Nola N-com

[Sooty09]

A few weeks ago I bought a Nolan N85 in a closing down sale. The helmet is light and comfy with a very good inner tinted visor. I liked the low helmet noise and the pre-prepared cutouts and pockets for the intercom system. I have tried a few others helmets and kits and found the speaker fitting difficult.
I bought a Nolan N-com starter kit 2, this fitted easily into the helmet after pulling all the inners out. It was easy to reassemble and fitted without any pressure on my ears from the speakers. Sitting in the lounge with an I pod connected the sound was very good.
I then tried it on the bike, without earplugs the sound was just about OK at 40mph but then wind noise took over, I put my earplugs back in and had to turn the volume up to max to hear anything above 40 mph.
The kit is now up for sale on e-bay, I have decided nothing works on a bike if you need to wear earplugs, and I will never ride without them now (too late for stopping tinnitus)

 

[chas820]

I play an MP3 through my Starcom/Schuberth C3 wearing earplugs and I can hear clearly to above legal speeds.This is on a F800gs with less then perfect wind protection.

 

[earthmover]

I have an X-lite (Nolan by another name) with a Cardo Scala Q2 headset. Wearing earplugs I can still hear my iPod above motorway speeds. Sounds as though the N-com either isn't very loud, or isn't fitted in the optimum place for your lug holes.
Mark

 

[stever1]

Me, i use a starcom digital feeding music from garmin, into a shoei neotec complete with moulded earplugs. Good to about 90mph, (in germany on the autobahns ociffer).
I have mates who use bluetooth kit, and it rarely works very well.

 

[Sooty09]

The earphones will only fit in one position in a Nolan helmet, the foam is cut away ready and the speakers push in, they even have a recess for the cables, its a very well thought out bit of kit. There is no volume control on the N-com basic. you plug your MP3 or similar into a socket and use the device volume control.
It may just be my ears that have lost sensitivity over the years.

Im back to hand signals for my wife & I riding, four are needed.
Stop.
Petrol.
Tea.
Pee.
System has worked for the last 30 years and we now have back up mobile phones if we get seperated.

Each to their own but I'm done with trying to get simple helmet coms.

 

[Bumpkin]

Quite probably down to the location of the speakers. If they are fixed for the N-Com system then it's not going to suit the majority as we're all different.

It's not just the alignment of the centre of the speakers with your ear canal but also the proximity, i.e. how close to your ear the speaker is that has a marked effect on how much the sound has to compete with wind noise.

The speakers for my Autocom were not particularly well aligned on the first install and after 60mph I found it impossible to hear anything. I wear Max-Lite ear plugs at all times on the bike. Moving the speakers to an optimal position and using foam stacks to bring them closer to my ear (just touching but not uncomfortable) I can now hear GPS, Bike to Bike and MP3 at Autobahn speed, i.e. 90mph. Obviously this is battling wind noise but it's still audible.

 

[chas820]

When I first put the speakers into the recess they didnt align with my ears.By raising and lowering the helmet a bit I found the best position.I used a soldering iron to melt a bit of the polystyrene to make the adjustment work.You might also need to pack out the speakers a bit so they are closer to your ears.I would also speak to the N-Com people in case your unit is faulty.