Tech – www.geezerman.com

Adding a Sena 10C camera to my Sena 30K equipped helmet

A quandary I was in. I like communicating via Bluetooth intercom with my riding buddies and love taking videos of our rides. The Sena 10C camera/intercom combination works well for me. I also love the new Sena 30K “mesh” intercom for its ability to hook up with 10 or more other 30K intercoms. The 10C is limited to only three. I wish Sena made a 10C-like camera with the ability to “mesh intercom” with lots of riders like their 30K model!

For our upcoming motorcycle trip to the far north First Nations’ Inuvialuit village of Tuktoyaktuk (pronounced “Tuk toy AK tuk”, referred to by many as just “Tuk”) in Canada’s Northwest Territories, our group of eight chose the 30K so we could maintain communication for the whole trip. Just like talking on an intercom to your back seat passenger but you can talk with the others on your “mesh” intercom network, hands-free, who are more than a mile away…so they say.

I have a Go-Pro Hero 4, which has a somewhat better resolution…that you can hardly see on a computer… but really didn’t want to wear it after getting used to the feature-rich compact Sena 10-C.

So I just added my 10C to the same helmet that has the Sena 30K. This meant squeezing in another set of earphones and another mic not to mention the two Sena intercoms. I could have left off the mic and earphones but then would not be able to comment on the video and hear the myriad of status calls coming from the 10c, like “camera on,” “recording,” etc. It was actually easier to do than I thought it would be and I don’t notice the small bit of extra weight on my modular Scorpion helmet.

Here’s how it went.

I had to move the Sena 30K back just a bit from its normal spot to allow the Sena 10-C camera and intercom to clamp on in front. Both have to be on the same side to allow operation without using your throttle hand.

For the 30K, I used the plug-in boom mic and for the 10C I used the wired small mic. For a mic holder, I used two of the windsocks supplied with the 10C mounting kit. I cut the top off one, making it into a sleeve and slid the big 30K mike through it along with the wired 10C mic. Then I put the 10C mike in a complete windsock and slid it onto the 30K mike. The 10C mike is in the end. Both work very well when close to your mouth…the closer the better.

To mount the extra two speakers in the helmet, I cut out a bit of foam near the built-in speaker cutouts and put them in next to the 30K speakers and higher up to get the sound in via my upper ear. Sounds great! You can hear the higher fidelity that the newer Sena 30K has over the older Sena 10C. I only want to be hearing the 10C’s status reports, like “camera on” “recording” etc. I’ll use the 30K system for intercom, music, phone, etc.

The two units do fit well together and now I can converse with my many buds on the convenient Sena 30K “mesh” intercom while also doing a video of our rides.

For more info and a review on Sena’s 30K, see here.

FOLLOW UP: We are back from the trip both Senas worked great! While they worked. A couple of us had problems with fidelity on our 30X mesh units and some thought it was because of moisture infiltration. It does rain in Alaska! One unit failed altogether…out of 8…but I had a complete extra unit along so substituted it for the bad one. The Sena camera worked flawlessly and produced some great videos and stills. I’ll be publishing some of those later.

Distracted Riding

OK, Got the Garmin Zumo GPS as a replacement for the Garmin Montana GPS mainly because the Zumo can double as a music player and seems a bit better suited for my Street bikes. It doesn’t do tracks like the Montana but I’m not going to go on trails with either the V-Strom or the Goldwing, so Routes based on street navigating worked just fine.

I spent time and some money to load up hours of my favorite songs and was ready to enjoy the next ride with my tunes. The first ride out after getting the music, I wound up in a ditch.

Huh? There sat the Goldwing in a 3-foot ditch hooked to a wrecker. No damage but I’m getting worried about how my lack of concentration would let me do something like that…a slow speed oopsie on a narrow lane while I was turning to see if I had zipped up a tank bag. I’d never done that before.

Then, the next ride, I found myself on the shoulder from another concentration lapse. I rode it out with no issues but discovered that I was uncomfortable on twisties now and having trouble feeling completely in control. I was thinking that maybe it was time to get rid of the bikes before these recent warning signs turn into something that results in my wife getting THAT phone call.

But…maybe it was the music in both ears causing a distraction. So I turned it off. Voila! Crystal clarity again and totally comfortable again on the twisting roads we like to ride on.

Everybody is wired a bit differently and apparently the part of my brain (I’m an amateur musician) that processes music is the same part that processes riding input. Probably something to do with how much I enjoy both activities. Anyhow, the two activities conflict with each other. It can’t be just that I’m getting more geezer-like, could it? No way??

Oddly, no such problems when driving the car. Probably because that doesn’t stimulate the same pleasure senses in the old noggin that riding does.

Whatever the cause, now I’m happy to just enjoy the ride, the scenery, the camaraderie of my friends and everything else that goes with this gift I keep giving myself. Motorcycle riding

Extra gas for Alaska Trip

When we go to Inuvik, Yukon Territories in 2018, the distance between available gas is pretty close to the range I have in my tank. It’s 5.8 gallons and I get 40-45 mpg in average conditions for maybe 235 miles. In the mud with headwinds, who knows? The 460 mile Dempster Highway to Inuvik has some gas stations and the longest distance between them is 229 miles so I’ll carry two, one-gallon extra tanks on the lids of my aluminium side cases.

Fit up. holding the tanks on with blue tape at first

I would have mounted them on the sides of the top case, but then I couldn’t open the left side case lid without hitting the gas can. I used the handy RotoPlex cans with their twist-lock fastener. Last time I didn’t take the top case anyway so this mounting method gives me the option to leave the top case home again and just use the waterproof canoe bags again.

After fitting them up, I removed the twist-lock fastener and put bolts with plastic washers for weatherproofing in the holes.

Got the rubber furniture bumpers at Lowes. Used some plastic washers under the bolts to seal the lid.

Neater without the tanks. When I need them, I’ll just reinstall the fasteners and snap on the tanks.

To avoid maybe 9000+/- miles of the side case lids rubbing on the plastic gas tanks, I found some nifty rubber self-stick furniture bumpers at Lowes and put them on the lids where the tanks would rub.

I got concerned that the plastic hinges might break when opened since there was no lid-stop, so I dug out my plastic-covered small cable kit and made up some nifty lid-stops. Used stainless hardware for all bolts and nuts.

The plastic-coated cables keep the lid from stressing the hinges. Important with 7 pounds of fuel in the attached tank.

Plumbers Goop. At Lowes in the sealant section. Great for sealing and attaching things.

The last thing I did was to remove all the bolts holding the lid-stoppers and seal them back on with Plumber’s Goop to keep the box as leak-proof as possible.

CB Radio in the Suzuki V-Strom

The guy with the goofy smile is me now without the beard.

I ride with several guys who have Goldwings with CB radios. When I ride my Goldwing, no problem communicating. It has a CB built-in. However, I like to ride the V-Strom with them as well, so had to figure out how to install a CB to stay in touch.

First, I had to get and install a “No Ground Plane” CB antenna. Then, because the V-Stroms are notorious about adding a squeal to CB transmissions when the CB is hooked to the V-Strom 12 Volt power, I installed a Navoni Independent Power Supply and eliminated that.

Then I put in a Sena SR-10 BlueTooth transmitter to send the signal to my headset, adding a push-to-talk handlebar button (which doesn’t show in the tank bag photo) dedicated SR-10 to Midland connector to go to my Midland CB and a few other goodies and I’m in business. It’s great to be able to talk with my riding buddies while we go on our rides.

Some like to communicate via GMRS and FMRS “Family Channel” radios. Got that covered too. The Midland plug just plugs right into my small handheld and works the same as the CB but maybe not the same range since the antenna is kinda buried. Only one radio at a time, though.

By the way, if you are with a riding companion who also has a Sena Bluetooth Headset, you can pair them ad get clear communications via their intercom function. We get almost a mile range consistently doing that. Works concurrently with the other radio so you get both comms at the same time plus cell-phone connectivity. Very versatile setup.

Dempster Highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

Our 2018 motorcycle destination. That’s the Famsa tank bag (extended up) with the CB in it plus lots of other stuff.

Sena 10-C Helmet Video Camera, intercom

It’s a great intercom and also a great video/still camera. But sometimes the battery doesn’t last as long as your ride if you are using it a lot. Here’s a photo of it, upside down and charging, on my helmet.

However, it isn’t charging from a wall plug or 12Volt socket, it’s charging from an add-on battery I glued to the other side of the helmet. See that photo here:

It’s really a small and very light mobile phone recharging battery power supply. Here’s a closer-up look at it plus what I used to glue it and some misc shots:

All in all, I don’t notice the negligible weight of the add-on power supply and it gives me all-day + use of the neat Sena 10-C.