For general discussion on helmet intercom.

This helmet intercom thing seems to be quite difficult to get a perfect one, and they don't really tell the whole truth with their marketing materials. Most designed in a way to get people to buy only their own brand, causing so much saturation in functionalities to a point it's becoming annoying.

Features I think an intercom should have:
1. Basic feature, act as bluetooth headset for your phone in solo ride.
2. Link with pillion to chat
3. Link with pillion and other riders to chat, regardless of brand.
4. Mix in Waze or Google map navigation voice during intercom


What I noticed:
1. Cheaper intercoms will not mix in navigation voice when using intercom mode.
2. Most intercoms especially mid range ones refused to link with other brands.
3. Even when able to link with other brands (with link request triggered by other brand), it will become 1:1 and unable to do group chat.


I haven't got chance to try out Sena and Cardo in pair and link to other brand.
Example: Cardo1 - Cardo2 - OtherBrand1, and all 3 can talk at the same time.

Any sifu can share experience of using your helmet intercom, solo, in two person group, and larger 3 - 5 person group?

I never had the need to use an intercom, until I had to coach my noob wife how to ride on the road. An intercom system is absolutely invaluable for this purpose.

Initially I had a Fodsports FX4 Pro system. It was terrible, our units had lousy connection even when she was sitting right behind me on the pillion seat. The unit was fiddly to use, making it a huge distraction when riding. The audio quality was shit too, as I would often get audio coming from only 1 speaker... if at all!

Then I got a pair of Cardo Packtalk Bold. All problems instantly solved. There are still minor niggles (i.e. reception suffers in urban areas with lots of signal interference, fcuking voice command would sometimes kick in unintentionally etc), but on the whole it has been so reliable we would not tour without it esp now that she rides separately on her own bike.

Handles Spotify, Waze & voice comm simultaneously with zero problems.

On clear stretches of the highway outside of cities, we could still communicate abt 1km apart esp if she's within line of sight.

Biggest con is that it's fukkin expensive, but it's better than throwing RM500 odd bucks on a cheap system that I ended up ripping out of my helmet in a fit of rage.

I only ride with my wife, so we've never tried to see how well it works with other systems.

was actually eyeing some lapsap brand from Shopee
now i guess better not

for easy and economical, occasional use i use ordinary bluetooth headset or wired headset

both join discord same voice channel enable noise suppression

need to use data thats all.

no music cos it is considered a voice call without the background nois with noise suppression on.

For me, the shopee lapsap brands will do. Haha

I find I just need Bluetooth only anyway for music, telephone calls and Waze.

In in small group, just use hand signals lah.. hahaha

I am using a freedcom unit.supports inter rider com but never tried it. Sound quality not bad. Phone noise cancelling pretty good also. Sometimes the caller on the other side don't even realise I am on a bike going highway speeds. Only cons is battery life is so so only. Lasts about 5hrs.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Aug 1 2022, 04:05 PM

Good sharing.

You started off with a bad experience, quite an expensive one too.
Mono headset is never good in a noisy surrounding.

Shops are pushing Cardo Packtalk as the "solve all" solution because
- it's expensive, how wrong can it be if it's expensive and quire well known
- it's amplifier is louder, hence able to "hear" in strong wind noise (consider hearing damage long term)
- it has an app

Care to share those you think are "lapsap" brand from shopee?

Here's my findings from paying plenty education fees.


If you can accept the following:
- Solo use able to stream voice / calls / navigation / songs from phone
- Intercom mode with 2 or more, navigation voice won't mix in so you don't get navigation voice alert, need to look at phone to remind self.
- Able to connect to any brand's intercom
- No "hey siri" "ok google" voice assistant. (won't work properly at speed > 80km/h anyway)

Take a good look at Maxto M2C, around RM200+.
I was using M2 before they launch newer M2C with Bluetooth 5.1.
Volume level is good, maybe 80% of Cardo.
Simple and just work.

Best part, I was able to link M2-M2-Vimoto V8 and have a nice group chat of 3 riders.
Whereas V8 - V8 - M2 fails, it became V8

Another brand is Hysnox HY-02.
Bought a pair to test. It supports Hey Siri / Ok Google voice assistant, also connects to any other intercom
Haven't tested H-H-others yet.
But on outset, the buttons are more complex to remember / operate.


If solo ride is mostly your cuppa, then pay double price of Maxto around RM500-600 for Vimoto V9S.
At this price range, you start to have an app.
Remember these things don't have a screen, so have an app to "set up" is quite useful.
It's loud like Cardo, but refuses to connect to non Vimoto brand.
However, you can trigger connection from M2 to Vimoto and they will connect.
If pairing is triggered from Vimoto, it won't connect to other brand.
This one solves the sound mixing problem, you can hear navigation etc while using intercom.
Also tested V9S-V9S-M2 ...
ends up all 3 are connected in intercom mode but the middle V9S will not route intercom to the other V9S, so only V9S-M2 can talk, not all 3.
Another caveat is, this one is only in Chinese prompt, no English.


If you can afford and wants to feel good spending money, go straight for Cardo Packtalk cost 2x more than V9S.


Most important factor of helmet bluetooth is quietness of your helmet

Freedconn is good on paper, but
- Does not connect to other brand.
- When connected by other brand, intercom becomes 2 person only FreedConn-Other, can't loop in other Freedconn.
- Supports voice assistant on TMax
- Volume lower than Maxto, would say around 70% of maxto. if helmet noisy, you tend to max out the volume and still struggle to hear
- TMax dial is very badly designed, easily gets turned on by accident.


No, I didn't read internet review to tell you the above.
I bought 3 x TMax and 2 x TCom to test.

TCom has better physical design, small and slim.

But I won't recommend Freedconn lah.

Maxto M2

So, gonna buy?

ride solo only

talk to myself enough

i also use freedconn before. freedconn tcom sc then i upgrade to R1 plus. i never use intercom function so cant comment on that.

TCOM SC price rm170++
- overall good design, got LCD screen which is good for searching for radio freq/station, but then u need to remove ur helmet to see it. LOL
- last time i use daily go to work, listen to the radio if i lazy to pair with my phone. if pair, then i will use spotify.
- sound quite ok, the problem just my helmet design, the wind noise quite bad.

http://www.freedconnsz.com/h-pd-7.html#_pp=103_521

then upgrade to R1 PLUS rm380++
- bought it because it hv camera recorded function, to act like dashcam. the quality is ok for the 1080 but not so sharp. at night, also just ok. but you cant expect gopro level. the battery can last quite long even when recording the video, i think about 3hours plus for continues recording. the problem with this is the audio, the mic dont hv any wind proctection at all, so u will hear wind noise most of the time for the camera recording. but for the mic for talking is sperate, which is ok, dont hv wind noise and because it hv noice cancellation function.
- got bluetooth 5, which is i can use my google assistant voice. turn it on, it will auto pair with my phone, and just wear the helmet, then you activate the voice, like to play spotify etc. so u no need to access ur phone.
- its quite bulky than TCOM SC, which look funny when u wear it.

http://www.freedconnsz.com/h-pd-21.html#_pp=103_521


summary
- i wont recommend R1 plus, for TCOM SC is basic bluetooth intercomm, which should serve u well if u use it to listen to radio/music from phone. but still, you should find other brand that use bluetooth v5. the voice assistant is quite useful.

This post has been edited by megahertz: Aug 3 2022, 09:52 AM

Ok, if use solo and never intercom, get any bluetooth headset with stereo speakers should do, and make sure your helmet is quiet enough

Again, Freedconn not as loud as Maxto, and Maxto sound quality also better.

Disclaimer:
Bought, owned and gave away:
2 x Freedconn TCom
3 x Freedconn TMax
2 x Hysnox HY-02
2 x Maxto M2 (still keeping a 3rd unit for testing)

... not listing other brands / models owned before for testing purposes....

yeah, for me the R1 plus quite ok. but if i ride long distance, i never use it because the sound more than 120kmh quite bad since i use open face helmet and wind noise very bad. need to replace my helmet. plus, i like ride with silence right now, more calming and hear the engine sound more nice. lol

R1 plus now mostly i use because of the dashcam function. got few times almost hit some crazy cars and at least i got evidence.

so based on ur past experience, maxto m2 quite ok?
thinking to find intercom that able to connect other brand since my friends mostly used other brand. i see Maxto M3 which got video function as well. might be good replacement for my R1 plus.

I'm using Cardio Spirit mainly because it's cheap and good for solo riders like me who listen to music, waze and occasionally answering calls. Based on the forum recommendations i would suggest you get reputable brand instead of cheap brands

I'm using Cardio Spirit mainly because it's cheap and good for solo riders like me who listen to music, waze and occasionally answering calls. Based on the forum recommendations i would suggest you get reputable brand instead of cheap brands

M2 never tried connect to other brand before.. But I've tried group of 5 and 6, the interference is strong to the point that it's near to not useable.. End up we break to 2 small groups connections of 3 and 3.. If use 2-3 person I gotta say it's good.. sound and range also fine.. M3 just bought, haven't use the comm yet, but picture quality is good but not great.. Stabilization is weak compare to gopro, but not to the point that makes you dizzy la.. recording time as advertised, but with using comm system..

Haven't tested the M3 with video, or any other models with video.
DareDevil's reply from his experience should gave you enough detail.

Yes, M2 is pretty good for it's price point.
I assume M3 is similar in firmware ie. able to connect to any intercom.
Only downside is, not support voice assistant.




Yep, group of 2-3 is good. Anything more, even with other budget brand, it's not stable.
This is where Cardo packtalk and Sena shines with their mesh connection.

Audio quality on the spirit good? Music all can listen clearly?

I have the freedconn tcom SC. I find it pretty sufficiently loud, even with earplugs in. But then again my helmet is quiet.

It beginning to flake out after a year of use. The connection socket is getting slightly loose due to having to unplug and plug it every time to charge. But then again, I rode 25k over the past year..so considered heavy use. Shopping for another unit to replace it soon. Technically I "could" repair the socket and continue to use it....but for the price, I really can't be bothered.

Any com unit that has a dedicated charge port as to not have to plug and unplug it all the time to charge?