Helmet and comms device

[Blade]

Hi I am looking to buy a new motorcycle helmet that has Bluetooth capability, allows me speak to my passenger and listen to the radio while cruising down the road. Most important works well with the Spyder hookup. What are you wearing to accomplish this? What does the forum recommend?

Thanks. I will wait to hear your replies.

Blade

[Pennyrick]

We use the SENA headphone set up. The SENA SPH10 is used for half helmets. My wife wears a Scorpion and I use a Fulmer. The SENA units attach by use of a steel strap that slides between the interior lining and the shell of the helmet and the speaker units fit into the area where the strap attaches to the helmet.

The bluetooth signal to the SENA units is transmitted from the Spyder sound system to the helmets using a SENA SM10 dongle and Motorcycle Dave offers those units for sale along with the cord that plugs into the Spyder sound system to the SM10 device.

My SM10 is velcroed inside the back case. It is battery operated but is continually recharged from the Spyder's system.

The battery life on the helmet unit is about 8-10 hours and it recharges overnight.

The bluetooth hierarchy of the system is in the following order.... music (radio or iPod), overridden by intercom, overridden by cell phone, overridden by GPS.

Volume controls are at the side of the helmet unit while the station, music selection, playlist, etc are located on the left control module on the handlebars.

[bcoulter19]

I have the Sena 20S and have had them on both a shoei RF 1100 Fullface and my current Shoei Neotec Modular and it works great on both helmets. So, if you like your current helmets just get the sena system and you can move between helmets when you need to get new ones.

Bill C.

[BikerDoc]

The Sena 20S made major leaps and bounds in progress with noise reduction.. When I had the smh10, if someone rode with the shield up a little the wind noise was unbearable. recently I rode with a friend with both 20S s and he was riding with his shield all the way up and I did not even notice.
Also little tidbit. if you have more than one helmet - I have a full face modular for cold and heavy rain season and a 3/4 open face the rest of the time - you can get an extra mounting bracket on Amazon.com for about $70 so you can move the SENA back and forth between helmets in seconds as you need to change

[Chupaca]

best is to get the helmet you really want and best protects you then work on the comms. We use the Scala G9's which work great. Radio FM, mp3, intercom, GPS, phone and 8 other ryders. But start with safety first...

[Carold571]

I also use the scala g9 and love it. I programed it to call my husband while riding with a touch of a button. The quality is great.

[ARtraveler]

The advice about good helmet first, then communicators second is right on.

That said, we use Nolan N43's for our Sena SMH10 communicators. They mount very well. They do NOT mount on my Nolan N44. The lip is to big.

The Sena units are well used by members on SL because of their long charge up time, and their quiet and mostly trouble free operation.

I have used Nolan N-com, Cardo, and Chatterbox brands and find--IMO--the Sena to be the best so far. Season three now with my current Sena set up.

[NorCalBud]

We also use Sena SMH10. They work GREAT and highly recommend them! I use full face and the wife 3/4 helmet. The sound strength, clarity and ease of use is fantastic. We didn't want to spend the extra$$ for the S20's because we'd only be speaking with any other ryders and didn't need that feature or extra distance. The battery time is tremendous as well.
We had Uclear hbc100 plus, but we couldn't understand each other at 40+ mph. We tried several mount positions with no luck, so don't recommend them.
Ryde Safe!

[pitzerwm]

I bought 2 Torc helmets with Blinc, 1 arrived DOA, replaced, both communications failed in a week or so and no money back just credit, as they stopped selling that brand (Leatherup.com) Wrote Torc, no answer, went to Blinc's site, NO WAY to communicate with them.

Obviously, I'd go another direction.

I have now gone with the SMH10 units.

[docrtom2015]

Wah is the best way to sync blue tooth helmets and radio, together? RT 2015 Limited.

[BlueLghtning]

The Sena SMH10's have long been proven, are very reliable, have great battery life, are easy to use and work great. The newer Sena 20S add a few more features (like actually being able to talk on the intercom while you listen to music), but they had a few growing pains early on. Most have been worked out on later batches or firmware upgrades, but I still see some issues popping up.

We are pretty heavily invested in the Sena SMH10's with about 10+ mounts for all our various helmets and just move the units around. I've played around with the 20S and like it, but we'll stick with the 10's for a while longer.

[bcoulter19]

Also, I had the cardo scala 4's and when I got a bluetooth dongle on my 2013 RTS they wouldn't pair with it. That is why I got the Sena 20's since the device on the spyder is a sena. If you have the bluetooth on the spyder the sena works great and the sound to me is better than when I was using my cardo to just connect to my phone before I got the bluetooth.

Just my 2 cents.

Bill C.

[Blade]

Thanks to all who replied to my question. I will look at all systems. I forgot to mention that I use a 3/4 helmet. Also this unit will be going on an RT-S Spyder but I don't think that matters. I hope I can meet you at a future Spyder Event. Thanks again.

[tofriendscreek]

I chose Nolan helmets and use their N-Com system, with BT. I can do it all via the buttons on my helmet. Battery life is 10-12 hours. It's in its 4th year and I love it.

[finless]

The 20S units have increased battery time by leaps and bounds!!!

I got home one day abouyt 3:00 PM and forgot to turn my 20S off. I can out the next morning and it was still on and had over ha;f the batter time left! I rode into work no issue.

One of these days I am going to test the total battery time and see what it is but just that test was over 18 hours!

Bob

[BlueLghtning]

The 20S units have increased battery time by leaps and bounds!!!

I got home one day abouyt 3:00 PM and forgot to turn my 20S off. I can out the next morning and it was still on and had over ha;f the batter time left! I rode into work no issue.

One of these days I am going to test the total battery time and see what it is but just that test was over 18 hours!

Bob

Although I have not made a direct comparison, in real world use, all of us with the 10's seem to long out last our buddy with the 20S unit.

Standby mode is very low on the battery usage on any of the units. They all do a good job there. The true test is amount of time staying in intercom mode or listening to music, both which drain the battery faster. Also if you are a bridge between 2 units, the battery drain will be higher on that unit. I also think some of the HD audio settings on the 20S also tend to use up the battery faster.

I've stayed manually connected to my wife for 8-10+ hrs with no issues and or listened to music that long without getting the low battery warning on our 10's. I know on an early 20S unit my buddy had, he kept having having to charge this throughout the day, but that unit ended up being defective and he sent it back. If we ride as a group though with a couple of us being the bridge to other units, we know that the bridge units will take the bigger hit on the battery life, but regardless usually we can still make it through 8+ hours connected without too much issue.

[Motorcycle Mama & Papa]

Both hubby and I use the zoozmc.com ZB-6100 communication system, and we are totally happy with it. We have used our Scala G4 only once and found it complicated. With the ZB-6100 we can communicate with up to five others if we choose to. We have 3/4, full face and modular helmets and the systems works well on all going at high speeds. The noise resolution is great. We purchased extra brackets, microphones and speakers for all helmets so we can switch the Bluetooth to the other helmets when we want. They are simple to install. We had the system on on a trip for at least nine hours and still had juice left. When I have the GPS and music going the music pauses automatically for the GPS directions then automatically resumes back to the music. If we want to communicate at any time all we do is talk. I haven't used my phone through the system as of yet. The customer service is top shelf, and the cost of the unit is extremely reasonable compared to other units out there.

[baileydale]

My wife and I also use the zooz.mc unit and it's fantastic. We also have extra Mike's and ear pieces and swapping from our full face to our half helmets is a one click deal. At 70 on the interstate in our half helmets we can still talk bike to bike. The background noise suppression is nothing short of amazing. She has a radio on her stl and I can hear it super clear through her Mike with no wind noise. The owner of ZOOZ is great to work with as well.

[dsoileau]

My wife and I use the UClear 200 model for helmet-to-helmet and bike-to-bike communication, and we like the quality. After thousands of miles of test rides we encountered our first problem, and it was the oddest source — the manufacturer. A firmware upgrade created a whole range of problems, feedback, hiss, etc. UClear immediately provided the roll-back firmware program, which worked, and our adding their newer Pro speaker/mic set took the quality to a whole new level. We ride with component helmets, and the new speaker/mic eliminated wind generated sounds.

My solo experience with the UClear, Garmin 650, and iPhone 5C has been interesting. I hope someone else is using a similar setup and can offer advice on getting these devices to work together in a controlled, or, at least, expected manner. Having phone calls automatically routed thru the Garmin to the UClear surprised me the first time. ("Um, . . . , Hello?") The Garmin navigation thru the UClear works really well, and I'm getting familiar with BaseCamp and trusting it more on rides.

Anyone using a handlebar touch-to-talk with a control module wired to phone, MP3, CB, short-band, etc., connected to a bluetooth head set? I'm wanting advice on adding to my setup.

Thanks,
Dan

[SL Ken]

Has anybody tried to use the Sena 20s with a Nolan N104? I have heard that they won't fit, but wanted to get that helmet.