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

[ship]

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

 

[Graham Harrison]

The sarcastic answer is "a tandem" but I can accept that even on a tandem
communication is not perfect.

You mention bluetooth. There is a technique called "bluejacking" (try a
google for the word "bluejack") which might give you some clues.
"ship" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> 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
>

 

[Paul - xxx]

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&WorldID=&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 !!!

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, ship
('[email protected]') 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.

--
[email protected] (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.

 

[Not Responding]

Simon Brooke wrote:
> in message <[email protected]>, ship
> ('[email protected]') 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.

 

[Mike Gayler]

Simon Brooke <[email protected]> writed in
news:[email protected]:

> in message <[email protected]>,
> ship ('[email protected]') 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!

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

On 9 Mar 2005 07:50:36 -0800, "ship" <[email protected]> wrote in
message <[email protected]>:

>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

 

[Mike Quin]

In article <[email protected]>, 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 <[email protected]>

 

[Chris Malcolm]

Mike Quin <[email protected]> writes:

>In article <[email protected]>, 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 [email protected] +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/]

 

[Mark Thompson]

> "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!"

 

[David Martin]

On 10/3/05 9:26 am, in article
[email protected], "Mark Thompson"
<[email protected]> wrote:


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

"Aye, Aye Cap'n"

<slurp>
<munch>

<igmc>

...d

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Chris Malcolm
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Mike Quin <[email protected]> writes:
>
>>In article <[email protected]>,
>>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.

It's odd, because sailing people usually manage some semblance of radio
protocol, and you wouldn't have thought that any intelligence disparity
between the groups would run that way.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; Generally Not Used
;; Except by Middle Aged Computer Scientists

 

[davek]

Guy wrote:
> It's called a peloton.

I suspect the OP was talking about a slightly longer range than that.

But apropos of the peloton, what about the devices the pros use to
communicate with the team car. Are they just simple short-range radio
devices? Are they hideously expensive? I guess the ultra-light
ultra-tiny versions the pros use probably don't come cheap, but there
must be a more downmarket version that would be much more affordable.

d.

 

[ship]

"peloton"?
Can someone help me out here - is this a wind-up?!

Is a Peloton a group of cylists all bunched up together
so that other road users can see them.
(In which case 2 people cycling together doesnt really
count & I reckon it's damned dangerous and either
way causes angy motorists and much hooting!)

Or is there a radio comms device with this name?


Ship

 

[Richard]

ship wrote:
> "peloton"?
> Can someone help me out here - is this a wind-up?!
>
> Is a Peloton a group of cylists all bunched up together
> so that other road users can see them.

No, it's a group of cyclists bunched up so that the cyclists following
the leaders all slipstream, with a significant reduction of effort. A
well-bred peleton will continually rotate, with those at the front
dropping down to the back periodically, thus enabling the whole lot to
go further/faster. Experienced riders will try to keep the gaps between
bikes as small as possible, which as an incidental benefits allows more
normal conversations.

> (In which case 2 people cycling together doesnt really
> count & I reckon it's damned dangerous and either
> way causes angy motorists and much hooting!)

A peleton /can/ be dangerous, as there is insufficient braking/avoiding
distance between riders in the event of something unexpected; witness
the occasional carnage in the TdF and similar. However, inexperienced
trundlers like me would never get into a peleton that tight (for one,
I'd be left behind . Two people cycling side by side isn't really
dangerous unless either of them is particularly wobbly. What might be
dangerous are motorists trying to overtake, though - but that's the
motorist's choice.

R.

 

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"ship" <[email protected]>typed


> "peloton"?
> Can someone help me out here - is this a wind-up?!

> Is a Peloton a group of cylists all bunched up together
> so that other road users can see them.

-----------------------------

peloton

peloton /'peltonh/ n
the main group of riders in a cycle race; BUNCH 2a
[Fr, platoon, ball, fr MF, ball, fr pelote little ball]

Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library
Copyright (c) 1996 Helicon Publishing and Penguin Books Ltd

------------------------------

Cycling single file in the gutter is often *more* dangerous than cycling
abreast BTW.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email protected]
Edgware.

 

[ship]

> -----------------------------
>
> peloton
>
> peloton /'peltonh/ n
> the main group of riders in a cycle race; BUNCH 2a
> [Fr, platoon, ball, fr MF, ball, fr pelote little ball]
>
> Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library
> Copyright (c) 1996 Helicon Publishing and Penguin Books Ltd
>
> ------------------------------

Helen where did you get that from?
Your dictionary is clearly better than mine!

I use dictionary.com but it only has:

>>>
Main Entry: peloton1
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: a small ball or pellet
Etymology: French `small pellet'

Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview
Edition (v 0.9.5)
Copyright © 2003, 2004 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

Main Entry: peloton2
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: a small military group; platoon
Etymology: French `small pellet'

Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview
Edition (v 0.9.5)
Copyright © 2003, 2004 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
>>>

Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[ship]

Mike

PMR radios are *massive* over-kill compared with what I want.
I want something small, light and pocket sized that has a range of
about 20 feet!
You know - just about BlueTooth range is all that I need.
2 Bluetooth headset talking to each other would be ideal.

I just tried Maplin.co.uk and they told me the following

a) Bluetooth headset CANT talk to each other
(not as far as their tech support guys know, that is)

b) PMR radios cant take wireless/bluetooth connections either!


This is a damned nuisance!
All I want is to be able to hook up and chat with a friend when we're
cycling together.
Obviously we *could* do this by both using our mobile phones and a
bluetooth
eadset/earpiece thing each. But this would a) waste our phone bills and
b) zap
us with all that high energy radio emissions.

So, are we really saying that an ultra-light 2-way short range pair of
headsets
talking to each other DOESNT EXIST?!

(If so would any of you guys be interested in buying such a thing ig it
*did* exist?!)


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

[Arthur Clune]

ship <[email protected]> wrote:

: All I want is to be able to hook up and chat with a friend when we're
: cycling together.

I must be being dense here, but if there's two of you why can't you
just cycle side by side?

Arthur


--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
Don't get me wrong, perl is an OK operating system, but it lacks a
lightweight scripting language -- Walter Dnes

 

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"ship" <[email protected]>typed


> > -----------------------------
> >
> > peloton
> >
> > peloton /'peltonh/ n
> > the main group of riders in a cycle race; BUNCH 2a
> > [Fr, platoon, ball, fr MF, ball, fr pelote little ball]
> >
> > Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library
> > Copyright (c) 1996 Helicon Publishing and Penguin Books Ltd
> >
> > ------------------------------

> Helen where did you get that from?
> Your dictionary is clearly better than mine!

Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library
> > Copyright (c) 1996 Helicon Publishing and Penguin Books Ltd

Penguin Reference Library, a CD I bought ages ago and copied to my hard
disc. I don't have broadband yet so try to stay offline as much as I
can. I *like* my Penguin...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email protected]
Edgware.