Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Helmets and Gear Rider to Pillion Intercom

Getting ready for my June ride down to Venice via the Austrian passes and wanted a wireless intercom so I could talk to Becky (my daughter) who's hanging on the back this time. Looked at all the wise words and chose a Cardo Scala Rider Teamset. Got it double quick, but found no way to fit it to my Schuberth C2 and the mic stem was also too short for Becky's Caberg Justissimo (both helmets are flip fronts). This appears to be a common problem, so I emailed Cardo (in USA) and asked if they had any suggestions. Reply came immediately and they have now sent me a conversion (same as the standard fitting, but longer mic boom and adhesive base unit (including the twin speakers) for....FREE !!!!
Got them today and fitted to both helmets no prob. WOW !! how's that for customer service !!!

Hey John

Wendy and I use an Autocom system.

I used to joke that being on the bike was time to be away from the OL (or the kids) but on some rides it's good to have a chat from time to time.
I gotta object to the ability to attach a phone though ... grrrrr.

Plus, Wendy's so good as pillion, half the time I don't know she's there so the ability to say 'you ok?' from time to time means I know she IS there

For the minute we run it on the 9V battery but at some point I plan to get it hard wired to the bike.

Sound quality is great (I believe they guarantee 'em to something like 150+ mph).

The problem I had was with my US openface. I got the mic wind protectors but the bloody earpieces wouldn't fit .... half helmet .... d'oh!!!!

Know what you mean about some quiet time, but Beck is only 17 and this ride is a new experience for her, so I'll feel more happy just being able to check she's OK from time to time. Not much conversation you can have with a 17 year old anyway !!!
Autocom was my "plan B", but I really didn't want to be attached to the bike (except with the necessary anatomical parts !!). Autocom do a great service too and just down the road from me. Their e-published fitting instructions for Schuberth and Caberg were invaluable (Thanks Autocom ) and I certainly wouldn't have been happy pulling a £300 helmet apart without some directions. Will let you know how good the Cardo Bluetooth system is in use, but from all the reports I've read, it looks like it'll be just fine.

I will be waiting to hear how good the Cardo Scala Rider Teamset system works in use, as far as clarity, etc. I was going to look into getting one in the next month or so. My wife and daughter both ride on the pillon (one at a time ). From the info on the website, it appears that they could also talk on the cellphone to keep them entertained on trips. Thanks,
--Tom

John,
Have you gotten back yet? Waiting to hear how good the intercom set worked. My wife is prone to migrains/headaches, so I need to be very particular that there is no "hissing/constant speaker noise" before I buy anything.

Tom. My European tour starts next week (20th June) so I haven't "soak tested" the system yet. So far, I've received mobile phone calls when travelling and they seem fine (no hiss and sound is just like the person on the other end is standing right next to you). I'll feed back after the trip with my daughter, so I can report on quality and battery life after a 10 day round trip. Cheers. John

Tom, just a thought. The Scala system is voice activated (automatically de-activates whan talk finished), so there should be no constant hiss anyway. If there is any at all (I'll feedback later on this) it should only be whilst actually talking, or taking a cell phone call. This is how they prolong the battery charge life. John

OK. Got back yesterday evening. Fantastic trip !! 2500 miles (England -France -Belgium -Luxembourg -Germany -Austria -Italy -Austria -Lichtenstein -Switzerland -France -England) and only one puncture (on the Grosse-Glockner!!!), so that's my 4th new rear tyre in 3 months!! Thanks Mr Martini (Triumph dealer in Verona). Very efficient and friendly service.
The Scala intercom was OK. Not perfect, but I wouldn't have liked to do the trip without it. It was excellent in my Scuberth C2, but fitted in Becky's Caberg Trip was a little less faultless. Much wind noise over 65mph and occasionally didn't switch itself to standby after speaking. I think maybe 2 things caused the problems....Becky may have been locating the mic near the helmet ventilation flow, and/or the high pillion vs rider position meant that she was getting more wind effect (I have a touring screen fitted).
Battery life was excellent (about 3 long riding days between charges). Anyway, like I said, it was a godsend on such a long trip and I would still recomend. I guess a wired system would have performed better, but I still don't like the idea of cables connecting me to the bike.
Hope this helps you to make a decision Tom?
John (2007 Sprint ST 1050 ABS)

Thanks John for the detailed report. Now I have to talk it over with the wife. --Tom

I just picked up 2 of the scala Q2 and fitted them in our flip front helmets. mine is a noisy Vega Summit 2 and Julie's is a Z1R Eclipse. thanks for the info about the longer mic booms mine is too short. It took several tries but I got my bluetooth going and also had to pad the speaker pockets out to bring the speakers closer to hear better. the fm feature is weak, a station I listen to in the cage is all static on the scala. The intercom seems to work fine but I can see where the wind noise can confuse the system. manual iniation is possible. This unit is compatable with all prior scala units and is wireless but you cannot hook up an I-pod to it unless it is bluetooth. I thought I read that one of the scala units you could hook up audio devices to it but some of them only come with one speaker. Another bit of confusion was that their scala fm unit didn't have intercom but my manual for the Q2 say's it will work with the scala fm model. For the intercom mode you have to set it up as master/ slave type with a primary buddy and a secondary buddy, (lower priority). Otherwords you can have your passenger as the primary buddy and another rider as secondary but they can't talk together and you can only talk to one at a time. whew!

mike

He is some more info on the Scala Rider Q2 and another link to Scala Rider Teamset both seem very versatile.

Tom