WONDERFUL PRODUCT! Group riders, here is your life saver!

I can't count how many group rides I have gone on since I started riding motorcycles. During that time I found it somewhat difficult to communicate exactly and precisely with other riders once you get going. You can't possibly yell at them, they won't hear you. Waving doesn't always send the right signal, and sometimes hand signals are distracting while you are riding. Sometimes when everyone takes back roads you tend to get lost or maybe there was an instance where you wanted to communicate with your passenger without them yelling at you on the bike.

My friends, this device is all about solving those issues.

I recently purchased this model of chatterbox. It has several nice features. Of those features a few of them are the following:

15 channels on the radio (ch10 being an emergency channel), riding groups, intercom, audio input for mp3 players or a phone, and an accessory input for a push to talk button such as a button you can mount on your handlebars and also a port to put an extra headset in so that if you have a passenger you can communicate with them on the bike as well.

The chatterbox also has a push to talk button on the side of it by default or you can hook up a separate push to talk button. Along with that it also has the ability to detect your voice and once it does will transmit what you say and has the ability to make the microphone more sensitive or less sensitive because lets face it, at highway speeds the wind noise in your helmet can trip the microphone so adjusting your mic sensitivity is nice.

It claims to have a 10 mile radius, and so far I've found that to be mostly true but at that point it is very broken up. It works great for group riding because you are within reach of all the people you need to talk to without waving your hands, doing crazy hand signals or shouting at a stoplight.

I basically bought it just for that reason. I was tired of shouting at stoplights, hand gestures, and this has eliminated that need.

The thing I really loved about this chatterbox right off the bat is that you can place the speakers almost anywhere in your helmet as long as they'll velcro to it, or under the foam of your helmet and you can still adjust the volume to compensate for it no matter where they are so you can still hear people. The microphone has double sided velcro by default, so if you have a piece of velcro in your helmet you can tag the microphone to it, or if the helmet doesn't have velcro it has the opposite side of velcro that will grab the foam of your helmet to stick in it if it does not have built in velcro. Its very easy to install, very easy to use and very simple to understand.

For those who don't understand what GMRS is, the chatterbox basically works as a walkie talkie AND an intercom. Its just like one of those very basic walkie talkies you would buy at a store to take on a hunting trip, or take with you on a hike, or maybe mountain climbing except for the fact that its small, light, can attach to your bike or your helmet and is simple to hook up with 15 channels to use.

The chatterbox out of the box unfortunately does not have the hookups necessary to attach it to the bike, nor does it have the extension cords to do so. Instead, out of the box the chatterbox is made to attach to the side of your helmet. Now, I know what you're thinking... "THAT thing is going to hang off my helmet?" and I will tell you that I thought the EXACT same thing. It looked uncomfortable, heavy, and I figured that I would hate it. But I attached it to my helmet with the help of the simple clip that has the 2 hex screws that hold it on and it held firm onto the helmet and was not in the way of me, my head, my accessories, my gear at ALL! In fact, I never really noticed it was there at all. If my fiance had not pointed it out, for the most part i had almost forgot that it was attached to my helmet at all.

The one thing that I do not like is that some of the accessories can be expensive. None of the chatterbox accessories intertwine with the other models. The Tandem pro doesn't interchange with the X2, the X2 doesn't interchange with the X1, the tour headsets don't interchange with the tandem pro, vice versa... when you buy a chatterbox accessory you have to make absolutely sure you get the RIGHT model. Otherwise, for the most part, out of the box it works great. Even with other riders that are using GMRS systems that are NOT chatterbox systems I can hear them perfectly, clearly, and they hear me just fine.

The user manual to actually use the chatterbox is quite simple to use though. Its clear, explains the buttons, what functions do what and is very simplified which makes it much easier to use than you would expect for a device having buttons and ports and features and modes and all these things which would normally seem overwhelmingly difficult to use. Thanks to HJC, they made using this thing extremely simple to understand, use, and get out there on the road and talking to your buddies while you're riding.

Other than that my only other complaint would be that wind noise makes it easy to kick your microphone into speaking mode so you may have to tinker with the sensitivity of the microphone before you are happy, OR use the push to talk button only or buy a push to talk button that mounts on the handlebars of your motorcycle and it'll make a world of difference.

So lets give you a recap...

The Chatterbox allows you to:

Talk to other riders and even gmrs walkie talkies on 15 channels of frequency, allows you to talk to your passenger with another headset, allows you to hook up a cell phone or an mp3 player, allows you to hook up a separate push to talk button, has great sound quality, is easy to customize, is lightweight and isn't heavy on your helmet, has a good range before you have a hard time hearing people and last but not least is very very very simple to use and the user manual is so well laid out that anyone can figure it out with some patience.

What more can you ask for?