I know many bikers - and I include myself here - find the whole idea of an intercom pretty unpleasant. Whatever the reason, one of the beauties, for me at least, of taking the bike rather than the car is the very fact that I am not reachable. Not by mobile, not by radio, not by anything. While I'm out on my bike the rest of the world can, frankly, get knotted. But there are times when you need to be able to talk to someone else. In my case, that someone else is usually a photographer and I'm trying to let him know that I'm about to arrive and that perhaps he might want to get ready. But I'm a little odd in that respect. Maybe you are going touring with a bunch of mates. Maybe you're doing some training. Or maybe you're carrying a pillion - now then even I like to be able to chat. You can't ride like you normally would and they can't see much and must be bored senseless. Being able to chat and, even better, listen to music, suddenly becomes a major plus.

I'd never really considered an intercom until the realities of trying to take photos at the Nürburgring started to creep into the picture. If you're not going to come past for 10 minutes, how do you tip the snapper off that the next Gixxer to come round the corner is the one he needs to photograph? You use a radio.

Now I have a simple problem with helmet mounted radios. I use earplugs, and that means that the radio becomes as much use as a chocolate fireguard. I've also never managed to get the speakers to sit comfortably in my lid. So I get a headache and still can't hear anything. Not good.

Enter Backchat with their Vixen headset. This gizmo consists of a very high quality speaker which lives in a resin pod outside your helmet. You wear a pair of rubber earplug with small tubes leading into them, the other end of which connects to the speaker pod. Think of a doctor's stethoscope and you'll get the idea. This pod also has a microphone coming out of it on a piece of bendy wire, and a cable to connect it to the rest of the kit. At the other end of that wire there's a small switch box which leads to the radio itself, more on which later, and a press to talk button.

It's fair to say that there is an amount of faffing about to do before you can get the system working as well as it is capable. It's also fair to say that it is worth taking the time to do it properly. In particular, finding a good place to put the PTT button on your bike is a pain in the bum, although actually fitting it is dead easy thanks to the inclusion of several velcro patches, and getting the pod positioned properly on your helmet can also take a bit of time. There is enough velcro for at least 2 helmets and 2 bikes, which is a good thing.

Backchat-Vixen offer several choices with their radios, from the very basic model we have up to all singing-all dancing ones. All of them, though, work to the latest European PMR spec and are all claimed to have a range of up to 2 miles. You can get an adaptor to plug in your Walkman and one of the radios supports full duplex for talking to your pillion. Ours, the Multicom Jnr, is about as simple as you can get, but still gives 8 channels and pretty decent performance. A big plus is that it comes with rechargeable batteries and a charger as well.

I've always been extremely cynical about the performance of things like this. While I accept that radio performance varies according to conditions, I've yet to find a microphone that works in a bike helmet or helmet speakers that work and are comfortable. Until now, that is. Having the kit fitted does, of course, add a little time to the process of putting on your helmet. Practice makes it easier but growing an extra arm would make it easier still. No matter, the first thing you notice is that the earplugs are incredibly comfortable and effective. After a little wrestling with the tubes and wires to make sure they don't interfere with the helmet strap, having remembered to run that PTT wire down your sleeve beforehand of course (you did remember, didn't you?) then just connect everything up and off you go. Oh, a word of advice. The instructions say that you should turn the radio on before you connect the headset because the power-on bleep is rather loud. They're not kidding. You'll do it once and then, when your ears have stopped bleeding, you'll remember never to do it again.

Enough of this. You want to know if it's any good, right? Well let me put it this way. I did half a dozen high speed laps of the Nürburgring on a GSX-R 1000 with it fitted. I was able to tell the snappers that I was coming, and give them a mile or so warning. I was able to tell the pit crew that I was passing the first marker so that they could start the clock. And when I came past the second marker, on the speed limiter, I could tell them that, too. And more to the point, they could understand. That's a noise cancelling microphone that works in a motorcycle helmet at 186mph.

I'd say it's pretty damn good, personally.

The only potential fly in the ointment is cost. These headsets are not cheap, and while I am convinced that in this case at least you do get what you pay for, £110 per headset is quite a big hit to take. Especially when you add another £75 or so for the radios, although they come in pairs which softens the blow a little.

Verdict:

Built to a quality rather than a price so not cheap, but if you're serious about being able to communicate while you're on the bike there's probably no better way of doing it. An unequivocal thumbs up.

Price	£150 per unit (approx) as tested
Comfort	4 Star
Performance	5 Star
Convenience	3 Stars
Overall	5 Stars - The best we've tried