Bob T
.040 Over
Just a quick review on the UClear product in case anyone out there is looking for an in-helmet communication system.
Priced at just under $400 US this seemed like it ought to be a good piece of kit, and after finding a new set on eBay for $280 US I decided to try it out. This was for the dual kit, so my better half, who rides her own, would not feel left out.
Fitment was easy. And I soon had them installed on our Bell Pit Boss open face and also fitted a spare mounting on the full face. The Bell was real easy as it has pockets already built in to drop the speakers into. And as there is no boom mike, the mic’s are built into the speakers, they were both wired up in about 5 minutes.
If you have ever used Blu Tooth before then pairing these units together and then to your cell phone is just as easy. The instructions are clear and simple.
I also have a Nexus 7 which holds a good Juke Box of my fave songs, so I paired mine to that as well, but if your phone is nearby then the trick is to power down your phone before trying to pair the Nexus. If the phone is on, the uClear will pair to that and you will spend forever trying to connect.
The 3 buttons on the unit are a bit Un Clear to use if you have winter gloves on, but it’s doable. Once you have used them a few times you get to feel for the ridge as a reference point and go from there. With summer cloves they are no problem.
The volume and quality of the music playback is as good as you need while thrashing down the road. I used to have it on max volume when I rode the HD but now on the R3 I find myself turning it down more often.
If you pair to your phone you get all the functions the phone provides. So I get GPS commands, music and even phone calls. This past NYE my wife and I were out riding in the middle of the NV desert when she received a call from the family in the UK. They didn’t believe where she was at the time when she answered.
The intercom and phone work best when at low speed because with on open face helmet there is still quite a bit of noise associated with it. But it does do a pretty good job of filtering out wind noise. I have tried the conventional boom mike intercoms before and never had a great success with them. When used in the full face the wind noise of course disappears.
Thankfully the wife does not like to nag me while riding, so I’m not bombarded with chat all the time, but if that becomes the case you can always have an ‘equipment failure’ and turn the intercom off. And to be honest we haven’t used the intercom feature that much, the main times is when we want to change our plans or route.
The charge life appears to be all day when listening to music. And it takes a couple of hours to recharge the unit via a USB.
So overall I am very pleased with it. Would I pay $400 for the dual? Maybe, but I have better things to spend my cash on. But $300 or under its well worth it.
Priced at just under $400 US this seemed like it ought to be a good piece of kit, and after finding a new set on eBay for $280 US I decided to try it out. This was for the dual kit, so my better half, who rides her own, would not feel left out.
Fitment was easy. And I soon had them installed on our Bell Pit Boss open face and also fitted a spare mounting on the full face. The Bell was real easy as it has pockets already built in to drop the speakers into. And as there is no boom mike, the mic’s are built into the speakers, they were both wired up in about 5 minutes.
If you have ever used Blu Tooth before then pairing these units together and then to your cell phone is just as easy. The instructions are clear and simple.
I also have a Nexus 7 which holds a good Juke Box of my fave songs, so I paired mine to that as well, but if your phone is nearby then the trick is to power down your phone before trying to pair the Nexus. If the phone is on, the uClear will pair to that and you will spend forever trying to connect.
The 3 buttons on the unit are a bit Un Clear to use if you have winter gloves on, but it’s doable. Once you have used them a few times you get to feel for the ridge as a reference point and go from there. With summer cloves they are no problem.
The volume and quality of the music playback is as good as you need while thrashing down the road. I used to have it on max volume when I rode the HD but now on the R3 I find myself turning it down more often.
If you pair to your phone you get all the functions the phone provides. So I get GPS commands, music and even phone calls. This past NYE my wife and I were out riding in the middle of the NV desert when she received a call from the family in the UK. They didn’t believe where she was at the time when she answered.
The intercom and phone work best when at low speed because with on open face helmet there is still quite a bit of noise associated with it. But it does do a pretty good job of filtering out wind noise. I have tried the conventional boom mike intercoms before and never had a great success with them. When used in the full face the wind noise of course disappears.
Thankfully the wife does not like to nag me while riding, so I’m not bombarded with chat all the time, but if that becomes the case you can always have an ‘equipment failure’ and turn the intercom off. And to be honest we haven’t used the intercom feature that much, the main times is when we want to change our plans or route.
The charge life appears to be all day when listening to music. And it takes a couple of hours to recharge the unit via a USB.
So overall I am very pleased with it. Would I pay $400 for the dual? Maybe, but I have better things to spend my cash on. But $300 or under its well worth it.
