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B y S t u O l t m a n • S e n i o r T e c h n i c a l E d i t o rMotorcycles have come a long way in the past hundred years.Many current riders may not realize that the motorcycle was oncethe preferred method of personal transportation, both in the U.S.and in Europe, before mass production of automobiles becameprevalent.John & Melinda’s wedding trip to Vegas highlighted some of the first system’s shortcomings.Commonly referred to as two wheels,an engine, and a place to sit, a motorcyclewas once no more than a bicyclewith a small engine bolted in and the rearwheel driven by a leather strap. Straps gaveway to chains, electrical units replacedkerosene headlamps, and someone eveninvented a way to recover the oil and recirculateit through the engine rather than allowingthe valve’s exposed rocker arms to fling it intothe air.But mass production of the automobileeventually brought prices down to the pointthat most folks sought the relative comfort ofa car, especially after cars had been equippedwith windscreens, tops, and windows. And itwas at that point that motorcycles began to beseen as more of a recreational vehicle than anecessity. With notable exceptions, motorcycleinnovation slowed, while automobile technologyflourished.From the earliest days of radio, car enthusiastsbegan adapting household radio equipmentfor use in their cars. But as the carbecame more reliable and more prevalent,folks began spending a lot more time in them.By 1930, a few visionary companies saw a marketfor dedicated automobile radios, and thecar radio was born. Galvin Corporation introducedtheir Motorola model 5T71 in 1930.Blaupunkt and Crossley followed in 1932 and’33. After that, it was just a matter of makingthe radios work and sound better, with morefunctionality and ease of use. 45-rpm recordplayers were introduced in 1956, followed byreel-to-reel tape, compact cassette, 8-track,and so on. The wide array of audio and videoequipment available to distract today’s driversis astounding.Motorcycles? By 1970, most were still twowheels, an engine, and a place to sit.Baby Boomers Change the IndustryCertainly, there were a few hardy soulswho regularly toured long distances on theirmotorcycles in the earlier years, but theadvent of larger and more comfortable motorcyclescoming from Japan in the 1970s causeda new type of rider to emerge. And as happenedduring the migration of early riders toautomobiles, these new riders began migratingto the comfort and convenience that allowedthem to travel longer distances.Also as with automobiles, some enthusiastsin the early 1970s began adapting audio equipmentto motorcycles. This was helped alongwhen Craig Vetter introduced the Windjammerfairing with its sturdy structure andinterior storage capability. Virtually everymotorcycle sold since then with a framemounted fairing, including the GL1800, bears astriking resemblance to that original Windjammerdesign.One of those early enthusiasts was a youngman living in Tucson, Arizona, named JohnLazzeroni. John and his new bride Melinda (picturedin front of their house in Tucson justafter the wedding) decided to ride that ’78Wing to Las Vegas the next day. It had J&M’sfirst “system” installed—a PanasonicAM/FM/CB radio with hand mic for the CBand only external speakers. John couldn’t talkwith Melinda, and Melinda couldn’t hear theradio. And so began John and Melinda’s questto develop an in-helmet system for music, CB,and intercom.They had two requirements. First, theywanted to listen to broadcast radio. And second,they wanted to be able to talk to their fellow“Wingers” and each other. Early effortsinvolved installing Radio Shack speakers intohomemade enclosures and inserting them intotheir helmets. Continual experimenting withspeakers allowed them to improve the audioquality, but they also wanted to be able totransmit on the CB without the distraction ofa hand-held microphone.That became a realitywhen they discovered how to get the helmetmicrophone input into the CB radio.Intercom then became a possibility—first fortheir own bike, then commercially as the productproved itself. After introduction of theirMarch 2009 59