which has a 4k camera. I do some longer trips with a group a couple of times a year and some of the views In Wales for example are spectacular and I wish I had a camera, it’s hard to stop in a group to take pics so with this you can capture the image at the press of a button which appeals to me. I don’t do video blogging or anything like that and I’m yet to try this in earnest as only upgraded at the NEC show just now!
I've just replaced a faulty Cardo Scala rider with a cheap ebay Freedcom unit and it's ok for the money, its loud enough to be heard at 60mph through earplugs and the usability is actually better than the cardo unit, I just use it for music and satnav instructions and for that it's pretty good for the 40 quid it costs.
Make sure your helmet has speaker cutouts though whatever you buy.
Make sure your helmet has speaker cutouts though whatever you buy.
I know 2 guys I ride with who initially bought a 30 quid jobby and tbh for 1 to 1 pairing, phone calls and sound quality they were very good
If that's all you need it's worth a try although theirs were a bit bigger than my system I use and had a lot of buttons on the side making it a bit less simple to use
If you want something more long term then do a bit of reading. The two main players I heard about were sena and cardo which is like saying iPhone and android
I went sena as did all my lot I ride with eventually and by far these are the best for what I want... Which could be very different to what you want
I had 4 years ago 2 Shark lids so bought smh10r for each. The battery lasted all day on tour and would be very good quality as a 3 way and OK on 4 way as long as all fairly close together
My latest LS lid has a later version of the same intercom but it's tiny and is on the helmet strap but it does the same thing and it's ultimately still Bluetooth
The next stage in tech is mesh. Some of my lot have upgraded to the 30k but it's too big and clumsy for me and not a patch on the slick minimalist look off the smh10r and integrated one on my latest lid
However sena are working on a new mesh system that looks very slick, small and what I'm after here : https://www.sena.com/product/50r
I'll let you do the reading up between Bluetooth and mesh but initially from what you said it sounds like a simple Bluetooth system would do what you need
What I can tell you though is this. I first got back into road riding after 10 years off in 2015, it wasn't until 2016 just before iom tt that a mate said why not try intercoms which we did... And having now used them I could honestly never go back to riding without them. They are simply THAT good
If that's all you need it's worth a try although theirs were a bit bigger than my system I use and had a lot of buttons on the side making it a bit less simple to use
If you want something more long term then do a bit of reading. The two main players I heard about were sena and cardo which is like saying iPhone and android
I went sena as did all my lot I ride with eventually and by far these are the best for what I want... Which could be very different to what you want
I had 4 years ago 2 Shark lids so bought smh10r for each. The battery lasted all day on tour and would be very good quality as a 3 way and OK on 4 way as long as all fairly close together
My latest LS lid has a later version of the same intercom but it's tiny and is on the helmet strap but it does the same thing and it's ultimately still Bluetooth
The next stage in tech is mesh. Some of my lot have upgraded to the 30k but it's too big and clumsy for me and not a patch on the slick minimalist look off the smh10r and integrated one on my latest lid
However sena are working on a new mesh system that looks very slick, small and what I'm after here : https://www.sena.com/product/50r
I'll let you do the reading up between Bluetooth and mesh but initially from what you said it sounds like a simple Bluetooth system would do what you need
What I can tell you though is this. I first got back into road riding after 10 years off in 2015, it wasn't until 2016 just before iom tt that a mate said why not try intercoms which we did... And having now used them I could honestly never go back to riding without them. They are simply THAT good
I have a pair of cheap Amazon sets which are easily good enough for phone calls, GPS and chatting with pillion. The Sena sets look lovely, but so far I'm happy enough with a cheapie.
Edited by NNH on Saturday 28th December 22:21
I've never tried the cheapies, I have a PackTalk Bold and it's the best bike related accessory I've ever bought. It's absolutely transformed the riding experience for me. I usually tend to ride with mates though and they all have the same intercom so we can talk whilst we ride. If you think you'll end up riding with mates then worth considering.
A group of 4 of us bought these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M1-S-Pro-2000m-Motorcyc... for a trip round the pyrennees. Intialy pairing is a bit awkward but once they were they perfomed faultlessly for the 10 days we were away. They pair to phones and sat navs fine (we had both tomtom and garmin dcevices in our group and the lead rider's satnav can be shared with the group. Battery life is good. For the price I think they are excellent.
There one downside (this applies to all comms ) the one in the group that sings LOL
There one downside (this applies to all comms ) the one in the group that sings LOL
I've got a Sena 20S and a cheapo 30 quid Freedconn and I prefer the Freedconn more, one of the speaker wires failed on the Sena so it intermittently goes on and off and most of the other features are quite gimmicky, for your use I think a cheap unit would be adequate. Only thing I liked more on the Sena was the ability to have radio station presets but you can solves most these issues by using phone apps instead + bluetooth rather than the unit's radio etc feature.
We've used the Scala Rider units on the Old Gits trips for the last few years and they've been great. Excellent bike to bike comms and great fun on the nice passes getting far enough ahead of the next rider to hear "Rider B disconnected". 
I use mine every day, linked to my sat. nav (which, in turn, is linked to my phone) and to my MP3 player. Sound quality is pretty good and clear enough to have phone calls a "brisk motorway speeds"!!!!
This year, most of the Old Gits had upgraded to the PackTalk units. They linked with my Rider but apparently some of the bridged connections to me weren't that good, although I could hear them clearly. I think that was a much about Scala "encouraging" everyone to upgrade as it was about the units themselves! I'm just about to fit a PackTalk unit for the coming season.
I use mine every day, linked to my sat. nav (which, in turn, is linked to my phone) and to my MP3 player. Sound quality is pretty good and clear enough to have phone calls a "brisk motorway speeds"!!!!
This year, most of the Old Gits had upgraded to the PackTalk units. They linked with my Rider but apparently some of the bridged connections to me weren't that good, although I could hear them clearly. I think that was a much about Scala "encouraging" everyone to upgrade as it was about the units themselves! I'm just about to fit a PackTalk unit for the coming season.
I wanted to jump in on this to ask a few questions...
As a group, do you all need the same make or do they pair with anything? I for example have a Nolan helmet so I’d like the unit designed for my helmet.
Once paired does it only turn in if you say something? Or if you have a heavy breathing mate do you just hear that the entire time!?
As a group, do you all need the same make or do they pair with anything? I for example have a Nolan helmet so I’d like the unit designed for my helmet.
Once paired does it only turn in if you say something? Or if you have a heavy breathing mate do you just hear that the entire time!?
black-k1 said:
We've used the Scala Rider units on the Old Gits trips for the last few years and they've been great. Excellent bike to bike comms and great fun on the nice passes getting far enough ahead of the next rider to hear "Rider B disconnected".
I use mine every day, linked to my sat. nav (which, in turn, is linked to my phone) and to my MP3 player. Sound quality is pretty good and clear enough to have phone calls a "brisk motorway speeds"!!!!
This year, most of the Old Gits had upgraded to the PackTalk units. They linked with my Rider but apparently some of the bridged connections to me weren't that good, although I could hear them clearly. I think that was a much about Scala "encouraging" everyone to upgrade as it was about the units themselves! I'm just about to fit a PackTalk unit for the coming season.
Make sure you get the JBL version. It is far superior to the standard version. We couldn't believe the difference. The std was like 2 tin cans without the string.... I use mine every day, linked to my sat. nav (which, in turn, is linked to my phone) and to my MP3 player. Sound quality is pretty good and clear enough to have phone calls a "brisk motorway speeds"!!!!
This year, most of the Old Gits had upgraded to the PackTalk units. They linked with my Rider but apparently some of the bridged connections to me weren't that good, although I could hear them clearly. I think that was a much about Scala "encouraging" everyone to upgrade as it was about the units themselves! I'm just about to fit a PackTalk unit for the coming season.
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