the story... i have been using the camos system since the first release of the bhs 600 4 years ago... i was upgraded to the bts 200... then i was upgraded to the bts 300... all 3 of the camos systems worked as advertised although was always yearning for more volume and longer battery life... now... its time to move on...
it turned painful looking through pages and pages and pages of reviews from around the world for the chatterbox... scala rider... interphone... midland... all of them... most of the info on the new scala rider g4 and interphone f4 came from distant lands where the units were initially released and folks have had some time with them...
also talked to some of these folks... they were very helpful...
i decided to go with the interphone f4... one reason is because its waterproof... confirmed by reading euro reviews of folks who have been riding in torrential rain... it seems to be waterproof per their reports... another reason is the battery life... i know bluetooth sucks the battery down especially in full duplex intercom mode... but the reviews were consistent at about 10 to 11 hours of on time using the intercom + gps + cell + mp3... also... the sound quality and the ability to hear each other on the super slabb was important... really important... and the final significant reason was webbikeworlds assessment... its their favorite pre g4... we shall see post g4...
webbikeworld review + videos...i checked around to find the best cash deal... the best customer service... the best return and warrant situation if needed...
i ended up scoring 2 units for $400 out of pocket delivered from wirelessriders.com... the folks... tony and dempsy were 100% spot on... they answered my questions... i paypaled the cash... they were shipped the same day... i received them in socal from missouri in 2 days... i gotts to say the motorcycle joints were about $50 more with some charging tax and some charging shipping and some tax and shipping free... but i just felt good about wirelessriders.com ...
they are not just gadget guys... they are riders too...
upon receipt i charged the units and mounted them...
all straight forward as per webbikeworld and the f4 manual...advrider has been a tremendous information source to me... so im paying it forward with a review of the recently released unit... the interphione f 4 bluetooth intercom system...
these f 4 units are new out of the box... on initial full charge... paired in rider passenger intercom mode...
1... battery life test... enabled the intercom at 6am... disabled the intercom it at 9pm... its was still strong with no signs of low battery... thats 15 hours on... jabbering most the time except for 1 1/2 hours at lunch... so... im thinking 13 1/2 + hours in full duplex mode anyway...
2... music test... non bluetooth music player with wirevo bluetooth unit... paired instantly... worked as advertised...
3... cell phone test...bluetooth motorola... pared instantly... worked as advertised...
4... gps test... are you ch1tt1ng me... i aints gots no stinking gps...
5... the sound level... kbc ffr helmet with rider wearing 30db earplugs and hjc symax hlemet with passenger wearing 32db earplugs.. good to at least 100mph... probably much faster than that... the volume was never an issue... we had everybit of volume we wanted...
6... the sound quality... same helmets and earplugs as 5... perfect sound level and quality... wow... better than anticipated... with visors down the intercom is crystal clear and the cell phone is crystal clear and the music is stereo quality.... with visors up the wind noise made it hard to hear above 30mph... with visors down... perfect so far... im thinking if we were using open face helmets we would be sending these back because of the visor up noise... but since we ride with closed face helmets with the visors down... yeeeeeehaaaaa....
7... distance test... in hindsight i should have clicked off the tenths on the odo... o well... gut feeling... it was at least a 3/8 mile unobstructed and it had more distance to go...
just a note... the kbc ffr is an xxl so not much room for speakers... i used the supplied velcro to mount the speakers and mic... i had to fuss with it to get the speakers lined up to the ear canals... the hjc symax is xs so there is a deep gap between the ear and the helmet shell... i used armaflex foam tape to build up the speaker holes to move the speaker close to the ear canals... then i used the supplied velcro to mount the speakers and mic... it took some doing to get the speaker location right... but since we used these helmets for camos intercom... we had a hand up on 1st time installers...
the kit... everything seemed to be quality... even a spare mic wind sock was supplied...
1 wall charger will charge 2 units... less to pack... it all adds up...
the right speaker has a jack... would be nice if both speakers had a jack for ear buds...
i was concerned the mic boom would be too short for my enormous head...
its not really my head that is enormous... its my snood... i have an enormous snood...
i mounted both units with my own velcro... cause im gonna use them on more than 1 helmet... the supplied clip look to be fine quality and would be too much to mess with on an ongoing basis...
i mounted it high enough so the bottom speaker mic connector would not hit the ground with the helmet laid flat... also low enough so the flip up bar doesnt interfere with the mounting...
nosecone...
silicone...
you can find the ultimate interphone f4 thread here...
there you go...
j o
