Coms setup - portable from bike to bike

[Berin]

I need communications and GPS that's easy to move between several different bikes.

What I'd like is:

GPS with a decent battery life that's easy to mount on lots of different bikes, Garmin pref as I know how Garmins work
Ability to listen to music, either from the GPS or an IPOD
Bike-to-bike radio
Phone maybe but not too bothered
As much of this wireless as can be done, which I guess means Bluetooth

I've got an autocom system on my GSA with Kenwood TK3201 bike to bike, ipod and BMW nav 3 all wired in which works fine, but no idea about the other makes of kit.

I've seen a couple of people with various bits of kit that don't seem to be permanently mounted but don't know what they are

Any ideas?

 

[AndrewD]

I need communications and GPS that's easy to move between several different bikes.

What I'd like is:

GPS with a decent battery life that's easy to mount on lots of different bikes, Garmin pref as I know how Garmins work
Ability to listen to music, either from the GPS or an IPOD
Bike-to-bike radio
Phone maybe but not too bothered
As much of this wireless as can be done, which I guess means Bluetooth

I've got an autocom system on my GSA with Kenwood TK3201 bike to bike, ipod and BMW nav 3 all wired in which works fine, but no idea about the other makes of kit.

I've seen a couple of people with various bits of kit that don't seem to be permanently mounted but don't know what they are

Any ideas?

Sounds like a tank bag install to me. If you get a water proof bag you could avoid the cost of a Zumo and get a normal Nuvi with bluetooth (only problem is many can't take routes from Mapsource).

Idealy, I'd get a Starcom digital and a Zumo 550/660 then add your choice of Radio either spend proper money on a Kenwood etc or a bit less and get the Intaride A80. Otherwise there is always the Puxing/WeiWei, but I'm not a fan.

Your not a million miles from me, you can come and see most of the kit here if you wanted.

 

[Berin]

Sounds like a tank bag install to me. If you get a water proof bag you could avoid the cost of a Zumo and get a normal Nuvi with bluetooth (only problem is many can't take routes from Mapsource).

Idealy, I'd get a Starcom digital and a Zumo 550/660 then add your choice of Radio either spend proper money on a Kenwood etc or a bit less and get the Intaride A80. Otherwise there is always the Puxing/WeiWei, but I'm not a fan.

Your not a million miles from me, you can come and see most of the kit here if you wanted.

What about a Nuvi 550? THat looks as though it might work for trail riding too. I've already got a Kenwood TK3201 which I use on the GSA but isn't permanently installed. What Starcom do you recommend? Also, the Kenwood doesn't have bluetooth, so does the bike-to bike still have to be cabled?

Also, I would like to have a look at your set up, I'll pm you

 

[Slowdown]

Perhaps a bit left field here, but why not fix an earpiece/mic to a Zumo(wired or bluetooth) and connect a mobile phone to the zumo over bluetooth?

That way you have:-

Sat Nav you can hear
Music you can hear
Bike to bike comms (you just phone each other up if you want to talk)

Or, just get a iPhone with Tomtom Sat Nav and a bluetooth mic/headset - job jobbed.


And it's all portable with minimal wiring.

Just a thought, like.

 

[AndrewD]

What about a Nuvi 550? THat looks as though it might work for trail riding too. I've already got a Kenwood TK3201 which I use on the GSA but isn't permanently installed. What Starcom do you recommend? Also, the Kenwood doesn't have bluetooth, so does the bike-to bike still have to be cabled?

Also, I would like to have a look at your set up, I'll pm you

There will always be cables, radio (plus PTT button) plus power to the satnav and radio etc. That's why a tank bag can work well as you have the spaghetti in one place that you can zip tie it all neat and still take from bike to bike.

Slowdown's idea is fine, but the Garmin's are not very loud on an ear piece, particularly when you wear earplugs and any earpiece wireless or otherwise will stop you using a radio.

I'd joint the Gabfesters site in my sig as most of us 'locals' have radio/sat nav installed and we meet every Friday near Heathrow or are in our workshop (yes we have a workshop with tools, ramp/lift etc ) most weekends.

Not the best picture.....

 

[Slowdown]

There will always be cables, radio (plus PTT button) plus power to the satnav and radio etc. That's why a tank bag can work well as you have the spaghetti in one place that you can zip tie it all neat and still take from bike to bike.

Slowdown's idea is fine, but the Garmin's are not very loud on an ear piece, particularly when you wear earplugs and any earpiece wireless or otherwise will stop you using a radio.

I've got to disagree on the cables thing. I have one cable on my bike and that's hard wired to the Zumo mount. everything else is in pockets or is helmet mounted.

My Zumo is plenty loud enough for me to hear navigation instructions at 70 - I use an iTech Clip earpiece. If I really wanted to go deaf I could listen to music - I'd buy some trick earplugs with speakers in them or something like this:-

Cardo scala Rider BTSRFM Motorbike Bluetooth Headset With FM Radio

Which comes with an FM radio, but is more than 10 times the price of my earpiece.

And mobile phones are duplex so there's no need for a PTT button.

The technology is out there folks!

 

[Berin]

Good thoughts, but I'd rather have a bike to bike as phone calls could get expensive on trips out of the UK. But, I don't want to wire stuff to the bike except maybe a DIN socket.

Putting everything in a tank bag sounds good, but the tank bag needs to fit everything from an S1000RR to a Norton 961....

I've never needed a PTT on my current setup, just use VOX which seems to be fine.

So maybe:

Nuvi 550 in clear pocket on tankbag, IPOD and kenwood radio in tank bag, all connected to Starcom or similar, which then bluetooths to a helmet headset?

I've got to disagree on the cables thing. I have one cable on my bike and that's hard wired to the Zumo mount. everything else is in pockets or is helmet mounted.

My Zumo is plenty loud enough for me to hear navigation instructions at 70 - I use an iTech Clip earpiece. If I really wanted to go deaf I could listen to music - I'd buy some trick earplugs with speakers in them or something like this:-

Cardo scala Rider BTSRFM Motorbike Bluetooth Headset With FM Radio

Which comes with an FM radio, but is more than 10 times the price of my earpiece.

And mobile phones are duplex so there's no need for a PTT button.

The technology is out there folks!

 

[AndrewD]

I've got to disagree on the cables thing. I have one cable on my bike and that's hard wired to the Zumo mount. everything else is in pockets or is helmet mounted.

And mobile phones are duplex so there's no need for a PTT button.

The technology is out there folks!

No it's not!

He wants radio comms too, that's what the PTT is for! Did I say 'Mobile' and PTT? No! (have a re-read of Berin's first post). You could use VOX, but that will have issues with a phone call bringing in TX on the radios and without a comms system as a 'hub' you'd have to wear two sets of earphones & mics, one for the Sat-nav/Phone/MP3 and another for the radio!

As for filling pockets with gear, I try not to because if I have an accident I'm going to fall on some pretty nasty hard things. It's a personal choice and one I won't 'push' on others (like any protective gear) but I saw a picture of some poor guy with a door key through his cock from an accident!tears From that day, everything went in the tank bag!

As for volume, your using a bluetooth headset? That's fine (except the mp3 quality is not too good and mono), but if you use a wired headset it's not loud enough by a LONG way. Also do you wear earplugs?

 

[AndrewD]

Good thoughts, but I'd rather have a bike to bike as phone calls could get expensive on trips out of the UK. But, I don't want to wire stuff to the bike except maybe a DIN socket.

Putting everything in a tank bag sounds good, but the tank bag needs to fit everything from an S1000RR to a Norton 961....

I've never needed a PTT on my current setup, just use VOX which seems to be fine.

So maybe:

Nuvi 550 in clear pocket on tankbag, IPOD and kenwood radio in tank bag, all connected to Starcom or similar, which then bluetooths to a helmet headset?

If your only need for the radio is for non-uk comms, are you sure everyone else will have a radio (we've had this issue), sounds like a Zumo with a Scala type headset would work very well for you. For non-uk calls Vodaphone are still doing 'passport' so you pay the same cost on PAYG as if your in the UK, this was spot on for a couple of our guys last year and saves lots of agro.

Either way, I might have a Zumo550 and possibly a starcom 'Advanced' available soon as I'm thinking of getting the new Zumo 660 and I've been offered some new intercom kit to try.

 

[Berin]

I ride with a group of people who all have bike to bike radio, so that's key. The phone is less important. I don't really want to be filling my pockets with stuff for the reasons you mentioned, but I do want features like muting music when a voice call comes through, or when I get sat-nav instructions.

So, to re-iterate;

GPS
Bike to bike ( I see Midland do a bluetooth PMR)
Music (pref Ipod)

This looks interesting

 

[AndrewD]

I ride with a group of people who all have bike to bike radio, so that's key. The phone is less important. I don't really want to be filling my pockets with stuff for the reasons you mentioned, but I do want features like muting music when a voice call comes through, or when I get sat-nav instructions.

So, to re-iterate;

GPS
Bike to bike ( I see Midland do a bluetooth PMR)
Music (pref Ipod)

This looks interesting

Midland radio won't work on it's own without a 'hub' the headset would work, however I doubt it will auto switch and will it pair with both the radio AND your phone or satnav if the phone is piggybacked by BT to that?

Also will you have the opportunity to recharge it/what is the battery life? Battery life on long trips killed wireless for me and I tend to listen to music so a wired headset gave me unlimited time and quality in one hit.

Get it right as bike comms can cost too much make mistakes!

 

[Berin]

You're probably right, a Starcom or Autocom of some kind will probably be needed

 

[AndrewD]

You're probably right, a Starcom or Autocom of some kind will probably be needed

Starcom now own Autocom (who went into administration) or there is Intaride who (at present) I personally cannot recommend due to some issues with their kit, however the new offering might well be the bees knees. Starcom is a good quality product (a very good strong ally case compared to the light plastic case of the Intaride), but each have good and bad points.

 

[AndrewD]

I ride with a group of people who all have bike to bike radio, so that's key. The phone is less important. I don't really want to be filling my pockets with stuff for the reasons you mentioned, but I do want features like muting music when a voice call comes through, or when I get sat-nav instructions.

Just in case this moves on and I forget....

I use a Zumo with my mobile BT linked to it connected to the phone port on a Starcom, this works flawlessly unless you are listening to music on the Zumo while a radio transmission comes in.

Because I used the combined phone lead that splits into the mic/ear on the Zumo, it gives it priority over everything else and music/sat-nav/phone plays over the radio. What I need to do is leave the lead in 'phone' on the starcom and 'mic' on the Zumo and add another cheap 3.5mm lead from the Zumo to the 'MUSIC' port on the Starcom.

This will allow the radio TX to work on PTT or VOX and incoming RX will take priority over all other inputs, this is better as phone comms can be repeated but bike radio chatter tends to be either urgent and/or annoying to repeat.

Simple fix, but why make the same mistake I did!