Bike intercoms
Discussion
I have a sena, unsure of model.
One of my best purchases bike related - listening to radio on commute, taking calls or chatting to mates while out riding wouldn't be without one now!
Can be a bit buggy connecting multiple users together thought but believe thats better on higher end models.
One of my best purchases bike related - listening to radio on commute, taking calls or chatting to mates while out riding wouldn't be without one now!
Can be a bit buggy connecting multiple users together thought but believe thats better on higher end models.
My brother and I both had Sena 20S Evo's and were quite shocked by how good they were. Clarity of speech was brill, obviously goes off a bit if you're going very fast but fine to 90 or so. What amazed us was the range, we'd expected it to be line of sight but it was way more than that, well over half a mile. Battery life was also good, lasted all day.
Both worked fine with phones/music etc. I also had mine paired to the TFT dash on my GS.
We both swapped to Sena SRL2's as we bought Shoei Neotec2's and have been a little disappointed. the helmet integration is really neat but the controls are much more fiddly and we both find them very difficult with gloves on, the comms range is massively less and battery life isn't as good. Couple of days touring mine ran out of juice in the afternoon. I'm tempted to go back to the 20S, or maybe get one of the newer mesh ones which I gather are very good.
Both worked fine with phones/music etc. I also had mine paired to the TFT dash on my GS.
We both swapped to Sena SRL2's as we bought Shoei Neotec2's and have been a little disappointed. the helmet integration is really neat but the controls are much more fiddly and we both find them very difficult with gloves on, the comms range is massively less and battery life isn't as good. Couple of days touring mine ran out of juice in the afternoon. I'm tempted to go back to the 20S, or maybe get one of the newer mesh ones which I gather are very good.
A group of us bought senna’s (the one before the evo), they were absolute junk. Dealer we bought them from said it was Senna’s problem, senna didn’t want to know.
The range was rubbish, a couple of the units got water in and packed up, interference, mic opening at random times, speech wasn’t clear.
I believe the evo is a step forward over the units we had but I wouldn’t give my money to senna again.
We struggled with them for a year and got rid.
We all bought Cardo packtalk bold. They were night and day better.
They still had a few problems pairing occasionally and it took 5 mins at the start of a ride out to get 5 or 6 units to all sink up.
The battery lasted about 7-8 hours, speech was brilliant and the range was good, but I haven’t found a system yet that works up to the manufacturers figures in real world riding.
Regards doggydog
The range was rubbish, a couple of the units got water in and packed up, interference, mic opening at random times, speech wasn’t clear.
I believe the evo is a step forward over the units we had but I wouldn’t give my money to senna again.
We struggled with them for a year and got rid.
We all bought Cardo packtalk bold. They were night and day better.
They still had a few problems pairing occasionally and it took 5 mins at the start of a ride out to get 5 or 6 units to all sink up.
The battery lasted about 7-8 hours, speech was brilliant and the range was good, but I haven’t found a system yet that works up to the manufacturers figures in real world riding.
Regards doggydog
If you want cheap and cheerful that works a group of us bought fodsports m1-s pro the other year, 5 of us, for a France Spain tour, at the time they were about £53 each currently about £80 on Amazon. A bit fiddly to set up but once they are they work great, all day battery life. Usable up to 70 ish MPH not issue with waterproofing.
OK not the same league as Sena or Cardo but way cheaper and just work.
OK not the same league as Sena or Cardo but way cheaper and just work.
There are two types of intercomm - Bluetooth and Mesh Radio. The MR ones will also usually talk to Bluetooth units as well.
The BT ones are much cheaper & will cover 3, maybe 4 riders. Range is a few hundred yards but they should run all day pretty much. The Mesh radio units (i.e. Cardo Pactalk) are more expensive but range is greater & they are supposed to manage upto 8 riders.
Cardo & Sena are the standards. The Cardo Freecom units (which are BT) clip into the side of a helmet without using allen bolts which can tear the soft lining if you are not careful. Also look at your helmet as to how much room there is for speakers - you may have to take a bit of polystyrene away.
Cardo (and I think Sena) have apps that you can run on the phone to make controlling them a bit easier.
When communicating across manufacturers they usually use one of the two phone channels through some kind of Gateway (at least that's what Cardo call it) but most of the major manufacturers will talk to each other. I have seen some Sena units have a lot of difficulty in pairing with each other.
The BT ones are much cheaper & will cover 3, maybe 4 riders. Range is a few hundred yards but they should run all day pretty much. The Mesh radio units (i.e. Cardo Pactalk) are more expensive but range is greater & they are supposed to manage upto 8 riders.
Cardo & Sena are the standards. The Cardo Freecom units (which are BT) clip into the side of a helmet without using allen bolts which can tear the soft lining if you are not careful. Also look at your helmet as to how much room there is for speakers - you may have to take a bit of polystyrene away.
Cardo (and I think Sena) have apps that you can run on the phone to make controlling them a bit easier.
When communicating across manufacturers they usually use one of the two phone channels through some kind of Gateway (at least that's what Cardo call it) but most of the major manufacturers will talk to each other. I have seen some Sena units have a lot of difficulty in pairing with each other.
I've used Senas for many years and found them very good, but
- Cardo generally gets better reviews now
- I've had 6 units now (I used them for work). 2 have been replaced under the 2 year warranty, which isn't a great performance. Another died at about 5 years old?
Sportbike shop were excellent for both the above returns - 10 out of 10. Personally they are my default supplier of anything they sell.
- Cardo generally gets better reviews now
- I've had 6 units now (I used them for work). 2 have been replaced under the 2 year warranty, which isn't a great performance. Another died at about 5 years old?
Sportbike shop were excellent for both the above returns - 10 out of 10. Personally they are my default supplier of anything they sell.
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