Adventure helmets?

[george formby]

I see these are being imported & I like the idea of integral sun visor. Anyone tried one yet?
http://www.motozone.co.nz/products/d...t.aspx#entries

That looks remarkably like the trekker posted earlier.

Hmm, Nolan, Acerbis, Fly... All with internal sun visor's.

[JATZ]

I see these are being imported & I like the idea of integral sun visor. Anyone tried one yet?
http://www.motozone.co.nz/products/d...t.aspx#entries

I saw them in the latest Kiwirider mag, and seeing as how I may need to replace my lid thought I may give one a try
Although it would have to be pretty good to stop me getting another Airoh

[Pikey]

Be keen for feedback? Thinking of replacing my zeus?

[barrie]

AGV have got an adventure version of there AX moto x helmet out now, composite shell and pretty light. Looks pretty god to me.

[Shewolf]

X-series bluetooth kit
Although I’ve little interest in talking while riding – listening to music is desirable. Also future proofing for GPS when riding in some far flung destination… how could I go past this gadget with it’s low profile mount?


The n-series helmets are pre-configured for the bluetooth/comms pack, the polystyrene in the helmet has cutouts and grooves for the battery, wires etc which made installation fairly easy. Even the microphone is embedded into the chin somewhat, no bulgey bits to smack you in the forehead when taking the helmet on and off.

The am/fm tuner in the phone doesn’t work very well through the headset (although normally this works fine with a 3.5mm earplug). Possibly the phone?

The wee iPod shuffle was hopeless for quality as it’s a crapper mono sound unit.

The phone as an mp3 player is excellent – stereo - no problems, the wind noise isn’t very apparent but you can still hear the motor. At it’s loudest setting on the open highway it’s pretty loud, deafening while stationary – I got some odd looks from tin-tops… but nothing unusual there.

Phone calls are picked up from touching the helmet mount and quality is excellent both for me and the caller. If you’re listening to music and get a call, it switches over. Battery life for listening to music - only run it for about 4 hours max.

The bluetooth connection for music was cutting out a lot, but once I turned my wi-fi off it's fixed - it seemed to be polling for connection every so often.

Fit
It’s a snug fit – but compared to the IS-Multi I’m happy with extra padding as this adds up to less noise/more comfort in cooler weather. It is very tight to get on and off though. After using it a few weeks it's more comfy inside but still a right pain getting on and off. If you have hair of any length it pulls it down into your face which can be annoying.


Wind noise
This is a satisfying improvement over the HJC, all that extra padding is working well. Not as quiet as my Shoei road helmet (which feels weird now, like riding in a bubble).

Venting / Fog
There’s a pinlock anti-fog insert included that I’ll attach later, the venting is good but too early to tell how effective it is. Pinlock is excellent, no fogging whatsoever.

Visibility
Nice wide peripheral scope and gone is the annoying vent that obscured visibility on the HJC – also the visor goes all the way up.


Internal Visor
Reason I got the HJC to start with, so it was a snap when deciding on the X-Lite – side button is easy to use and much easier than the top sliding button on the HJC (which has started to not function at times due to dust accumulating inside)

So far so good! I’ll update after the weekend’s ride.
Still really pleased with it, the white peak doesn't block out as much sun as the darker one, but I think spray painting the underside of the peak black should fix that.

[Eddieb]

The am/fm tuner in the phone doesn’t work very well through the headset (although normally this works fine with a 3.5mm earplug). Possibly the phone?

Nice review.

The phones use the headphone wires as an aerial, without that length of wire it probably doesn't have enough of an aerial.

[Pikey]

Well I've bitten the bullet and got an Arai XD3
First ride was very good Fits really well, cheek pads a bit firm but hey that will probably change with use?
Visor pin lock was a bit fiddly to fit until I got the hang of it! But worth the fiddling about as really effective anti-fog (so far)
Bit of 100k plus and some gravel Very little drag from the peak. Quite quiet without ear plugs and very quiet with them (might have to try ones that don’t protrude as much?)
Overall very pleased with my investment. Big test will come on weekend trip to The Forgotten Highway??

[Crim]

Well I've bitten the bullet and got an Arai XD3

wheredid you get it, local or the interweb and how much (if ya don't mind me askin') - I probably need to upgrade at some stage

[Pikey]

Got locally from Levin Motorcycles. A few XD3's are available still with the XD4 now here too.
They got it in for me and I got a great deal from my favourite bike shop
Not sure what other sizes and colours are available?

[Wannabike]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/List...x?id=477947005

[chasio]

I just picked up an X-551 very slightly second-hand (for my very slightly disposable head) from a KB'er who is flogging his motard.

Just to add to Shewolf's excellent post, my comments are:

1 - WHAT'S THAT, I CAN'T HEAR YOU - It is unbelievably noisy on my Freewind. I guess the airflow must hit the helmet just wrongly with the taller screen I use (similar to an older Tiger screen). For me that makes earplugs a must for practically any speed or distance.

2 - The helmet had the Nolan intercom style speakers in it. These have zero bass (possibly less) and in any case, see point 1. That makes them a complete chocolate teapot of an accessory. I can't imagine shelling out for Bluetooth and all that jazz would make me at all happy, so Plugz4lugz with built-in audio are probably the way to go. Certainly my Sony in-ear phones were a biartch to keep well seated when pulling on the helmet, which has a very narrow entry. I may try taping them in with Micropore, but only if I really MUST have audio for some reason. Usually it'll just be earplugs.

3 - The sun-visor sometimes sticks (25% of the time maybe) when trying to flick it up with the slider. There are dis-assembly instructions for it, so I'll have a look and see if a bit of strategically squirted silicon spray might assist. Meanwhile I need to be bloody careful not to ride into any dark tunnels or car-parks with it down, just in case. A quick upwards tap to the bottom edge sends it home OK, but that could be very awkward.

4. Visibility - head-check visibility is worse than on my Shoei XR1000 / Raid 2 helmets as the opening slopes up at the side a touch too steeply. Other than that, the view out is great.

5. Opening the top vents at speed provides an induction roar that is clearly audible above the rest of the racket. But the trade-off is that the ventilation is very good, so probably well suited to tricky riding.

6. I fit a Shoei generally and specifically a Shoei Hornet in small, so doubted a Nolan made helmet would work for me. But the X-551 is a lot less "round-headed" than some Nolans I have tried and, the medium works very well.

7. The light coloured fabric strips on the underside are Scotchlite. I assume this would make my head easier to find if I am ever decapitated at night and someone is looking for it with a torch, provided it comes to rest at the right angle. I honestly cannot think of any other scenario where this would be useful. Answers on a postcard, please...

Cheers - Chasio

[.chris]

part of Cycletreads black friday sale, they have 50% off Arai helmets, there are a couple of the Dual sport models there, a Medium (long way around blue) and a silver/grey S matt.

$550ish at 50% off is a pretty good deal.

[dino3310]

i put the helmet down on my boots so i could free my hands to lock the shed door and then chased it down the drive now it really looks like an adv helmet

[Night Falcon]

part of Cycletreads black friday sale, they have 50% off Arai helmets, there are a couple of the Dual sport models there, a Medium (long way around blue) and a silver/grey S matt.

$550ish at 50% off is a pretty good deal.

Very tempting...have been looking for a cheap deal on an Arai for a while, but havn't tried one on to see if I have an arai head. I don't like the shoei hornet cos the peak is too short and gets way hot even with the vents open.

[Normlas]

as a KLR rider I naturally migrated towards the budget end of the adventure helmets and came across the new FFM MX-630, only around $180 and looks pretty good....



fitted very well although I needed a 2XL whereas for most helmets I am a 61 or XL.

Standing still with the visor down, like I was in the shop, it works fine, out on the road however, the very sharp bend in the visor gives frightening visual distortion, something akin to what I imagine an LSD flashback from the 60's is like , turns an ordinary suburban road into a mirrored glass funhouse tunnel as seen through a fish-eye lens.

I had to lift the visor to be able to read road signs at 40-50km/hr..

Then I hit the motorway, and although the peripheral vision is great - one of the main reasons I like adventure helmets, the wind soon took a firm hold of the peak and at around 90km/hr made a fairly good attempt to rip my head from my body........ it got even worse when I hit the North-western motorway back into town, Aucklanders will know where I mean, long exposed bit of motorway with strong side-winds coming in across the harbour, as I had just found a look down angle that allowed my head to remain attached against the wishes of the peak, the sidewind tapped my peak back into the 100km/hr breeze so that I ended up looking like a bobble-head doll as I fought my way down the road (which was now a 100km/hr mirrored tunnel as seen through a fish-eye lens). Less than ideal you might say....

Back into the suburbs and a light drizzle starts, not even enough to have to wipe my visor, yet the small amount of water that fell was able funnel itself, almost magnetically, across my line of sight on the INSIDE of the visor, also less than ideal one might say...

Aside from the fact that more than two breaths whilst you're not moving and you are in a complete foggy white-out, and the fact that the leaky visor sends streams of road air directly across both eyeballs at anything over 30mk/hr, it is a good looking helmet

Thank fully the good guys at cycletreads were very sympathetic and took the beast back, thanks boys!

Just thought I would share my experience with this new release from FFM, perhaps I got a dud one? but can't say I am impressed, saving for the XD3.......dammit