On the Road Again!

This is still my helmet of choice when I need to have the TomTom working and telling me where to go.  With lockdown it has been in the top of the wardrobe waiting to get out again. I have charged up the Bluetooth kit in case that day comes. Bought in 2016 before the Devall Boys trip to Czech for the MotoGP, it is still in excellent condition. As long as you are careful and don't bang them about. When I last wrote about it I said I was a little disappointed with the Bluetooth volume.  At around 70mph it is totally useless if you wear earplugs. And I do.  I contacted LS2 and asked if there was a firmware upgrade available to change the volume settings, but sadly there wasn't and isn't. I am amazed how many people spend hundreds of pounds on a helmet and then carry it, banging into people and harder things! Of course, I still have the Shoei Qwest as well as my "main" helmet.  It's a bit like have "Sunday Best" clothes that rarely get worn! I tend to we...

I charged the Cardo Teamset, or at least the rider unit. Oddly it is sticky and covered in fluff! A bit of soap on toilet paper and I managed to clean most of it off. I went out for a short, 52 mile, run around East Kent and wore my Shoei instead of the LS2. The LS2 has plumbed in Bluetooth to pick up the TomTom but the Shoei needs the Cardo tacked on the side. In the end I left the TomTom at home so will need to get it set up in the next week or so. It will need pairing with the 410 and that should be all. After all these years it looks as though the plastic case is starting to crack. A solution I have been told is clear nail varnish. I expect colour to work as well. posted from Bloggeroid

No sooner than I had found the Jabra's than Santa came with a new set of wireless headphones. They are in a rather fetching purple colour. Connecting them to my phone was very easy. The sound is very good and clear.  Unlike the Jabra set they don't have bright blue lasers lighting up all around.

Going through a box of electronic gear I came across these again, complete with the manual. It's been a while since I last used them. Some six hours of charging and I have been using them for a week now.  The last time I had them out was 2013! http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/jabra-bt620.html Over time the foam ear pieces have rotted away and so I took the remains off and binned them. I gave a new set coming for Christmas and so their reprieve from the bin might not be for long.

The helmet proved a good fit on the 1763 mile trip to the Czech MotoGP and back. The noise was no worse than my Shoei. The Bluetooth was easy to setup but at anything above 70mph not a lot of good. Far too quiet when you need some satnav instructions with junctions coming up. The volume simply isn't loud enough to work with a combination of wind noise and ear plugs.  With them out and testing the controls the systems own voice is pretty good. It's a shame as the main selling point of this kind of helmet is the Bluetooth.  Otherwise you may as well buy an alternative make or their own much cheaper model. Still a decent helmet but can't say I am not a little disappointed.

When we were in Spain last summer I used my Cardo Scala headset connected to my TomTom Rider everyday.  I did check the law in case it was different to the UK, but although there was something passed in 2003 aimed at the overuse of handheld mobile phones by drivers and drivers using iPod speakers in their ears, it seems it may have covered motorcycle use of the headsets. One of the many other motorcycling blogs I follow on blogspot is Gary France's " Flies in your Teeth " and he also brings up this subject.  Follow the link to see the full story. I have replied with what I had found out from RACE ( Real Automóvil Club de España ) but as yet he's not added my comment. The translation from Jorge at RACE is: "The Rules of the road says in Article 18 Section 2 of the following: "It is forbidden to use headphones or connected to receivers or sound reproducing apparatus, except during the corresponding teaching headphones and conducting try o...

Actually I don't know how many times I have visited and revisited the whole Cardo Scala subject. I surprised myself when doing a keyword search to find "cardo". Firstly that there were fewer blogs than I had thought and also how long ago some of them are! http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/bluetooth-revisted.html - this one from August 2007. So I guess it was about time I had another crack at it. I have a TeamSet that comes with a fully functioning rider headset and a second unit with less functionality; it will connect to a phone and act as an intercom to the other unit. It comes already paired. But we were never successful getting it to fit the Caberg flip-front J1S not my Schuberth C2; the biggest white elephant of my bike gear purchases. It's heavy and despite being so fantastic it, it steams up, fogs glasses and has to be ridden with the visor cracked for any ventilation. So the legendary "quietest helmet" claim is patentl...

Part of the prize when I won Rosie. The N43E came with the N-Com B1 Bluetooth system already fitted. Sadly, it seems that it won't pair with my Cardo Scala so we won't be able to talk to each other on long runs. Whether that is a hindrance or nor I don't know. However, it does connect to her iPhone 5C (the other part of the Rosie prize!) and as it supports A2DP protocol it can be used to listen to music from the iPhone. It took a little fiddling and reading and re-reading the booklet that was in the box before we had music. Luckily, Döra has a power supply on the left side of the rear seat to charge stuff! Looks like it may see some action! Some pix:

You know how it is.. You are doing some housekeeping; maybe vacuuming the house and you feel that such a boring job would benefit from a little music. But where to put your iPod? The wire always gets in the way whether you have it in a front pocket or maybe in a back one with the wires running up your back! What you need are wireless headphones. Some years ago I bought the Jabra BT620 headphones and they came with a small Bluetooth transmitter that fits into the power/output socket on the bottom of the iPod. They weren't too expensive and I used them for a while and then they ended up in a bag in the loft. Whilst up there over the weekend I found them, plus the handbook (usually lost!) and charged them up. The Jabra headset can have two connections at once, so once charged, I paired it to my iPhone and was able to listen to music and a podcast from there. My iPhone is a 3GS with just 8GB on memory and so I have very little on it as it fills up all to easily and gets...

Rather than write up what has happened so far in my Quest to get wireless between GPS and helmet I have copied the article I wrote for the BMW Club "Journal" here and added a few photos.   The original idea behind the search for a Bluetooth solution for my Quest GPS was entirely down to the fact that I kept getting off the bike and the wire between my helmet and the unit kept pinging off. As well as looking a prat (steady at the back!) there was always the paintwork jack plug interface to be avoided! The options seemed quite limited. There are loads of Bluetooth earpieces available that stick in one ear for phones, but try to get a helmet on with one of them in place! Not going to happen. So, the solution needed to be more motorcycle oriented. The beginning of a solution came on two fronts; one in a shop and the other on the Suzuki OC Kent Centre run to Ypres at Easter 2007. The first was when I called into Infinity in Holborn to pick up my Schuberth C2 after a minor repai...

I have been looking at the Cardo "Scala" Bluetooth headsets that are being advertised on the Net and that Ian, a Kent Centre SOC member, has a similar solution on his helmet. I can't afford a set any time soon as the Zegas have to be paid for (!) as well as the Isle of Man trip next week. I might drop into Infinity as they are listed as suppliers but I didn't see them when I was there a few weeks ago to collect the C2. I'm just concerned how they fit to the helmet as it claims there's no glue or screws involved. The price does seem to have come down a bit and they are now about £65 for each or as a set of two, called a Teamset, you can save a couple of quid. Another option is Interbike and this one is nearer £149 per set. I think this is the one that Ian has. Whilst these would solve the problem of communicating with my passenger and also give us both the ability to answer our phones, I have an older GPS that has wired output. I have had the Quest for over tw...