To cut to the chase I’ll confirm now that its an excellent bit of kit if you have a compatible helmet and are in the market for an expandable wireless comms system. This system allows pretty good quality phone calls within legal speed limits with the added bonus of full stereo audio to relax you whilst out on a cruise. If you have a pillion with the right bits installed in their helmet you will also be able to share your audio feed AND chat to them whilst aboard your bike. For me it’s been a liberating experience having the ability to receive inbound calls and listening to music. I rarely have to make calls on the bike and generally either stop or schedule my riding around such calls but again, having the ability to make a call is excellent.

Now that you have read the basics lets get in to a bit more detail about the kit. The box contains the following bits. A mic, helmet speakers, battery module, control unit, cables and the externally mounted stick on keyboard.  The instructions are detailed BUT confusing so you’ll need to read them a few times before getting down to installing the bits and pieces. It goes without saying that if you are reading this stuff then you obviously have a compatable X-Lite helmet. If not, click away back to Google and continue your searches for other bluetooth kits. Sorry, back to the installation. You have to strip down the helmet before fitting. It does look a bit scary with all the padding spread over the table but don’t panic. Its a really basic jigsaw puzzle once you’ve looked at the bits. The relevant components fit nicely into pre-shaped compartments within the padding of the helmet and don’t really require fixing due to the exact fit. The mic is pretty well thought out. It slides into a recess within the chin guard so it doesn’t  get in the way when you put on/remove your helmet. A nice touch. The control keypad sticks to the outside of the helmet and is nice and tactile through a glove whilst not sticking out too far and creating a load of wind noise whilst going fast. This is a criticism I have of most of the after market units which have a massive bolt on part that sits on the outside of the helmet.

Now I’m gonna fast forward on a bit. If you want to know how the rest of the bits are fitted you can download the user manual from X-Lites website.

Usage….  Firstly you need to pair the helmet with any bluetooth units you plan on using with it. In my case  i’m  using an iPhone. Its bluetooth support is ok but not perfect. If your phone is capable of voice activated dialling  you will be able to use this feature whilst inside your helmet. Unfortunately for me, the crappy bluetooth implementation on the iphone does not support it. So my outgoing calls are limited to the last dialed number. Better than nothing. Incoming calls are great. If you are listening to music it gently fades out as the ringer fades in. You then just press any button on the keypad on the helmet and the call is answered. When the call ends the music fades back in. Cool! Volume is very good, almost too loud without ear plugs. With ear plugs you’ll need to just slow down a tad whilst on the call. All of my callers noted the total lack of wind noise even though I was pushing on. It goes without saying that as a user of this kit, you should be mildly sympathetic to the cause and appreciate that sometime you do need to slow down just a tad whilst on a call.

Lets move on to music now. Again, due to the crappy bluetooth implementation music controls are limited. This is not a limitation of the x-series unit. If you were connected to a capable device you would be able to select your track, start and stop your music. All I can do is start and stop a track. Better than nothing though. Playing a relaxing track whilst out and about relaxes me and if anything slows me down a tad. Again, Cool!

There are a few other functions that the N-Com X-Series Bluetooth kit supports of which I cannot report on yet. One of those is rider to pillion comms. I hardly ever carry a pillion let alone one with the right kit in their helmet. The other function is voice guided GPS. MY research so far says that I should be able to be listening to music AND accept voice instructions from a GPS device at the same time. I don’t have such a GPS device but am hoping that either TomTom or Navigon will allow me to test one of their products on my iPhone soon. That’ll be the ultimate setup for me…

What are the downsides? There are a few. If you are off touring you obviously need to pack a charger to keep things energized but I reckon the battery life of this kit is definitely good enough for a FULL days use at a minimum. For me its lasted a week because i’m commuting on the bike so am not having it switched on for hours at a time. Thanks go out to Mike @ Ultimate bike gear for arranging this review and installing the kit in to my helmet.

So to round this one off I’ll say that Fatbiker is gonna give this kit a 4* out of 5*.

Likes. System integration, usage, battery life, noise cancellation

Dislikes. Price. Saying that, all these kind of systems are expensive so you get what you pay for…

Below are some pictures of the kit fitted in to my helmet.

Web Links

Nolan’s N-com website

Ultimate Bike Gear

Initial tests are excellent with full stereo music from my iPhone and initial test calls appear to be of a high quality. My dad did comment that the call was a bit quiet and this could be that I was talking quieter than usual due to the fact that I can hear myself inside the helmet. We’ll see.

So the plan now is to use it for a week or so and then report back on its performance. I’ve never had on bike music before so its gonna be a new experience for me…. Cant wait…

Pics and more info to follow over the coming days.

Below is a really crappy initial shot (sorry) of the new style keyboard that the X-Series uses.