How to Build Motorcycle Helmet Speakers

Wearing headphones underneath your motorcycle helmet while riding is not only uncomfortable, but also dangerous. It is important to be able to hear what is going on around you while you ride. Installing speakers inside your helmet is a good way to improve riding comfort as well as allow for adequate exterior listening capabilities. By installing a thin pair of headphones inside the padding of your helmet, you can have comfortable and safe stereo sound while you ride.

Speaker Modification

• 1

  Purchase flat and relatively thin headphones--the less plastic or metal surrounding the headphone speaker and wiring, the better. Use headphones with a sensitivity rating between 100 and 106 decibels.

• 2

  Cut away any plastic surrounding the wire or use a screwdriver to get beneath the wire and wedge it out of its plastic groove. Pay attention to the wire and headphone connection point---do not damage either the connection point or the wire.

• 3

  Use a screwdriver to pry open and unclip the panel doors marked "left" and "right" on the headphone sockets. Do not break these black plastic pieces because you will reuse them.

• 4

  Push excess wire down into the speaker housing area. This will create slack on the wire to help prevent damage during the modification procedure.

• 5

  Remove the foam that surrounds the speaker units of each earpiece.

• 6

  Disassemble the speaker housing unit on each earpiece by unclipping the interior yellow and blue plastic pieces from one another. Be careful as to not break either piece.

• 7

  Feed more wire into the hole to provide more slack. Gently pull the yellow plastic, mounted speaker away from the blue plastic piece until you can access the Phillips head screw inside the blue surround piece.

• 8

  Unscrew the screw using a #1 bit Phillips screwdriver.

• 9

  Remove the speaker and wire from the rest of the headband. You may need to cut small lines around the ends of the headband to properly remove the wire and speaker. Do not cut the wire or speaker unit.

• 10

  Repeat these steps on the other headphone piece to fully remove the wire and speaker from the headband on both sides.

• 11

  Reattach and snap the yellow speaker board back into the blue speaker housing unit. Reattach and snap the black access panel into place.

• 12

  Install a square piece of adhesive female Velcro over the back of the speaker piece. To prevent tension on the wire connection point, coil the wire up into a small loop and place Velcro over it.

Helmet Modification

• 1

  Remove the rubber gasket from the interior bottom of the helmet. This may be glued in place. If this is the case, you will have to re-glue it into place later.

• 2

  Use masking tape to mark where your ears sit inside the helmet.

• 3

  Remove the padding from the helmet. Some padding may be attached with Velcro, while other padding may be glued in. If the padding is glued in, you will have to re-glue the padding.

• 4

  Cut out a portion of the helmet padding--half the width of the headphone if the padding is soft foam, the full headphone width if the padding is made of Styrofoam. Cut holes into the removed padding to allow the speaker sound to be heard.

• 5

  Attach adhesive male Velcro to the inside of the helmet shell where the speaker will be located. This will keep the speaker snuggly in place.

Speaker Installation

• 1

  Install the speakers into both holes where your ears will be inside the helmet. Route the wire across either the top or back of the helmet so it sits on top of where the padding is. Use small pieces of duct tape to firmly attach the wire inside the helmet.

• 2

  Run the wire out the back of the helmet, taping or gluing it in place so as to prevent too much tension being placed on the wire connection points.

• 3

  Reinstall the padding into the helmet. Glue the padding in if it was originally glued into the helmet.

• 4

  Reinsert the rubber gasket into the seam that runs along the bottom edge of the helmet. Use the rubber gasket to help hold the wire in place.