intercoms

I want to get a half decent intercom system for the bike,

At the moment i have one of those lidl special's, for £4.99 it's not bad,
changed the in the ear headphones for a in the helmet type one, and it's
comfortable to use, but annoying at the same time, never expected it to work
at speeds over 2 mph, it actually works to about 50 mph, then starts
breaking up,

Most annoying bit is you have to turn the damn thing off manualy.. with one
of the volume controll knobs, appart from having to keep setting the damn
thing up every time we use it, i keep forgetting to turn it off,
the batteries last about 4 days continuous it seems.... how hard would it
have been for them to put a contact on the riders headset socket, so the
thing only turns on when theres a headset plugged in there.

Anyway, we want something that'll work upto around 90 mph, clearly,
althought to be honnest maybe having it break up a bit over 80 is a design
feature to stop the pillion moaning

idealy i'd like something bike mounted, i.e. 12 volt powered, so it dosent
matter which jacket i put on, the intercom's always there to use.
Music input would be nice, but not importiant, but having it reduce the
music volume when talking would be very handy,
Mobile phone input would also be very handy, tho with me having no mates, i
don't really know why, as no fecker ever calls me.

And the ability to interface with a bike to bike radio one day would be
nice, but not a must have.

Can't afford an autocom unit, even second hand they go for around £100 for
the basic ones,

i'd prefer to spend more like 50 or 60 quid, a bit more if it'll get
something a lot better than my budget allows.

second hand considered too, would need 1 open face type mic and one closed
face mic if going that route.

Suggestions please.

 

Save more if you really need the comms ability. I generally find that the
missus is getting the message about excess speed through with her body
language rather than screaming down a microphone anyway. Great for chatting
to mates when you're riding solo though ;-)

 

Learn how to punctuate, FFS.

 

A disabled guy had a go at me last Monday for parking in a disabled
bay[1]. Pointed out to him that I was in fact parked in a motorcycle
bay. Both sets of bays were adjacent to each other and painted in the
same colour so easy enough mistake for him [2] to make I suppose.

Agree with you about able-bodied people using disabled spaces, our
local ASDA has the same problem. They used to have a system that
announced to drivers that they were parking in a disabled bay but this
now appears to have been turned off.

[1] Hartshead Moor Services (M62)
[2] 83 years old, got his potted life history

 

CampinGazz wrote:


<snip>

Am I the only one who considers intercoms an annoyance second only in
irritation factor to immobilisers?

 

I've often thought about getting one, due to the number of miles I do
with Katie on the back, but we both decided it would be a bad idea -
it's not as if a pillion can really navigate for you like they can in a
car, and I prefer not to have any distractions whilst riding.

 

No. I don't see the point in them, either.

 

On 17 Aug 2005 00:54:01 -0700, "TOG@toil

No.

But then again, I've not done any proper two up mileage for 7~8 years,
so mebbe my opinion is not worth much.

 

<g>

It irks me some, too, but not as much as tossers in cars who park in
bike bays. Used to happen at my (then) local Sainsbury's; shithead who
hasn't got the bottle to park in a disabled bay seems to think that bike
bays (car-shaped ones, subdivided, IYSWIM) are fair game. No they're
fucking not, cuntybollocks. Oh dear, I appear to have caved in your door
with my crash bars. Oh deary, deary me.

 

If I had one, it would be useful for nav input (Sarah is a perfectly
competent navigator, and pillion access to maps shouldn't be difficult to
arrange) and pointing out the sights ("Look at that!" "What? Where?"
"You've missed it..."), but I'm very aware of the faff that my brother and
his girlfriend go through every time they get off and on the bike. I simply
wouldn't put up with that. And I don't want to spend the money. And the
percentage of my riding that's done with a pillion is very small. And I
don't take it for granted that I could achieve decent (comprehensible) sound
quality in the system.

 

Makes no difference: nothing's changed. The whole point about riding a
bike is you don't *have* to talk to someone else or have them yammer at
you. And plugging in loads of umbilical cords every time you go out is
best left to space walkers.

 

Well, i wasn't expecting much really

seems like autocom is what i should go for, but by **** it'll be hard to
justify, when for that sort of money theres so much chrome, tassled and
concho'd gay cruiser type tat i could buy instead,

At the moment we only have 2 wires to plug in when getting on the bike, and
sop i want something similar to that, that's why i've discounted going for
radio's, with the plug to the helmet, then the one to the radio, then the
one to the handlebar ptt switch, feck that.

i just want to put a couple of sockets on the bike, mine will be in one of
the chrome side pods (already have the rear lights wired to a socket there
for when i tow the bike) and the pillions socket will be on the rear
mudguard most likely, (flush mounted, ok, if she gets off before unplugging
the wire will pull tight between her legs, but i figure that'd be a good
reminder to unplug the wire)

Cheap MP3 player could be put in the empty left hand side pod too (right
hand one has the TCI module, and the self canceling indicator jobbie stuffed
in it, other one has nowt in it, ideal for hiding things in), some way to
flip through tracks wired up to a convinient location, job done.

If i wanted to be rally sad, i could make a cut out in the top of the side
pod, and fit a drop in phone cradle, charge it as well as connect it to the
intercom system without the need to actually plug loads of wires into the
phone.

With us, i hardly ever ride the bike solo, just got some hagon shocks 1
spring rate higher than stock because the bike is always in lard arse mode,

We find the intercom helpfull really, ok, most of the time it's 'look at
that twat.. where.. behind us now, never mind', but it's also usefull for
directions,
really sad i know, but i print out turn by turn directions, and tape it to
the back of my jacket,
Sam just has to lean back an inch and read the next direction out to me,
pikey sat nav at it's best

 

*Serious advice*

Autocomm rocks

I've tried several others but Autocomm works better than any others
I've tried
HTH

 

Sense of humour bypass, huh?

 

How do you feel about:
1) Arseholes that park on a double yellow line in car parks so they don't
have to walk an extra 20 yards to the cash point, and bung up the entire
traffic flow
2) Arseholes that seem to think it's fine to approah a roundabout in the LH
lane, fully intending to turn right (indication optional, mirrors /
shoulder check ignored)
3) Idiots that cross into box junctions / roundabouts when it's perfectly
obvious that there is no way in hell they can make it out.

Cos they *really* fucking wind me up.
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 TS 156 TS S2
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Sometime around Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:29:07 +0100, CampinGazz babbled on
about:

Starcom IMHO better comms at speed and allows you to talk through the
other persons conversation, you dont get clipping of voice either, and the
good news is it is vheaper than Autocom, and if you are a member of a
well(ish) known group you get 10% discount (mail me for details)

 

Sometime around Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:06:17 +0100, SteveH babbled on about:

I dont find it a distraction and can always apply the STFU card at any
point. The idea of an intercom was she could navigate on long journeys,
however a GPS has taken over that role, the important thing for me is to
know she is fine and happy on the back as she is my only pillion passenger
and we have some long trips ahead of us.

 

Sometime around Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:52:40 +0100, Wik babbled on about:

No, you are on a BMW, and it is a well known fact that all BMW riders are
tossers.

Gonna buy me a beer at the EOSM?

 

Autocom works. The others don't. Well, that's to say we had a toy
one that was fine at up to 20mph, but after that it was best just to
rely on line of sight, smoke signals and KSBs.

 

Ahh, silly me.

Aye. Possibly sooner...
;-)