ChatterBox FRS -- Riding with your child (was Re: GenMar Risers)

["William A. Flowers" <waflowers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Previously, you (Rich Weyand) wrote:
> On another note, was out for a couple hours today with my son
> riding ballast, and he had a blast.  Haven't done much two up 
> (and none with him) due to being off mcs for ten years, and 
> not really getting in much riding last year, so this was his
> first time out.

I really enjoy having one of our children along when I ride.  The other
weekend our daughter (12) told me it had been too long since we'd gone
for a ride and she wanted to go.  As if I needed an excuse to go for a
ride on a Saturday!

However, something I did this week has made the experience even better
for both of us.  Earlier this month my wife (aka SWMBO) and I celebrated
an anniversary (not one of the big ones, but we are getting there).  We
decided (jointly -- this wasn't just me) that since a marriage is all
about communcations (at least the successful ones are) it would be
appropriate that our anniversary present to ourselves would be
communications gear for our bikes.

Wednesday I bought two ChatterBox FRS units plus extra headsets and the
extension cords for our children.

Yesterday (Thurday) was "Take your child to work day" (formerly "Take
your daughter to work day") so our daughter came with my on Jewel.  This
gave us the chance to try out the rider-to-pillion intercom.  It worked
great!  Really improved the quality of the experience for us.

For the ride home last night our son grabbed SWMBO's ChatterBox to talk
to me as I drove home.  We had OK communications from over a mile away
despite many intervening buildings.  As I got closer the signal became
completely clear -- as good as the hard-wired link I'd had with our
daughter earlier that day.  I can believe the 2 mile claim for a
straight, flat road.

The VOX circuit seemed to work well once properly adjusted to ambient
noise.  SWMBO thinks she might prefer to use the included push-to-talk
switch instead.  However, I don't know what happens to the
rider-to-pillion circuit in that case.  Does the rider have to push the
switch so the pillion can talk? The documentation isn't clear on that
point (or I missed it).  We'll have to try and find out.

This weekend we'll be going on a family ride which will give us a chance
to really try the ChatterBoxes out.  I'll report on how they work for
bike-to-bike afterwards.

- --
Bill "Bench Dawg" Flowers
Clearwater FL
'00 Sapphire Blue ST "Jewel"


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