Cardo Packtalk Slim

[Claude]

As I got a new lid (shoei nxr) and my mate got a new bike, mt09sp and his Sena smh10 battery has finally died after goodness knows how many years of use. Today we ordered the Cardo Packtalk Slim.
The big unit of the smh10 always bothered me, especially when I changed to a naked so I had intended on buying the Shoei GT air 2 with integrated Sena srl2.
But I didn’t like the shell size of the gt so went for the nxr instead.

The Cardo won out over sena options based on reviews and size.

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Does anyone else have the Cardo?
I’ll do back to back review once it’s installed.

[MrLongbeard]

Not yet, but a packtalk with the JBL speakers is on the wish list for when my Sena gives up.

Not sure if I'll go slim or bold, not keen on the rear mounted battery of the slim, it's not so dissimilar to my Sena set up and I've always thought it a weak point.

[KungFooBob]

I've had the Cardo G4 for maybe 8-9 years now. It's alright.

I'm sure the newer ones are better in everyway.

[Dark Side]

I had the Slim but have just replaced it with the Bold as the battery didn't sit right on the back of my new helmet. Very happy with the performance of both as an intercom. The voice activation works well and the sound is crystal clear.

[Claude]

I had the Slim but have just replaced it with the Bold as the battery didn't sit right on the back of my new helmet. Very happy with the performance of both as an intercom. The voice activation works well and the sound is crystal clear.

Which helmet do you have?

[Dark Side]

I had the Slim but have just replaced it with the Bold as the battery didn't sit right on the back of my new helmet. Very happy with the performance of both as an intercom. The voice activation works well and the sound is crystal clear.

Which helmet do you have?

Arai Rapide. It has a rear vent exhaust and the battery didn't want to slide in (easily) to the side. I figured if I had to have a intercom unit and battery on the same side of the helmet, I may as well just use the bold anyway. With the Bold unit being quick release, I can remove in seconds when not in use, something I couldn't do with the Slim.

[G.P]

interested in this as a mate and I are looking for inter-bike comms, maybe with the option to talk to more than one other bike..
I've never had any bike comms and need to continue to wear ear plugs so looking forward to being educated!

[Rockburner]

I've had the Cardo G4 for maybe 8-9 years now. It's alright.

I'm sure the newer ones are better in everyway.

interested in this as a mate and I are looking for inter-bike comms, maybe with the option to talk to more than one other bike..
I've never had any bike comms and need to continue to wear ear plugs so looking forward to being educated!

I've had a G4, G9 and currently using a PackTalk (can't remember if it's a Bold or not, don't think so). They've worked ok for the most part with some niggles to do with setup.

GP - I use earplugs and can hear speech through the speakers mounted in the helmet pretty well (up to motorway speeds), but it is dependant on a few things - one of which is: 'does the other party mumble'!

The main 'niggles' are things like

* getting the pairing working (persistence generally pays off),
* is it loud enough? (for audio from an android phone: the phones 'media-volume' has to be quite high), and
* Is the comm-unit easy to use?

I found the G4 and G9 units really easy to use and the CArdo unit itself didn't really get in the way - the newer PackTalk though has it's own operating system and voice commands (why?? because they made the capable of doing too much and the buttons weren't enough). The voice activation of the PackTalk's audio interface is bloody annoying and I never use it, except to turn the bloody thing off when it's engaged itself without instruction (normally if I've sworn at something else).

[Claude]

Arrived today. Will install this eve.

Nice box, packaging etc

I always ride in earplugs and found the volume on the sena smh10 (originals) to be absolutely fine. Speach generally louder than music, but then I did mount the speakers under the padding on my hjc iirc.

[Bigyin]

Al and Chris at 44 teeth use the Cardo pack talk rig up for their you tube videos and seem to work really well bike to bike as they chat while riding along. The limit seems to be wind noise at high speeds

[Supermofo]

I've never had any bike comms and need to continue to wear ear plugs so looking forward to being educated!

I've got the basic scala rider just for Sat Nav instructions and its fine with ear plugs up to motorway speeds on the 690 with a little screen so the Cardo should be fine

[Bigyin]

interested in this as a mate and I are looking for inter-bike comms, maybe with the option to talk to more than one other bike..
I've never had any bike comms and need to continue to wear ear plugs so looking forward to being educated!

I have the Cardo Freecom 2 on my Tour X4 and listen to music quite happily and sat nav instructions as well as chatting to the missus when she feels the need to talk and when she rings me up on the phone to make sure i havent it lobbed it again when i am on a longer trip. I wear earplugs all the time.

I also wear them when out training on the bigger bikes as i am doing the start of my DAS training. The earplugs dont cut out any radio volume, only wind noise

[Claude]

Install is done, I didn't take pics, there's loads of videos showing how to install. The only real faff was bending the metal clamp which holds the battery pack and sits between the helmet liner and she'll which needed a lot of manipulation to get it to sit flat. I used this vid from 4 mins in to help.

I'm really happy with the install, it's nice and discreet, you really don't know it''s there. The NXR sys 'intercom ready' which basically means it has speaker 'pockets'.
Sound quality so far is really good, a better experience than the sena (direct back to back to come) but not outstanding quality, think 'mid-level' over-ear headphones, skull candy or the like.

It is plenty loud enough of the bike, I've no doubt it'll be fine on the bike with earplugs, voice commands for me (I mumble) are very hit and miss.
Not tested on the bike yet, that will come later.

[Claude]

No bike to bike test yet.
Earplugs in and back to back tested with the original sena smh10. The cardo is ‘better’. The sound quality is better at lower volume but really that is lost at higher volume. It’s just louder than the sena.
Phone conversation is perfectly fine. I called my mate whilst he was riding. I could tell he was riding, baffles out akrapovic on an mt90sp will do that.
Bike to bike test next.

[weeksy]

No bike to bike test yet.
Earplugs in and back to back tested with the original sena smh10. The cardo is ‘better’. The sound quality is better at lower volume but really that is lost at higher volume. It’s just louder than the sena.
Phone conversation is perfectly fine. I called my mate whilst he was riding. I could tell he was riding, baffles out akrapovic on an mt90sp will do that.
Bike to bike test next.

Why were you on an mt09 sir?

[Claude]

No bike to bike test yet.
Earplugs in and back to back tested with the original sena smh10. The cardo is ‘better’. The sound quality is better at lower volume but really that is lost at higher volume. It’s just louder than the sena.
Phone conversation is perfectly fine. I called my mate whilst he was riding. I could tell he was riding, baffles out akrapovic on an mt90sp will do that.
Bike to bike test next.

Why were you on an mt09 sir?

I wasn’t, my mate was.

[Claude]

Which reminds me. I did have a go of my mates new (to him) 2018 mt09sp. I was expecting a similar ride to the Brutale with them both being triple.
A world apart, weLl, as much as they can be. In comparison between the two, the Brutale feels like a sportsbike the mt like a trails.
The initial brake response is better on the MT but I suspect that’s more to do with the mv’s needing servicing. Engine the Brutale has more up the top end and loses nothing in mid as far as I can tell. I should look at the torque figures.
Throttle is less snatchy on the mt even with the custom setting on the mv. I did notice the MT was in std mode, switching to A was better.
Handling for me felt more removed on the MT. The MV really does have a cracking front end, loads of feel and more Sportsbike like.
From what I remember I prefer the MT to the street triple but the MV still wins. I did really want to like the MT more.

[Claude]

Ok finally bike to bike test.

They aren’t night and day better than the goodness knows how old sena they replaced. In fact, I’m not convinced they are better at all. Normally I can hear everything my mate says even at higher speeds with these I struggled more.
Music mix is a nice feature. It fades out when you talk or are spoken to but the music volume is low. At the end of the ride when we parted ways and went out of range the music volume was fine and is better quality than the sena.
Prior to our ride I had removed the booster pads, these can push Position the speakers closer to your ears so I’ll be refitting and testing again.
Not bad by any stretch and we didn’t lose comms but I expected more, that said I do love the slim design though so overall I am happy.

[Alan PBTD]

Claude -
A number of us in the local HOG Chapter have been using various Packtalks for a number of years now. Overall a brill bit of kit either on a solo / short ride or bigger / longer rides ( across Europe ) and I think 14 is the most sets we've had in a group ! Excellent clarity, range, battery life etc.
Mind u it does take a while to get the speakers in the exact right position and u can soon tell if someone's got the mike not quite right. On mine I upgraded my ear plugs so ear plugs and speakers are all ''in one''. Also as it's an early unit u can't use it and charge it at the same time but can be sorted with a boost pack and coffee stop.

I have seen/ heard some horror stories with software upgrades tho' - so as they work well enough - we've not bothered.

You'll enjoy it .

Alan

[Claude]

Claude -
A number of us in the local HOG Chapter have been using various Packtalks for a number of years now. Overall a brill bit of kit either on a solo / short ride or bigger / longer rides ( across Europe ) and I think 14 is the most sets we've had in a group ! Excellent clarity, range, battery life etc.
Mind u it does take a while to get the speakers in the exact right position and u can soon tell if someone's got the mike not quite right. On mine I upgraded my ear plugs so ear plugs and speakers are all ''in one''. Also as it's an early unit u can't use it and charge it at the same time but can be sorted with a boost pack and coffee stop.

I have seen/ heard some horror stories with software upgrades tho' - so as they work well enough - we've not bothered.

You'll enjoy it .

Alan

Hi Alan.

Thanks for your feedback. On my Shoei nxr it has recesses for the speakers so there’s not too much choice on where these are positioned.
On the test ride I had music on, so when we weren’t talking the music would play on my unit (not shared) I noticed that this didn’t give full volume as when Wotsitt and I split up and the mesh disconnected my music got louder. I do wonder if speech volume was affected also. I guess I’ll find out on the next ride.
All on one earplug option sounds interesting, got a link?
I do like the ‘ease’ of no wires getting snagged etc which I guess must be an issue with wired in plugs?!