Bike to Bike communication

[becmat]

I realize that the push to talk radio to radio is the most common rig. I would like to know about the "blue tooth" version of bike to bike communication. Does anyone have a wireless setup? and how does it work? Would you recommend it? and lastly is it out of the park expensive. I need to decide on something , cause I need communicate with my wife on her bike.

Mat and Becca in Susanville.

[Woodie]

FRS/GMRS (FM radio) or CB (AM radio) are the most common, because they can be used for more than just 2 or 3 people, and can have a range of up to a few miles (extremely variable!)

 

BlueTooth was designed for short distances (eg, <50 feet). (again, YMMV).

 

I'm pretty sure I read a review on here somewhere of someones experience with a blue-tooth B2B setup.

 

 

 

[bobbybob]

If all you want to do is talk B2B with one other bike, then I would go with Bluetooth. That is how my wife and I got started riding and the ability to communicate with each other raised riding to a whole new dimension. We used the Interphone bluetooth communicator, and I think the latest version has a 1/4 mile range. It was all we ever needed. You may say its pricey, but once you use it you'll say it was worth every penny. Go for it--you'll be glad.

 

Edit--heres the link

http://www.myblueant.com/products/headsets/interphone/f4/index.php

 

And heres where we bought ours--they had good customer service. And they have this in stock also for a lot less than MSRP.

http://www.mobilecityonline.com/wireless/store/productdetail.asp?productid=25469

 

 

Later on, if you start riding with a lot of folks, then you might switch to GMRS radio, as we have done. But for 2 people you can't beat this gizmo!

 

Thinking back, the very best part was the full duplex communication, esp. when we got into a "situation", like exiting the freeway, navigating city streets, etc. The safety factor is increased. The ability to talk back and forth without pushing a button was great. I still miss that part.

 

[hopz]

B/T bike to bike has made great strides in quality of chat and distance in the recent past. I think it is worth considering for your kind of application. But this is one of those things that will lead to bike to bike chat with larger groups or longer distance so buying once may lead to buying twice.

 

The Cardo systems are known to be pretty good.

 

My riding pal's experience with Blue Ant was bad enough (both device and customer service) for me to mention it...

[bobbybob]

B/T bike to bike has made great strides in quality of chat and distance in the recent past. I think it is worth considering for your kind of application. But this is one of those things that will lead to bike to bike chat with larger groups or longer distance so buying once may lead to buying twice.

 

The Cardo systems are known to be pretty good.

 

My riding pal's experience with Blue Ant was bad enough (both device and customer service) for me to mention it...

 

Yep, I think Cardo is good also. And for the record, I also had issues with Blue Ant (the mfgr, not the retailer) in getting a battery charging issue fixed. Apparently they could not get enough revised units imported quickly enough, and had a thousand excuses, but in the end they did stand behind the warranty and I received 2 brand new units, which work well to this day. This was their generation 1 unit and it had a glitch (3 years ago). The one available now has much better range and battery life than mine did.

 

 

Edit: A guy I rode with this weekend is using the new Blue Ant and I believe he said it works great. He's on this board as hogdvr--here's his email if you want to check with him re his experience.

stockg@hotmail.com

His name is Gary.

[Caddis]

We bought the Scala Rider Q2 Multiset for exactly that purpose - wireless bike-to-bike communication. A set (which includes headsets for two riders) can be found for around $240.

 

We like them a lot for talking to each other, and connection to a cell phone. We have not tried to connect to other devices, or to listen to MP3s, etc., but for our purposes they have been great.

 

I believe that the next generation ("Q4"?) set is available now, so you may want to check them out.

 

As mentioned by others, communication with others is much more limited with bluetooth units than with radios. Bluetooth headsets have to be "paired" with devices to communicate with them. For the Q2 set, each headset can only pair with one other device (besides the other headset) such as a cell phone or a third person with a bluetooth headset.

[Rougarou]

I and my neighbor, after much review, settled for the Sena SMH10's and what a great choice we have made. Our first test was the distance test and the bluetooth comms reach out 1/4+ mile, yes you've read that right. The sound quality is good, the volume is good and the simplicity to operate is excellent. The only downfall is one unit can only be sync'd to three other units. So, bike to bike two up, or bike to bike to bike to bike. I currently only have my headset sync'd with two other headsets and my phone, but the capability is there to sync with three headsets, a phone and a GPS or music device. Since my phone plays tunes, I've no need for a music device and I don't have GPS, so, all around, I'm good

 

From our limited experience (1 month with them), I'd recommend the Sena's.

[becmat]

Thanks everyone for the info. on the comm systems. It gives me some choices to research and decide. It also has advantages for both methods of communicating. Problem is ,I like them both. Decisions,decisions.

Thanks again,

 

Mat