Thrill72

The wife and I have a Co-motion speedster we're trying to get more time on. One problem we've been having is communicating when the wind is enthusiastic. The country roads in our area are bumpy in sections. "Bump"..."What? Ouch!" isn't a lot of fun.

Precision Tandems has a set of wireless headsets that sounds good, but it's pretty pricey at $299. We were thinking we should be able to use our phones with bluetooth headsets in pretty much the same fashion, as long as we could find a suitably wind resistant headset.

Does anyone have any experience with either option?

All else fails, I guess I'm stuck with yelling over my shoulder until we can afford the wireless headsets.

Happy Tandeming,
Thrill

rdtompki

Check out this thread and the excellent review referenced:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ght=interphone
Bluetooth headsets don't do well in the wind. Even the excellent Jawbone that I use, while it's great for normal ambient, is horrible in the wind.

I was able to pick up a pair of the Blueant Interphone units for $240 on ebay. I believe I could have done a bit better. The reviews are excellent. Very popular with motorcyclists.

I believe the headsets will improve the tandem experience and prevent me from having to turn my right (good) ear toward management. Also will enable us to carry on a conversation without shouting.

tandemnh

We plan on going for the wired set. For the price savings, detaching prior to getting off the bike will be well worth it.

zonatandem

We do not use a headset.
When traffic/windnoise cranks up, pilot just talks louder.
Been doing it that way for 34+ years.
If I miss calling out a bump (rarely) I manage to tell her 'bump back!'
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Thrill72

Thanks for the info rdtompski. I'll check out the headset you mentioned.

The wired version might make us not use them, we've been using wireless headsets for our phone for several years now.

Zona, as I'm more the strong silent type, yelling louder is not really my style. I'm guessing it's what I'll be doing for the next couple months though. We're not letting ourselves get headsets until we put a mile per dollar we want to spend on the tandem.

Thanks everyone, Happy tandeming,
Thrill

thebulls

I have a Tandem-Talk that I bought to use with the kids, about six years ago. But the kids have left home, and my wife and I prefer to just shout at each other over the wind :-) (More seriously, we typically ride century or longer rides, last Saturday was 250 miles, and having any sort of earpiece gets tiresome after awhile, and except on fast descents, we never have problems just chatting.)

Anyone interested in an only-slightly-used Tandem Talk? This is the model that allows you to hook in an MP3 player (which is a nice feature) or certain cell phones (which I never tried). Seems pretty comparable to the tandem-com that's available at Precision Tandems for $120. Half price plus shipping?

Nick

Austinbike42

Thrill72,

We have both the "wired" and "wireless" TandemTalk and TandemCom sets from Precision Tandems...

Here's our experience;

We have gone back to using the wired version because;

1) the wireless units are just too big and bulky (heavy) - it's uncomfortable in our jersey pockets.

2) the sound quality is much worse - it makes my stoker (wife) speak with an annoying "lisp"

3) one of the units stopped working after just a few months (too much trouble to send back to manufacturer) as instructed by Precision Tandems, for something we weren't happy with anyway.


The wired version is pretty easy to get used to; stoker plugs into unit in my jersey pocket only after clipping in. You'll forget to unplug a few times getting off, but eventually it becomes second nature, like unclipping...

Also, you'll read many comments about the "frailty" of the headsets - it's true. I think we're on our third set now and one of them is sounding "fuzzy" so I expect it to break soon too.

All that said, we love the communication it affords us and all the negatives are outweighed by being able to have full conversations in a normal tone while on the bike - it's a major source of the joy of riding together.

Footnote;

I'll probably spring for the Interphone unit - seems to be getting very good reviews.

yeamac 

What about working out a set of hand signals? Granted, you may not always feel comfortable taking a hand off the bike if you need to brake/turn, so maybe some type of body signal could work, too, but at least its free and doesn't require shouting.

rdtompki

I should add that my hi frequency hearing is not all that great especially in my left ear so to hear my wife I'm constantly turning my head. The wind noise is exactly in my useful audio spectrum. Not so good a situation. The Blueant purportedly has a range of 150 meters which will work fine until I drop wife on the hills yeah, like I'd do that and never live to tell about it.

Thrill72

Thanks again everyone for the info.

Austin, thanks for the info about the units from precision tandem. That makes me think (like you ), that the blueant headsets might be our best option.

yeamac, thanks for the suggestion. My stoker has already worked up some taps on my back for shift up or shift down. We'll have to see what we can come up with until we can afford the blueant headsets.

rdtompki, I think I have the same situation as you. Been listening to the stereo too loud for too long.

I might consider the wired units from precision if they were cheaper. As it is, they aren't much less than the motorcycle headsets. And we'll probably want to use them on our motorcycles too.

Thanks,
Thrill

rdtompki

I did purchase a pair of the Interphone units. Took about one hour total to modify Sony behind-the-ear headsets to house the earpiece/microphone unit and added a piece of velcro to helmet and electronics module for mounting purposes. You've got to be careful in modifying the Sony piece because you're hogging out a bit of the structure to make room for the microphone, but it's definitely doable.

Summary
1. Performance is terrific. We didn't go over 30mph or so on our test ride, but the only wind noise I could hear was external to the earpiece. The filtering they are doing on the microphone input is working terrifically.
2. The electronics is a bit larger than I pictured, but weighs very little. Somewhat conspicuous on a bicycle helmet, however. Good if you're going for the dork/geek look.
3. Definitely a luxury depending upon a) your hearing and b) whether you're on speaking terms with your stoker and/or captain depending upon point of view. Would be killer if you could buy the headset already modified.
4. Even a better buy for couples riding singles provided they are on speaking terms.

ftsoft

These headsets have always seemed a little dorky to me, but then I used to think mirrors were dorky and now I can't live without the darn thing. It's just never occurred to us that we need one. It's not that it's not windy here in West Central Ohio (the wind is gusting to 32 mph as I'm writing this). Of course we are still pretty young at 67, so our hearing is still probably sound. Either that or I'm a loud talker.

tandemnh

I bought the Tandem-Talk off thebulls and we finally tried it out the other day. It is their wired set and we find it works good. Working out the AUX hook-up to get music all the time but other than that it works great. We prefer the set up because we cna speak softly enough to be understood instead of yelling out and hoping it is understood.

Downhill the wind did drown out the music and voice. but I don't wear the ear piece pressed against my ear so wind does pass through. But other than that we enjoyed the converstaions and the ability to quickly and clearly spek with one another.

We would recommend going with a headset and even though this is a used model it works very well

Austinbike42

Rick, thanks for the "initial impression" post on the Blueant. A couple of questions; Where did you mount the unit on your helmet? How about battery life? With the Tandem Talk, we keep a couple of AAA's on the bike, but never need them as we seem to get months of riding on a set. Does the unit make your voices sound "funny"? Our wireless Tandem Com has a very "lispy" sound that is somewhat distracting...

Please keep us updated on your experience! Thanks.

rdtompki

We mounted the unit on the side of the helmet behind the ear. Probably not an ideal place from an impact perspective, but there is a good likelihood the unit would pop off in a crash. Once it is on there (velcro) you really don't notice it nor do you notice the behind the head band.

The voice quality is first rate. Almost like my better half was talking directly into my ear which, come to think about it, may not be a feature depending on how the ride is going.