Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For years I have been using ear buds to listen to my navigation and music. I never knew what I was missing. Lately I was talked into getting this Sena product from a co-worker who just bought the 10U for Arai helmets. Oh what a difference... First the install. The install is incredibly simple. Its really just two speakers that fit into pockets in my helmet. The wires run hidden behind the foam lining. And the Microphone just runs to the front of my full face helmet hidden behind the pads. I choose the wired mic over the boom mic just because I have a full face (non modular). Anyhow, the whole process took about 20-30 minutes. Pairing with my phone and updating the firmware was also incredibly simple. Everything just worked. There was no tweaking of anything. Of course I still had to run through all the menu options just to see what all I could do, but in the end I left everything at the factory defaults. One thing I noticed is that you can change how the voice prompts from the Navigation overlay the music. I did adjust that so that when I get a voice prompt the music is almost completely quiet. Now the first ride test. I just finished up my first long ride with them, about 8 hours, and I am sold. The sound quality is great. The battery life was great, It lasted all 8 hours of my ride at my volume levels with music and navigation, plus 4 hours on standby time while eating. The volume dial is easy to use while riding. So many times I used to have problems with the ear buds working loose in my ear and causing sore spots, and trying to get the volume adjusted from being stuck in traffic to cruising down the highway. Not any more. The downside, if you can call it that, is that there are too many different patterns to remember. Tap once, tap twice, press phone button once, twice, etc. I'm not sure I'll ever get them all memorized. But I can say it does make the Nav and Music functions of my phone a lot nicer. Unfortunately I havent been able to test out the phone and chat features yet. I'll be sure to update this review once I do. UPDATE It started raining on my last ride. The unit did not hold up at all. It never occured to me that something designed to be on the outside of the helmet would have difficulties in the rain. Now I am waiting to see what Sena does...