Well the title says it all doesn’t it. The Ucom Twintalker 6800 I’m describing in a previous post, has been tested on the road, while riding from London to Dover on one bike. After that we put it in the bag, and throughout our 6-day trip through France we didn’t look back or regret it even for a moment!

All of the fiddling around with the thing to make it work on the first day after buying it confirmed the very strange truth that this intercom system is really only useful if you are stationary, there is absolutely no wind noise, and the two walkie talkies are kept very close together.

As walkie talkies they work, sort of, although their range of supposedly 5km (”depending on surroundings”) in a normal urban area is reduced so much, it won’t even work until the end of the road. Another set of walkie talkies we have, by Motorola, at least worked for about 1.5km in the same town, in the same conditions, and they cost way less than these useless devices. The only problem is they have no jack to plug in a head set.

Oh and the headset is the next problem, the speakers worked fine for me, but the microphone is horrible. As soon as you ride faster than 5 mph the wind noise distorts everything you say into a muffled impossible-to-understand mumble. While testing the intercom off the bike, we could work around this sound quality issue by precisely positioning the microphones in front of our mouth, but any little wind just makes the system an absolute nightmare to use.

Riding even at 30mph through the city distorts the sound so much that even the most ridiculously articulated phrases are so torturously difficult to understand that you just don’t feel like talking anymore.

The verdict should be very clear, this is going straight into the bin!

If you like to take a pillion along for motorcycle rides, communication can become an issue. As soon as your speed crosses 40 mph it becomes difficult to talk to each other without outside help. So an intercom is the natural solution to that problem. However: what type to go for, a very basic wired intercom, or a wireless walkie talkie type?

Wired Intercoms

When you buy a wired intercom, chances are you’ll get a very basic, extremely cheap one. There are plenty available on Ebay and such. They usually consist of a little plastic box with some jacks to hook up head sets with. Usually they also have an Audio-in line to plug your mp3 player or satnav into.

The headsets that are supplied with these types of intercoms are usually the type that clip onto one ear, with the microphone sticking out towards the front of your head (so they’re not attached to the inside of your helmet!).

Mostly they’re powered with AAA batteries, and are always on (so you need not press any buttons in order to transmit). They do not tend to have an AC or Cigarette Lighter adapter, so you will rely on battery power only - carry some spare batteries if you’re going on a long trip!

Cost: starts at less than £10.

Wireless (PMR) Intercoms

If you choose a wireless option, chances are you’ll need two walkie talkie type devices with plug in head sets. Each person keeps a walkie talkie on their person, plugs in the head set, and even if you need to get off the bike for any reason, you can still communicate with each other. Now because it’s basically a walkie talkie, and cannot transmit and receive at the same time, you need to initiate a transmission before the other person will hear it. This is either done by pressing a button (on the side of the walkie talkie or a separate plug in one) or through VOX ; Voice Operated Transmission (means you talk and it automatically switches on the transmission). For this reason also, walkie talkies don’t tend to have Audio-In sockets so you cannot plug in another device like an mp3 player or satnav.

The sound quality is not as clear as a dedicated wired system, because walkie talkies are affected by outside disturbances. It might even be possible that somebody else in the area is using a similar device on your frequency and you might hear each other. However to counter this, walkie talkies usually have numerous channel and frequency settings so you can find one that is clear.

For powering your walkie talkies, usually there are two options; you run them on batteries (AAA) or in case yours comes with an adapter, plug it into the battery of the bike through the cigarette lighter. Make sure that if you’re using yours plugged into the battery, either you take out the batteries in the walkie talkie or ensure they are rechargeable.

Cost: Starts at £25-30 per walkie talkie. (You’d need two for two people!)

Overall Verdict:

Of course the cost factor might make the decision for you, but if cost is not an issue, consider the following:

If you need something in order to communicate with a pillion only and would both like to enjoy music or satnav instructions along the way, the only way to go is a wired intercom. However: if you do not like to be stuck to each other with wires (when the pillion gets off the bike, he/she would have to unplug the intercom first!) and you might want to communicate even if you are not on the same bike together, get a Walkie Talkie type system for yourselves. An example of one I’ve just bought can be found in another post of mine: Ucom Twintalker 6800 - Wireless Intercom.

It’s that time of year again, when Aldi and Lidl have just gone through the DIY and gardening themed products, and out comes the motorcycling gear. As you are aware, whatever Aldi and Lidl sell is always limited stock, so if you’re late, everything will be sold out!

Let’s have a look at what we’ve got here.

How about Lidl first.

Their range came into the shops last week, and is quite comprehensive actually. You can choose from two types of helmets (Jet style and Flip up / Modular) and a good selection of clothing, though unfortunately only for men!

They have Trousers, Jackets, Rain Suits and Boot covers. Also there are gloves and a quite large bavaclava, a kidney belt, bike cover, disc brake lock and tank bags. Last year when they sold these items my husband and I had absolutely no gear yet, having just moved to the UK! The rain suits proved very useful, surprisingly enough they are actually pretty waterproof. And during our first little ride (to Stonehenge) we were very glad to have them as it was pouring down quite heavily. We also bought the gloves last year, and I must say that I might look for other ones as these let through more water than I would want them to.

But for me the most useful items this time were the gadgets; they are carrying two types of intercom systems this time, a very basic one (I’ve already got that; a little box with two plug in head sets, so a rider and pillion can communicate even at motorway speeds). And this time they also have a wireless one which can be used by multiple riders travelling together! I’m probably going to pick one of those up, they were reasonably priced at just under £30 and since the last one worked fine as well, I’m expecting this one to be quite useful too, minus the pesky wires that always seem to be in the way!

As for Aldi, their range is a bit smaller. They have a full face helmet, gloves, a jacket and trouser and a chain lock. They are also selling a very insect like backpack with a hard outer shell, making it not only look like a mutant beetle, it is also supposed to be very aerodynamic. I guess only true speedfreaks would appreciate that one. I hardly ever go fast enough for my backpack to get in the way due to speed!

Overall verdict:

The stuff Aldi and Lidl sell is quite reasonably priced, and the quality is decent enough. Especially the rain suits were quite a good deal, considering after a year of use they’re still going strong. If you’re in a tight spot financially, or just a newbie biker without any gear at all, it’s definitely worth looking into! However I would expect that most people who take this hobby seriously, would’ve collected better gear by now - although maybe that wireless intercom could still be of interest to them! Or perhaps a replacement for that old tank bag that has seen better days…