Who uses Bluetooth?

[Hank]

I am considering a Bluetooth device for me and my wife, though my bike budget is about exhausted for a bit.

Sena seems to be the best known, I see there are also brands named Interphone, Cardo, Scala.

Some are water proof, some are not. As best I can tell the more you spend the longer the communication range and the more people you can link to.

What are your experiences?

 

[jggassert]

I have Sena SMH10's for our bell helmets. They work great. She can listen to her music or we can share from one devices, comms are clear. I also utilize the Sena GP10 for the GoPro. Zero complaints and they have held up to some wicked downpours.


Primum non Nocere

 

[zirconx]

I bought a pair of Sena 20S's. That is their top model. I paid a little over $400 for the pair. They are amazing. So many features packed into a tiny box. The battery lasts all day. The audio quality is excellent.

I have a friend who has an older one, they are not as good voice quality as the 20S. When I talk to him it sounds noticeably different than when I talk to other 20S users. The range on the 20S is better also.

 

[dduelin]

I started with a Scala Rider Q2 which had phone voice and bike to bike comm but no Bluetooth music so I moved on to a Sena SMH5-FM. Very happy with this unit and still have it on another helmet. I would ride beyond the battery life of 5 or 6 hours though and sometimes had to do without or charge it on the fly so I moved on to the Sena 20S. It has noticeably better music fidelity and long battery life. The Senas are easy to use.

 

[GunNut37086]

I debated about which to buy too and found an auction for a brand new Sena 10S on eBay that was about to end with 0 bids. Knowing what I know now about this model, I'd still be happy if I had to pay $175 on Amazon. I'd rather have gotten the 20s, but I was still farkling my bike at the time and didn't have the scratch.

I commute 45 minutes each way to work and listen to audiobooks both ways. From what I hear that's the biggest drain on the battery. I have to charge it every 3 days, but I went almost 4 days once, but it went dead on the way home. I also use it a lot for the FM radio on weekends and when I'm between audiobooks. I'm quite impressed with the sound quality. It has way better speakers than I expected, but a lot of that depends on how quiet your helmet is and whether you have speaker cutouts in the helmet foam. They are a little tinny and there isn't much bass, but that's fine for my usage.

I haven't had a chance to ride in a group yet, but hope to soon. Hopefully someone else will have a Sena so I can try the intercom.

Hope that helps

 

[Hank]

Thanks for the information.

 

[bamamate]

Sena 10R here. Works great and would buy again. Listen to music, paired with others, talk on the phone. does it all nicely.

 

[Old Can Ride]

All the blue tooth communication systems seem to work great. I have use a few different brands over the years, and all have worked great.

 

[Grey1one]

I have the Sena 10U which fits inside my Neotec helmet, I connect to phone and GPS only since I'm the only one in the groups I ride with that has it.
The FM is good until you get into the mountains. I have a bunch of music loaded on the Garmin.

 

[DC-Honda]

There are also some inexpensive Chinese brands out there which supposedly work quite good.
I have one that from "buyee" and use it just for music from the phone and occasionally for navigation and I'm very pleased with it.

 

[turbodieseli4i6]

A Sena SMH10 user here. Love them and would opt for the 20 the next time around.

 

[Nofxguy]

Agree with Sena, I have the SMH10R and its great. Listen to music, occasional call, navigation and chatting to a mate when we ride together. Battery lasts pretty well too. Im tossing up upgrading to the newer 20s at some point if mine decides to die. SMH10R - Sena

 

[670cc]

Sena SMH10 here. The wife and I use them for bike to bike communication when on scooters. I had to find something simple to operate or it would not go well with the wife. These work well, although I have not tried any other units.

 

[OneGun]

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but I've been wanting a good BT system for a while. But can you just get any one and assume that it will fit in the helmet you have? How do they install? Do they get semi-permanently installed in your helmet?

How does that all work?

 

[supertux1]

Do you guys have any issue with putting the helmet into the frunk with the SENA plastic stuff hanging off the side?

I'm about to pull the trigger on the 10U, which goes inside the Shoei Neotec.

 

[frozenpoet]

Most either clamp to the side or sticky tape. The last time I had a helmet that could fit in the frunk it didn't cause any issues.

I had a set of cheap ones from Amazon that were $100 for the set, they worked great until they didn't. Things died pretty quick.

I have the sena 10c and have no real complaints. Always having a camera with you is nice.

 

[mreric]

i use a Sena 10R- i like the separate battery feature of it.

 

[L.B.S.]

I have a Sena 3SW in my Icon Variant helmet.

Had to scoop out a wee bit of the very thick Styrofoam in the ear pockets, in order for the speakers to counter sink into.

Very slimline and non obtrusive. I don't have to take my helmet off now if I pull over to make/receive a phone call, but 99.99% of the time I don't make phone calls when I'm riding, I just don't like the distraction.

I strictly got this model of Sena because I wanted in helmet speakers to listen to music or audiobooks occasionally, not for phone or intercom use.

I still wear earplugs (in fact the sound is sucky without earplugs) and it's all good up to about 70 mph before the wind noise is a bit too loud, and I don't want to crank the volume fully.

Dislike having earbud type speakers in my ears under a helmet, and also precludes the use of earplugs that way, unless going to a much more expensive earbud/plug combo, which I do not want.

I can hit the two little rubber buttons on the side pod mounted to the helmet for everything like volume up/down/track fwd/rev and so on, but I found buying a little compatible Bluetooth remote (cheap $10.00 generic ebay thing that allows for remote phone camera activation, plus music controls) and sticking that onto my left handlebar area works easier than poking at my helmet with gloves on.

So my iPhone is paired to the Sena, and the Remote is paired to the iPhone.

Feels a bit weird to plug in my helmet to a USB charger lol. A charge lasts about 7-ish hours.

Works great

 

[L.B.S.]

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but I've been wanting a good BT system for a while. But can you just get any one and assume that it will fit in the helmet you have? How do they install? Do they get semi-permanently installed in your helmet?

How does that all work?

This is the one I have

3S - Sena

 

[OneGun]

This is the one I have

3S - Sena

So do the speakers velcro into your helmet? If so, do they just stay in your helmet?