Cheap wireless comms units

Has anyone had any experience of cheap bluetooth comms units like these ones on ebay?

I cant post a link so ebay item number: 260591384512

I used a pair for about 2 months, mine were top end and still were nowhere near as good as I expected them to be. Volume tended to be on the low side and you could never hear anything at speed. My mates' one also used to pick up other people's frequencies and he'd end up hearing all sorts. Fixing to the helmet can be either by clamp/clip or by an adhesive strip. Neither of these methods work very well and I had to glue the damn thing to my helmet in an effort to stop it falling off mid-ride. Got tired of them eventually. Bought a new helmet and forgot about the damn bluetooth comms. They must be floating around here somewhere....

In any case...radio is also better. If you look hard enough, Im sure you will be able to find a pair of radio for cheap enough.

Thanks for your reply, I'll have a look for some radio gear, I did have a motorolla bike radio but it was aweful, noone could hear a word I said.

prodigy wrote: cheap bluetooth comms

Sadly none of these words seem to apply to bikes. I have tried the inexpensive route on a few items including a radio, I have a box of 'cheap' items which just didn't cut it.

My first helmet was bluetooth and admittedly it was 4 years ago and the technology wasn't mature enough, but I had so much trouble trying to get it to work I eventually took the electronics out and went wired. My home made 'comms' box under the seat gave way to an Autocom, which has virtually hot and cold running everything including Bluetooth. It works well, but then so it should at the price.
Most intercom units work fine up to 30mph and after that the volume is way too low, also the VOX isn't very good and often just keeps the mic open, nothing worse than amplified wind noise. The more expensive specialist units address this pretty nicely, but then you do pay for it. Items which you may take for granted like connectors need to be 'bike' grade.

My Zumo SatNav and Nokia 'smart Phone' don't get on at all well via Bluetooth and I have resorted to buying a £9 phone which can do the 'basics'

It will take me a long time to venture back into the bluetooth helmet world.

100 meters is not far at all if you were looking at using the eBay unit as an interbike comms system.

Actually most PVR radios are useless on the bike too, the cheaper ones just cannot operate with the vibration.
My current bike radio is a Midland G7, it is sort of OK, but frankly most of the time the power output of .5w just isn't good enough. I do marshalling and many of us have radios to keep in contact, quite a few have the Midland but we find that most of the time we are unable to communicate.

It took me a while to work out there is no short cut with fitting items to the bike, sure there are inexpensive items which look for all the world like the expensive kit in functionality. You really do get what you pay for

This is the answer I feared but probably already knew. Shame I dont have anything like the wonga required to buy an expensive system :(

i use the wife don,t matter what speed im doing i still can hear her & she comes with no vox switch too

I think you may be confusing Fred with your exhaust Pete, I don't know how anyone can hear anything with that racket ( I am talking about the noise your can makes)

Sadly I bought a set of 2 of them from ebay & returned it for a refund.

Also have a scala single one that came with the tomtom but the wind noise & speeds is bad.

I now use an Abretech wired one (Ride recomended) good for Jills mp3 & speech up to 90mph (not uk obviously).

It has lots of inputs for 2 way radio & phone etc

& I use one of the these to collect the sat nav directions


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLUETOOTH-STEREO-HEADSET-ALL-APPLE-IPOD-MP3-MP4-MP5-/220789317624?pt=UK_AudioVisualElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Headphones&hash=item3368119ff8

Thanks for your input folks, so has anyone got a recommendation for radios and headsets for open face/flip front helmets?

Or has anyone got any experience with the Oxford bike mike wired intercom stuff?

I'm tight on cash so hoping to get something together for £100 or under.

Cheers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AE600-MOTORCYCLE-BIKE-INTERCOM-INTEGRAL-HELMETS-NEW-/170671102804?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item27bcca5b54

This comes in at about £100.00 with 2 headsets & is the one I have, also they do a open face version.

The AE600S looks really nice, just trying to find out where I can get the 12V supply lead for it so I can use it off the bike on longer trips.

Cheers

It uses 3x AAA batts & I did plan to get a 12v lead but with the first set of Duracell lasting so long I just haven't bothered up till now ?

bignige wrote:It uses 3x AAA batts & I did plan to get a 12v lead but with the first set of Duracell lasting so long I just haven't bothered up till now ?

Thats good to know, do you use it with an MP3 player or just for the intercom?

When with pillion MP3, intercom & stat nav, Sat nave & intercom cuts in over mp3 automatically.
When on own I dont use the intercom but still talk to myself

Seriously the is an input for the phone which I have never tryed

Sounds great, looks like the ae600s can hook up to a radio too if I want to talk between bikes

Thanks for all your input.

Took a while to find but heres the reveiw (2008 so price is wrong)

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/upload/Ride%20Magazine/Product%20test%20pdfs/11%20Nov08%20Intercom%20test.pdf