want to buy bike to bike headsets need advice

[clampyface]

Hi all need some advice on bike to bike headset will spend up to £250 anyone got one, which one is the best thanks

[Cov_AL]

My advice is - You get what you pay for!

I got some cheap ones from lidl and they were useless.

[Ttaskmaster]

RADIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this I can help with......

OK, a decent headset is part of the cost.

You ideally want one made by a radio manufacturer like Midland Alan, NOT a bike manufacturer.

Get one for an Open Face, regardless of which lid you actually wear. This should have a noise-attenuating mic on it to cut down on wind noise. A proper bike headset will come with a PTT (Press To Talk) switch that mounts on your handlebar.

Radios - You have two choices in the UK;

PMR446

27MHz otherwise known as CB.

PMRs or Private Mobile Radios are available as cheap sets up to around £50, rather good ones at £60-120 per handset or professional quality at £150+.

Range is up to 5km in clear open areas, with direct line of sight. In other words, if you have buildings and trees in the way, this will dramatically reduce your reception.

The cheap ones really do not cope well with transmissions while moving.

The good part is many of them take normal AA batteries!!

PMRs come with 8 channels. There are 38 tones, called CTCSS - Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System. You select one of the 8 channels and set it to one of the 38 tones (or leave it off). This means that you will only receive transmissions from a radio set to the same tone. It stops twats who buy these things from intruding on your airwaves. Think of them as sub-channels. They're not, but think of them that way - It's the best simple explanation.

The Benchmark PMR radio is the Midland/Alan 456-R.

It's a mid-priced unit that has all the basic bells & whistles.

CB is Citizens Band radio. These no longer require a licence to use!!

You typically get 40 channels to use, plus a second 40 for EU countries, particularly if your radio is Multi-Band. A bit more expensive for mobile units, but I prefer it.

Your basic range is approximately 10 miles and it copes very well amongst most buildings. You have many bells & whistles as standard features with CB.

The downsides are that they are more expensive and you need both a 12v power source (hella plug wired into your bike) and a massive antenna on your vehicle. This is a more complicated set-up requiring some basic electronics DIY.

Benchmark handset is the Midland/Alan 42 Multi.

£100 for a multi-band unit, powered by battery or mains/12V connection. Utterly portable, can be used as a base station/mobile unit or handheld.

Need seperate antenna, depending on your use. Withoutit, your average range is 2-5 miles.

Thunderpole is probably the best place to start shoping.

Any questions, just gimme a shout eh!!!

[clampyface]

Hi thanks a million now thats what call help cheers mate.

James

[dragstar_125]

Hi thanks a million now thats what call help cheers mate.

James

This may not be the most ideal idea...but for a temporary fix its been working for me and my buddy!!! .....

2 hands free kits on ur phone.....slip the lead through the helmet and put the phone in ur inner jacket pocket...my mate hasunlimited calltime so he jsut phones me and we keep connected thwe whole way!!!! its works ...and its sony ericson phones...the sound and clarity even with the visors ur is suprisingly good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ttaskmaster]

The above was just scratching the surface, mate.

There's much more if you want to get into this.

PS - Truckers love chatting with bikers on CB, if you can make yourself useful.

You have 10 miles of range usually, so advance warning to them of traffic and other such issues is always appreciated.

Then again, I do lots of motorway and distance riding at night, so we're all bored shitless and talking crap anyway :-D

[clampyface]

Hi again we have decided to go with the midland bt2 bluetooth head sets bike to bike £239.00 for the pair they sound like the best out there with no wires

James