Bike Radio And Phone Answering Kit

Brennan,
you've never smoked while riding, have you? The challenge isn't the
opening as much as keeping the hot ashes out of your eyes.

Don't dwell so much on the tone of many of the responses. Anytime something
like that is asked, the smartasses come out to socialize for miles around.
I think the general concensus is no cell phone accessories, though.
--

Later,

Charlie

fix the e-mail address and it will get to me

 

After having used the Chatterbox unit for a year or so, here's what I have
to say.

- higher quality cables and plugs. The chatterbox unit cables are cheap and
prone to failure.
- better designed helmet mount for mike. I own four different helmets, the
mike only clamps on well to one of them. the other three have various rigs
I had to deal with to get the damn thing to stay on.
- well designed handlebar or other such bike mount instead of relying on a
helmet mount. It should have available leads for power (instead of relying
on batteries), music, cell phone, Push-To-Talk, Push-To-Answer phone, and
what the hell - an Aux jack for something I haven't thought of.
- rig up a Push-To-Answer button/cable for the cell phone. The Nokia cell
phone cable that Chatterbox sells has a button on the cable that
answers/hangs up the phone. problem is, trying to grab the damn thing since
it's inline to the cable is a pain in the ass. rig a *separate* cable out of
the device that can be routed to the handlebar in a similar fashion to the
PTT button. Some kits don't have any buton and rely on the phone
"auto-answering". This sucks, since when the phone rings you may be in a
situation that doesn't warrant answering the phone and would like the call
to go through to voicemail.
- When talking on the cell phone, kill the music, and more importantly, can
the external transmissions on radio. Nothing more annoying than hearing the
one-sided conversation of my buddy on another bike talking on his cell
phone.
- have a good noise cancelling system.
- if you can rig bluetooth in, that'd be great. One less lead to have
hanging off the device.

Hope this helps.

<rant>
And everyone: for the record, sure, he asked for opinions, but he asked for
opinions on "what would you look for in the device", not "is the device good
or bad". That's a different discussion. Give the guy a little bit of
respect and a break. Remember, you might be the next guy asking a question
and getting slammed for it.

<standing on soapbox>
Having said that, I may as well give my 2 cents - How can someone say it's
OK to talk on an intercom, but not on a cell phone? I think the real
argument is either for communications on the helmet, or no communications on
the helmet at all. If you think talking on an auto-answering hands-free
in-the-helmet cell phone is dangerous, then it should be considered
dangerous to talk to a passenger. The conversation is the same, being heard
in the same place (helmet), and being talked to in the same place (mike).
My belief: I'm fine with talking to my passenger via an intercom, and I
think talking on a cell phone that's wired into the intercom is exactly the
same - your hands are still on the handlebars, your eyes are still facing
foward, and you're talking in your helmet.
</standing on soapbox>
</rant>

Of course, I wouldn't go trying to dial the phone while riding... Unless
it's voice activated, that is....

Paul

 

An important difference is that the caller of a cell phone
has no situational awareness of what's going on. A
passenger will shut up, and not expect a response while you
are traversing a dangerous intersection, avoiding a road
hazard, changing lanes looking for an exit, etc. The guy
on the other end of the phone means you no harm, but has no
idea. Since you know he has no idea as to why you're not
answering his last question, you tend to answer when you
should be concentrating elsewhere, simply out of
politeness.