As the days draw in and autumn takes hold on our weather patterns here in Ontario, our riding days are clearly numbered. I begin to sense an urgency, with motorcyclists out in full force in the last of the (easy) riding weather. It is this sense that I feel pushing me to ride more, not just to get to work, but to go out and have some more fun while I still can.
But alas, my day job requires me to be available by phone one week out of every three. So with life obligations, and the desire to ride, I decided I needed a device allowing me to receive telephone calls whilst on Big Red. lots of soul searching and review reading lead me to purchase the Q3. I have only used it once at this point, but I have some thoughts to share, and I will have more, as time goes on.
The product comes nicely packaged, and worked as it was supposed to out of the box. Basically, the helmet install (in an Icon Alliance) was straight forward and easy (please avoid tugging on mic and speaker wires). After an evening of battery charging and installation, I was able to get out for a ride this evening.
Whilst driving a car, I quite enjoy listening to the radio, so I thought the same might apply to motorcycling. I set the unit up to supposedly run the radio, and have my personal Z10 as the primary device, and my work Bold 9900 as the secondary device, and off I went. At first the radio seems fun, but then at speed, the laws of physics take over and ruin the audio quality. Basically, with my Icon Alliance helmet, the radio is so tinny and crappy sounding that it is quite annoying. I didn't feel like turning it off, strangely... I'm not a scientist, but I don't see how any device that doesn't plug in to your ear directly can sound great at the volume levels required to overcome all the wind noise. Keep in mind we're working with basically a one inch speaker, as with all units on the market. Basically, the mid range and some of the high end sounds come through alright. There is no bass to be heard, but I'm not really surprised here.
What is surprising is the auto gain control. It really does seamlessly dial the volume up and down according to ambient noise. Given that music will never sound good, this is at least a great feature to manage call or intercom volume.
As I cruised along, in a safe spot, at only 60ish km/hr, I decided to start pressing buttons. This is when you realize that it's a really good idea to go through the manual and make up a cheat sheet, then don all your motorcycling gear, climb on the ST in the garage, make motorbike sounds and squealing tire sounds, and play with your Q3. It's surprisingly hard to press both the IC and the MM buttons at the same time. Several times I ended up playing my telephone morning alarm song by mistake. I guess the A2DP streaming works, but I'll get to that fully another day. Never mind trying to change a radio station... (again, familiarize yourself with the product at home first)
However, if you have a proper telephone, and you do get the right buttons pressed (IC and MM at the same time), then it should bring up your phones voice control system. Mine did, and I was able to call my friend. Keep in mind that I was only going slowly, but there were no problems holding a proper conversation. When I told him that I was riding, he believed me, but said I sounded just fine. I had him hang up and call my work phone to see what happened. After several minutes of nothing, he called my personal phone again, and we determined that it was not working with the secondary phone. When I arrived home, the phone was not connected to Bluetooth anymore. I don't know if I broke it trying to find the right buttons to press, or if the phone is being dumb. I will go out next time with the priorities switched and see if it handles the Bold better as the primary phone.
In summary, after the first use, I have determined that it is a viable solution to hearing the phone ring when riding. Answering calls is easy, making calls, not so much. So far, the radio seems like it would be great for weather stations, or talk radio. Give up on your audiophile quality sound.
Enjoy, and I'll post some more as I get more experience.
LJ
But alas, my day job requires me to be available by phone one week out of every three. So with life obligations, and the desire to ride, I decided I needed a device allowing me to receive telephone calls whilst on Big Red. lots of soul searching and review reading lead me to purchase the Q3. I have only used it once at this point, but I have some thoughts to share, and I will have more, as time goes on.
The product comes nicely packaged, and worked as it was supposed to out of the box. Basically, the helmet install (in an Icon Alliance) was straight forward and easy (please avoid tugging on mic and speaker wires). After an evening of battery charging and installation, I was able to get out for a ride this evening.
Whilst driving a car, I quite enjoy listening to the radio, so I thought the same might apply to motorcycling. I set the unit up to supposedly run the radio, and have my personal Z10 as the primary device, and my work Bold 9900 as the secondary device, and off I went. At first the radio seems fun, but then at speed, the laws of physics take over and ruin the audio quality. Basically, with my Icon Alliance helmet, the radio is so tinny and crappy sounding that it is quite annoying. I didn't feel like turning it off, strangely... I'm not a scientist, but I don't see how any device that doesn't plug in to your ear directly can sound great at the volume levels required to overcome all the wind noise. Keep in mind we're working with basically a one inch speaker, as with all units on the market. Basically, the mid range and some of the high end sounds come through alright. There is no bass to be heard, but I'm not really surprised here.
What is surprising is the auto gain control. It really does seamlessly dial the volume up and down according to ambient noise. Given that music will never sound good, this is at least a great feature to manage call or intercom volume.
As I cruised along, in a safe spot, at only 60ish km/hr, I decided to start pressing buttons. This is when you realize that it's a really good idea to go through the manual and make up a cheat sheet, then don all your motorcycling gear, climb on the ST in the garage, make motorbike sounds and squealing tire sounds, and play with your Q3. It's surprisingly hard to press both the IC and the MM buttons at the same time. Several times I ended up playing my telephone morning alarm song by mistake. I guess the A2DP streaming works, but I'll get to that fully another day. Never mind trying to change a radio station... (again, familiarize yourself with the product at home first)
However, if you have a proper telephone, and you do get the right buttons pressed (IC and MM at the same time), then it should bring up your phones voice control system. Mine did, and I was able to call my friend. Keep in mind that I was only going slowly, but there were no problems holding a proper conversation. When I told him that I was riding, he believed me, but said I sounded just fine. I had him hang up and call my work phone to see what happened. After several minutes of nothing, he called my personal phone again, and we determined that it was not working with the secondary phone. When I arrived home, the phone was not connected to Bluetooth anymore. I don't know if I broke it trying to find the right buttons to press, or if the phone is being dumb. I will go out next time with the priorities switched and see if it handles the Bold better as the primary phone.
In summary, after the first use, I have determined that it is a viable solution to hearing the phone ring when riding. Answering calls is easy, making calls, not so much. So far, the radio seems like it would be great for weather stations, or talk radio. Give up on your audiophile quality sound.
Enjoy, and I'll post some more as I get more experience.
LJ
