Can someone sum up intercoms quickly?

[gof]

The Gl1800 has the corded system.

Is this system dated or does it have advantages, disadvantages?

Should a person use newer bluetooth technology?

Do I need to figure out if I want radio and gps and intercoms all in headsets?

Are all headsets specific to one type of helmet style?

[WingAdmin]

That's lots of questions. Let me see if I can answer.

The Gl1800 has the corded system.

Is this system dated or does it have advantages, disadvantages?

Is it dated? Well, yes. It's remained, essentially unchanged, on Goldwings since 1980 - a headset sold for a GL1800 today will work on a 1980 Goldwing, and vice versa. 32 years is an eon in terms of electronics. How many electronic devices designed/built in the 1980's are still in use today?

Advantages:
- Doesn't require batteries or recharging, never quits due to running out of power
- Reliable, simple
- Can be made to play quite loud
- Automatically integrated with all of the bike's audio systems
- Not subject to radio interference
- No technical problems i.e. pairing problems, loss of connectivity, etc.
- Easy to set up - just plug it in and go
- Headsets tend to be robust
- No transceiver/battery hanging off the side of your helmet

Disadvantages:
- Requires antiquated, large dynamic microphones, which precludes the use of modern noise cancelling systems
- You're tied to the bike with wires
- Connectors can oxidize over time and cut out
- Headsets tend to be somewhat expensive
- Tough to integrate with newer technologies - GPS, phone, etc.

Should a person use newer bluetooth technology?

It has definite advantages, the main one being that there are no wires involved. Using Bluetooth headsets will require adding a bluetooth integration module in the bike, and that's not cheap.

Do I need to figure out if I want radio and gps and intercoms all in headsets?

You can do that with either type of headset, although having all three of those will require additional adapters regardless of the type of headset you choose.

Are all headsets specific to one type of helmet style?

Yes, mostly. You can buy a headset with a foam boom mic for open-face style helmets, while full-face or flip-up helmet headsets will have a different mic style designed to be installed in the chin bar.

[gof]

Thanks for the consise response. The GL1800 instructions posted here are so detailed they left me confused and I work in technology!

I however, could care less about internet in my hand and I don't ever want to take or make a phone call while piloting a Wing.

That being said I see the advantage of GPS, internet and phone in a road emergency or to watch weather. For now it sounds like a basic corded system is a good place to start the experiment.

[thrasherg]

I have a Garmin GPS, which is plugged into the Aux input on my goldwing. I have loads of music on the GPS so with the axillary input selected, I can listen to music, hear the directions that the GPS gives me and the Goldwing wired intercom still works well with this. My GPS (Garmin NUvi 760) also has bluetooth built in so it will tell me when someone calls me I can use it to hear the person calling me as the sound goes through the intercom system, unfortunately the GPS uses the built-in mike on the GPS for Audio, so all anyone calling me will hear is wind noise!! I don't use it to communicate with anyone whilst moving, but it's nice to know when someone calls me as I can decide if I want to stop and call them back (Emergency calls, etc), or if it can wait until later.. I also like that the goldwing microphone mute level increases as the bike speed increases, so there is less chance of it accidentally triggering due to wind noise (problem with lots of standalone intercoms (Bluetooth or otherwise)).

Gary