Cycle News

VOL. 55 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 13, 2018 P109 S TANDOUT FEATURE Nearly 100% successful connectivity to pas- senger and riding partners RIDER AN ALYSIS Even if you only ride by yourself, it is great to be able to connect to your phone to listen to music or GPS instructions. And if you ride two up or with a group, it dramatically improves the enjoyment and safety to be able to talk to your passenger or riding partners to point out sights or safety hazards. As far as connectivity and features, the Packtalk Bold is the premier unit in the Cardo line. Here are the Packtalk Bold features we liked the most: •The DMC system allows for easy connection of multiple riders that does not "break" the group when one rider leaves or gets discon- nected. A typical Bluetooth group uses a "daisy chain" so if rider number three gets discon- nected, all the other riders after that rider are also dropped. This is not the case with the DMC connection as each unit is connected to each other one to one. •Voice activated commands allow you to operate all the functions without taking your hands off the bars. Just say, "Hey Cardo, music on," or "answer" to accept an incoming call. If you prefer buttons, they are intuitive, and the volume control wheel is easy to use even with gloves on. •The sound quality from the 40mm-wide speakers is among, if not the best we have used. •The automatic volume adjustment increases the volume as the speed and wind noise increase so you don't need to adjust your volume up and down. •Up to 13 hours of talk time gets you through the full day. •Multiple audio sources are seamlessly mixed together so you can be listing to music and still get prompts from your GPS and talk to your partner. •The Cardo Connect App allows you to easily set up groups or fine tune your preferences for things like the volume of music in the background when your riding partner starts talking. •The Packtalk Bold is waterproof and we can vouch for this during a trip to Europe. •That DMC connection really works for com- municating with any riders that you have line- of-site with up to a little over a half mile. You will lose connection if a rider goes out of sight around a hill for example, but it will reconnect as soon as that rider comes into view. •The Packtalk Bold features DMC but you can still use Bluetooth to connect to older non-DMC units, even those from many other brands. •FM Radio will automatically find the strongest signal. •Like most current communication systems, you can make and receive phone calls and the speaker quality on the Packtalk Bold makes it so you can actually hear. We have used a lot of different models and brands of communications systems over the past few years and the Packtalk Bold is currently our favorite. CN •Consistent connectivity to other Packtalk Bold units •Great sound quality from the speakers •Automatic volume control adjusts the sounds up/down based on the wind noise so you don't need to mess with the volume •The voice activated commands work really well so you don't need to remember which button to push or even take your hands off the bars •The unit is large. If that is an issue to you, Cardo offers a Packtalk Slim for the same price point that will fit on many helmets. This moves the battery to the lower rear edge of the helmet out of the wind •The 45mm speakers may be difficult to get into some helmets but if that is the case, Cardo does offer smaller speakers as an accessory •At $329.95 for the single unit or $579.95 for a pair, Cardo is not cheap LOWDOWN https://www.cardosystems.com/products/devices/packtalk-bold/ BOLD SYSTEM B luetooth communica- tions systems used to be plagued with inconsis- tent connections that could be very irritating, but they have advanced dramatically over the past few years. And now a few motorcycle communica- tions brands, including Cardo, have their own proprietary systems that work better than Bluetooth. The Cardo alter- native to Bluetooth is called Dynamic Mesh Communica- tion (DMC) and we have been using a Packtalk Bold unit with up to four riders for several months now.

• Cover