What Style Helmet do you Favor?

[hvMULEwiltrvl]

I am with DAKEZ. I have been wearing the N43E for a couple of years now and it is the best I have ever worn.

It can be worn in multiple configurations. I use it with the visor and the face bar attached. With the face bar attached, I feel that I have face protection, but without the "closed in" feeling of a full face or modular.

[Pantah]

Originally Posted by hvMULEwiltrvl

I am with DAKEZ. I have been wearing the N43E for a couple of years now and it is the best I have ever worn.

It can be worn in multiple configurations. I use it with the visor and the face bar attached. With the face bar attached, I feel that I have face protection, but without the "closed in" feeling of a full face or modular.

I like that helmet. It has the wide view, but also a chinbar. Seems like it would be a better option than a flip face modular helmet. I should try one to see if it is quiet enough.

[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by Pantah

I like that helmet. It has the wide view, but also a chinbar. Seems like it would be a better option than a flip face modular helmet. I should try one to see if it is quiet enough.

IMO

It is fairly quiet.
It is very light
It fogs terribly in cool/cold weather but comes with a pin-lock that addresses the issue nicely.

edit. Be sure to get the new and improved model. 2012 N43E. You can view a you-tube of the old one as well to compare the two.

[Namecheck]

Icon Variant is a great helmet for ADV use. I have the salvo and it is a really awesome, safe feeling helmet with a tight seal. If you have a fat head you may not like it because it is a very rigid helmet. My friend got his head almost stuck in one that was a size too small. Really good ventilation and bomber construction.

[daveinva]

I love my hi-viz Shoei Qwest, quiet and just so wonderfully dorky.

That said, perhaps someone could point me in the right direction: I'd love a helmet that is like a modern version of this:

Originally Posted by Pantah

Namely, I want a 3/4 helmet with a crash-proof chin bar. The Nolan Trilogy and that modular one Givi offers are similar (and nice), but still not quite what I'm looking for: a helmet with a big open 3/4-like space but still offering something down low that'll hit the pavement instead of my bare chin. Almost like an NFL kicker's helmet, but for motorcycles.

(Now, I admit that I'm also thinking that such a helmet would be impractical, perhaps even dangerous-- I can imagine that lower bar could smack your head back in a crash, hence why I've never seen anything like it. Still... thoughts?)

[Pantah]

Originally Posted by daveinva

I love my hi-viz Shoei Qwest, quiet and just so wonderfully dorky.

That said, perhaps someone could point me in the right direction: I'd love a helmet that is like a modern version of this:



Namely, I want a 3/4 helmet with a crash-proof chin bar. The Nolan Trilogy and that modular one Givi offers are similar (and nice), but still not quite what I'm looking for: a helmet with a big open 3/4-like space but still offering something down low that'll hit the pavement instead of my bare chin. Almost like an NFL kicker's helmet, but for motorcycles.

(Now, I admit that I'm also thinking that such a helmet would be impractical, perhaps even dangerous-- I can imagine that lower bar could smack your head back in a crash, hence why I've never seen anything like it. Still... thoughts?)

That chin bar was a bolt on gizmo and it was intended to protect your face from roost, not a face plant. The big old visor was for roost deflection too. Just tilt your head down. Back then, we wore Jofa mouth guards because MX helmets were all open face. The bolt on chin bar was a step better than the Jofa until the intro of the Bell Moto series came along. The Bell Moto III was one of the early full faced helmets intended for off road racing. It was the bees knees.

I don't think either was particularly dangerous in a face plant, though. No more so than a modern MX helmet.

I am really warming to that Nolan, particularly the 2012 model with the chin bar skirt. I wish it didn't have all those grills, but maybe they are pretty functional. What's the story with polycarbonate construction? I don't think poly helmets are legal in road racing. They must have some sort of disadvantage, no?

[Thanantos]

Originally Posted by Okie Preacher

A paramedic named Death...

[Grreatdog]

My favorite style helmet depends on the ride. I favor a full face street for street and a full face offroad helmet for offroad. But my old Yamaha blue Thor offroad helmet is my all time favorite.

When it comes to pure comfort, no street or dual sport helmet I have ever tried comes close to a real offroad helmet. So I would have to say that is ultimately what I prefer. Even in freezing cold.

Blue and orange is a good look, right?

[99Bandit]

For the street, I use an AFX FX-100.



It's not a bad helmet. I like the built in sun visor and the chin clasp instead of the D rings.

The only issue I have with it is, it's a little noisey.

For the dirt, I use a Fly Racing Kinetic. I just got it and have only worn it once so, I can't say anything bad about it yet.

[daveinva]

Originally Posted by Pantah

That chin bar was a bolt on gizmo and it was intended to protect your face from roost, not a face plant.

Yeah, I get that, hence why I said "modern."

This ain't a motorcycle helmet (plus, it's ugly), but here's an appoximation of what I'm talking about- I want a full-strength chin bar, just not a full SIZE chin bar, and I want it to be low enough that it gives me a wide viewport, but still positioned well enough to offer some protection in a spill.



I guess I'll try the Nolan again, maybe I was just in a bad mood at the shop that day

[Roam]

Flip up / modular helmets are great for the convenience but I think they'll always be loader than a regular full face due to all the seams.

I wear a 3/4, full, or modular. If I could only have one it would be the modular. The integral sun visor in my Nolan goes down far enough to hit my nose. Thought the sun visor was gimmick when I bought the helmet but now I think it's fantastic.

I have Fulmer ADV/DS helmet and it truly sucks. Looks cool though.

[svs]

Get a SCORPION EXO.

Full face for the Street with inner deployable tinted shield and for the Dirt get a VX model.

I have one of each and can't say enough about them. US Company. Headquartered in Orange County.

Best Liners available. Removable, Washable. No Fog Shields, custom fit with the Air Pump system to snug the check pads up. Light weight, good venting. Cutting edge external shell designs rivaling the best and most expensive helmets on the market. And they are affordable.

Not a weak spot in the design and execution as I see it.

[woofer2609]

Originally Posted by svs

Get a SCORPION EXO.

Full face for the Street with inner deployable tinted shield and for the Dirt get a VX model.

I have one of each and can't say enough about them. US Company. Headquartered in Orange County.

Best Liners available. Removable, Washable. No Fog Shields,

+1
I have a slightly older Scorpion Exo, I have never had fog in the thing. Ventilation is lacking, but not a bother to me. It is extremely well made when i compare it to other helmets in the price range. I love the Neon Yellow as well, seeing as the helmet is the highest point on the bike. Kids think it's cool too.

[glasswave]

Originally Posted by Pantah

In 1980 this helmet was the one to have. I had to scrimp a long time for it. I still have it, and it's still in pretty nice shape:


Before the Bell Moto III it was this:



What say you about helmet preferences and why?

Actually, in between those two was the Bell MotoStar. I remember it well becuase after buying my 79 Honda XL 250, I was depressed to find out it had been discontinued in favor of the moto III. I had fancied the moto star (pictured below) because you could snap on both a duck bill or a face shield and still get a reasonable decent air seal (or so I thought at the time, by today's standards it was a noisy wind tunnel).

I finally found one, 120 miles away and road my little Honda 2.5 hours to go fetch it, had to settle for yellow tho' as Honda red was long gone by then. On the way home, I took off on some unknown dirt road up into the mountains. Now that I think of it , it was really my first "adventure" tour.

What in the world happened to Bell? They used to be the high end choice of pro riders, now they are a WalMart line.

[glasswave]

Now, for international touring, I prefer to ride with a flip face because it makes it so much easier to get directions or find hotels in busy, unfamiliar foreign cities. Before my flip, I would often switch to my small half lid passenger helmet in these situations which really doesn't provide much protection. I'd also often wear the half lid when I was taking lots of photos because it is nearly impossible to use an slr with a full face on. The half lid is really just so that the paper would read, "He was wearing a helmet," if I was involved in a fatal crash.

The flip face is a good compromise for me because I wear it more often than I did my full face and thus, overall am better protected more often. I still wear the half helmet when I'm just tolling across a pueblo or when I am giving a gal a ride, but I wear my flip much more than I did my full face.