Helmet mods

[Sycophant]

Anyone (else) modified their helmet to install speakers or anything of the sort?

I just ripped apart some cheap headphones and installed the speakers into my helmet. They provide quite good sound and hardly affect my ability to hear my bike and other traffic.

My next effort will be to reverse engineer my Nokia headset and patch it into my speakers and install a helmet mic.

Also I my to do list is an inline volume control that I can clip onto the handle bars.

[wkid_one]

Two things:

• if you want car audio, buy a car (or gold wing)
• why would you want to answer your phone on a bike??

There are enuf distractions and things to concentrate on on a bike, without adding to the noise.  What phone call is soooo important it can't wait until you stop?

[Motoracer]

I installed speakers before but I found my self riding more dangerously due to the nature of the music perhaps... I took them off now because I decided riding the bike on its own was interesting/exciting enough for me.

I am however in the process of installing a CD/MP3 player (connected to earphones in the helmet) on my scooter. I think it will come in real handy when sitting at 50 all the way to work and back.

[Marmoot]

I even rarely use my stereo in my cage..........
But speaker would be handy for radar detectors, though....

[Jackrat]

I ment a guy just resently who had a helmet speaker for his radar,I had a radio/tape deck on my first Harley,set the cruise control, crank up the sounds an sit back,great for OZ but don,t know about here,probably end up in a ditch I reckon.

[Slim]

Nothing done to my helmet, except for the application of rabbit ears.

I use Sony Fontopia In-Ear phones which are superb, with my Minidisk in the tankbag.

[wkid_one]

I have a helmet speaker for the radar detector - works a treat

[Sycophant]

If I do the phone thing, it will be for the sake of proving I can I barely receive calls as it is, and answer them only some of the time...

Still it'd be nifty. And If I do it, I'd like to make it dual purpose for a PRS radio (if I get one).

[Big Dog]

I spoke to an audiologist one about this so i could mofify my old k1 helmet (1 hour ech way commute). He recommended fitting them just behinnd the ear flap. this works well and allows you to wear ear plugs. (this does make your music king of bassey though) I ended up ripping it out though as the wire was a pain in the arse.

[Marmoot]

It would be great for bike-to-bike radio comm as well. The only trouble is how to windproof the microphone........

[Big Dog]

Originally posted by Marmoot
It would be great for bike-to-bike radio comm as well. The only trouble is how to windproof the microphone........

Uniden do a throat mike. I'm told emergency services in aus use them under a high collar or scarf. they work off vibrations not audio. Like they use in special services on movies etc. With practice you can use them without making and audible sound!

[Sycophant]

For microphone placement, I was initially thinking of putting it right at the front of the helmet in front of the chin. It seems that less wind would circulate around there.

These are ideas I will continue playing with I guess.

I tried using my normal phone headset on my bike once, just to know if it worked. Up until about 50k I was fairly audible, I am told. After that, the phone was unable to handle noise cancelation. The headset is one of those types that hangs down on the earphone lead - so it was totally exposed.

[Sycophant]

Just had a quick look into throat mics - this company provides them, for mobiles and two-way radios.

They are between US$30 and US$60 and feature an extended PTT switch on the radio versions that can be run down the arm - it seems.

I want one.

(Update: And here they are in NZ: http://www.amalgamate2000.com/sales/...icrophones.htm)

[Firefight]

Originally posted by Big Dog
Uniden do a throat mike. I'm told emergency services in aus use them under a high collar or scarf. they work off vibrations not audio. Like they use in special services on movies etc. With practice you can use them without making and audible sound!

We tried them in the fire service, to give us hands free comms, while wearing breathing apparatus, , they worked well, just took a bit of getting used to, got a few unwanted transmissons, from time to time, stuff like " Fuc# the boss, why is he out there, and were in here"etc. Ambo bike paramedics had a simalar system, can't remeber how they worked, logan may know I guess bike cops have same thing ?

firefight.

[Marmoot]

I had a bike intercom about 6 years ago and the microphone was quite good as it has a hood around it shaped so the wind does not get to it much. However, apparently the wires are quite inviting to rabbits as well and proved to be quite delicious to chew on, so, bye bye intercom.

I've tried voice-activation and I haven't found a way to prevent it from continously transmitting when doing over 150kph, even when I buried the mic inside the helmet foam padding.
So, I think PTT is still the best way to go. I also believe bike cops use PTT system (Logan?).

But still, when you're doing 150kph and want to warn "cop cop cop" there will only be "GUSSSHHHH!!!!" when you push the button if you don't have proper windproofing.

P.S.
The throat mic......are they good for Darth Vader impersonation?