Satnav and intercom

[The Drifter]

Hi guys as I am a newbie to this I will need some advice and guidance as I go along I collect my bike next Saturday and am really looking forward to it there are 2 questions at present I would like to ask firstly which satnav can I pick up relatively cheap either if its second hand and someone as upgraded also the same with a bike intercom as my wife intends to ride with me as often as she can and she feels safer being able to chat with me. any suggestions

[shep]

Were are you based, I may still have an uunused intercom in my garage.

[The Drifter]

Hi south Wales

[Apophis]

I use the Sena SMH5 and it is very clear even at speed the sat nav i use is a Garmin 340
and i can have this a voice guidance only and then have phone hooked up as well so calls and music best bit of Kit I have brought

hooked to Sena

Wife (for winging :woohoo: )
Garmin 340 (set up for voice directions Only)
Phone (for calls and Music)

the battery life is great on them as well About 10 hours constant talk time

hope this helps in your quest (thumbs)

[Ali in Austria]

I have previously used Hardwired Starcom Intercoms (very good Audio quality) and the the Schuberth SRCS integrated Bluetooth. Both great for Rider/Pillion Intercom, Sat Nav, music, phone etc.

My needs have changed and have a need to connect to other riders and have become a Sena fan.

All Sena's now have upgraded Firmware which enables you to connect to one other Non Sena Bluetooth Headset. Pair Senas to non Senas in a particular order and you can actually have a group with more than one non Sena included.

The Sena range includes the SMH5, SMH10, SMH10R and the new 20S. There are others such as sub models which include an FM Radio.

SMH5 is great for rider to Pillion, handles SatNav, phone music etc without issue and can connect up to 4 headsets. Range is limited and not ideal for group riding.

SMH10 does the same but has a much better range. The Audio is also much better IMHO. In my experience between half and 1km and works well. My wife now uses it. I can vouch for the Universal Pairing to a Non Sena Headset. There appears to be more scope for ongoing Firmware upgrades to the SMH10 than the SM5.

The SMH10R is basically a streamlined variant of the SMH10

The 20S is the new addition to the stable. On paper it is fantastic but it has had its fair share of hiccups. I ordered pre release and had one of the first ones. Unfortunately Sena released it knowing it didn't work properly and wasn't even reliable connecting to another Sena such as the SMH10. Even connecting to my phone or Sat Nav wasn't stable. After a couple of weeks they started rolling our Firmware upgrades. It is now actually a very good piece of kit.

Audio is very clear. It can be operated by inputs via the jog dial and phone buttons or voice commands which work surprisingly well. Tapping on or near the unit will bring up the voice commands option as will saying "Hello Sena" depending what mode you are in at the time. Works very well with my iPhone and Garmin Zumo 550. It can connect to up to 8 Headsets.
They claim a range of 2km but obviously that depends on the range of the units they are connected to. I have successfully communicated with an SMH10 at about 1km with a clear line of sight so the 2km range is not unfeasible.
There is even a Free App that allows you to set up groups (only works with other 20S models) input your speed dial numbers and change settings.

The 20S isn't cheap but is a great bit of kit IMHO.

As with all Sena models, buying a twin set is cheaper than buying 2 individual sets. If you purely want rider to pillion then the SMH5 is great but if you want to connect to other Riders or want better Audio quality and Range then consider and SMH10 or 20S

Battery life on both the SMH10 and 20S is very good IMHO. They have never run down in a full day of being constantly on. Can't comment on the SMH5.

[OB1]

For satnav, I would suggest using your mobile phone phone with software such as the Garmin or TomTom apps. I use the Skobbler GPS Navigation because for around £12 you get a whole World satnav which updates automatically (open-source maps) and you only have to download the countries that you need: I recently popped over to Belgium and France so I just downloaded the maps that I needed for the journey.

Another plus point for using your phone is that you just have one item mounted on your bike that'll do most things that you'll need: satnav, music and make calls.

I've only recently started using an intercom and I only use it for music and the satnav. I agree that the Senna SMH5 is a really good piece of kit which works really well with my iPhone. One thing to point out, though; I thought mine was rather quiet as I had the units volume on max but could hardly hear music above 50mph… then I realised that I needed to turn the volume up on the phone too!

Just a note: due to bluetooth protocols changing over the years, my SMH5 is not compatible with my 8 year old TomTom Rider, so if you do go for a second-hand satnav, make sure it is relatively new.

[Gas_Up_Lets_Go]

Like the others, Sena is the best I have used over many years.

Tried the Scala and really didn't get on with it, poor battery life, poor quality - Although they have changed since I tried them.

StarCom Digital - Brilliant in every way, other than it's a bulky wired piece of kit. The world has moved on, and small BlueTooth units are the future.

I have a SMH5 for me and the missus. It covers more separation that you would think, easily 100 Meters over clear ground, 50 through a filling station front. The sound quality is the best I've used, although I did a bit of fiddling with the equaliser on the phone to give (I use it for music) better quality to compensate for wind/earplug interference, but it works fine out of the box.

The jog-dial is as simple as it is brilliant. You just need to learn the button presses to perform different functions. Takes a bit of time, but not difficult. You can start/stop the phone MP3 player, jog forward/reverse tracks and control volume. You can use it to control call functions (but I think this is phone dependent).

I fall into the camp of using two devices, the phone is safely tucked away on my persons and the GPS (Garmin 550)on the bike. I work with technology, so I'd never put all my reliance in one piece of kit. But each to his own, there is no right/wrong, just personal preference.