Joe,
I feel that the speakers have enough volume in fact I found that if the volume is turned up too much it increases the distortion. I have the throat mic strap also, which is just a cover that goes over the neck piece and velcros together. I have also tried a set of earbud type speakers like you would use with a MP3 player with the more or less same results.
We hav'nt been able to use the radios lately, the guy I ride with has one radio and I have the other, we bought a set and each took one. For all I know it could be a problem with matching radios with speakers or even some interference from the engine although I don't think that was a factor.
Well I think we'll be able to make things work if we keep working on it. I understand your hesitation in buying the clearcom setup, it's fairly expensive at about $100. but I went into this as an experiment, knowing that maybe it would work or maybe it would'nt. So far we're about 60% successful.
KT