Intercoms – Interphone F5 / UHF

Hi All

We’re planning on a 4-5 week trip in August – tar / dirt. We’ve purchased the Interphone F5 (aka strike) 1 per bike + an extra one for the support 4WD.

We (bikes) have tested the intercoms on a few trips, however we’ve found a few things that are annoying – if anyone has used them or used something on their trip that is different / better I’d really appreciate the tips.

We have found the manual a bit ordinary … however it could be the nut behind the wheel who can’t operate it properly.

> when fully charged they’ll only last 6-7 hours – then recharging takes about 2-3 hours. So on any normal day they’ll run out ….. and to the best of our knowledge we can’t charge while we’re riding along

> they work really good up to about 90-100km/s hr – then after that it gets harder to hear – mostly wind noise (we’ve got shoei helmets) – but I’ve found listening for the intercom communication has decreased my riding concentration – not something that i’m comfortable with.

> there’s no automatic reconnection – so after you’ve paired and you turn off your intercoms you have to spend 5mins reconnecting …. further more if 1 rider goes out of range then we’ve found it very difficult to reconnect. This is by far the most annoying feature.

We are now looking at UHF’s and being wired with a PTT switch on the hand grips.

Many thanks Brenda