Keep Connected to Another while Riding

When we unclamp our bikes from our roof our the back of our car racks and hit the trail, usually the last thing we want to do is have to answer a ringing mobile phone or write our SMS messages. Sure, sometimes even I take my hands off the handle bars and check my email out in the wilderness on my mobile, but for most part, we leave the electronics alone, we ride.

But connectedness can be a good thing, especially if you're riding in a large group with riders of disparate ability levels. In that type of situation, the pack can get strung out and riders with less experience feel left out.

Several communication device manufacturers have a solution, a lightweight personal two-way radio (Walkie Talkie if you like) is meant to help out in such situations. Designed to help riders or other outdoorspeople who need to communicate over short distances without screaming at each other, because creaming is as unpleasant as a ringing mobile phone in the woods or the mountains, this two-way radio have often a multitude of radio channels and several digital privacy codes per channel (With this digital privacy codes it would almost be impossible that somebody can listen into your conversation) and most of this two-way radio devices feature an auto-scan that will find a clean channel fast.

A pair of this two-way radio's retails from 2,000 Baht to 5,000 Baht depending on the send/receive range, some go as far as 30 kilometers, some have features like speech detection, small-talks, FM-radio, and MP3 play capability. And others are as small as a large wristwatch.