Budget Bluetooth helmet mod

On the French trip I'd been impressed with Alan (Yorky's) frank Thomas open face helmet. It looked well made and had more pronounced ear pockets than some helmets.

He surprised me by saying it was only £59, so went and got myself one on Friday.

I wanted to add a basic Bluetooth setup to it, but didn't want a full blown intercom, or phone answering setup.  I simply wanted to listen to some tunes when riding, and get the odd voice command off the satnav. So here's my budget mod...

Step 1: add Helmet speakers.... There are many cheapo ones, but the Albrecht ones are mid range and ok. I'd bought mine ages ago, so can't be sure these are the exact model. But here are some on Amazon for around £8

Linky

Fitting tip... The cheek pads on your helmet just pop off their press stud fittings to give you more room to line things up. My speakers had Velcro fixings which means you can peel them off and tweak the position if required. 

Here's the speakers in situ... You can hardly see them.
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Run the wires under the lining to hide them, so you just have a short length of cable and the jack poking out.

Step 2: get a Bluetooth receiver. I already had a kitsound active plus, which includes earbuds (which you won't need). Current cost... around £30 on eBay

Linky

Fix the Bluetooth receiver to the outside of the helmet... Again I used Velcro.

Pair it with your phone, tablet, satnav or whatever, and you have a Bluetooth helmet on the cheap.

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Road test....

Some wind roar and buffeting impedes the sound a bit at speed, but I didn't have the kitsound on full volume, and it was still good. I'd previously used in ear earbuds, the silicone type, which do cut some wind noise, but can fall out, and be a bit of a faff. Overall I think this will work far better for me.

Ps... The kitsound manual says not to get it wet, but we'll have to see how it fares when I do get caught in the rain...

Looks good Mal, cheap enough too 

nice one... I'll be trying that 

Excellent mod, very well done.

Good set up Mal ...at a good price

Very well done Sir, most inspirational.

Cheers folks... Bit more whooshing and rattling from the helmet than I expected, but that would have been the same even if I'd fitted a £200 sena!