Devices for cyclists to talk to each other? Do they exist? (I'm thinking ultra-light, "blu-tooth" type technology...)

Hi

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

I keep cycling across London with my girlfriend and it's very
irritating not to be able to talk to each other unless we do
something dangerous!

I'm imaging a small earpiece thing like you see mobile phone
users wearing. It would only need a range of about 12 feet.


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

ship composed the following;:
Hi

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

I keep cycling across London with my girlfriend and it's very
irritating not to be able to talk to each other unless we do
something dangerous!

I'm imaging a small earpiece thing like you see mobile phone
users wearing. It would only need a range of about 12 feet.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=32856&TabID=1&source=15&World ID=&doy=9m3
With an earpiece / headset ...

http://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/radios.shtml Also suggests this
setup.

--
Paul ...
www.4x4prejudice.org
(8(|) Homer Rules ..... Doh !!!

in message .com, ship
') wrote:


Hi

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

We use Motorola walkie-talkies. There's some standard for these things -
I don't know what it is, but you can buy them from several different
manufacturers and they all inter-operate. No license needed but range
is about 1/2 mile line of sight. We have earphones with little in-line
push-to-talk mikes. It's fine for urgent communication, but not for
just chatting.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
There's nae Gods, an there's precious few heroes
but there's plenty on the dole in th Land o th Leal;
And it's time now, tae sweep the future clear o
th lies o a past that we know wis never real.

Simon Brooke wrote:
in message .com, ship
') wrote:


Hi

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!


We use Motorola walkie-talkies. There's some standard for these things -
I don't know what it is, but you can buy them from several different
manufacturers and they all inter-operate. No license needed but range
is about 1/2 mile line of sight. We have earphones with little in-line
push-to-talk mikes. It's fine for urgent communication, but not for
just chatting.


You can also get voice activated mikes for the Motorolas. I've used some
when sailing for foredeck to helm comms.

Simon Brooke writed in
:

in message .com,
ship ') wrote:


Hi

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type
thing for cyclists to talk to each other?!

We use Motorola walkie-talkies. There's some standard for these things
- I don't know what it is, but you can buy them from several different
manufacturers and they all inter-operate. No license needed but range
is about 1/2 mile line of sight. We have earphones with little in-line
push-to-talk mikes. It's fine for urgent communication, but not for
just chatting.

Yes that's we use - but made by Binatone, there's a VOX facility but
still I'd agree that they are really only useful for "you should have
turned left there" type messages than tittle tattle!

On 9 Mar 2005 07:50:36 -0800, "ship" wrote in
message .com:

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

It's called a peloton.


Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

In article .com, ship wrote:

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

I'd suggest trying PMR radios (available from maplin, dixons et all).
These are pretty cheap, and have a range of around 4 miles.
Most of the units currently on the market accept motorola-style mobile phone
headsets which gives you fairly wide range choose from.

--
Mike Quin

Mike Quin writes:

In article .com, ship wrote:

Is there such a thing as a portable, light-weight Blu-Tooth type thing
for cyclists to talk to each other?!

I'd suggest trying PMR radios (available from maplin, dixons et all).
These are pretty cheap, and have a range of around 4 miles.
Most of the units currently on the market accept motorola-style mobile phone
headsets which gives you fairly wide range choose from.

I have an ancient pair of these which specifically advertised
themselves for intecyclist use. The single earpiece was also the
microphone, and it had a VOX mode with settable threshold so that it
transmitted when you spoke, but not with wind noise, which was quite
well avoided by the earphone/mike.

I thought it worked very well, but I discovered that learning to say
"over" and stopping talking, so that the other could start talking and
the units switch from A-B to B-A operation, is actually beyond the
intellectual capacity of most people, so that its use was restricted
to those people who were capable of learning how to use the "over" and
"over and out" protocol, which unfortunately didn't include the people
I usually cycled with.
--
Chris Malcolm +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

"over and out"

Over: "I've finished transmitting and am waiting for your expected reply
Out: "I've finished transmitting and do not expect a reply."

It's either one or the other, but never both. Most radios now bleep when
you let go of the transmit button so you don't need to keep saying Over.
Not sure that works with the vox function tho.

I always found using the correct jargon/whatever rather silly for regular
civilian conversation. e.g

"Hey Guys, let's stop at the tea shop over there" becomes:

"Peloton, 500m, Tea Shop, Rapid Pedal and Dismount!"

On 10/3/05 9:26 am, in article
, "Mark Thompson"
wrote:


"Peloton, 500m, Tea Shop, Rapid Pedal and Dismount!"

"Aye, Aye Cap'n"

slurp
munch

igmc

...d