Inline Performance Magazine |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2011 10:00 PM PDT |
Hey guys, Graham here with more great gear for our Essential Stuff section.
Anyone who has regularly commuted on a motorcycle will be quick to tell you the highlights—easy parking, less time stuck in traffic, and the freedom to use California's carpool lanes, just to name a few. But for someone who is used to the cushy luxuries of commuting in a car, making the daily journey to work or school on a motorcycle can feel like quite a Spartan experience: No radio, no phone, no music, just you and the machine.
Fortunately, Sena addresses all those concerns and more with their SMH10, a Bluetooth-enabled stereo headset and intercom designed specifically for motorcycles. The SMH10 retails for around $220, which might seem a bit steep, but you do get a lot of extras in the box. Your two bills get you two headset and speaker units, two wall chargers, two car/cigarette lighter chargers, all the necessary cords and plugs, and hardware for several mounting options.
When used as an intercom, the SMH10 allows for 2-way communication between up to four other headset-equipped riders or passengers. Additionally, the device can be used as a hands free headset for any Bluetooth-enabled mobile device, including nearly any modern cell phone and many GPS navigation units. How cool would it be to have turn-by-turn directions right inside your helmet? Finally, for older devices that aren't Bluetooth-ready, the SMH10 can connect to any device with a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack. If you can listen to it using headphones, you can listen to it right in your helmet with the SMH10.
The SMH10 is designed to mount on the left side of most motorcycle helmets. The standard mounting option, which we used, works by clamping onto the hard external shell of the helmet. By clamping on instead of using an adhesive pad, the SMH10 can be removed or easily remounted on another helmet. The downside of this mounting method is that it requires you to pull the foam padding away from the hard shell of the helmet in order to slide the clamp between the two, and it takes a surprising amount of force. I had no reservations about doing this to my old and battered test helmet, but I might think twice if my helmet was top-of-the-line and brand-new. Fortunately, for those that don't want to mess around with clamping, Sena includes a stick-on mount as well.
Whichever mounting option you chose for the headset, the speakers mount inside the helmet using their Velcro backings, which makes it easy to get the speakers in just the right spot—close to your ears, but not interfering with the fit of the helmet. Less easy, however, was figuring out a space for the microphone pick-up. The pick-up is on a long and flexible wire, which should make placement easy, but on my relatively tight-fitting test helmet, there wasn't enough room between my mouth and the front of the helmet to squeeze the microphone in without it literally being pressed against my lips. We'll have to wait for our full road test to see if this is a problem or not when using the headset.
You'll have to tune in next week for more as we put the SMH10 through its paces and try out all of its features, but an quick run-through gave us something to look forward to: The SMH10 was easy to sync, intuitive to use, and comfortable in the helmet.
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Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price for a limited time.
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