Comms
 

I have been interested in Comms for a while, this would be for rider to pillion primarily but bike to bike would be a good option plus connecting to my phone and maybe at a later date an MP3/IPOD & garmin GPS. At the NEC today I saw Autocom & Starcom, can anyone reccomend or otherwise these or any other makes.

Thanks

wot nobody talks to anyone else on this forum, it must be me.

Bike to bike would be great for us (sometimes!:rolleye: )

will also await feedback here................

C:)

Patience, patience....give us a bloomin' chance!

If you look at the number of us who have ST's, and the number of posts in this forum compared to the 748, 996 forum you'll realise that you're asking a question to a small minority. Most people ride sportsbikes and don't carry pillions, even fewer of these people will be interested in Autocom stuff and will simply have nothing to say on the subject.

The site is still on BST and an hour ahead of 'real time' but a quick conversion tells me that, of the ST owning minority, there are still fewer of us, watching the board like a hawk between your first post at 10 pm on Sunday and your second at 8.30 am on a Monday.

I've thought about an Autocom system too, but I've currently got my ST set up on the Sports side of the Sport Touring equation. I've thought about them a bit more since I got an 888 sportsbike, because this means that I'll be putting the ST back towards a Touring bias. Putting the pannier carriers back on, fitting my Ventura rack, fitting touring compound tyres, setting the suspension up with less extreme ride height and so on.

So a couple of days ago I typed 'Autocom' into the search engine on this board and came up with a number of responses This Link was quite typical

please dont take offense Jools I am always impressed by the great feedback that comes from the DSC, thats why i paid to be member rather than a just "Take advantage" of the forum even though to date it has been my only interaction with the club.

Yesterday at the NEC my impressions were that Autocom are a big company and Starcom a much smaller one but that was based on booth size and the amount of staff. I noticed in RIDE magazine that Virgin Limobikes use Autocoms maybe its the market leader Im not sure.

The staff at the Starcom booth were swamped with interest so maybe their kit is better I dont know, hence the post.

I would like it for long journeys especially when venturing overseas for bike to bike and rider to pillion, Im sure my wife would like to plug in her MP3 and if I could use the phone whilst riding i would be able to use the bike to travel to meetings. Although it seems fanciful to me that a mobile phone could be used on the move after the aggro I have had with BMW car kits.

I've got as couple of mates who swear by the Autocom units they have fitted ( R1150GS, FJR 1300 & R1200 land yacht ) both for rider / pillion as well as bike to bike, phone, MP3 & Sat nav inputs.
Must admit it's something I've been considering from the bike to bike angle when on long trips on the continent, but then again, who'd want to talk to me? ;)
If you want some more input, try searching on one of the touring oriented forums like ukgser forum

[Edited on 7-11-2005 by Rushjob]

I had an Autocom system fitted to my ST2 and it was amazing. Could not believe the clarity. Ultimately upgraded it to a bike to bike system, still Autocom.

No longer have ST so make me an offer before I chuck it on fleabay

Kit comprises:
Autocom P to P plus radio and interface

I have had and used autocom systems for around 5 years.
We had a system on the VFR that worked okay, but not brilliant. The main problem was the volume just didn't seem loud enough. Above about 70mph and we couldn't hear each other. I therefore chose to let it go with the bike when that was sold.

When I got the 4S I looked into this again and brough the middle of their three units (smaller than the top of the range but does everything I want).
It is permanently wired into the bike and takes its feed from the rear light circuit. The box is stuck with double sided tape to the top of the abs pump (replaces the underseat storage tray near the shocker on non-abs bikes).

Because this is a later generation than the original one we had, we had to upgrade the headsets too.

I have to say, the fitting of these into outr helmets was the reason we were getting poor volume levels.
The placement of the earpieces is critical as 15mm off centre seems to drop volume by as much as half !!!
The second time around we took great care in putting the ear pieces in the helmets, plugging a cd into the intercom, and moving the ear pieces around to get the best location before fixing them.
I should add that I fitted both systems so this was entirely down to me. They will fit them for you if you request it, although I'm not sure on cost.

So, would I recommend them ?
Yes. Money well spent.

There are times when the intercom is a pain, but it far outweighs the time it is useful (extra set of eyes looking for road numbers, signposts, hotels, pubs, etc). We can hear each other clearly well over 100mph. Screams from the pillion about 140 just start to get drowned by wind noise (Arai RX7) :lol:

We have the pair of leads come out of the front of the seat so I can plug us in while on the bike. When I'm on thebike on my own I lift the seat and they just lay under it out of the way.

Hope that helps.:burn:

Autocom have a deal on at the moment selling off their existing stock of kits as they have a new upgraded unit coming out in the new year. Nothing wrong with the old stuff as far as I can tell.

John

this might help as well:

http://ducatisportingclub.com/xmb/vi....php?tid=13390