0 SHO-1 gone!

Although a superb looking piece of kit it was so expensive and the fitting looked more complex than stripping down and rebuilding my car using a plastic fork from McDonald's and the little spoon hidden in the lid of a Haagen Daas ice cream tub.

So at small cost it went back. Thanks to the original seller JustHelmets.

In its place I have ordered the Schuberth SRC kit for the C2 from a bike shop in Nice. Fingers crossed it arrives tax paid ifrom a € scoffing nation very soon.

Both kits are made by Cardo, so at least the quality and design can be trusted.

The other kit will move from the aged Nitro to the Shoei.

Fingers crossed.

Detail: SHO-1 gone!

0 SHO-1 arrived.

A knock on the door and the courier has delivered a massive box containing a nice dense piece of foam, plus the all important little box containing the SHO-1 kit.

SHO-1

Inside the little case are the two parts of the system that fit under the ear area of both side of the helmet. I'll have a look later when I have time to fit it.

Detail: SHO-1 arrived.

0 Cardo Revisited

Actually I don't know how many times I have visited and revisited the whole Cardo Scala subject.

I surprised myself when doing a keyword search to find "cardo". Firstly that there were fewer blogs than I had thought and also how long ago some of them are!

http://otr-again.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/bluetooth-revisted.html - this one from August 2007.

So I guess it was about time I had another crack at it. I have a TeamSet that comes with a fully functioning rider headset and a second unit with less functionality; it will connect to a phone and act as an intercom to the other unit. It comes already paired.

But we were never successful getting it to fit the Caberg flip-front J1S not my Schuberth C2; the biggest white elephant of my bike gear purchases. It's heavy and despite being so fantastic it, it steams up, fogs glasses and has to be ridden with the visor cracked for any ventilation. So the legendary "quietest helmet" claim is patently bollocks. Still. Until I bought a new Shoei Qwest it was the most expensive helmet I have bought. In fact, it is the second most expensive piece of bike gear I had bought after the TT Zega panniers, and they aren't really bike gear as such.

Anyway, Cardo.

After setting up Claire's new Nolan, reports elsewhere, review to follow, I began to wonder about updating the Bluetooth on my helmet. The Nolan system looks far superior to anything I have seen with the helmet properly designed to take the n-com unit and battery pack, proper routing for the speakers and the mike. The current setup is to use the boom and the Cardo from the link above, but on my Nitro helmet. I didn't want to start tearing the Qwest's padding about to get it to fit.

So then I saw the Shoei Sho-1 kit, made by Cardo but made to fit only a number of the Shoei range including the Qwest and I was ready. I have read many reviews, searched high and low across the web to get the best price, ignoring the dodgy looking Italian that seems to sell everything £100 ($158) cheaper than anywhere else in Europe.

I have a little rebate so I bought one.

I did a Q&A session on Facebook with Cardo UK and a look at the website. It doesn't look as though they have sold many yet.... Once it arrives and I fit it, then I'll report back.

http://www.cardosystems.com/motorcycles/cardo-sho-1

Detail: Cardo Revisited