I've always wanted to get an intercom for riding, and now that my girlfriend is back on bikes now was the time to really get one, but the price has always put me off, seeing as most I've seen have been around $600 and upwards. Then on KB I come across a thread (this one) where mustek was offering a kit for $230. I read a couple of reviews on the 'net and decided to give them a go.
The first thing that struck me when I opened them up was how small and light the units were, yet they seem to be very rugged and obviously well sealed for weather protection. Installation into my Arai Viper GT was very simple, simply insert the clamping plate between the lining and the shell and screw on the clamp, job done. On my g/f's Airoh the shell was a bit thicker, but by using the supplied spacer once again installation was fuss free. The instructions say to mount the unit on the left side of the helmet, but on both helmets I installed it on the right with no issues.
Placing the microphone and speakers in the helmet was a bit more complicated, getting them into the right position so a) you can get the helmet off and on easy and b) that the speakers are in the right position. The only real issue I had/have here is retaining the speaker with the boom mic in the right position. The speakers are attached by velcro to a sticky pad that adheses to the lining, but with both helmets the speaker/mic has detached. A little fine tuning will take care of that, but regardless once you have the helmet on you can readjust.
Pairing up both units to each other was very easy, along with pairing up to my cell phone. I can now receive, reject, or make calls on my phone when wearing my helmet, as well as listen to stereo music and pause/play the phone from the unit. Very handy.
With both units attached and the bikes warming up, we geared up and gave them a whirl. Straight away communication was crisp and clear, audio quality a bit 'tinny' but that's to be expected. The fact that you could hardly notice them on was great. The four buttons (excluding the recessed 'reset' button) are easily used with gloves on, although the smaller volume buttons are a bit harder to locate. However once your used to the layout it all falls to ah, fingertip.
Around town they were faultless. I can honestly recommend them to anyone that rides with someone else regularly, as you can point out hazards, organise fuel stops, change destination all by just having a mobile conversation. You can hear wind noise and the exhaust of the other bike, but the voice comes over loud and clear. Getting out onto the open road obviously the wind noise increased but up to speeds of 120km/h you can comfortably hold a conversation. At speeds above this they still work but the wind noise makes it harder to clearly understand. Distance between rider to rider could go up to about 700m with no noticeable drop in connection, but if you lose line of sight at anything over 300m (ie a corner around hills) then the units will lose each other. Once the units can see each other again they automatically reconnect. As an extra bonus, both my g/f's phone and mine are BlueTooth and we both are on Vodafone with bestmate, which gives us unlimited phone calls to each other for $6 a month. What this means is I can call her (or vice-versa) and talk to each other via our phones through the unit, which of course means she could be at one end of the country and I at the other and we could still communicate.
All-in-all, a fantastic product and at even better price. You will not regret purchasing one of these kits if you ride with someone else.
Spec's:
1640ft Rider to Rider Intercom
Rider to pillion
Mobile Phone to unit
BT equipped GPS/MP3 to unit
Water Resistant
Up to 7hrs talk time
Auto-receive phone calls with reject call option
A2DP equipped for stereo mobiles
Flexible mic boom for personalised fit.
Capability for 3rd paired unit (requires extra kit)
From what I've read on the net, these units do mostly the same functions as the more expensive options, and the more expensive ones still suffer from wind noise issues generally above 120km/h. These are a steal folks.
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Originally Posted by wanpo
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