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AWIRE wearable 2-way radio pairs with your phone so you can harmonize with friends, nature

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AWIRE_Radio_1

If you’ve been riding for any amount of time, there’s certainly been a day when you wish you could communicate with others on the ride quickly, easily and without having to stop to pull out your phone.

Enter two-way radios, the age-old tech that works instantly regardless of cell service. But even those can be cumbersome. We’ve seen attempts to make them more user friendly for cyclists, which were cool, but the latest offering from AWIRE might just be the category killer we didn’t know we wanted until now.

AWIRE is a new lightweight, two-way radio designed to clip onto your jacket or jersey so you can stay connected while out braving the wilds. It is also designed to integrate seemlessly with your phone, allowing you to play music and take calls, then easily switch back to talking to your friend on the trail. With far reaching outdoor applications, it seems like a no-brainer for riders who want to stay safe and connected or for anyone who wants to commune with nature rather than disrupt it by yelling at their friends. Because we all know the person behind you can’t hear a damn thing you’re saying…

The AWIRE contains a 462 MHz UHF antenna with a range of up to 2 miles. However, unlike many traditional two-way radios, the AWIRE weighs in at a measly 40 grams and is designed to link up with your phone through Bluetooth and a downloadable app. Music will automatically mute when conversation begins and start back up when you’re done speaking.

Though it works with your phone, the rechargable Li-Po battery ensures that it isn’t draining your phone in the process. And, of course, it works where your phone won’t. There’s 22 channels to prevent cross talk from others, too, and no limit to how many friends can be synced up per channel.

AWIRE_Radio_2

This Kickstarter is to cover production tooling for the AWIRE. For $180, you can reserve a pair of AWIRE radios for you and a friend to be delivered this September…or just get one for $100. Full retail will jump to $165 (single) or $250 (pair). But act fast- this campaign must be funded by May 8th to get off the ground.

AWireTech.com

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DJ
DJ
8 years ago

I wish it would work in a forested area with hills. UHF just doesn’t cut it in many places.

Robert W
Robert W
8 years ago

If only my riding friends were HAMs like me we could talk on 2m with $50 radios.

Groghunter
Groghunter
8 years ago

Not gonna kickstart this, but it would be nice to have radio or something in between ride leader & sweeper on group rides. Anybody else got a solution they’re using for that? We sometimes get up to 30+ people, sometimes get a little hard to stay in contact.

mortimer
mortimer
8 years ago

Would support if “talk” was possible with hands on bars. I see they said it might be possible to bar mount it and use and remote mic. How about being able to leave it body mounted and have a small cordless “push to talk” button on the bars?

DanE
DanE
8 years ago

Those “cumbersome” handheld radios work great (like motorolas with 2-5 mile range) and can easily and firmly attach to a pack’s front strap. A lightweight version of what ski patrols use. That’s what we use for group rides. Lead-2nd Lead-and both Sweeps.

Robert W
Robert W
8 years ago

@mortimer: There are inexpensive earpieces with PTT on the wire that clips to your jersey collar. This device should have a port for that. Even the cheap ones work very well in my experience.

Rico
Rico
8 years ago

Cardo BK1. It attaches to your helmet. It’s aimed at road cycling. It also doesn’t require ear buds, so you can her outside sound. There are real world users of it that swear by it. Road .cc gave it a bad review, but for a stupid reason “I don’t see the need for it”. Such a useless conclusion! Have someone else do the review then ring ding. Supposedly it works well in wind, and allows two riders to draft rather than ride two abreast so they can hear. That is huge imo.

James
James
8 years ago

I have a pair of Cardo BK1s, and they work very well for cycling (rider to rider and rider to van in endurance racing). They are voice activated which to me is essential. The range is pretty much line of sight though, that is were these radios could be an improvement.

Henrik
Henrik
8 years ago

@Rico is correct: The Cardo BK1 is THE BEST. We’ve been riding with it for years, and you can have up to 5 people connected (we’ve only done 3 at one time) all chatting at conversational tones even zipping downhill and in high winds. Connects to phone, and easily lets you with between phone calls and your fellow rider conversations. The tragic thing? Cardo just announced they are stopping production on the devices. We like them so much we bought 2 new ones, to replace our current ones in case they die on us. I can’t imagine going on a long ride without it!

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