Tandem-Com - A Must Have!

While on Tour de Kota, specifically on Ride With thE kErnEl Day, I noticed a couple on a tandem with a communications system not unlike that what you would see on a motorcycle. As we rode past I asked them where they bought it and they said "Precisiontandems.com". They were nice and warned not to buy the cheapest model.

Upon my return home I checked into it and decided to take the leap and purchase the Tandem-Com model. All I have to say is that if you ride a tandem, especially as the captain, you NEED this. I can't imagine going without it now that it has been thoroughly tested. Without further ado, my personal review.

Fit/Comfort: It fits well behind the ear and around the head. I might need to adjust it ever so slightly as by the time we finished our short 18 mile ride, it was digging into the bottom of my ear a bit.

Clarity: Awesome! There is a volume control, but basically you can carry on a conversation back and forth at a speaking volume level of sitting next to each other at the kitchen table. When we dropped down the Dakota street hill, at about 30 mph or so, it cut out intermittently, but not bad. Into a 15ish mph wind it did pretty decent also. Again, simply talking without shouting and not having to crane my neck around every time we need to communicate is a WONDERFUL thing.

Music Port: We didn't test it on this trip, but it actually has an 1/8" jack that you can connect any mp3 player into it and have music streaming through the headsets as well. For the most part I don't know that we will use this much as we actually enjoy talking to each other!

Buyer's Remorse: NONE! I can't imagine leaving home without this little beauty on the tandem ever again. This unit was on sale for $120 and the wireless version is $299. I couldn't see spending the extra money at this time and I'm quite happy with my purchase.

Nice people at Precision Tandems: The usual 10% cut of all sales will be sufficient.

Scooba-Do I Love You

The Roomba rocks, don't get me wrong. I love the fact you can schedule the Roomba to vacuum when you're not home and I'm impressed with the job it does.

After some initial issues priming the pump on the Scooba (the instructions could spell that out a little better), I cut Scooba-Do loose to do the voodoo that it do. I must admit, I am VERY impressed. We had a couple of kid spillages on the floor (imagine that) and the floor itself hadn't been mopped in a little while so it was a good first test. Below is a before and after shot along with the water collected by Scooba-Do.

Here is by far the "gross out" spot on the floor where something was knocked off the counter last night and supposedly wiped up by the knock-ee. This normally would have been cleaned up faster, but the need to give Scooba-Do a good test was a must!


Same spot/area after Scooba-Do did it's thing:


And....the aftermath from the Scooba:


Buyers Remorse: 0
Product Ratings:
--Scooba: 4.8 out of 5 stars
--Roomba: 4.1 out of 5 stars
iRobot's Customer Service (about the priming issue): 4.9 out of 5 (moderately long wait, otherwise this would have been a 5)
iRobot's instructions: 2.8 out of 5 (doesn't give great instructions on the priming. You really have to get a tight seal on it before the priming).

The ability to do something else while your kitchen floor is cleaned: Priceless

New Toy: The iRobot Roomba

I own a robot. How cool is that. In the midst of not feeling very well this weekend, my Roomba arrived.


I admit, the only reason I bought it was that it was a refurbished model and it was pretty inexpensive.

How do I feel about it? You are probably still going to have to vacuum with a real vacuum once a week or so, but this little guy does a pretty awesome job. I had the perfect excuse: I wasn't feeling well and the floor needed to be vacuumed. After it charged overnight on Saturday, I cut it loose while chilling in front of the tube on Sunday. It zigged, it zagged, went in and cleaned the kitchen, the hallway, the bathroom and finished up the living room before going back to it's dock to recharge. I was amazed at what a good job it did, especially with the pet hair.

It's been used four times in various rooms and I'm not disappointed at all. How cool is it to shove something in a room, shut the door and walk away. Come back a while later to a clean room? Overall rating: 4.7 stars out of 5.

Next potential purchase due to this impression: The iRobot Scooba.

Something to wash the kitchen floor after a day of three kids messing it up? Oh yeah, I'm there.