Cheap Bluetooth Comms

Hi all,

I was looking for a headset when I bought my cat about a year ago (bit late for the post I know!). Being a student with no cash, I ended up risking it and bought a pair of headsets from ebay HERE . I offered £55 in the end and they were delivered for free!

Anyway I couldn't find a good review of cheap headsets, and can't remember if I've already written one.. So for anyone interested, here's my opinion! (I'll be comparing to a Scala Rider as that's what my bro has!)

LOOKS - The headsets looks almost exactly like the Scala Rider (bar a little aerial wire) and are exactly the same size, note they CANNOT be swapped out. My bro's Scala headset fits onto my mount but it seems the connectors are in a different order!

RELIABILITY - I've had it a year and the glue on the mounting system is still holding really solid, never had a problem! The clasp mount is a bit poor but I've not tested it against the Scala, it just bent when i tightened it, which meant more tightening as I didn't trust it!

The battery still lasts ages, I listened to music on two three hour rides without charging between, and wasn't getting the 'battery empty beep', my spare one for pillions is rarely used and still seems to last a long time!

QUALITY - The microphone boom is solid, and longer than that of the Scala. The voice quality is pretty good, under 50MPH people don't know I'm on my bike! Over that it gets a bit poor and it's not as good as the Scala, BUT I have a V2R helmet which is much noisier than the AGV Gothic my bro has.

The earpiece quality is good enough, again it's worse than the scala but that's expected. I can happily listen to music on low while I ride, and it is fine.

I'm not sure how good the range is as I've only ever used it pillion and my spare is attached to a tiny helmet. I bought the 100m headsets. I plan on going on a test with my mate who has a small head! He has a CBR and I have the Cat so should be able to give good info on noise and range!

FITTING - The microphone mount fits nicely and the attached earpieces are stereo L/R and fit into the helmet easily, all of the wires tucked very neatly away and my padding comes out which helped greatly. The bluetooth unit then just slips on and is very secure.

EASE OF USE - Pairing with the phone and between headsets is easy, I can't remember exactly the method but the poorly written instructions helped me enough! The headsets can talk and be connected to phones individually, when the phones ring you simply swap onto your phone and the passenger gets cut off for a bit. I can't say much more about rider-pillion chat as I rarely use it.

There are some features which MIGHT be phone dependant. I have an iPhone and I can listen to music via bluetooth, but I don't have talk to answer. Remembering the buttons can be a bit hard, voice dial is double tap one button, and I think last dial is to hold that button, and if you single press the same button you'll change track (I think! )

Anyways there's all my info, I would definitely rate this headset pretty well, and for me it was well worth the £55. If you're like my bro and want to use it every day and make calls all the time, then get the Scala or equivalent. If you're like me and want to occasionally listen to music on long rides, and use the phone when you need to, these headsets are definitely worth £50. I hope people can find this useful! Any questions feel free to ask!

Hi,

Just saw your post on this.

Might get one of these, but a few questions.

Is there a clamp to fit it to the helmet? I won't use it everytime I ride so dont want to permanently glue it to my helmet.

When paired to the other headset, is it a speak to talk system?

Regards

Mike