PmodelinUS
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So after 2 seasons of riding using my Pixel buds as my source of music and listening to my buddy bitch at me for not having a Bluetooth headset I finally gave in and decided to inquire about one. I have mostly resisted them as I usually ride alone, no one hardy ever calls me especially if I'm out riding and the price tag.
Saturday was a real blah day and I had been wanting to go to the local Cycle Gear store. It's an hour drive on a good day and next to a very overbuilt Shopping mall. Traffic sucks all the time. Won't ride there either. Anyways, so when I finally got there I walked in and realized I really hadn't paid much attention to riding gear over the years. Brain overload.
Well as I fumbled around for like a hour looking cringing at the prices and drooling a nice older guy came up and asked if I needed help. So I said tell me about pants. He was really nice not pushy and spent easily 30 mins showing me choices. They I remembered hey tell me about headsets. I told him my price range really what I use it for blah, blah, blah. He showed me several choices a with the pants and again spent easily 30 mins talking about them. Well I got the Cardo Spirit HD as I was looking for a nice not lots of bells and whistles unit and this seemed to be a good choice.
So here is the begining of my review. Nick at the Schaumburg Cycle Gear Rocks. As for the Cardo I'm really happy with it so far.
I installed it in my Bell Qualifier DLX helmet after several tries. Mostly me trying to figure out how to run wires and securing them. I did end up cutting out a small channel in the check pad plastic that slips in to secure the pad. I still need to figure out what I'm doing with the extra wire and connectors I tried inside under a pad but I can feel that. Looking for a small case I can put them in and Velcro on the side.
Setting up the unit is fairly simple as I managed to do it. I'll start with the 2 issues I have so far and these are minor. Even though my helmet has ear phone accomodations the larger better earphones are just a smidge too thick. Which if you have good size ears can be a bit of a trick getting them unfolded. It takes a few head shakes. The other is at least in my helmet the front mic is really close to my mouth / chin.
Things I like so far. The sound is really much better than I would have expected. Even with slightly poof ear prices it doesn't mess with the comfort level. When I'm riding the controls are easy to find and use. I can only use this with one other Bluetooth headset! But I can have it hooked up to 2 other devices such as a GPS, phone or such. It's supposed to have almost a half mile range but I was told more like a third. The battery is supposed to give me 13 of active use time, I will let you know on that one. Like all newer units it can pair up with any other headset.
So far I would say I'm very pleased with the unit at the price point. I have a few upcoming rides so I will let you know how I like it after that.
Saturday was a real blah day and I had been wanting to go to the local Cycle Gear store. It's an hour drive on a good day and next to a very overbuilt Shopping mall. Traffic sucks all the time. Won't ride there either. Anyways, so when I finally got there I walked in and realized I really hadn't paid much attention to riding gear over the years. Brain overload.
Well as I fumbled around for like a hour looking cringing at the prices and drooling a nice older guy came up and asked if I needed help. So I said tell me about pants. He was really nice not pushy and spent easily 30 mins showing me choices. They I remembered hey tell me about headsets. I told him my price range really what I use it for blah, blah, blah. He showed me several choices a with the pants and again spent easily 30 mins talking about them. Well I got the Cardo Spirit HD as I was looking for a nice not lots of bells and whistles unit and this seemed to be a good choice.
So here is the begining of my review. Nick at the Schaumburg Cycle Gear Rocks. As for the Cardo I'm really happy with it so far.
I installed it in my Bell Qualifier DLX helmet after several tries. Mostly me trying to figure out how to run wires and securing them. I did end up cutting out a small channel in the check pad plastic that slips in to secure the pad. I still need to figure out what I'm doing with the extra wire and connectors I tried inside under a pad but I can feel that. Looking for a small case I can put them in and Velcro on the side.
Setting up the unit is fairly simple as I managed to do it. I'll start with the 2 issues I have so far and these are minor. Even though my helmet has ear phone accomodations the larger better earphones are just a smidge too thick. Which if you have good size ears can be a bit of a trick getting them unfolded. It takes a few head shakes. The other is at least in my helmet the front mic is really close to my mouth / chin.
Things I like so far. The sound is really much better than I would have expected. Even with slightly poof ear prices it doesn't mess with the comfort level. When I'm riding the controls are easy to find and use. I can only use this with one other Bluetooth headset! But I can have it hooked up to 2 other devices such as a GPS, phone or such. It's supposed to have almost a half mile range but I was told more like a third. The battery is supposed to give me 13 of active use time, I will let you know on that one. Like all newer units it can pair up with any other headset.
So far I would say I'm very pleased with the unit at the price point. I have a few upcoming rides so I will let you know how I like it after that.
