REVIEW
mean , we ride in all weathers right ? Well , the Cardo can do just that - so it can safely be used on your helmet in any weather conditions . The speakers are by JBL , a company known for high-quality big-sounding PA speakers as well as car audio , so you know the sound quality is going to be good .
FEATURE PACKED There are a heap of features , including FM Radio reception , Bluetooth to your phone for phone calls , music and GPS navigation . There ’ s also voice control integration with “ Hey Cardo ”, “ Hey Siri ”, “ OK Google ” commands , along with auto volume up and down when riding depending on your speed . Audio sharing is a feature that allows you to listen to music while talking and / or stream that music to all others on the connection . Further to this , when one rider gets a phone call , they can merge the incoming call to the group comms through DMC ( Dynamic Mesh Communication ), or drop out of the group to keep it private , then join the group again once the call ends . DMC is the next generation of Bluetooth intercom connection . Where Bluetooth connections of yesteryear would drop out when you got too far apart and you would have to stop riding to reconnect , DMC is a selfhealing network . So , set the group up before the ride and as riders come into range , they automatically join the group . DMC also has a better range , with Cardo touting a claimed 1600m line of sight .
BATTERY LIFE The battery isn ’ t half bad , with the specs stating 13 hours of talk time . If you do find yourself running out of power , the unit can still be used while it ’ s charging .
NOT JUST CARDO A neat feature is that the unit is able to act as a bridge for any older standard Bluetooth device , so if you have a group of mates and one
rider has an older or different brand comms device , you can connect to them via standard Bluetooth , and bring them ( or bridge them ) in on the DMC group . The downside to this is they will have to ride near you , or the link will drop out and have to be reconnected manually .
USING THE PACKTALK BOLD Those are the main features , but how does the Cardo actually stack up in the wild ? I took two of the Cardo Packtalk Bold units to the south island on a three day , 800km trip . We encountered gravel , tar seal , sun , wind , and rain , and this is what I found . The first thing is that the claimed 1600m range is a bit off . With more units in the group , you can certainly expand the range from the first rider in the convoy to the last , but we were struggling to get any more than 900m line of
52 KIWI RIDER