Disappointed with Schuberth product performance and service

(updated 2016.05.09 and 2016.05.30 at bottom of this article. Link to resolution of issue at the end of this blog)

In the mid of October last year, I swapped my old Nolan N104 with n-com B4 communication system for the Schuberth C3 PRO with SCRS PRO communication set. The Nolan combination had been my companion for 3 years and 7 months, in which I replaced once the visor and of which the n-com B4 had to go in for repair once. During the first months I detected some bugs in the n-com B4 software, for which I received a beta firmware to test and validate after which this good beta update went live to all customers.

The Nolan combination was OK in wearing comfort, was reliable in operation, the n-com system was easy in operation (only 3 big buttons which were very well feelable when wearing gloves, and has a pretty logic menu structure), but had gained a reputation on being a noisy companion. Exchanging the helmets collar with retrofit parts from Louis.de, the noise issues reduced but the N104 was never able to get a classification of being a silent helmet.

Hooked by Schuberth’s claims and backed by overall market consensus that the Schuberth C3 and its evolution C3 PRO being one of the, if not the, most silent motorcycle helmet on the market, I went for the Schuberth C3 PRO. As I love to listen to radio while riding and want to hear the directional messages from my navigation system, I went for the optional Schuberth SCRS PRO system along with it. As the C3 PRO hosts an antenna system in the helmet and the SCRS PRO uses it, the radio receipt should improve significantly compared to the n-com one.

While having the helmet now over 6 months in operation, I think that I can start making some judgement to helmet and build in Bluetooth / radio system:

• in wearing comfort, the Schuberth C3 PRO is better than the Nolan N104. One example is for instance that the C3 PRO hosts engravements in the helmet’s padding material to give room for those wearing glasses like me
• wind – / turbulence noise performance is better than with the Nolan N104. Maybe my expectations, due to the marketing material and information from reviews, had become too big as the C3 PRO did not live up to what I expected it to be from a noise point of view. Some odd things appear regarding noise: when driving with a little open visor, the noise performance is better than when driving with a fully closed visor. This is likely due to the special aerodynamic shapes put into place on the top of the visor, but is something completely opposite to what I would expect
• the latching mechanism is very (can also be read as too) tight, demanding more force to properly close it. Here definitely the Nolan N104 is easier and more precise to close. The sides of the C3 PRO feels less solid than on the Nolan N104, so that it flexes when closing. On top if feels as if the “stick” hosting the microphone of the communication system is in the way of closing the chin section smoothly, making it even worser
• design of the mechanism to slide up and down the sunglass visor is better from aerodynamic point of view than on the Nolan N104. Noise performance of the Nolan N104 was on the left side way worser than on the right side, due to the poor aerodynamic design of this mechanism. On the other hand the Nolan N104 mechanism can be better operated when wearing thicker winter or autumn/spring gloves: here the Schuberth C3 PRO is not well noticeable when wearing thicker gloves
• performance of the radio + in the helmet integrated antenna on the C3 PRO is a quantum leap forward compared to that of the n-com B4 system with a small metal strip taking the antenna function. Here the extra investment that Schuberth has done to integrate an antenna system (from the antenna connector it looks like multiple directional antenna’s) is paying off
• the Bluetooth performance did not convince on my new Schuberth SRCS PRO system when benchmarking it to the n-com B4. Connection to both navigation system and iPhone (5S and 6) gets multiple times disconnected and reconnected again during a ride. Verbal directional information sometimes w/o any reason gets poor in quality (metal/robot-like announcements) as if the wireless bandwidth is low at that moment. When making telephone calls over Schuberth’s SRCS PRO system is impossible: both the person I am calling as well as myself can not understand much of the conversation. Here the n-com B4 had way better performance: not loosing connections, crystal clear verbal instructions from my Garmin sumo 660, and good sound quality at both ends when making a call. Here definitely the n-com B4 is the better system
• the n-com B4 three button is easier in operation than the five button design on the Schuberth SRCS PRO system. Due to the bigger knobs on the n-com and the more logical operation, it has a less steep learning curve in my humble opinion. Although more buttons can host more short cuts to getting things done, the layout of the knows on the Schuberth are too small to detect when wearing thicker gloves. Also here Schuberth (or Cardo as it is a Cardo system with Schuberth branding on it) did not make the right design choices with ease of operation in mind. I am not well able to get accustomed to it, and often press buttons when wanting to operate the visor against the sun or simply press the wrong button
• Cardo community and Cardo community software to manage settings on the Schuberth SRCS PRO is better than with n-com. n-com only supports Windows based machines to use its software, and its software is very rudiment in design: you gets things done, but it is not that user friendly and nice looking. Cardo supports both Windows and Mac operating systems (although the Mac software takes lots of time regarding updating when new OS-versions come out – Mac OS X 10.11 / El Capitan took several months to get supported), and looks better and is more user friendly. It tries to make riding in groups with the Schuberth SRCS PRO handy by managing riders with similar systems to pair up with, as the SRCS PRO is capable to support connection to 8 other drivers/systems
• I did not get communication between drivers of same Schuberth SRCS PRO systems to work: a colleague of mine has exactly the same set, and it simply does not connect. So this feature is or not working, or something is wrong with my Schuberth set (or his)

So, when not considering the issues I had on top of described above with the Schuberth SRCS PRO system (which will follow in the next paragraphs), the Schuberth combination is an improvement but I am underwhelmed compared to the expectation grown by the companies advertising material and reviews by others. Considering the additional investment, it is something to think over when being in the market for a new helmet with communication set. Especially the communication set is underwhelming for ease of operation and Bluetooth performance, but – in all fairness – best in market regarding helmet integrated FM radio.

Now coming back to my issues with the Schuberth SRCS PRO communication set and with the service organization of Schuberth in Germany. As you could read above, the Bluetooth is definitely the weak part of the communication set. Poor quality of Bluetooth connection, inability to make a call which is understandable by both parties on the line, and the inability to pair to other owners of the same set is a real downer of this system. On top over the month of March 2016, the system started to hang itself up. First time I thought that I had forgotten to fully charge the set (although I was for 99.9% sure I did) before I started my ride, so for the next tour I charged it a full night the day before. And then again, after roughly 1.5-2 hours of operation (FM-radio on, iPhone connected to Bluetooth channel 1, Garmin zumo 660 connected to Bluetooth channel 2, route activated on the Garmin), my communication set stopped functioning again. All LEDs were off and no way to get the Schuberth SRCS PRO alive again. When arriving back home, I started to Google around and found out that when you connect a SRCS system to power, it will reset itself. Trying this out, and indeed putting it for short to power made the SRCS PRO come alive again, and I could let the radio play and have a phone connection alive for an hour or so w/o it stopping to work. This ruled out a battery issue or poor battery performance under low temperatures … it confirmed to me that the SRCS PRO hanged itself during operation. For completeness: I always keep all my systems which have a flashable firmware on the latest official release of firmware, and my Schuberth SRCS PRO is no exception to this (was on Firmware v1.1)!

As my Schuberth SRCS PRO was only 5 months old, I turned it in at the shop (Louis in Hannover / Germany) for repair. Indication of repair time was 3 till 4 weeks, so after 3.5 weeks I called first time to ask for status of repair. It finally took 5.5 weeks till the communication set was again available for pick up at the shop! Not to be a party-pooper, but this is 5% of total warranty period w/o me being able to use it!

When picking the “repaired” device up at the Louis-megastore in Hannover, I asked the service employee on what was wrong and what was repaired. After digging through about 10 sides of paper, he found somewhere the text that my SRCS PRO system had been successfully connected to other Cardo products for 5 hours without an issue, and that they had cleared the firmware/settings to factory default. For the rest nothing was done. With expression of that this likely will not resolve the issue, I took my system back with me to try it out.

After verifying / updating the firmware (which was the latest release), having restored my settings plus the pairing with iPhone and Garmin, I build tried it out again but did not have immediately a longer trip planned. Last Thursday was a day on which I had planned a long ride: 770 km / 480 miles ride with about 11 hours of driving time in the country-side and in the mountains. Not convinced that my issues were resolved, I was smart enough to take along an USB battery and a USB charger plug which I can use on my BMW R1200RT. And it was good that I did, as the system failed 3 times during this ride … the only way to get it responsive again was to connect it for short to USB power and let a reset do the work. I every time tried to put the system up running again when driving (so prior to reseting it), which is not the safest thing to do when driving in mountain areas, but the whole system was really unresponsive.

Being unhappy, I searched on the internet on similar experiences, and read that best service is to be obtained when calling directly to the service team of Schuberth. This as, according to comments from other customers, Schuberth tries to go the extra mile to resolve issues their customers have with their products. So I called several times with Schuberth’s service team on German number +49 39 181 060: first from my mobiel, later from a German landline that I have in order to keep cost for international calls down. In total I have been on the (waiting) line for over 3 hours, of which the longest session was trying to get a German speaking service employee on the line for 2 hours and 32 minutes (see print screen on the right)! And during this whole time, a tape was making me believe: “Herzlich Willkommen beim Service Team der Schuberth-gruppe. Momentan sind alle Leitungen belegt. Bitte haben Sie einen Moment Geduld, wir sind gleich für Sie da. — Thank you for calling the service team of the Schuberth-Group. All lines are busy at the moment. Please hold on, we will be available for you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.“. I do not know how you deal with these messages, but I always have the feeling that when I would disconnect I would have been helped in a few seconds after that … so I hanged in for very long time while I could have been riding my bike with perfect weather outside … what a waste of time on a day off! In the waiting time I also send Twitter and Facebook messages to Schuberth’s Twitter / Facebook accounts asking whether their service desk was open or not … with a response hours after questions had been asked, so not of great help either.

Being not very satisfied with Schuberth’s “high valued” service, I have filled a complaint both by e-mail as well as a negative review on their Facebook page. I did get later, so after I had dropped the line, a message apologizing somewhat and that they will check what was going on … after that the Facebook communication line turned into radio silence.

Yesterday, Saturday May 7th, I got around 1pm a call from Schuberth by the manager for Sales and Service. He apologized and explained that on Friday Schuberth in Germany was closed and that information was announced on the tape when calling their service number. I explained that that was not the case: the tape running was one in which I was asked to be patient and that I would be helped a.s.a.p. He would verify that up with IT and will work on preventing this from happening again. He also promised that coming Monday, so tomorrow May 9th, an expert of the Schuberth SRCS systems would give me a call to discuss how to resolve the issue. If necessary they would replace my faulty system by a new one. So there is a glimpse of hope on resolution, but I stay reserved till all is resolved as promises are easier made than kept.

So taking previous in consideration, at this moment my verdict would be: OK to go with Schuberth C3 PRO helmet but do not expect miracles in performance! A clear NO GO for the Schuberth SRCS PRO system, or you buy it only for the FM-radio functionality.

To be continued …

Update 2016.05.09: Just got a call from the Schuberth SRC system expert working in their service department. Likely the issue is related to a hardware problem which can not be solved by firmware update(s). For this reason a new unit will be send to me.

This is a good thing: making the promise to get called back, getting called back as promised, and not fiddling around for long by replacing a faulty device! That at least is making a U-turn on a bad road entered. Now it is waiting for arrival of the new unit, and to see whether it will work fine.

Update 2016.05.30: Issue is resolved. You can read the solution on this page: Schuberth SRCS Pro issue resolved: my mistake!