The Starcom intercom is a bike intercom that allows bike to bike, bike to pillion communications and will integrate your other accessories such as your phone, gps or stereo into a system that is safe for the rider and works well, maintaining audio clarity. The unit is not cheap at around £160 and is in direct competition with similarly priced units such as the Autocom system. So here's an in-depth review of how the Starcom system performed, not only to rate the Starcom, but to also provide reasonable expectations of what an intercom system should nowadays deliver.

The website that promotes the intercom isn't super slick and not the easiest to navigate around. Fortunately they have various kits for typical bike and pillion requirements and it's possible to order those as a single unit. Some other sites ask you to select components individually and this can be confusing. I ordered a rider to pillion intercom kit using their website and was asked what type of helmets is going to be used with the kit. You have a choice from full-face helmet or open-face helmet, for each of the riders. Useful for those BMW riders!

Once ordered, the kit arrived the next day. This always impresses me, as I'm impatient and like to get my hands on things immediately after I've parted with my cash.

Package Contents

The package comes in a large box (always a good sign) with:

	Intercom unit
	Headset speakers and microphone x 2
	Headset extension cables with rubber sealing caps
	Power lead + inline fuse
	Cable ties and mounts

First impressions are that the kit seems a well thought out product. Everything you need is included to ensure “it does what it says on the tin”. The intercom unit is mostly made from aluminium so shouldn't suffer cracks or damage as plastics would. The headset units include Velcro pads for both the microphone and speakers. The headset speakers themselves are quite large but flat with material padding. If your helmet material is a bit furry, then the speakers will attach themselves without needing the extra Velcro pads. The cables are high quality and don't look like they'll break easily.

An intercom system should be easy to install and this was no exception. The instructions are mostly redundant as basically all you need do is hook it up to the battery and plug yourself in.

The mic should be placed as near to your lips as possible. I used a supplied sticky Velcro pad to position the microphone correctly. Then run the mic wire along the bottom inside edge of your padding to the back of the helmet. Positioning the headset speakers is slightly hit and miss. You need to make sure the speakers are directly over your ears, otherwise what you hear will be largely muted! Once your happy with positioning just Velcro them in place and run the wires towards the back of your helmet.

This was extremely easy and just needed the power lead modifying by wiring in the in-line fuse. All cable connectors are supplied so there was no need for a quick trip down to Halfords. I Velcro'd the intercom into the space under the seat and wired it directly to the battery. Then I plugged in the extension cables and let them show from under the seat. When you're sat on the bike, just plug your helmet headset cable into the extension that passes under the seat. That's it. The intercom only functions when the first headset is plugged in so there's no need to fiddle with power switches. With both headsets plugged in, you should be able to speak to your pillion.

Now for the acid test. At 40mph with both visors open, both rider and passenger could hear each other clearly. A lot of budget intercoms also work at this speed so there's no real extra performance yet. At 60mph with visors open, speech was again clear and audible for both rider and pillion. Most budget intercoms will give up here, so the Starcom system is now beginning to justify its price tag. At 100mph with visor up, both myself and my pillion could easily communicate. That's pretty good. Putting your visor down only makes a difference when you're going at least 70mph just because it's more comfortable. Wind noise doesn't appear to be picked up by the mic at all until you hit about 90mph. Now that's impressive.

The Starcom unit comes with stereo input jacks for adding music and a mobile phone. The music cable is supplied as part of the kit and connects to anything with a 3.5mm stereo jack. The unit can also connect to a GPS, Radar and Radio transmitter and appropriately mute other sources of noise when you speak. This is good as it means I won't need to buy separate units and cables in order to get use from them on the bike. Simply hook them up to the intercom. One thing I haven't mentioned is Bike to Bike communications. The Starcom system can do that too and similarly with other setups, needs an additional radio transmitter. Tecstar being affiliated with Kenwood, obviously recommend a Kenwood radio.