Autocom vs Starcom vs Other

[STUBBS]

A lot depends on the set-up and the quality of mounting the speakers in the helmet. If I were you, I'd booking a fitting at the Autocom factory (I do) and take the morning off. Don't leave the factory until you are completely satisfied.
A more friendly and helpful bunch you will not find anywhere.

how much do they charge for a standard fitting please??

 

[haydw]

Anybody know if anyone has any of the half price Autocom kits left? Know I may be pushing it but a friend of mine has seen the virtue of them after using a cheap £20 headset from maplin.

 

[wavelet]

Thread revival

Me and a mate took a starcom each over to oz and rode round the outback for a bit.
I have to say I am suitably impressed with the gizzmo, the only problem being that you can use a 9v battery to power the thing but after 3 hours or so you have to replace it!

We hired 650GS Dakar's so we just bodged up a power feed from the battery terminal under the seat and a willing screw for the negative bit. After we did this we enjoyed iPod-tastic riding, as well as using a couple of PMR radios.

We went through all kinds of terrain and the starcoms were just dumped in the tankbags and were exposed to all sorts of dust and rain (first day over there !).

Going through the roughest parts of the trip they kept on going! My iPod gave up with the heat, but I could use the starcom fine (50 deg C , when it cooled down the iPod resumed service).

I have plans to wire it in to a top box and have a generic waterproof connector to the bike so I can plug in all the power and sound feeds.

I don't know about autocom + others, but have to say the starcom kit is well made and certainly does what it says on the tin.

I'm new here, so hope it isn't against etiquette to revive an old thread (couldn't find anything about it in the FAQ, anyway)...

This thread is exactly what I was looking for, as I'm considering doing something very similar. I live in Israel, and the girlfriend & will be going on a 6-week riding trip in Australia in October (actually, by the time the trip takes place she'll be the wife -- it's a honeymoon trip), and were thinking of a portable bike-to-bike comm solution that we could use here and take with us on the trip on rental bikes (she'll be riding an F650-Dakar, and I an R1200GS).;Starcom1 seemed the best option overall from my Web research.

The problem was how get all the gadgetry bike-powered, as we'll be mainly camping.
On the R12GS, I was thinking of getting a cigarette lighter-type socket splitter, and replacing its male plug with a BMW-type plug, so from the bike's standard accessory socket I get 3 lighter sockets in the tankbag. I'd plug the Starcom1 unit into one, an iPod with 12V adapter into the second, and a 12V charger for NIMH AAA batteries (while one set of AAAs is being used in the 2-way radio, another is being charged) into the third. I'd occasionally also use this setup to charge our cellphones and camp lantern.

The problem is what to do on the F-Dakar; the bike we'll be renting doesn't have an accessory socket. I'd planned to rig a simple cigarette lighter receptacle, directly wired to the bike's battery terminals, with the receptacle located between the seat and false fuel tank.
However, I just found out the battery isn't under the seat in the F bikes, it's at the front beneath the fake fuel tank panels -- and I can't very well install stuff there on a rented bike.

After the long-winded intro...
ileonc,
1) Did the pos & neg terminals you hooked up to under the seat look like they were standard equipment on the bike? I assume If so, I can probably rely on them to hook up the cig-lighter receptacle to.

2) I've been told Euro-spec PMR radios aren't legal in Australia, and that those freqs are heavily used by commercial traffic, so PMR isn't really usable.
What was your experience? We'll be mostly in thinly-populated Western Australia, and as I already have a pair of PMR Cobras, I'd rather not have to buy a pair of Australian radios just for a single trip. Their freqs aren't usable elsewhere, and a pair with the Starcom1 cables would run about GBP150.

Thanks,
~~~ Gal