2019-07-01_RiDE

round-up

The RiDE team tests a

selection of high-tech

sports-touring gadgets

All-in-oneunitincludesintercom

andbothstillandvideocamera

operation

Videoquality wasreasonable- good

enoughfortheinternetorasa riding

record butnotmuchmore

twospeakersanda

microphone.Fittingisa

faffandeventhelargest

mountpositionsthe

viewfinderhigherinmy

HJCthanI’d like.The

in-appfittinginstructions

leadtomoderatelyuseful

FrenchYouTubevideos.

Theappmanagesbasic

A-to-Bnavigationand

whileyoucansetupa

multi-location‘roadtrip’

youcan’timporta GPX

file.Thedisplaygives

threebitsofinfo:your

speed;distancetothe

nextturning;andanicon

ofthatjunction.

Theexperiencedoesn’t

matcha regularsat nav

andI hadtolook‘up’to

checktheviewfinder—

nobetterthanlooking

downtoa sat-nav.

Touchscreen works through gloves,

with adjustable sensitivity for

summer or winter versions

Twisty route option stays off

motorways but can head for the

centreoftownssotake care

JULY 2019 | 95

SCS-S10 Bluetooth intercom £249.99

http://www.midwestmarketingltd.co.uk

Te s t e d by Matt Wildee, editor

Apart from navigation, the SCS S-10

promises to be everything you could

want in a single gadget; combining a

camera, a video camera and an

intercom system, it crams a lot in.

The video camera is 1080p and has its

own Wi-Fi that enables you to use your

phone as a monitor and download

video. The intercom can be paired with

your smartphone for phone calls and

music playback while the intercom

allows chatting with a pillion or other

riders up to a claimed 500m away.

But it is pretty damn hard to set up — it

tookthreeofustoworkouthowto

operateit,duetopoorinstructions.In

fact,it wasonlydowntoonlineguides

thatwemanagedtosortit.

Sofar,resultshavebeenmixed.The

music quality is very good but other

aspects could be better. The video is

useful as a dashcam-style record of

your ride or for uploading to the

internet, but the resolution is shamed by

most new smartphones and recordings

are dogged by wind-noise from the

external microphone.

The phone control isn’t great either

— voice commands get overwhelmed by

wind-noise and its audio dropped out at

high speed. £250 is a lot of money — I’d

be tempted to split them up and buy a

separate intercom and video camera as

the recording quality isn’t much better

than my £25 Goodmans video camera.

MyDrive route-planning app lets you

plan a route on computer or phone and

sync it to the unit, via Bluetooth or wi-fi.

Of course, you pair it with an intercom

for instructions and a smartphone for

data for traffic updates but I found this

a bit hit-and-miss — it took a few goes.

The controls on the adjustable-

sensitivity touchscreen are reasonably

intuitive and work through gloves but

the menu system scrolls horizontally

and when you get to the end, you have

to go all the way back. However, if you

want to get where you’re going or ride a

new adventure, then the Rider 550 will

do both for you.

A novel idea

A regular sat-nav is

simpler and more useful

Lifetime updates, thrill routing, route

planning, RAM mounting

Screen sometimes unresponsive,

phone connection tricky

Integrated design, good audio quality

Hard to set up, phone and video quality

not great

Small display shows three

pieces of information only