Teaching my kids at the track would be so much better if I could talk to them either trackside or even helmet to helmet. Did a search and didn’t see thread on this topic, so if anyone has experience with these please let me know what you’ve tried and/or recommend.
I know my rulebook says I cannot use them during race day, but for training purposes is what I’m looking for.
When we do the big enduros some of the teams use comms. I think that there are motorcycle helmets that make this pretty easy.
Almost all rulesets for racing sprint it is forbidden. But practice it’s ok. Just need a helmet comms kit and a radio. Most I have seen with kids make it one way. So they can listen
I’ve seen people use earbuds and a cell phone and just talk on a phone call.
A nitrobee or raceceiver like is used in a lot of dirt karting works well for this. It’s just a receiver for radio comms, no microphone. You need a radio to transmit.
Some of the HJC motorcycle helmets have Bluetooth coms built in. Could use one of them and tuck a cell phone in their suit and call it from another phone.
A friend of mine that used to race MX gave me a pair of race radios. Same idea I had for talking with my daughter during practice. It is a pretty sweet set up. Velco backed headphones that will stick to the liner of your helmet. Voice-box Mics on a collar around your neck and a remote trigger you can position in the finger tip of your glove to activate. All runs back to a compact two-way radio you can tuck in your suit.
Downsides:
Headphones are not ideal with a loud 2 stroke engine. Ear buds would be better, but its hard to find ear buds that fit small children’s tiny ear canals.
Voice-box mic is on a metal band not designed for children’s smaller necks and can be difficult to position correctly over the larynx.
Suggestions to overcome these problems:
Find the smallest ear buds that use a silicone tube to insert into the ear and replace the insert with the foam style ear-plugs (like old firing range orange ones) with a hole punched through the center (leather punch works well for this). Alternate option is to use a speaker that loops over ear holding headset closer.
Either find another mic band to hold the mics in the right spot, or cut down the adult one to fit properly.
It depends on how much you want to spend. Like mentioned above, you can use cell phones with earbuds. I had a Chatterbox (https://chatterboxusa.com/) for my motorcycle helmet when I rode, which was a GMRS radio so it would work with a handheld radio. You might even be able to get handheld radios with vox cables and headsets. So, there are plenty of options, cost would help determine what way you go.
You could also use a one way communicator like they use in speedway.
Look in military surplus stores. I used to use throat mics in my service days, on a webbing strip not metal. Never any difficulty getting position correct, being webbing it’s adjustable.