freewire is for one up, whim will support 2 headsets
in order to support 2, need 2 freewires...

 

I have a '19 CVO Limited, the bike is great but my impressions of the WHIM and the Sena headsets is pretty poor so far.We previously had a the system on our '14 Limited set up really well and reliably. Conversation, gps prompts, radio, music bluetoothed from a phone, phone conversations and even the odd CB conversation all worked.

Firstly, the microphones on the BT headsets seem far too sensitive to wind noise so it's really difficult to get the vox set correctly. Often it's so difficult to have a conversation that we give up.

My other half likes to listen to music but so far we've not been able to get music from her phone to play reasonably. Bluetooth has been crackly and unreliable. It's difficult to explain exactly what's happening because I just don't understand it at the moment. We had such a good system on our '14 Limited this "upgrade" to wireless seems to be a retrograde step - we never really minded having a wired system.

My Mrs is even talking about selling the bike and going back to a pre '19 Limited.

I hope Harley are working on this - it seems like they've released a system again without having the wrinkles ironed out

Cheers

 

You can change the mic sensitivity in the Sena phone app. Download the Sena app on your phones if you haven't done so already (your phone and your wife's phone) this way you can each setup your own sena units individually. Once downloaded pair you sena to your phone and your wife's sena to her phone. With the senas turned on open the sena app on your phones and go to basic settings and there is an option to adjust the mic sensitivity. I have been using senas for 10 years and when the freewire came out I got that for my 2015 Ultra limited then when the WHIM came out I sold my Freewire setup and senas and got the WHIM installed in my 2018 Ultra (sold the 2015) and purchased the Harley Boom Sena 20s Evo. The WHIM setup and Harley Boom 20s EVO setup has worked perfectly on my 2018 Ultra for 30600 miles. I just traded my 2018 for a 2019 Ultra Limited and moved my WHIM over to that bike and it works perfectly there.

If it is not setup correctly it is frustrating. I have heard of many people getting frustrated and having everything removed from their bike and go back to wired because of all the frustrations. HD service teams along with the dealers just don't know enough about it to be useful resources to get it setup properly. I bet I could make a good living just running support for how to setup the WHIM/Boom 20s EVO or the Freewire/Sena combo.

Trust me, the system does work and it works well...the setup is the key once it is done correctly it will work as expected.

Edit: You can also go in through the Boom GTS wireless headset settings and click on configuration and this will allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the mics as well if you don't want to do it via the sena app on your phone. I use the phone but just remembered that you can do it via the BOOM system as well.

 

Thanks Tina, I'll give this a go. I think it's the lack of support/knowledge with the service teams/dealers that's the frustration. I suspect that, once I have my system configured correctly, I'll become the go to person for my HOG Chapter. I appreciate your time, and will let you know how I get on.

 

I agree on the lack of support. I had one of the local Harley service depots call me to walk them through how to set up the WHIM and the Boom 20s Evo headset. They are just not aware how to do it. And I am the support for my local HOG chapter, so I know the feeling if you become that for your chapter. It does help having a local resource to help others work through the kinks. I don't mind helping out where I can. 😁

 

Hi Tina. I downloaded the Android app and have changed settings on my 20S units and upgraded the firmware. There is also a Windows version of the app that I have used to set up my 20S units. I've made some progress in getting my settings right but still suffering with the wind noise problem - there doesn't appear to be a unit specific vox setting. My wife likes to ride with an open face helmet - a challenge for a boom microphone, but the mic on the Harley headset we had on our previous Ultra Limited coped well.

I'm experimenting with a thicker windshield at the moment.

Neil

 

Neil,

One thing to look for is the direction of the mic. I have noticed that most that are complaining of wind noise after adjusting the mic sensitivity is because their mic is turned the wrong direction. There is a little nub on one side of the mic right where the wind sock is. The nub needs to be away from your mouth. If it is facing your mouth the active portion of the mic is facing outward and catching the wind. I make it a habit to check for the nubby on the mic whenever I put my helmet on each time. Most that have half or open face helmets will move the boom mic out of the way to put the helmet on and take it off so that tends to get moved around a lot might not be facing the correct way.

Check that out and let me know.

 

Thanks Tina, I'm aware of the little nub, and I'm sure that has been facing outwards - it was one of the things I checked today.

 

The problems I'm having mostly seem to be tied up with the connection for the pillion rider. When my wife is riding with me, the vox is temperamental; music from a USB or the radio is ok for me, but broken up for my wife; music from her phone via bluetooth is broken up for both of us. At low speed/low background noise, the system seems to work ok but when speed and wind noise picks up, all the above problems kick in. I've added extra wind socks to our microphones which have improved things a little. I've also loaded the latest software (MY19.18.42.01) but it's hard to judge whether this has made any difference - it certainly hasn't cured the problems.

Harley have responded to my problems (via my dealer) and accepted that the microphones are sensitive to wind noise - they have no solution and agree that adding windsocks can help. They notified me that a previous release of the software that I got from the website (MY19.18.39.06) "was an Engineering testing SW and was released by accident"!

This is all very frustrating, it could drag on for months - maybe it's as well we are heading into winter to give HD some time to get the problems sorted.