I am Chatterbox

I enjoy listening to music while I'm riding my motorcycle. In order to do so, I have to put my ear buds in and then put my helmet on. Usually this is not a very comfortable way to jam while riding. After riding for awhile the earphones usually fall out of my ears while riding, which is no good.

I recently purchased the most exciting accessory for my motorcycle since I've been riding; the chatterbox xbi2. This small bluetooth device allows me to not only listen to music streamed from my ipod or cell phone via bluetooth, but also allows me to take phone calls and talk on the cell phone while riding.

Listening to music has been great with the chatterbox. There is plenty of sound coming out to keep me entertained even at high speeds. My only complaint is that there is not much of a low end bass sound with the speakers, but with the motorcycle engine going, I don't think I'd be able to hear much of the bass anyway.

I have tested the call feature a couple of times, and it seems to work fine until I reach 60mph. The wind and engine sound seems to be so strong and loud, that it makes it very difficult to communicate successfully while cruising at higher speeds. My friend Matt says that I sound muffled even at lower speeds. I think mostly because the microphone is basically touching my lips, so he can hear the air coming out of my mouth even as I speak. I'm still working on finding a better location for the mic to give me a higher quality phone call; however, the music listening is great and volume control is very easy to do even while wearing gloves.

The Pros of the chatterbox: The sleek look that gives a constant strobe light of red and blue while driving draws a lot of positive, curious attention, which makes me feel like I'm sporting anti-collision lights similar to those found on the wingtips of a jet. The luxury of having music and the option of talking not only on the phone, but to other buddy riders or passengers who use a bluetooth system on their helmet.

The Cons of the chatterbox: lack of a remote control to pause music or switch to the next song, muffle mic sounding on the other end of a phone call. If I had a louder bike, I'd probably have a very difficult time communicating on the phone. Lastly, the lack of low-end sound coming from the speakers.

The chatterbox is somewhat pricey, but I believe that it will come in super handy throughout my riding tenure.