Intercoms

[andrewwilde]

Has anyone got any advice on intercoms?

We'll be doing a bit of a trip later this year (6 weeks in USA/Canada and then 5 weeks in New Zealand) and want to have a rider-to-pillion intercom. It needs to work with GPS, bluetooth phone, MP3 player, etc, but any recommendations as to what good (and what's not) would be appreciated...

Thanks in advance

Comments

[pir]

I use an Autocom system, have been for many years. They work with most everything but are far from cheap.

My only problem with them was the general problem that speakers in a helmet and then putting earplugs in doesn't work. I solved this by switching to in-ear headphones plugged into the Autocom headset. I'm getting highly tempted to get a pair of Soundears to use with it, to improve the sound blocking, the audio and how comfortable it is to wear them under a helmet.

http://www.ultimateear.com/motorcycle.htm
http://www.autocom.co.uk/

My GPS is also an mp3 player so when it gives me directions the audio pauses and I have all the controls on one screen, etc, and it also talks to my phone via bluetooth so I can see the number of who is calling. I'd advise keeping the number of separate devices down as low as possible.

[andrewwilde]

Cool - thanks for this. Autocom are on the list, seem to do what I need, and come recommended from elsewhere as well.

I also have a set of custom in-ear speakers (similar to the Soundears, but from ACS) so it's good to know they will work with Autocom too. Thanks for this...

[pir]

You just need to replace the normal headset harness with the alternative headset harness to use your own headphones:
http://www.autocom.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=26

[hrafen]

If this helps anyone. I have an Autocom Active Duo 200. I bought it a few years back, never used it. Free to a good home, but you'd need to collect. London area.

[andrewwilde]

Ooooh! Nice!

I've done a little looking into this, and think this is a wired to the bike kit: Is that right?

If so, it would no doubt be good for the right people, but we're really after something with minimum wiring: so we can still talk when one of us is in a shop or paying for fuel, and there's not much kit & wires (if any) left on the bike when it's left (lots of kit, 2 up for 5-6 weeks, limited lockable hard luggage space for when we're off hiking & camping...) Otherwise, this is a good bit of kit...

[hrafen]

Yeh, it wires to the bike.

[andrewwilde]

Shame, the instructor at the bike school we were at last weekend had one very similar - Autocom (I don't know which model) and was really singing it's praises: Really good quality kit, robust, reliable, good quality sound, and can cope with bike school treatment. But for what we're doing we really need wireless - sorry!

Hope you find a suitable person to have it, it's certainly good kit...

[andrewwilde]

Also, Autocom have now been bought out by Starcom. Not sure if this means the product range will be supported (one of the strengths was really good support, as well as very good kit)...

Does the Maplin kit have automatic volume control (gets louder as wind noise increases) and decent wind noise cancelling mikes? (Otherwise I understand the sensitivity setting on the voice activation gets more tricky: You either have to shout to set it off, or it comes on automatically when at speed...)