i am at Day 1 with my Autocom. I have not yet tried to communicate with anybody or listen to tunes or do damn near anything yet.

Background: I'm getting ready to ride from Dallas to Las Vegas. My pops is riding down from Nashville to Dallas, and we are going on a grand adventure together. We thought it might be a little more fun to be able to communicate with each other. After reading countless reviews and asking damn near every bike shop in Dallas, we came to the conclusion that the most appropriate model would be an Autocom. Thought we should do it once, and do it right kind of thing.

So my Autocom comes in the mail today. I excitedly open up the box. Notice the Kenwood Transceiver, the cord to attach it, and the Autocom. All the wires are very straightforward.

Then I grab my helmet. Start to cringe. I love my Shoei. Its the RF1000. I'm about to stuff speakers in this snug helmet where there was already very little room. Whatever, this Autocom is designed for that. I pull off a cheek pad and put the Microphone Boom "just right". Put the cheek pad back in and put the helmet on. Looks like that would work fine.

I pull the cheek pad back off, and the other cheek pad, and get ready to put some speakers in there. Not a lot of space for that. Reassemble, and try on helmet: Smushed ears.

Adjust speakers and try again. Smushed ears again.

Adjust speakers and try again. Smushed ears.

Pull cheek pads out and the speakers, reassemble with out speakers, and enjoy the feeling. No smushed ears.

Realize that not having the speakers defeats the purpose of the entire system, and I try the speakers again. Smushed ears. My ears are beginning to dislike me.

Anybody who has done this, please advise. I'm getting a little frustrated. 

Can you buy a roomier set of cheek pads to allow room for the speakers?  Otherwise, what about getting another set of cheek pads and cutting out some material for space?

Modifying manufacturer's pads is probably a very bad idea though. 

Although I have the blueant intercom that works great, like you I was in pain the first few rides with the fixture inside my Shoei. I too thought about getting thinner cheek pads. But the cheek pads seems to conformed and it is now comfortable. Give it some miles and see or you can go with thinner size cheek pads like sugarcrook said.

Edit: I'm not sure how thick is your Autocom. My blueant is fairly thin. YMMV. 

This is one of several reasons that I have a few helmets.

I never found a set of speakers/earbuds that work comfortably with my RF1000.   

My Scorpion EXO-1000 and Caberg Brutus have plenty of room for earbuds/speakers and there is absolutely no ear squeeze.

I do know what it's like to ride with smashed ears, and its quite distracting, and a no go.  IMO, you'll need a new/different helmet.

I've heard of people taking the liner out and carving some more of the energy absorbing foam from the ear area to make room for the speakers, but this seems like a bad idea to me.

I started looking at second helmets and found that the Scorpion's are pretty inexpensive. Might be a good idea.

I also read that wearing some kind of helmet liner to keep your ears in the proper place as you stuff the helmet on makes it better. Its the folded-over ear that ruins it. Once I put the helmet on and violently tried to twist and such until my ear was oriented correctly, I was much more comfortable.

Second helmet seems like a much better helmet than removing some impact foam.

I used to have the folded ear problem with my last lid. I had to reach up and pop my ears back up after putting the helmet on, quite the pain in the ass. I doubt that there is even enough room to get my hand up in my X11. Thinner cheekpads or new lid methinks.

I had the exact same problem with my X-11 except with the Scala set. There was no way in hell that the autocomm would fit my X-11. I would suggest a balaclava (head sock). It seemed to work for me but I didn't like the feel of it so I opted for a different helmet. Of all the helmet headsets I found, the autocomm had the largest speakers. If you just bought the set I would consider returning it and going with something different that has smaller speakers. I don't remember Autocom having a bluetooth version so you also have to have a CB radio to talk to anyone on a separate bike. If you get another set that uses bluetooth you can cut down on the amount of junk you have to carry too.

Keep in mind that the Scorpions are loud as heck. 

If you insist on keeping the Autocom I would consider digging out the ear pockets. Theoretically you shouldn't be damaging the safety of the helmet too much because your ears don't really push against the ear pockets anyway. But if the RF-1000 is the same as the X-11 then you have a cloth liner over the foam which you would have to cut through in order to get at the foam which is why I didn't do that on my X-11.

Quote from: ato memphis on April 29, 2009, 06:38:59 AM


Second helmet seems like a much better helmet than removing some impact foam.

a new scorpion exo 400 or 700 will cost 100-200 depending on the graphic.

A new set of arai cheekpads cost me $10 off ebay. you could cut same size or get one size down as long as the next helmet size down from the one your wearing is the same shell size

I don't understand your guys' "different cheek pad" option. Your head is staying the same size and the shell is staying the same size. Getting thicker cheek pads will not make the ear pockets any deeper and thus solve the pinching problem because the speakers will stay in the same spot relative to his ears. Actually, if he goes with thicker cheek pads it is likely to increase his problem by increasing the likelihood of his ears folding. While thinner cheek pads have a small chance of helping keep his ears from folding they will cause the helmet to be looser than it should be and make it unsafe.

^^^ What he said.

The cheek pads aren't really affecting the placement of the speakers so much - they fit right into the opening for my ears, that's got no padding, but just the helmet styrofoam/plastic liner.

I've heard about modifying helmets by dremeling [sic] out some material so the speakers fit flush and its supposed to look like a professional install, or as if it came that way. Sounds pretty neat.




but i'm not about to cut into the foam that keeps me head from squishin' in a crash.

I think the confusion is that I had to pull the cheek pads out. That's because the wires run behind 'em.

Any particular reason why you went with the Autocom? Did they come out with a bluetooth unit what I wasn't paying attention? I think getting a different unit with smaller speakers would be a cheaper total cost alternative than getting a new helmet.

Autocom's additional features, like the ability to plug two in to the same unit when riding two up, battery powered or hardwired, add in MP3 / Phone / GPS etc features, and all the reviews of the sound quality made me think it was the way to go for what my pops and I wanted.

Bluetooth looked good too, though. I'd like a complete evaluation of all the available bike to bike communication systems in a side-by-side comparison that shows exactly what you need, how it works, and how well it works.

Jobs I should apply for with the moto-mags I suppose.

Quote from: ato memphis on May 01, 2009, 10:48:39 AM
Autocom's additional features, like the ability to plug two in to the same unit when riding two up, battery powered or hardwired, add in MP3 / Phone / GPS etc features, and all the reviews of the sound quality made me think it was the way to go for what my pops and I wanted.

Bluetooth looked good too, though. I'd like a complete evaluation of all the available bike to bike communication systems in a side-by-side comparison that shows exactly what you need, how it works, and how well it works.

Jobs I should apply for with the moto-mags I suppose.

Another option that I toyed with (and didn't get very far with) was finding other speakers that worked and replacing the speakers that came with the Autocom. I was hesitant to purposefully break something that was $100+ when I wasn't sure if it would work after I spliced in new speakers. Maybe you're more adventurous than I am though.