Hey folks.. anyone bought/used one of the cheap BT type intercoms lately.?
I have a couple bought for £30 from Aldi over a decade ago, they’ve been brill. Now with various helmets I’m looking to get a couple more for myself, the missus and others who travel on the pillion from time to time.
All I need is the ability to chat and connect to my SatNav on occasion, so the el cheapo ones are more than sufficient.
Any recent experiences.?
Grinning here! You can see I have nothing better to do this morning browsing old posts just for fun.
Just kinda ironic that this question begged “talk to me” and no responses? ![]()
I have no input on the question at hand I’m afraid so should probably just shut up but got me musing on how different we all are in our preferences and needs. I’d be curious what a league table of ‘farkle choices’ would reveal? (Someone probably has done it but I am too lazy to search!)
For me personally, on bike communicators are absolutely the last thing that would interest me. (I totally ‘get’ and accept the utility and desirability of them for many though. No issue there.) Similarly, despite their unquestioned convenience and utility I will kill myself rather than fit a topbox to any bike I have.
I am certain that labels me as some kind of image conscious poser.. I’m really not. I just think they destroy the lines of a good looking bike?
(Forty odd years ago or more I took my new wife on our honeymoon on my ‘then’ scoot to France. Was a Honda 750KZ and had a cheap assed top box that was ugly blue on a black bike! Never again since! BTW it also had a frame mounted full fairing made by, believe it or not, Shoei.) That was another lifetime though.
So, why no communicators for me? Above all else the bike has always been synonymous with ‘escape’ for me. My sacrosanct ‘head space’. Last thing I want or need in there is anyone rabbiting in my ear. Just me, the bike and the road. Heaven on earth! Before thinking I am an anti social git (I kinda am I guess?) I absolutely love a good natter with other bikers I run into at rest stops. Nothing better but while actually riding is selfishly my time. I can and have gone out many, many times to escape niggling problems/dilemmas in life to shut them out only to find on return that my addled brain has sorted them out all by itself! Sometimes all I need is absence of the white noise of life?
Like I said, we are all different and thank goodness for the diversity of that and, oddly, it is what identifies the majority of ‘bikerness, Our shared commonalities are always more important than our differences? For me that is a universal truism.
Maybe that is why I turn up ‘rabbiting’ on here? Haha! How sad is that? ![]()
Jeez Phila.. reckon you need another hobby.! ![]()
Like you, part of the attraction for me is riding a motorsickle can be a very singular activity, you, the bike, and whatever weaves it’s way through ya head.. lovely.
On the flip side, my missus has always been daft enough to jump on my pillion, for about 30 years we simply shouted to each other as required, but I bought an Autocom kit, then swapped to Bluetooth intercom over a decade ago and found it utterly transformational, being able to chit chat the basics, “wanna brew”, “need the loo” etc really enhances every trip. (It was very helpful being able to talk to my granddaughter when she took her first trip on a motorbike too).
Have you considered soduko, or basket weaving maybe.? ![]()
these are a bit tricky to do on a bike
especially while moving
Haha! You got me there! Sadly my head just rolls along hopping from place to place and drags me along with it. “It’s the voices in my head Doc!” ![]()
I got three layers of tinfoil under my helmet!
You seem to have personal experience.. wish to share.? ![]()
according to my pillion ofc, I’d never attempt basket weaving while riding (I wouldn’t attempt it while not riding either
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Haha! You worried about me KO? Any personal experience I have is as a Mental Health RN. I am forever fascinated by human behaviour though. Can’t help it.
Haha Phil. What a wonderful post. I have a mate that’s always been into tech known as “Inspector Gadget”. He will buy the latest expensive tech on and off the bike. He always has to have tech that goes with an expensive top range helmet. He can’t communicate with me, other than by shouting at traffic lights at a stop as I have Zero tech and it’s our joke that he only uses it to speak to his Missus at home asking what time is tea ready. (There is no way he’ll have a pillion). We are all different aren’t we and if tech rocks yer boat that’s fine. By the way he rides a Ducati. Say no more ![]()
@Phila - Mine was actually a reply to Sid, but now you’ve mentioned your past, I’m defo worried..
In my experience, (R-kid was a medic/nurse at Rampton for a bit), when it comes to the employees at those kinda places, the term ‘Poacher turned gamekeeper’ usually applies.! ![]()
As for Sid, with a bit of application, and perhaps a sidecar, I’m sure basket weaving while on the move would be a cinch.. hell, maybe you could weave a sidecar ![]()
(You’d likely still be more attentive to the road than all those on their phones).
AAAhh OK I see where I picked it up wrong. Thought you were thinking I really did have the voices! LOL
Aye Rampton! There is a laughing academy of some stature! Our version is Carstairs.
I actually agree that many Psych nurses seem as daft as the inmates. I only worked psych for a relatively short time as I was also General registered and majority of my career was in Neurosurgery/Trauma. Intensive Care. Thus slightly ironic me having to sit through ‘education’ about the perils of road accidents. ![]()