Dirt_Dad
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
2011 Site Supporter
2013 Site Supporter
2014 Site Supporter
DM first got us going with intercoms. I was against it, she was right. Once on board we've owned a lot of Sena headsets over the last 15 years. We always buy them as dual packs, two SMH-10s, three S20s, and five 50S units. No one can accuse us of not giving them a chance. We did. They are in our past now.
What killed it was the 50S. I really appreciated it was the first Sena unit that had adequate volume for me, a rider who uses ear plugs. It was a great until it quickly became apparent the charge would not last beyond 3 hours of use.
Sena Customer Service was excellent about saying they would replace it. I didn't like they wanted me to send the unit, wait until they had it, then they would mail another. After some minor prompting they agreed to send the replacement first.
The replacement worked for almost a year. It died on the first day of the trip heading to the South Dakota Tenere gathering. It rained hard that day. The unit worked all day, then never turned on again. Due to a previous helmet theft, my DM and I learned to travel with a back up intercom, so I used an old S20 unit for the remained of that trip.
Again, Sena Customer Service was good. They did tell me I should never use the unit in hard rain and it should only be used on light rain days. Really...? You sell a product for motorcyclist that can't be used in a common motorcycling environment?...huh. But they agreed to replace it.
The second replacement worked for 12 months before starting to malfunction. Fully charged unit not turning on, only turning on if you put USB power to it then trying to turn on, going to charge it and seeing the blue charge light was already on...even when unit is not plugged in, turning on once in the morning, turn off, it will not turn on again. Just flat out dead, or at best unpredictable. It was completely dead on the last day of my BDR-X PA Wilds trip.
This time Sena Customer Service did note the unit was 3 months beyond the warranty period of the original purchase. They have no repair service and could not replace it due to the expired warranty. I was not surprised. They did offer to generate a discount code for me for a new unit.
I thanked them for the discount offer, but pointed out based on my experience with the last 3 units, I did not believe it would be wise for me to put money into a 4th unit. I'll be moving on, thank you.
To be completely fair, my DM's 50S unit has never had a failure in the 27 months we've had it. Of course, she rides much less than me and will sometimes take 9 months off from riding at a time. Her 50S has far fewer hours on it than any of the three I had fail on me.
We never experienced failures with the earlier models. The idea the 50S is recommended to not be used in the rain is mind-blowing to me. I'm pretty good at keeping my rubber boot over the charge port closed, so I don't suspect it was moisture from there.
So am I just unlucky?...maybe. Three times unlucky?...maybe. Regardless, I'm taking a break from Sena.
I purchased a dual pack of Cardo Packtalk Edge. Right on the box "waterproof." There are a number of other features that I'm looking forward to trying. Not losing comms with DM when the GPS starts to talk, tool free install, natural voice commands, and of course, that magnet attachment is so appealing compared to trying to get the perfect alignment sitting on the side of the road while wearing gloves.
Time will tell if Cardo is as good and reliable as I hope. I know Sena hasn't been.
What killed it was the 50S. I really appreciated it was the first Sena unit that had adequate volume for me, a rider who uses ear plugs. It was a great until it quickly became apparent the charge would not last beyond 3 hours of use.
Sena Customer Service was excellent about saying they would replace it. I didn't like they wanted me to send the unit, wait until they had it, then they would mail another. After some minor prompting they agreed to send the replacement first.
The replacement worked for almost a year. It died on the first day of the trip heading to the South Dakota Tenere gathering. It rained hard that day. The unit worked all day, then never turned on again. Due to a previous helmet theft, my DM and I learned to travel with a back up intercom, so I used an old S20 unit for the remained of that trip.
Again, Sena Customer Service was good. They did tell me I should never use the unit in hard rain and it should only be used on light rain days. Really...? You sell a product for motorcyclist that can't be used in a common motorcycling environment?...huh. But they agreed to replace it.
The second replacement worked for 12 months before starting to malfunction. Fully charged unit not turning on, only turning on if you put USB power to it then trying to turn on, going to charge it and seeing the blue charge light was already on...even when unit is not plugged in, turning on once in the morning, turn off, it will not turn on again. Just flat out dead, or at best unpredictable. It was completely dead on the last day of my BDR-X PA Wilds trip.
This time Sena Customer Service did note the unit was 3 months beyond the warranty period of the original purchase. They have no repair service and could not replace it due to the expired warranty. I was not surprised. They did offer to generate a discount code for me for a new unit.
I thanked them for the discount offer, but pointed out based on my experience with the last 3 units, I did not believe it would be wise for me to put money into a 4th unit. I'll be moving on, thank you.
To be completely fair, my DM's 50S unit has never had a failure in the 27 months we've had it. Of course, she rides much less than me and will sometimes take 9 months off from riding at a time. Her 50S has far fewer hours on it than any of the three I had fail on me.
We never experienced failures with the earlier models. The idea the 50S is recommended to not be used in the rain is mind-blowing to me. I'm pretty good at keeping my rubber boot over the charge port closed, so I don't suspect it was moisture from there.
So am I just unlucky?...maybe. Three times unlucky?...maybe. Regardless, I'm taking a break from Sena.
I purchased a dual pack of Cardo Packtalk Edge. Right on the box "waterproof." There are a number of other features that I'm looking forward to trying. Not losing comms with DM when the GPS starts to talk, tool free install, natural voice commands, and of course, that magnet attachment is so appealing compared to trying to get the perfect alignment sitting on the side of the road while wearing gloves.
Time will tell if Cardo is as good and reliable as I hope. I know Sena hasn't been.
