Motorcycle intercom review: Buyee comms system

 

Motorcycle intercoms seem to divide people. You either love them or hate them.

For some, the ease of making a phone call, speaking to your pillion or listening to music on the road is a welcome development in motorcycling technology. For the purists, intercoms are an intrusion into the joy of riding alone to escape the stresses and strains of the modern world.

I’m a fan, particularly while motorcycle touring, for three main reasons:

• Listening to music on long distance journeys enhances the travel experience and beats the boredom of French toll roads.
• My pillion (usually my wife) can let me know if she needs to rest or if she spots something she’d like us to explore. She is also invaluable in helping with directions when we get lost in busy cities or confusing intersections.
• Being able to talk with my mates on their motorbikes when we’re riding makes the journey more fun. It also helps when we lose each other.

I didn’t know any of this when I bought my first motorbike intercom three years ago, so I didn’t want to spend hundreds of pounds on a high-spec Sena system or Cardo headset just yet.

After some online research and talking to fellow bikers, I opted for the Buyee Bluetooth Interphone motorcycle intercom. It has done a fantastic job ever since.

The first thing that attracted me to the Buyee intercom was the price. It currently retails on Amazon at £38.99 for one headset and microphone or £75.99 for a set of two, if you want one for your pillion.

Fitting it to the helmet was easy. Simply position the speakers on either side of the inside of your helmet behind the padding, and tuck the wire behind it too. I’d recommend spending time moving the speakers around so they are in the perfect position for you. Otherwise, any pressure they put on the edges of your ears while riding will get painful quickly. The microphone fits snugly against the chin section of your helmet, so much so I don’t ever notice it is there.

The Bluetooth headset itself either clips or sticks to the outside of your helmet. I’ve tried both and ended up using the sticking option, because the clip can sometimes move around when you take your helmet on or off.

After three years of using the Buyee Bluetooth Interphone intercom, the two words I would use to describe it are simple and reliable. The simplicity of design means there are only two large buttons to press, which are easy to operate even in the thickest of winter gloves. There isn’t a fiddly button to frustrate you in sight.

Set up is as simple as holding down the front button until a red and blue flashing light appears. You then sync it to your mobile phone’s Bluetooth or wait until it connects with your pillion’s helmet. This same button held for a different length of time also turns the intercom on and off. One touch of the rear button plays or pauses music, and picks up and puts down a phone call. That’s all there is to it. If I’m listening to music, it will automatically be interrupted if my phone rings.

I’ve used the Buyee intercom on a series of long distance journeys abroad which have tested the battery power to its limits. Buyee claims one full charge will provide six hours of consistent use, and I would agree. A charge tends to last all day, as long as I remember to switch it off during breaks from riding.

I’ve also used the Buyee intercom to communicate rider-to-rider extensively at home and abroad. The product’s specifications says it can communicate with another device up to 800m. Again, my experience concurs with that, although I have never measured it exactly. When you are close to losing a connection, an annoying interference sound comes through the headset, which is then replaced with a beep to let you know the connection has been severed.

The sound quality of the Buyee intercom is decent, with volume controlled by an easy to use wheel which also skips songs forward and back on your phone.

More expensive devices will give you a greater range, better sound quality and the option to link to multiple headsets, something the Buyee intercom doesn’t. But you’ll likely be paying double the price or more.

The Buyee intercom will connect to my TomTom Rider SatNav and mobile phone simultaneously, where I can control phone calls and music on the SatNav screen. One glitch I’ve found is that when the SatNav voice directions are enabled, it won’t let music play properly from my phone.

Overall, the Buyee Bluetooth Interphone motorcycle intercom is well designed, simple to use, reliable and offers excellent value for money.

I was originally attracted to it because it was relatively cheap and I wasn’t sure if I would persevere with a motorcycle intercom. Three years later, it has performed so well that I haven’t felt the need to upgrade to a higher specification, more expensive device. I’m sure I will one of these days, but certainly not while my Buyee intercom is still working.