I went for 7 years with a Radio Shack handheld CB strapped to the handlebars. It had jacks in the top for the PTT mic and speaker. I got a PTT button and a connector from J&M that connects directly to the helmet headset. A hundred bucks for the CB, $75 for the PTT harness.
The CB has a rubber ducky antenna but I found an adapter that allowed me to connect the CB into the bike's antenna. It worked great.
That being said, since then J&M produces a handlebar mounted CB designed for motorcycle use. I know a fellow that has it, and it works great also. The cost on that should be less than half what you are planning on spending on the Honda CB.
That's right Ham Radio is cheaper. Yes, you need a license and yes you need to take a written test. No, you don't need to understand Morse code. The test questions are published and you can take practice tests on-line. And the license is free for life.
A two meter band handheld radio can be bought for $100 new and with the FRS kit from Kennedy technologies can be hooked to your GL intercom. You can even use the exisiting CB controls. Mount the radio in the trunk, even with the rubber duck antenna at 5 watts, you'll get several miles of coverage. Rack mounted antenna even better.
For a little more you can get a 50 watt radio that will amaze you. Add your GPS connection and have position reporting posted on the web for free. Call up a repeater with a phone patch and call home for free.
Here's a pic of my Kenwood 50 watt tri-band on my GL1500
Hey Terry, wolfman has the right idea. My brother (02 Goldwing) and my two sons,(09 Vstars) run hand held cb's from Radio Shack. They have the push to talk headsets, and just love them. i have a CB on my 08 Wing, so when we ride, we can all talk. They sound great, and have never had any problems with them at all.
Hmm...I rarely ride in groups, but somewhere in my far distant past, I seem to remember these things called hand signals?
Inexpensive, pre-installed, operate without fail (unless the total system crashes), all weather, zero power draw on the bike...yep, that might be a good way to go
Two nice compact setups are the Cobra 75WXST and the Midland 75-822. The Midland can use a rubber duckie antenna that it comes with where the Cobra you will have to mount an antenna someplace. you could run something as simple as the Midland with an earbud speaker and talk into the hand unit for the mic and it uses a cig lighter plug for power. The Midland can also be used with it's onw power pack.
Hmm...I rarely ride in groups, but somewhere in my far distant past, I seem to remember these things called hand signals?
Inexpensive, pre-installed, operate without fail (unless the total system crashes), all weather, zero power draw on the bike...yep, that might be a good way to go
We have been running the J&M JMCB-2003 for about three years now. We bought the intercom version and use it all the time. The CB is great when we are on group because just about everyone we ride with has a CB.
Seems to make the rides safer. Easy to call back about road debris or turns or changing lanes or when we want to stop for gas or bathroom breaks.
Withthe radio, all the cords, two headsets, mounting brackets, antenna and all the wiring we spent a little over $500. Its really easy to use with all the controls right there on the lefthandle bar control and everyone says I sound very clear and they sound clear to me.
Recently I installed a new Clarion radio with built in MP3 and blue tooth that I plugged into the J&M line in so I can hear the radio and accept incomming phone calls through the headset as well as the external speakers.
Ya want cheap and also functional. Works well, and as good as any CB on the road.
Do as Wolfman said. A cheap hand held CB with a harness to fit the bike works well. It is economical and a common sense alternative.
I have a friend who rides with us and he has one on his ST1300.
The most high priced CB out there, is basically a short range tool for use in group rides. Range on any of them at most is from 1.5 to maybe 2 miles and that is stretching it.
For group rides, where at the most you get separated by half a mile in heavy traffic, the hand held one has just as much range, as the high dollar Honda CB.
Set up properly it works well.
The problem comes in with the harness to the bike, sometimes you have to get inventive. You do want to get on and off the bike, store your helmet and all that kind of thing, so on the Wings you do have to come up with a harness and run the sound through the bike, otherwise you are into another wire running alongside your headset wire and figuring out a means to plug and unplug it.
But they have connectors for that, and little cables that have the pigtail curls to help them stay out of the way. A visit to radio shack will help you come up with many ideas and solutions.
It suits me to run a CB or something into the Aux circuit on the bikes, and they do make gadgets so you can run more than one device through the aux circuits and control and regulate the volume of them, but most want that radio, MP3 player and a cell phone too. :waving: Maybe even an coffee pot, :smiler:
The 1100 i just brought the po made some brackets so a car or truck cb would fit above the speedo and had a regular mikw with a bracket on the left handle bar also ive seen on Evil Bay a set up for the 1100 where you can use you radio antenna as a cb one kind of a splitter i guess
Yup, thats the Midland 75-822. A lot of features in a small package. You can even get a corded earbud and inline mic for it from Midland. If you are not running an intercom already this would probably be the easiest way to go.
I love those small radios.
That radio, a center-loaded antenna "Single Trucker" antenna from Radio Shack, a bar mount... maybe a fancy RAM mount for the handlebar... etc..
Inexpensive set-up and functionality galore.
When you get to a gathering, pop it off the mount, slide on the battery pack and bnc antenna and you're portable for whatever reason.
Stow it in your trunk otherwise.
Handy-Dandy...
I've had (and still have) many variants over the years...
A properly grounded and tuned antenna is key for the bike.
do a search on the net, I found plans on how to wire in a cb PTT from a regular cb for a MC. It works, I have the info if you need it someplace. We put one of these together and took a trip with the fellow so he could communicate with his dad and me. about a $30 cb, a generic j&M headset (we had extras), a $20 antenna and some small parts less than $100 as I recall, less if you already have some of the items. It mounted accross the handlebars and the antenna to the rear fender (mag mount), the PTT was also on the bars.
Let me know if you need the links and I will look for them.
I purchased a hand held Midland with an "operators" head set. (Just one speaker and a mic - includes PTT) it worked wonderfully for me.- all spent less than $70 I modified the head set to fit within my helmet - pretty much just removed the bracket from between the mic and the speaker - and the speaker fit nicely into my helmet. The mic I mounted inside the helmet.
Later for my 1500 I bought the integration kit from Kennedy Technologies and after some initial tuning issue I think it works pretty well for the money.
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