bluetooth intercom recommendations please

[SafetyThird]

Hi all, been meaning to get the bike sorted since it failed it's MOT last year on a seemingly simple 'brake light not working' issue. Been so busy this year I've only just got to investigating it and discovered that mice have got under the tank and eaten through the wires for the brake lights, satnav, riding lights and autocom wired intercom.

rewiring seems like an option to investigate bluetooth intercoms and it seems like Sena, inter phone and Cardo are the ones to look at. Given the number of folks on rideouts here, I figured I'd ask to see what folks use and like. Most of the time, I'll likely be riding alone so it's more for listening to music from my phone and directions from phone or Garmin satnav but if there's a rideout it seems to make sense to add that option while I'm at it.

I should add that I want to be able to use custom earbuds with the system so need that ability to just plug mine in instead of proprietary connections

Would appreciate folks suggestions. Thanks.

[Ming]

I use a Sena SMH10, which can pair with up to 3 other Sena units. I'm surprised more people in the SWB don't use them, as the ability to chat while you're riding without having to stop and shout above the noise of the engine when there's something needing discussing, is very welcome. Also helpful to let following riders know of potholes, gravel etc. Mine's streaming music most of the time but talking with others makes long rides pass a lot quicker.
Friends of mine have changed to the Cardo units but I can't justify another £200 when the Sena is working fine.

[Jug]

I have an ebay cheapy and love it (FreedConn).
I even made up and external battery holder to give it massive run time.

I'm thinking I might upgrade to Senna this winter.

[Bilko1000]

Sena SRL2 integrates with a Shoei GT Air 2 if you have the lid.

[billinom8s]

I like the sound of the engine.

I'm old, old skool, old fashioned and old minded. I put my plugs in, remember the route and enjoy the sound of the engine. Last thing I want to be doing when riding is listening to people let alone talking to them, that's what the snack wagon is for.

For music I sing to myself and that's so scary that it encourages me to get on with the ride to get away from the noise.

You can have too many distractions when riding along, the need to talk, listen to satnag or worry on playlists whilst already performing a hazardous operation in hostile conditions for me does not compute.

But that's me, like I said, I'm old.




And apparently grumpy.

[ptolemyx]

I'm with Simon and I'm not old....



...just grey

[Jug]

I was reluctant to wear ear plugs but I could tell my hearing was being hurt so I started wearing them, and it was great.
Problem was that the low background tinitus I have was suddenly more noticeable due to the earplugs.

I was also reluctant to have music via an intercom but my mate kept telling me how nice it is so I gave it go, and it was great.
Not only does it mask the tinitus but it makes solo rides much better, which is probably why I now enjoy riding alone so much.

I find the music doesn't distract me when riding, it's just background noise. I can still hear traffic and my engine. When going fast I mostly can't hear the music over the wind noise.
Only time I have to turn it off is if someone wants to talk to me, but frankly that's pretty futile through and a crash helmet and earplugs, but is fine if via the intercom.

[SafetyThird]

Thanks for all the replies, very interesting hearing folks thoughts. From my point of view, these are things I've found I like or were useful from having in helmet comms:

I've been listening to music in my helmet for 40 years since taking apart a headset for my tape walkman when I was doing long rides to visit my folks in Ireland and then doing long distance courier work when the miles of motorway were extremely tedious. I like having music when I ride. I don't bother on short rides but when I used to come back to Devon late on a Friday night after a week working in London, some tunes were a great accompaniment to boring motorway miles in the dark.

Satnav input is handy, particularly in towns when you don't have to keep looking down at the map but can keep your eyes on the traffic around you. I spent years with an A-Z strapped to the tank bag hurtling round cities with a radio on my shoulder, trying to listen to whatever new job the controller was throwing at me and figure out where I was going all while dodging the homicidal maniacs in BMW's .

Bike to bike came about when I taught my then girlfriend how to ride and being able to just throw a quick comment made things much easier. Back in the 80's I was a Star Rider instructor and stopping was a useful way of taking a break and going over things but you had to remember every fault each person had made and then go through them. A long while later I was introducing a friend who was fairly new to riding to the concept of advanced riding. If I'd had bike to bike comms then it would have been a stream of 'what the [censored] are you doing, not not on the white line round a blind right hander, for fucks sake pull over!!!' A ten minute ride giving a running commentary of what I was doing would have made that a lot easier though probably would have consumed less coffee

At the end of the day, you can always hit the off button but having the options has, at least for me, been really useful over the years.

I'll take a look at the Sena and Cardo units, interesting that people seem to be changing from one to the other, I wonder what's better on the Cardo sets that make people change.

[Ming]

I think it may be that the Cardo has a better range, although pairing them is just as much of a faff as on the Sena. 6 of us had them in Spain and the best we could get was 3 lots of two people connected. We did get 4 at one point but when a 5th rider pressed the button it cut everyone off. When it does work it's excellent.
They've been invaluable whilst trying to get my wife back into biking, where I can point things out and calm her down when she's riding - I couldn't do that if we weren't connected.
I have some silicon earplugs that have a small tube inserted through the middle, so all normal traffic sounds etc come through above the noise of the music. I've done some big trips and the time flies if you can talk bobbins with someone else

[billinom8s]

I saw a thing online today saying that the new software version of cardo allows you to talk with sena units.

What next, gixxers being sociably acceptable.

[jer r1]

I use wired custom earplugs (mercury) with my cardo unit. I found it works best with a y piece connected between the headset and the speakers. I pluged a coil lead into the spare outlet that enabled simple connection of the earplugs after the helmet is on. Used a Sena for one winter but found it was affected by water ingress so switched to cardo which has been faultless for the last five years. I also run the shouter app on my phone which reads out any text messages you receive whilst riding, avoiding the need to stop and check phone when alert sound.

[menzies3032]

I got myself an X-Lite helmet a while back and there for got the N-Com system to go in it. Was not cheap but has been a good system. One thing that I will mention is when I have been riding and speaking with others my system is loud enough to here what others are saying to me at 60mph but if I speak back to them their systems speakers are not loud enough (with ear plugs) to hear what I am saying.

So think maybe a comment I would say is you get what you pay for and if you do by a cheap one you might have issues at higher speeds.

Like others have said personally I don’t want to listen to music when riding but it is very good for intercom and sat nav commands.