Customer Reviews

Cardo Systems Scala Rider Q2 Bike-to-Bike Intercom Communications - New

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My friend and I bought units early in the summer. They are very good in bike to bike performance. It makes longer rides more fun and safer, as each rider looks out for the other (road hazards, gravel on curves, stopping traffic, etc). It is very small and easy to put on any helmut and easy to connect with your phone and gps. Battery life depends on usage, but 7 to 8 hours is typical with moderate usage. I highly recommend these devices. A new model was just introduced with longer mic boom (better for full face helmuts) and an auxillary mp3 plugin. This is definitely the "best for the money".

I have had this product for about a year now and am satisfied with it.

By far the primary use is as an FM radio, it is loud enough over the wind noise of my fairing to hear the music or talk shows to make my commute easier.

Secondary is its use as a bluetooth headset. The audio level is a little low for freeway use with my setup, but adequate. The description states that it may be used with more than one device, but that is not a function of the headset, but the GPS that it is connected to, so don't count on using it with multiple BT devices (i.e. cell phone and MP3 player)

I have not used it as an intercom or short range x-ciever yet, but I did not purchase it for that.

Battery life is about 4 hours of FM, a couple of days of commute.

The Cardo Scala 2 works well as a bluetooth headset for my phone, but I was disappointed that the unit was unable to play my MP3's wirelessly from my phone. It turns out that both the phone and the bluetooth device must be A2DP, and while my iPhone is, the Cardo unit is not. (It would be good if the manufacturer mentioned this.) The radio has poor reception and is difficult to use while riding, so for music, this headset is really not very good.

If all you want is to make calls or talk to others with a similar unit, I think this would work very well. I am looking forward to future versions, which will hopefully have the A2DP bluetooth profile.

When i recieved the product everything looks great in the box, hell even the case looked special.....i may have to buy a new helmet either the rim around the helmet may prevent a tight secure fit of the product, or the it's the product itself that it is design for certin helmets....that's something i have to check out on my own....Second the volume sucks....yes i put it near my ears...great design, but please work on the volume issue if you don't have great sound why do i need to have it in the first place, it just a pretty piece of plastic doing nothing but hanging on the helmet...

I bought this about 2 years ago and at that time, judging from online reviews, I surmised this was the best product that could be bought for pairing a GPS device to a helmet headset. Last night (4/3/10), I was again looking at online reviews and still think this is the best product on the market for pairing a GPS device to a helmet headset. With that said though, I really just think this product is `OK' and am waiting for something better to become available. (I do know there is a more updated version of this but as far as I can tell, for what I need, it doesn't seem to be better than this older version.) First off, I don't sync this with my cell phone, I don't use it to listen to mp3's, and I don't use it to chat with fellow riders. I only use this to listen to voice prompts from my GPS. For what I want, I really think this product is overkill. I wish you could buy a product for only listening to GPS prompts and not invest in the bells and whistles of the other stuff this device can do. I have a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS and this product does pair with that GPS nicely. I have read that other GPS's do not pair with this device so do your homework when shopping for helmet headsets.

Issues:
(1) The clamp that came with this when it was first bought seemed OK at first. It affixes to the helmet by a clamp that is slid in between the helmet liner and the outer shell. It is secured with two very tiny allen screws. At the time of purchase, I only had a Scorpion EXO 400 helmet (which by the way, is a very good mid-priced helmet) and the clamp mechanism worked fine. Supposedly, you are able to unclamp and reclamp this to your various helmets which in essence makes this device universal. I had this device clamped to my Scorpion for about 2 years and have now bought a Nolan N103 helmet. So, I took the clamp off my Scorpion to put it on my Nolan. Then, I discovered that it will not go on my Nolan. The Nolan has a lip, or edge, around the base of the helmet which makes sliding that little clamp in between the lining and the shell of the helmet impossible. Discovering that this expensive little device wouldn't go on my new helmet was irritating and rather maddening. So, I tried to put it back on my Scorpion and in doing so, the clamp broke. I was not being heavy handed, the plastic really seemed to have dry rotted since the time of purchase. I am not happy the clamp broke which now renders the device unusable. So, last night I looked for a replacement clamp and the clamp w/ ear speaker is about $50. Well, that is half the price of what I already have invested in it. So, now I see that the clamps you can buy now have a glue plate you can use to permanently affix to your helmet. This glue plate seems like a good thing because you certainly don't want this device coming off when you're going 75 mph down the interstate. But, then gluing it makes it so you can't take it on and off your various helmets (assuming it will fit your various helmets).
(2) The volume level of the ear piece is good. Actually, the device is supposed to sense how loud it needs to be at your speed level. The intuitiveness isn't that good. I find the volume is really too loud for me and thus I am constantly adjusting the volume manually, which is a pain when you have gloves on.
(3) The volume buttons and the on/off button are really hard to press. Way too hard in my opinion. If I knew how hard the buttons are to operate, I probably wouldn't have ever bought it.
(4) The microphone is bulky and really is in my way most of the time. Remember, I don't use it and probably never will. As I said, I wish I could buy just the ear piece receiver thing without the microphone because I will never use this to talk with other riders.

So, to reiterate, this product is just OK. I suppose if I ever plan to use it again, I will have to spend more money to attach it back to my helmet. If I sort of know where I am going, looking at the GPS alone is fine; but if I have no idea where I am going, I really do need to hear the voice prompts from the GPS. I suppose spending a lot of money for a nice motorcycle mounted GPS and not having a device to hear the voice prompts is silly. So, I suppose in the near future I'll pay more money to Cardo to re-attach the device to my helmet. I am giving this product 3 stars because when it is hooked up you can hear from the ear piece (which is the goal), but other than that, I really don't have a whole lot to say that's good about this product. It is just average, that's all -- nothing exceptional.