Intercom for 2up riding | GTAMotorcycle.com

Intercom for 2up riding

the_mueg

the_mueg

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Disclosure: this is actually a shameless plug for my iPhone app, but hopefully someone will find it useful.

For those who do a lot of riding with a passenger, you probably have a communication system of sorts worked out, to let the other person know that you need to stop or what not. After a while it gets quite limiting, and you start looking for a more natural way of communicating. My riding partner decided that there must be an app for that, and once it turned out there was not an app suitable enough, we made one ourselves. It was tested on a 9 day trip to the east coast, and I do think it is a fine alternative to dedicated intercoms, assuming you only want to talk to your passenger and not to fellow riders 100 meters away ;).

If you have an iPhone (or iPod) with a good headset that you can wear with your helmet, don't be shy, give it a try!

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/instanttalk/id527625270

It's a buck, but you can PM me for free download codes. They are one time use, so no sense posting them publicly.

If you try it out and find any problems, please let me know so I can improve it.
 
So you just need a head set with a built-in mic? Which one did you use (out of curiosity)?
 
Nyx13 said:
So you just need a head set with a built-in mic? Which one did you use (out of curiosity)?
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I use Sennheiser MM-30i. It's in-ear so cuts out a bit of wind noise too. I find the most challenging part to talking while riding is the wind noise at high speed. I'm waiting for some custom moulded sleeves for my headset to be made, hopefully that will cut the noise even better.
 
Would a bluetooth earpiece work with this app? If it fits in the helmet of course...or would the wind noise be too much for it and the mike has to be right in front of the mouth?
 
This is a actual useful app. I will try this out for sure and happy to spend the 99 cents.
 
mimico_polak said:
Would a bluetooth earpiece work with this app? If it fits in the helmet of course...or would the wind noise be too much for it and the mike has to be right in front of the mouth?
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Bluetooth earpiece would also work. If you have already used it for taking regular calls while riding, you know how much wind affects that particular headset. This would work in exactly the same way. At lower speeds I found that the difference between mic hanging outside the helmet vs inside right beside your mouth is fairly small, but as you go faster you would want to shield the mic from the wind more. It all depends on how sensitive your particular headset is. That said, when going over 130km/h or so, I found that it was the noise inside the helmet that affected the results the most, not the noise picked up by the mic. Hence I am looking into better fitting and more isolating sleeves for my ear pieces.

One little "mod" I did to my headset was to wrap a little soft spongy foam around the mic - it helps cut some of the sharp wind gusts, and also bulks up the mic so I can put it inside the helmet near my mouth without it slipping out easily.

In the end things like your helmet and motorcycle's windscreen also play a significant role in how well it will work for you. If you have a reasonably sized windscreen installed (which I personally think is a must for long trips, for many unrelated reasons) you can just lower your head to get below the wind stream and your hearing will improve dramatically.
 
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Is your app available for Android/BB? I ask because my gf doesn't have an iphone/ipod...hence we'd have to buy an iPhone/iPod ($200 minimum), 2 headsets (let's say $30-50each for something decent) and at that price I may as well just buy a dedicated system as the total comes to around $300...or just use our signals of squeeze if you want to slow down...pat if you want to go faster lol

As iPhone to iPhone/iPod I think this is a great app and wish you all the best with it's success!
 
iOS devices only, as that's all I have to work with.

mimico_polak said:
Is your app available for Android/BB? I ask because my gf doesn't have an iphone/ipod...hence we'd have to buy an iPhone/iPod ($200 minimum), 2 headsets (let's say $30-50each for something decent) and at that price I may as well just buy a dedicated system as the total comes to around $300...or just use our signals of squeeze if you want to slow down...pat if you want to go faster lol

As iPhone to iPhone/iPod I think this is a great app and wish you all the best with it's success!
Click to expand...
 
So will cause you to constantly be in communication or is there a way to shut it off while riding.

I can see this causing me to hear my wind noise and the other guys wind noise.
 
You can shut it off, but realistically considering iPhone is all touch based you will not want to fiddle with the buttons while riding. I just have it in my pocket when I use this. The amount of wind noise you get depends greatly on the combination of headset/helmet/windscreen you have, and obviously the speed you're going at. You can regulate the volume of incoming audio using the buttons on your headset, so I suppose you could bring it down to silent when you don't want to hear anything.

Gixxer6 said:
So will cause you to constantly be in communication or is there a way to shut it off while riding.

I can see this causing me to hear my wind noise and the other guys wind noise.
Click to expand...
 
Just wondering if this will work on a 3G iPhone running iOS 4.2.1.
 
You kids nowadays with your fancy-schmany Star Trek gadgets make things so complicated ...

- a slap from the left means "pull over I gotta "powder my nose""
- a slap from the right means "that was a stupid move!"

App that! :p :D
 
00ninja said:
Just wondering if this will work on a 3G iPhone running iOS 4.2.1.
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It needs iOS 5 for some of the core functions. I may be able to release an update that would allow older versions to run it with reduced functionality.

SLIM said:
You kids nowadays with your fancy-schmany Star Trek gadgets make things so complicated ...

- a slap from the left means "pull over I gotta "powder my nose""
- a slap from the right means "that was a stupid move!"

App that! :p :D
Click to expand...

You keep doing that and you'll feel all beat up by the end of the ride ;).
 
SLIM said:
You kids nowadays with your fancy-schmany Star Trek gadgets make things so complicated ...

- a slap from the left means "pull over I gotta "powder my nose""
- a slap from the right means "that was a stupid move!"

App that! :p :D
Click to expand...

Sometimes silence is golden on a ride! LoL gf hates not being able to talk on rides...I don't:)
 
How did you find your battery life with bluetooth and speaker/mic constantly on?

+1 on the request for an Android version of this app - I'd be all over this, no question.
 
What do the riding schools use when you go for the M test? When i was at the school taking my m2 they mentioned that when you get your M you go riding on the streets while they follow and talk to you via a headset. Is it just a bluetooth ear piece?
 
the_mueg said:
It needs iOS 5 for some of the core functions. I may be able to release an update that would allow older versions to run it with reduced functionality.



You keep doing that and you'll feel all beat up by the end of the ride ;).
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. My passenger has the 3G phone so hopefully you will consider that update.
 
gtamike said:
How did you find your battery life with bluetooth and speaker/mic constantly on?

+1 on the request for an Android version of this app - I'd be all over this, no question.
Click to expand...

Battery life is about the same as during a continuous phone call, about 6-7 hours on my rusty iPhone 4.
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