Bought my first helmet today!

Malt_Vinegar

Malt_Vinegar

Malt_Vinegar

Don
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
17,187
Location
In a house
So, in preparation for getting my Z50-AK2 back on the road, I got my first helmet today.

Been looking around ebay, and searching other online outlets for a (cheap) helmet that has a 4* sharp helmet rating.

Managed to find a V-Can V100 for sale locally for 39.99! Popped down to try it on, along with a few others, and decided on my original choice in matt Black. It was that or white with St George flag, or matt silver.

It was the most comfy i could get in the shop. It does put a bit of pressure on my cheeks, but the chap said that they will soon squish a bit, and it will feel better :) He also said I can pull the pads out, and stick them under a phone book for a bit to reduce the thickness.

I was very suprised how some very expensive helmets rated so badly on the Sharp ratings, it seems that price is not always a guarentee for quality..
 
If it is comfortable and meets the safety ratings then good job!
You can pay a fortune for lids but you don't need to.

I've got a Shoei X-Spirit which was, like yours, the most comfortable one I could find.
 
The most comfortable one I could find just happened to be in the sale. It's a Suomy Vandal with an Andrew Pitt race replica paint job.

I wasn't all that bothered about the colours, but it was the best fit.
 
I've got a Shoei XR1100 £299 rrp got it for £260, tried cheaper Carsbergs etc but the Shoei is the only one that fits my gargantuan head
 
How often do you guys replace your helmets out of curiosity? I heard that 2 years was the recccomended period before replacement..

The XR1100 looks to have all the bells and whilstles, and a 5* rating :D
 
Last edited:
I always thought it was 5 years, and after 5 years of a lot of use you would want to replace anyway, or at least buy new internals which you can do for most of the expensive sport lids.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
That Shoei looks liek it must be a top notch lid at that price :D

Interestingly enough, it has the exact same test results as my new lid.

http://sharp.direct.gov.uk/testsratings/shoei-x-spirit

(more features though!)
Click to expand...
It is very comfortable but incredibly noisy at speed. Insanely noisy in fact.

But I've had to retire it now as I had an incident yesterday that led to me banging my head to the point where I couldn't say the lid wasn't damaged. I realised I've also had it about 5 years and so it's overdue replacement anyway.

I picked up a Duchinni D909 in matt black.
As well as being really comfy it has a bluetooth system inbuilt that will let me stream music from my phone, as well as full handsfree calling.

I've not ridden with it, but will give it a good test on Monday when I ride to work.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
It was the most comfy i could get in the shop. It does put a bit of pressure on my cheeks, but the chap said that they will soon squish a bit, and it will feel better :) He also said I can pull the pads out, and stick them under a phone book for a bit to reduce the thickness.
Click to expand...

Always better to have a slightly tight fit as the linings do relax after a while.

Malt_Vinegar said:
I was very suprised how some very expensive helmets rated so badly on the Sharp ratings, it seems that price is not always a guarentee for quality..
Click to expand...

In terms of build quality, price is usually a good indicator e.g. an Arai or Shoei will be noticeably better made than a cheap and cheerful one. The Sharp ratings are a useful guide IMO, but not something to get too hung up over. Far better to have a lower Sharp rated helmet that fits properly than a 5 star one that doesn't.
 
Luke said:
It is very comfortable but incredibly noisy at speed. Insanely noisy in fact.

But I've had to retire it now as I had an incident yesterday that led to me banging my head to the point where I couldn't say the lid wasn't damaged. I realised I've also had it about 5 years and so it's overdue replacement anyway.

I picked up a Duchinni D909 in matt black.
As well as being really comfy it has a bluetooth system inbuilt that will let me stream music from my phone, as well as full handsfree calling.

I've not ridden with it, but will give it a good test on Monday when I ride to work.
Click to expand...

I'd be interested of what you make of the D909 as well as the bluetooth. I've been after a phone/music solution for a while, and it was either drop a lot of money on something like a Scala or try and get a bt lid as my next one.
 
I'll let you know.
Initial impressions are good. Wearing it around the house I could tell the speakers lacked bass when compared to in-ear earphones(not a surprise), but the ability to change volume at the lid as well as change tracks is excellent.
How it holds up on the commute with wind noise etc will be the true test.
 
I was going to ask about the legality of the bluetooth music/headset, but then, I suppose its no different to driving a car with the music on :)

Been walking about with the helmet on, and its very comfy, I was expecting it to be more noticable.

No idea with the wind noise or anything, got to get myself legal to ride before that :D
 
Luke said:
I'll let you know.
Initial impressions are good. Wearing it around the house I could tell the speakers lacked bass when compared to in-ear earphones(not a surprise), but the ability to change volume at the lid as well as change tracks is excellent.
How it holds up on the commute with wind noise etc will be the true test.
Click to expand...


The volume/track buttons look very small in the pics I have seen, is it possible to operate them with gloves on?
 
Seems ok. It is a case of learning where the buttons are and using the big button as a reference point for the others. Doesn't seem to be a problem.
 
So I used the new lid today for my commute, and the verdict is.......rubbish.

Wind noise is high. Not as high as the Shoei X-Spirit, but high.
The battery is meant to last 5 hours between charges but 20 minutes into my journey it started giving the low battery warning. This meant every 30 seconds the music cut out for half a second or so. As well as that it intermittently cut out and I took 2 phones that can stream music to test, it did it with both.

Having it cut out wasn't that bad as the sound quality was abysmal. I knew there would be very little bass but didn't expect the sound to be as tinny as it was.
The wind noise coupled with tinny sound meant the volume had to go right up which over time would be really damaging.

The visor was very thin and was really difficult to close one handed which was problematic on the move.

On the plus side it was very comfortable, including the chin strap which I barely knew was fastened.

I called J&S today to explain and although they had not had any other issues with that lid they agreed to take it back and credit the price towards a new helmet. Given the normal policy of absolutely no returns on helmets I am very happy with this.

I'm now looking for a quiet lid without the bells and whistles of bluetooth.

Any suggestions other than a Schubert?
 
Very happy with my Shark RSX, it's nice and quiet (even better now I've fitted a double bubble screen) and well built. The visor is very robust, looks like it would stop bullets! Sadly discontinued, but that means you can pick up NOS ones quite cheap.
 
I bit the bullet and replaced the old Shoei X-Spirit with a Shoei XR-1100.
I've not ridden with it, but the build difference between this lid and the cheaper ones I was considering is staggering.

First ride will be tomorrow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom