We at WWW.CBR1000RR.CO.UK are happy to endorse Intaride and their full range of intercom products.

As many of you have asked already for forum discounts, I began to research of all the intercom systems available, in the end I chose Intaride as their unit seamed to out perform the rest.

During February 2007 I met with Ian Hart, Technical Manager of Intaride and Ian was happy to take me for a demonstration on his Honda Pan European ST1100 equipped motorcycle.

Having never used an intercom system before I was extremely impressed with the functions and quality of the "Evo" Duo Intercom.

Not only could Ian and I converse back and forth clearly, the music would fade in and out when speaking, on the telephone or the satellite guided navigation was doing its thing, all of this at motorway speeds.

I knew there and then that life on a motorcycle was never going to be the same again and I simply had to have one.

COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW
Intaride Evo Duo - by Matt Pike

So .. who are Intaride and what do they do ?

Intaride is a comms company which was formed 11 years ago in 1995, after one of the now Directors took his motorcycle test with a (fairly large) riding school, who were suffering from lots of radio failures.  

Offering to help with radio repairs for the school resulted in other schools making contact for the same service. It naturally followed that designing a more robust system, that performed really well & didn’t cost a fortune, would present a potential business opportunity, and so the company was born.

I approached Intaride during January 2007 to see if I could comprehensively test their equipment to see if was worth endorsing on my web sites and to see if it was a product worthy to offer VIP GOLD MEMBERS of the forum at discounted rates.

What's a Intaride "Evo Duo" Kit ?

Quite simply the EvoDuo kit is a leading Intercom system offering a complete solution to motorcyclists who wish to have more functionality while on the go, features of the EvoDuo kit are as follows:

• Automatic / Manual VOX -  Adjusts automatically to the background noise, or you can adjust it manually.
• Music Input Socket - Stereo, amplified (fades in and out when you speak).
• Telephone Input Socket - Automatic answer with clear communication at motorway speeds, this overrides the music.
• GPS Input Socket - Enables GPS Sat-Nav (overrides music).
• 12v Bike Power - Powered straight from your bikes battery only drawing approx. 10 milliamps.
• Universal Headsets - With noise reduction and boom microphone (fits open-face, full-face and flip-face helmets).
• Bike to Bike Radio Expansion - Lead available separately. VOX (voice) or PTT (push to talk) transmission options.
• Pro Jack Plugs - Easy single pin jack plug headset connection, no messing getting on and off the bike.
• Bluetooth Module "Internal" Upgrade - Link your phone, GPS, PDA's etc via Bluetooth ! 
• Wireless "Liberty" headset Upgrade - Available soon (wire free headset not bluetooth dependant).

What's in the box ?

In the box you will find as follows :

• 1 x Instruction sheet
• 1 x Evo hub Kit (13 x 4 x 2.5cm)
• 1 x 12v Power Lead
• 1 x 3.5mm to 3.5mm Stereo Music Lead
• 1 x 2.5mm to 2.5mm Stereo Phone Lead
• 1 x Rider Lead (mini din or pro plug) 1 metre long
• 1 x Pillion Lead (mini din or pro plug) 0.5 metre long
• 2 x Headsets
• 2 x Male curly headset leads (mini or din pro plug)

The instructions are well written and easy to understand including information on installation, trouble shooting upgrades and tips and the system worked perfectly, just like it's supposed to the first time we tried it.

Powering the intercom isn't an issue as it takes its power from the bikes battery, since I have had the EvoDuo installed I have not experienced a flat battery but I do disconnect the power lead to the unit under the seat when the bike is parked for any length of time just to be on the safe side.

Installation

As reiterated the installation instructions provided are clearly laid out, the only decisions you need to make are where to locate the unit.

Here are some pictures of how I installed the EvoDuo on my Honda CBR 900 RR-S Fireblade :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see on the pics above the female side of the pro jack which the headset plugs into is conveniently hidden out of harms way within the frame for the rider, this is tie wrapped in place and cannot interfere with the shock nor any other working components, same at the rear the pro jack end is conveniently hidden in the plastics with just enough lead to get access to.

Not only is this a safe and tidy installation but its also highly weather proof and the jacks also come with plastic caps as you can see in the picture.

The unit itself is velcro'd in the under seat storage compartment and I used a piece of foam which I cut segments out of to house the MP3 player and mobile phone for a neat and tidy installation.

The Road Test

Once the EvoDuo was installed on the bike (which took just under an hour) the next stage was to install the speakers within the helmet. This proved more challenging than I imagined on my AGV helmet, although this was more a helmet issue than a speaker issue I had to place the speaker wires between the helmet lining and the shell, after 15 minutes I was happy how I had routed the wires and its gave me no bother since, headset installation time took 15 minutes.

This system offers two speakers unlike some intercom systems which only offer one and there was no discomfort from the speakers whatsoever, while the boom mic has to be placed very close to the lips or even touching for the operation to work correctly which again felt comfortable and natural.

You can't help but have a smile on your face, having not been used to listening to music while I ride nor being able to chat to my partner on the back, this has opened a whole new world of enjoyment for me on the motorcycle.

Setting the VOX on the EvoDuo is crucial to enable trouble free operation, set it too low and wind noise can open the comms and shut off the radio / cut communication, set it too high and conversation will not even kick it in, as it happens I only had to stop and make one quarter of a turn adjustment on the VOX and its set perfectly.

Talking on the EvoDuo sounds pretty much like you'd expect a normal conversation to go. When neither rider nor passenger speaks the MP3 player is doing its thing, when either rider or pillion talk the music fades nicely into the background, when conversation is finished the music gradually fades in again.

The sound quality on the EvoDuo is crystal clear, I even managed to test this on a disused farm road at speeds of up to 100mph while still remaining to talk back and forth with my pillion and hear mp3 music in the background.

Plugging the male headset jack plug into the female jack plug on-bike is easy enough to handle even with gloves on, the whole feeling of the system oozes quality.

Once your plugged in you immediately have access to speech, rider to pillion, telephone, sat nav, mp3 and so on, no fiddly on/off buttons to mess with, just plug and go.

Conclusion

Editors Note : If your looking for a solution to offer you an on-bike intercom system then look no further, everything about the EvoDuo oozes simplicity and quality, from taking it out of the box I had it working and installed on the bike within the hour - although I have not yet managed to try the bike-to-bike feature, but if its anything like the rider-to-pillion then its going to be top quality.

Detailed instructions gave clear guidelines and were easy to follow, it really has impressed me with its sheer simplicity and functionality, to now have access to telephone, satellite guided navigation, rider to pillion and mp3 music / radio while I ride which has made my whole riding experience a much more pleasurable one.

The main aspect of this system has to be the sound quality, and the EvoDuo is about as clear and loud as you can get, it's loud enough to hear the conversation and doesn't seem to be affected by ambient noise once you have your VOX volume set correctly.

Intaride have been good enough to offer VIP GOLD MEMBERS a discount on the EvoDuo and ALL Intaride products - please see the forum Discounts section for further details.