BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Went really well today, despite it starting to rain a little, we're still talking - she said once she got over the initial nerves and stopped hyperventilating she never felt so safe. I even managed a couple of tame overtakes and tiny bit of filtering. She's keeping the gear for another go and has talked about buying her own kit. She sees the sense of comms kit. Now if only we could get over the head butts on the odd gear change and braking...

Oh and lower seat post was a good idea for stability on mounting/dismounting.

Good to hear first outing went well. Having an intercom is well worth the money. Its very useful to be able to chat to your pillion. I know that when my wife was starting to feel comfortable and I began to pick up the pace, it was useful to warn her of impeding overtakes. Not just for her to hold on but that the overtakes were feasible. You can chat about our different bikes are compared to what she is use to. Gives her more confidence in what you are doing.

steve.sharkey wrote: Now if only we could get over the head butts on the odd gear change and braking...

The best way to cure that is pin the throttle wide open and quickshift. She won't have time to head butt you, the G-force will keep her firmly pushed against the top box:-). Get your ESA set on 2 up & hard, find your favourite twisty road and let her experience the sensation of cornering. My wife loves it now. Don't ever turn off your traction control- otherwise there'll be no dinner for you. Intercoms are essential in my experience, as when they fall asleep on the autobahns you can hear them snore & give them a prod. Or if your brave enough scream through your mike... That also wakes them up but often results in no dinner for the rest of the week
:enjoying:

Got intercom but don't need to warn the Wife of overtakes. After over 40 years of riding pillion behind me she knows if there is anything impeding progress ahead, it will be overtaken at the first safe opportunity!
She loves overtakes and can now predict exactly what i will do.

Bertie wrote: Got intercom but don't need to warn the Wife of overtakes. After over 40 years of riding pillion behind me she knows if there is anything impeding progress ahead, it will be overtaken at the first safe opportunity!
She loves overtakes and can now predict exactly what i will do.

My wife has now been riding pillion for a year, probably about 5000 miles and she now knows when I'm about to overtake. No need for me to say anything now but in the early days very useful. She has really taken to it which has amazed me.

When I rode sports bikes the wife used to get a tap on the knee if I was going to make progress, didn't want to lose her off the back.

Chad wrote: The best way to cure that is pin the throttle wide open and quickshift. She won't have time to head butt you, the G-force will keep her firmly pushed against the top box:-). Get your ESA set on 2 up & hard, find your favourite twisty road and let her experience the sensation of cornering. My wife loves it now. Don't ever turn off your traction control- otherwise there'll be no dinner for you. Intercoms are essential in my experience, as when they fall asleep on the autobahns you can hear them snore & give them a prod. Or if your brave enough scream through your mike... That also wakes them up but often results in no dinner for the rest of the week

And you are up to wife No what?

I hardheartedly agree with the others about the intercom. The question will be which one to get. I have the very basic bluetooth model. We dont listen to music and dont connect to the phone.  Ann and I have to deal with our phones and email all day so we dont want anything to do with them when we are on the bike. The Cardo system is basic and fairly inexpensive.


The funny part of the intercom is when she says something like, "did you see that" and Ill say "no sweety I'm watching the road so we dont go off the side of this mountain" then she just laughs and says "yep that's a good plan". 


Glad that you guys had a good ride, wish you the best for many more.   

Today, Lewis Hamilton said, “Don’t talk to me through the corners. I nearly went off!”

Budman wrote: The question will be which one to get. I have the very basic bluetooth model. We dont listen to music and dont connect to the phone.  Ann and I have to deal with our phones and email all day so we dont want anything to do with them when we are on the bike. The Cardo system is basic and fairly inexpensive. 

I tried lots of intercoms out & the one I bought was an 'Interphone F3XT'. If you and your pillion want to listen to the same music source/same satnav, you will also need to buy the plug in bluetoothe dongle. They also work your phone if you choose. What I can say from experience is the voice activation is excellent. It cuts out ALL wind noise even at speeds of 130mph (autobahns) and is crystal clear. People cannot believe I'm on the bike when I answer the phone. They are simple to fit (bluetoothe so no wires), the charge lasts all day and they are easy to operate. I bought mine from The Triumph dealer in York- they had them available for demonstration . I would certainly buy this system again without hesitation.

Chad.  Do I understand your system has linked to the audio unit on the bike giving you and your pillion music/radio and the GPS has also linked to the dongle feeding prompts to you both

RTman- I don't have a factory stereo/radio on the bike- but both intercoms connect via bluetoothe to my iPhone for telephone calls, for music, and to the satnav. We can both listen to music, satnav commands at the same time or separately. If the phone rings, whoever presses the call button takes the call. As you would expect, if the satnav speaks, the music goes quiet. The dongle is effectively a bluetoothe splitter, it's not necessary for the normal intercom function but is if you want both headsets to share the aforementioned media. The kit cost £200 & £60 for the dongle bluetoothe splitter (3years ago).

Obviously a good set up.  Cost is about the same as an Autocom wired system with dongle attached.  It would however not work fully with the fitted audio unit.