what kit would you recommend for a two bike/ person setup ?
Not sure what bits i would need for the full kits
Others may disagree with my choice but here goes:
Autocom Active Plus, See middle unit on the top row of
this page. This will give you battery powered (PP9) or bike powered intercom with a quality VOX system that you want. Originally available in kit form for rider only or rider and pillion, basically one headset or two headsets. You can always obtain a pillion headset later if you get the former. To it's right is the Super Pro Avi which has more accessory sockets and volume that adjusts with ambient noise. The latter is useful on the road where wind noise is a relative constant but this would be less relevant off road where background noise is constantly variable. Active Plus is fine up to about 70-80mph on the road anyway. Super Pro Avi is better for a road rider but is more expensive and runs off bike power only. Don't confuse Active Plus with the Easi Plus (to the left).
These are no longer available new, you can get them off eBay for around the £50-£60 mark. Make sure headset and headset extension lead is included.
PMR Radio, the de-facto standard is the
Kenwood TK3201. This is a tough professional, military spec. radio that will take punishment and damp conditions. Falling into a stream might be taking that a bit far though. If you do fording and risk immersion I would consider getting some sort of waterproofing for the intercom and radio.
TK3201s can be had off eBay for £50-£70. Ensure charger and battery are included.
An alternative is something like a
Puxing PX888 or PX777 from China, pretty good for the price, more feature rich than the Kenwoods and not particularly legal in terms of compliance with OFCOM regulations for PMR (in a number of ways including extra transmit power). I note that you run a business so operating the likes of a non OFCOM compliant Puxing for business purposes would be inadvisable. You might want to consider getting a business licence, £75 for three years ISTR which will allow use of 5 Watt radios on specific frequencies. Needless to say you need to make this decision ahead of buying the radios as you need to buy the correct handset with the required frequency range. Also if you intend to use the radios for communication on the road with groups of other riders you'll probably need PMR kit anyway as that's what they'll most likely have.
Autocom radio lead, see
here or
here. You need this to connect your radio to the intercom. This is assuming a Kenwood radio is chosen (same lead fits the Puxings though).
Can be found on eBay for around £8-£12 but as you can see above they're not much more new.
Autocom PTT switch,
see here. Only buy the version with grey sockets as seen here, pref with part number to match. I suggest this as an option to maybe consider if VOX doesn't work out for you for reasons previously mentioned.
Available from eBay for £25-£30, not much more new.
Without the PTT switch, or bike powering the intercom, you should be able to carry the intercom and radio in a bum-bag, or spacious pocket, which will free you from being tethered to the bike. The downside of this is that the Kenwood radio especially is quite a lump that you don't really want to land on if you have a fall. Autocom do a curly headset extension lead (the std kit ones are straight) which might help if you mount the intercom and radio on the bike. Autocom headsets should separate with a tug anyway.
As you're in Swansea a visit to Sam at Chainspeed might be a good idea. He might have some improvements on the suggestions above. I've always found them very helpful and keen to make happy customers over making a one off sale.
Obviously with two bikes you'll need kit for two riders doubling up the requirement.
HTH
