RiderBuds earphones claim to be the smallest, softest, toughest, quietest and most secure earphones for riders that won’t come out when you put your helmet on or take it off.
(UPDATE March 2020: This product has only just started deliveries almost a year past its deadline. We have contacted Indiegogo for comment.)
Founder Maurice Dziubinski says he has spent hundreds of hours testing the earphones, talked with more than 1000 riders around the world and had a few dozen Beta testers, including in Australia and New Zealand.
The company launched an Indiegogo campaign this week to raise funds to go into production and it was fully subscribed in less than three hours.
Delivery is now expected in May 2019 and they will cost $US199 (about $A275, €175, £150).
Maurice says supporters can still contribute to the crowd-funding campaign and get an earlybird discount of $US129.
“We achieved 100% of our funding goal in less than three hours, and 200% of our funding goal in 12 hours,” he says
“All because of the prep work we’ve put into this and basically nailing our product.
“Our real internal goal is raising over $US100,000.”
As with all crowd-funding campaigns we warn supporters that the product may not go into production and they may not get a refund.
RiderBuds
Maurice says riders have been “putting up with sub-quality audio” for years.
He says the problems are inferior wind-noise cancelling, dislodging when putting on your helmet, discomfort around the ears, or breaking cables.
We agree. It is difficult finding earphones that work well with helmets.
However, he claims RiderBuds will fit under any helmet, never get dislodged, stay comfortable, deliver crisp audio at any speed, protect your hearing and be tough enough to avoid cable breakages.
The earphones look good and come with both silicone and foam tips in various sizes to fit most ears.
We would like to see a lightning connection option for iPhones and a Bluetooth version like SlimBuds.
However, Maurice says although their earphones are all wired, they feature a “very unique modular cable system”.
“We’ve also been pointing our supporters to certain Bluetooth dongles we’ve been testing out and have been very happy with,” he says.
While the testimonials say they are comfortable, we’ve found wires that come straight out of earphones break and hurt your ears. We would expect a 90-degree bend at exit might be better.
However, Maurice says RiderBuds sit deeply inside your ear canal so the cable is already pointing down when it’s exiting your ear. unlike most other earphones.
We will reserve judgement for when a pair of the production earphones arrive here for testing early next year. Stay tuned.