Even though the Lexin B4FM helmet communicators showed up earlier this week, today was the first opportunity we had to try them out. If you aren't into this sort of thing, here's the short version: two thumbs up.
For anyone who wants more detail, I'll start from the beginning. You don't just turn them on and start talking - that would be way too easy. Like most bluetooth devices, you have to put them in pairing mode and wait for them to "discover" each other... their eyes met across the crowded room... he took her in like a thirsty man looking at a tall, cool drink. Her eyes met his - a glance away, and then they focused in like a laser. The crowd seemed to disappear into the background as they moved towards each other... slow at first... and then the embrace. Or, something like that.
It takes these things a while to discover each other. And by "a while," I mean like a full minute. Think that isn't a long time? Try holding your breath. Digressing. You hold the power button for 6 seconds (it says two in the owners manual, but they lie). You hold that power button long enough to get rapidly flashing red and blue lights on the base unit. Yeah, that means you need to do that before you put the helmet on, so you can see the lights. Then, wait for them to pair. This takes a while. Once they have paired, you press the comm button on one unit and wait a few more seconds, until they decide to allow you to talk to each other. It sounds more complicated that it actually is.
Then, you can put your helmet on. A few "Can you hear me, now?"s. I put ear plugs in before I put the helmet on - I was pleased to find that I could hear the intercom just fine through the ear plugs. We rode through town with our face shields open, and no wind noise being picked up by the microphones. Once out of town, we took turns talking and listening to see if there was any difference at speed, with the face shields up and down. All good - no wind noise.
We ran up to 65mph - still working like a champ. The road turned, giving us a cross-wind; all still good. At one point, it sounded like Joan's mic was breaking up just a bit... we agreed that it may be the 3/4 helmet vs the full-face (my Nolan has a chin bar that makes it a full-face). It wasn't an issue - I could still hear and understand what she was saying.
Next test: put a bit of space between us. We generally ride a few bike lengths apart, each in a different "track" in the road (staggered); I usually ride where driver's side wheels of a car would be, Joan is in the passenger track. I rode on ahead while she hung back - at about 1/4 mile, there was no distortion or loss of communication whatsoever. We never ride that far apart, so we called that good. Lexin says 1600 meters, which is almost a mile (for those of us who didn't buy into the metric system)... I would be surprised, but everything else on these has been performing as advertised.
For the price (about half of what the market-leading Sena units cost), these are impressive. The noise-cancelling ability meant no wind roar in your ears from the other person's mic. My Nolan has a vent right on the face-shield, just above where the mic sits - Joan said she couldn't hear any difference with that vent open or closed. Again, impressive, especially considering there is a noticeable wind noise difference in my helmet depending on vent position.
We were out for a couple hours; probably talking more than we normally would, since we were intending to give them a good shake-down. I feel it was a good test of the Lexin's features and performance. Yes, definitely two thumbs up.
We'll see if that satisfaction holds up with some long-term use.
For some perspective: we had helmet communicators when we had the Goldwings - they were wired, and you had to press a button to talk. They were not duplex, so only one person at a time could talk. We also had a rider-passenger on the last Harley we had (we rode two-up on that, and pulled a trailer behind it); they were voice activated, but would often clip the beginning of talking, and again, not duplex.
These comm units are full duplex - that means you can both talk at the same time. No, we are not talking over each other, but it is more like normal conversation. The only thing missing from that situation is a side-tone: being able to hear yourself talk in your own speakers. Land line phones all had that feature; most cell phones do not. Think it doesn't matter? How many people have you heard talk WAY too loud on their cell phone? It is hard to modulate your own volume when you can't hear it. The base unit on this has a volume button; recognizable even with gloves on. To speak to that matter, essentially 3 buttons: a power on/off, volume (with up/down arrows), and a comm button. Press the comm button when in intercom mode and you can take or make a call on your phone (if it is paired). We didn't try this today, but I did call Joan while I was riding yesterday; worked fine. Press the comm button again and you are back to intercom mode. There is also a built-in FM radio that can be turned on and scanned for stations with the up/down arrows on the volume button. No, we didn't try that, either.
Conclusion: we both feel these are very functional. Having been riding together for decades we kind of know what to expect from each other, but I think there is a safety function for being able to say, "Let's go after this white car passes," when turning onto a road. Or, from an enjoy-the-ride aspect: "Did you see that?" The sound is decent; not high-fidelity like Bose headphones, but certainly good (again, for the price). Regardless of how much you spend on a helmet, there is always going to be some wind noise; some are better than others. Being able to hear and understand the talk at speed with these helmet communicators makes them functional. I haven't tried them at speed with any music playing; I don't see that as something I would use very often.
It was a cool day of riding. The outside are temp readout on my Vespa was about 4 or 5 degrees more optimistic than the same thing on Joan's Xmax. 69º was as warm as Joan saw; 74º on the Vespa at one point. Yeah, I would say the Xmax is more accurate.
Another first today: I ran the Vespa until the low-fuel light came on. I was about 8 miles from where I wanted to stop for gas when that yellow light first popped up. Having never seen it before, this was confirmation that it works. ;-)
Joan's scoot is bigger, heavier, faster, and has a larger fuel tank than mine. It also has been showing that it gets better gas mileage than mine: when we fueled up today, I got 78 mpg, she got 80. When my fuel light came on, she had just under a half tank; yes, we had gone almost the same miles at that point.
She also got to try out her new gloves today...
Good armor and padded protection. And vented to keep your hands cool. These have a material on the finger-tips that allows you to use your phone with the gloves on. Handy. The gloves she has been using are a bit warmer, but you can't access the GPS on your phone with them on; right now, she is stitching a special thread into the finger-tip of that glove so they will also be usable with her phone, too. Solutions.
It was pleasant enough outside that we had a late lunch on our deck...
Yes, Rufus sat under the table while we dined. The boy likes to be outside, when the weather suits him. He is a happy boy - this is his third time outside today. He is glad that the weather has gone back to more normal, too.
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