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Well we
had a good ride out to Tecstar, in St Ives on Sunday 25 Jul. Tecstar is the home
of Starcom1, a small company that specializes in bike intercom systems, we were
met by the owner and soon had a nice hot coffee as the scorching sunny weekend
that the weather forecasters had predicted, had gone south, instead it was
15-16C and raining, teach me to polish my RT the day before.
We already had an autocom on our bike and it has done us well for 7 years, apart
from having to solder on a few new din plugs, the main plugs that connect your
helmet to the system, and since the arrival of our Garmin2610 GPS, the audio
input had failed so we could not hear the directions of Marge (GPS) and also no
mp3 music.
We had a look around Starcom's small unit and grilled their very helpful staff
about what they had to offer, and the pros and cons of the units, to be honest,
I was impressed, pros were many and cons, well I must say I could not find any,
well maybe one. The unit is slightly larger, than my Autocom. It measures:
W=130,H=80,D=30mm, but it is made in nice extruded aluminium case.
A full hog roast was on the go, so after a lovely pork and stuffing bread roll,
we bought a unit, with 4 headsets, two open face and two full face, the music
lead comes as standard, the instructions are very clear and easy to use.
Starcom only make the one unit, but I can tell you it does all you need. Rider -
pillion, portable music, fitted stereos, phone, GPS, Radar Equipment,bike to
bike radio, bike voltage or even internal battery (PP3) and push to talk buttons
and rider-pillion volume balance. The last being the one that did it for me.
This setting allows you to have one headset set on very loud, whilst the other
will be at normal volume, which suits us fine, as I wear ear-plugs, and my wife
Kathy does not. The headsets we chose were for full face units, we have System 4
Carbon helmets, and I fitted them to both helmets in 20 mins. The unit itself
was fitted to the bike in 15 mins, all I needed to do was to crimp the power
lead to my existing supply, tuck it in the tail unit, and we were away. The
headset leads are so thin, and well made, they tuck into the lid easily. The
speakers attach with stick on velcro, and they are really slim, and the mike was
stuck inside the chin-bar right in front of your mouth. A problem we had been
having with the autocom, was with the mike lead when you went to close the
chinbar, the cable would sometimes get stuck in the locking mechanism, as it was
quite a thick lead, no problem with the starcom leads as they are so thin, but
robust with it.
When we powered up and got riding home, we could not believe the clarity of the
system, there is no sidetone as with the Autocom, but when you talk the system
activates and Kathy could hear me so clearly. Starcom gave us a GPS lead for
free, thank you, so we had lovely clear mp3 music on the way home.
There were about 25 bikes there, mainly BMW's as it was organized by the BMW
club, and a few of them already had Starcom1 units, and folk were trying out the
systems, the clarity over a mobile phone was excellent, and there was a couple
that had bike to bike radios, that Starcom also sell, they also sell Garmin GPS
units now.
On the A1 we wound the bike up to 110 MPH, and we just picked up a little wind
noise, but the actual quality of the speech was absolutely crystal clear, really
chuffed
George
Nottingham
R1150RT Blue (like the header pipes)
ukGSer.com
gavinbell
Senior Member
Right as promised some
feedback of the Starcom units that we took to Romania.
Fitting
The unit fits nicely on top of the air box of the GS undo the bracket holding
the diagnostic socket and use a couple of cable ties to hold it in place. The
Starcom1 comes complete with a bike power cable (no extra charge unlike the
competition) this is best plumbed into a switched feed. You can use it with a
battery if you wish. The cables for your headsets, music, phone, bike to bike
etc plug firmly in and can be routed to which ever location suits you best.
The PTT button for the bike to bike can be velcroed to your left hand grip, or
as we did removed from the holder, then velcroed and cable tied to the left hand
switch gear which makes it very easy to operate.
Extension leads for the headsets include neat little caps to mount to the bike
and protect them when not in use.
Headsets,
I was able to test both options for headsets a full-face version and the boom
mike type. These fitted well in the BMW Evo4 helmet and into Andreeas Caberg.
As with any headsets make sure the mike is positioned so that it is just
touching your lips. The sound quality and noise cancelling ability were both
good.
Using as a simple intercom
The unit performed well being fully duplex provided natural conversation
rather than the on off operation of vox controlled units. The adjustable volume
enabled levels to be set to suit ourselves. They are adjustable to enable one of
you to wear ear plugs. We were able to talk clearly at motorway speeds with only
a little wind noise picked up from the helmet vents.
An excellent feature of the Starcom1 is the active volume system that
automatically increases as background noise and speed increase. This worked well
and meant that once set the volume control did not need altering.
Using as a Bike to Bike set up
After a few initial niggles setting the radios up and once we had plumbed in the
PTT buttons properly the unit worked effectively. The limitations are only down
to the range of the radio units we were using Kenwood Funkey sets. It is worth
noting that to get the best range from a PMR radio mount them with the aerial
vertical.
They proved invaluable as Ian headed off in the wrong direction at over 100 mph
whilst nattering away to his mother on his nokia mobile phone that worked
seamlessly with the unit. A few frantic shouts had him realising his mistake and
swinging back round at the next exit
With Music
A CD or minidisk player simply plugs in and give good quality sound. The VOX
control, PTT switch or using your phone mutes the sound when needed returning
after a few seconds. This is very convenient to enable brief conversations with
locals when confirming directions, without having to fumble for your music
controls.
Overall Impression.
Having had the ability to compare this with other units, I was impressed. The
unit performed well and did not let us down at all. I really like the duplex
intercom, combined with adjustable volume it gave a much more natural and
intimate conversation. I would have liked the opportunity to use more powerful
radios such as the TK301 but the Funkeys proved their worth when needed, for
directions, pointing out interesting views, local beauty and warning each other
of speed traps.
I would happily recommend the Starcom1 to anyone looking for a new intercom and
if anyone wants to have a nose at our setups get in touch. A good example of a
product that does what it says on the box.
Contact Tony at Tecstar on 01480 399499
www.starcom1.com
