Morning Commute

[redbarron77]

First ride this morning with the new lid.....GMax Modular with Chatterbox XBI installed.

Have to say, the helmet has some extremely nice air flow, and is a whole lot quieter than the HJC I have been wearing. The additional air flow of the GMax will be awesome when the weather gets hot, but right now, it is a bit brisk to have that much air flowing at 51 degrees when travelling 70-80 mph! Had to close off all the vents(that was fun...there are like 6 of the damn things!) and it worked out fine at that point. Didn't have the head pulling when I checked over my shoulder for traffic(lane change), so the aerodynamics are pretty damn good! Being a modular makes it so I can put it on and off without taking my glasses off....can't say how nice that is! The visor swap-out is so easy that I can get them changed in about 10 seconds(please understand, I usually suck at changing shit like this out without breaking somethinig).

The Chatterbox XBI....I had read from other owners to preset the volume before riding. Damn good advice. With having a volume setting from my phone(Android) and volume from the XBI, it took about 30 seconds at the kitchen table to find the sweet spot. I can't imagine what a bitch that would have been while riding, but hey, to each his own. The music sounded great, even at highway speeds(did I mention 70-80 mph???), and while the quality wasn't Bose levels, it was pretty damn good. I also had the wife call me to see how that worked out. The controls to answer the phone and adjust the XBI volume worked easy(even with my gloves on) and she said that I sounded like I was in an enclosed space, not the wind buffeting sounds of being on a bike. My guess is a combination of the helmet's noise reduction, and a mic made for dampening ambient noise.

Overall, I really like riding with music and being able to accept calls. The lid works awesome, and surprisingly quiet, the XBI worked great. I wish the XBI had more interactive controls to skip songs(like my other blue tooth headset), but hey, that's why we have playlists!