Create Your Own By Len Klajda
When I checked out the prices of helmet speakers, I decided to find some options. You can get good quality, light headsets pretty cheap these days, but most people have a couple old spares lying around the house. I took an old set of Sony headsets - the plastic head mounts were broken, but they delivered really good quality sound.Cut up the best ones you have, and go to it! I studied my helmet, and found that the ear cavities were clear all the way to the shell. I had some firm charcoal colored foam, which I'd been hanging on to. I cut two triangular pieces to fit snug into these cavities. I cut up the headsets, and removed the plastic housings. I also had some disk-shaped hard foam washers about a quarter-inch thick and just the right size to squeeze in the speakers.
Covering them with the thin foam covers that come with the headsets, I mounted them into the 1ž4-inch disks, hot glued the whole thing together. Then I hot glued them to the triangles. There are all kinds of separations between the cushioning in the helmet to run the wires. It looks like a really professional installation. There is enough "give" in the foam triangles that I can get my fingers in, with the helmet on, to position them right where they need to be to get great sound (these types of speakers need to be right against your ears for it to work.) The comfort against my ears can be adjusted by cutting the thickness of the triangles down, if I find it is too tight. I'll figure that out when I get to do some runs with them in place.
I have the wire and plug coming out the left side, and into a plug-in box mounted to the handlebars. The box has a large knob volume control which I can work easily, even with gloves on. A special platform holds either a CD or a radio. I got a very small fm/am radio from Radio Shack for about $15.00 which has amazingly good reception. A short jack from the speaker output to the handlebar box makes the whole thing easy to hook up, and to remove when I don’t want to use it. Good Luck! Email me if you have any questions or improvements.
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