A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

On our BMWs we have AutoCom systems with PMR/FRS radios that provide clear comms at motorway speed over a good mile or so. I don't think they'd be suitable on a dirt-bike as they're hard-wired, but I think you'll struggle to find better quality comms. It's also probably the most costly solution as you need to buy the unit, headsets and radios, but you can tailor it to your exacty needs with other accessories, music inputs, pillion connectivity, bluetooth connectivity etc. Sourcing radios from China and most of the Autocom parts second hand, I still reckon I've invested a couple of hundred pounds per bike to get these fitted, but they are excellent.

We first tried cheap PMR/FRS radios (you may already have a set) with a wired headset, which was a cheap solution, but the quality was poor at anything over city-driving speed as there was no noice cancelling (which the autocom has). This might be an option if you're offroad, or keeping the road/windspeed low. I had radios already and the headsets were around 40-50 pounds for the pair.

A lot of people (who don't like the idea of hardwiring) swear by Bluetooth headsets (something like an Interphone or Sena) - these attach to your helmet, are self contained and self powered (and therefore need recharging) but offer good quality comms and can also link to things like sat-navs and phones if you want - you can even buy them in pairs so you're all ready to go. Price wise, I still think you're looking at at least a hundred pounds per headset for something at the lower end of the range.

One key consideration you might want to consider is that anything that's using a Radio to transmit is most likely going to offer Simplex communication, meaning that only one person can speak at a time (as Radios generally can only either transmit or recieve). For our Autocoms, we have a Push to Talk (PTT) button on the handlebars to "engage" the radio, but you can set them up for Voice Activation (VOX) but this can take a moment to engage and disengage meaning the start of a conversation might be clipped. When we're on the same bike and my wife is pillion, the Autocom isn't using the radio so the comms are Duplex, which means we can both speak at the same time over each other and conversation is more natural. The Bluetooth systems generally offer Duplex communications.

Also consider if you're likely to want to communicate with other people and what they are using - with my AutoCom system, I can communicate to anyone else running a radio-based system which is what most of the instructors and tutors I have met use, but if all your buddies are rocking Bluetooth, you won't be able to cross-talk.

When my wife first started riding, she found that just the reasurance, positive comments and pointers incredibly helpful even before she was happy pressing the button and talking back to me! Now we have all sorts of conversations about what we're seeing, and pther people on the road.

Hope that helps!

Simon

We use duplex bluetooth units, what that means is you can speak at the same time instead of waiting till the other stops speaking
They also have a range of about 1200mtrs 8hours continues use 3 days stand by time, also has a fm radio to listen to music, connects to your sat nav, you can conect upto 4 units, I bought from China they advertise on eBay but I delt with them dirct, payed £95 including delivery for two units, if I bought one from eBay it would have cost £67 for one.

If this is what you are after post on here then I'll put the link up, if you contact them just say you could do it outside eBay but still pay though PayPal, I remember I had to pay import vat £16 I think, still a god price I think

After many many years of using a wired Autocom I swapped to a pair Sena SMH10's about 18 months ago for rider pillion use.

In July this year I was touring with a couple of friends, one of whom was using the Sena too. We paired the devices easily. Depending on the terrain we were fine up to about half a mile apart. This was excellent. Just like chatting to a pillion.

I also use it with a Garmin satnav and my phone. All works well. When using the satnav it interrupts the chat which is fine, except the other user doesn't realise this. We found it best to just mute the satnav.

My mate and I have been thinking of intercoms lately for when we go off on our road bikes touring, then we would be able to tell each other when we want petrol, or say if we've seen a B&B sign etc.

Those cheap ones look quite good Locky, do you have to push a button to be able to talk? I.e does my mate have to listen to me singing n stuff ha?

Can you hear the voice even with earplugs in?

What about the volume, do they go pretty loud?