#Helmets

–We’re constantly on the look for great deals on motorcycle gear. We’ll be updating this post each week with the latest sales on gear and accessories, so keep checking here for new deals.

HEY! Did you know you could help support us MOrons by buying stuff at Revzilla? It’s true. Whenever you click on over there after seeing a thing here, we get a piece of the pie. It’s a win/win situation – especially when the thing is on sale. You get a deal on what you needed anyway. We get to keep eating. Here are a few of this week’s retail therapy opportunities.

Adventure motorcycle helmets meld the features of on-road and off-road lids to provide adventure riders with a level of versatility that mirrors that of the machines they ride all over the great outdoors. Manufacturers of all sorts have jumped into the ADV helmet market to give us riders a smorgasbord of options to choose from. We’ve put together the list below to give adv-curious riders a one-stop article to check out the full range. From budget-minded to expensive feature-packed lids, these are the best adventure motorcycle helmets on the market in 2022, and there’s something here for everyone.

Touring connotes long days in the saddle, and that means long days with your head inside your helmet. Fit, then, is going to be of utmost importance when it comes to selecting a touring helmet. A helmet that gives you a hot spot might not be a huge deal when you’re only wearing it for 45 minutes. Over the course of days, though, like an annoying travel companion, an ill-fitting helmet will grow to be a thing you loathe.

Traveling to a brick and mortar store to try helmets on is the best thing you can do, and if that’s not possible then finding an online retailer with a generous return policy is the next best way to go. When you try a helmet on, keep it on for a while too. Minor annoyances that grow large over time can take a while to show themselves.

Anyway, there are hundreds of possibilities, but here we scratch the surface with eight of the best motorcycle touring helmets we’ve either sampled, or that come highly recommended from trusted sources.

Some of our favorite best touring helmets are modulars, or flip-front helmets, so see also Best Modular Helmets.

If you don’t understand, we can’t explain it to you. But you know who you are. It’s not a universal rule, but for many, many motorcycle riders, it’s Harley or nothing. For many of them, the best Harley helmet has to continue the theme that often but not always includes the leather vest, the chained wallet and the tattoos. For even more Harley riders, a good helmet is a good helmet. In truth, everybody’s skull is basically the same shape, on the outside anyway, so the best motorcycle helmets for Harley riders are still great helmets no matter what you ride. But there are definitely variations that make some of them the best motorcycle helmets for Harley riders. And away we go…

If you’re a regular reader of Motorcycle.com, then you’ve probably noticed we’ve done a lot of shootouts this year. First, we put together a few middleweight Twins, then some extra-middleweight Twins, followed by a gang of lightweight twiddlers, then ending at the other end of the spectrum with the gnarly crew of heavyweight nakeds on the street and the track. It’s been quite the year with a lot of riding and testing involved. And just when you thought our shootouts were over…

Bam! We’re hitting you with another one. This time we’re leaving the bikes alone (haven’t we tested them all already?) and putting together a collection of premium helmets to wear side-by-side. Because if there’s one question we get time after time (after which motorcycle is the best?), we’re also constantly asked which helmet is better than another.

Congratulations. You’ve made the decision to go to a trackday (or even a race). We think that’s one of the best decisions you can make with your motorcycle. Not only is track riding fun and addictive, but it’s also a great environment to improve your skills. But there’s a lot to do to get ready, like getting all your gear in order. Most important, of course, is your helmet.

Do you have a proper track helmet? Generally speaking, a good helmet for the track is full-face, with a double D-ring closure, that meets or exceeds all federal safety guidelines. You’ll have to consult with your local track or track/race organization for the specific helmet regulations they require, but the following selections are helmets we know will easily pass any tech inspection held anywhere in the US of A, and probably the rest of the world, too. A really good track helmet will have all of that, along with a bigger eye port that lets you see ahead when you’re prone on the gas tank, as aerodynamic and light a shell as possible, and great venting so you can keep a cool head.

There are many reputable helmet manufacturers out there, going about the task of head protection in their own unique ways, and there’s no way for us to sample all of them. But the helmets presented here all come from manufacturers we’d trust with our heads. Hours upon hours of time, money, and resources go into the science of making helmets as effective as possible – not just from an impact perspective, but lately, some manufacturers have poured resources into minimizing the effects of brain rotation during a crash as well. Those resources don’t come for free, however, so if you’ve wondered why top-shelf helmets cost so much, it’s because innovation has a price.

Updated May 2021

Updated March 2021

There’s a steep learning curve for anyone starting out in motorcycling – and that’s before you even start to talk about what gear to put on. If nothing else, there’s no more important piece of safety gear than a helmet, and even if you live in a state where wearing one isn’t mandatory, the Motorcycle.com staff can’t stress enough the importance of wearing one anyway.

We get it. Helmets are expensive, with prices for some premium lids hovering close to a thousand dollars. But not to worry, there are several helmets out there with price tags that are much easier to swallow. We’re going to highlight some of them here. Before we begin, if you came here looking for half- or three-quarter helmets, you won’t find them in this list. All the helmets here cover the entire head, including the face.

One last thing. If none of the ones you see here appeal to you and you end up on the hunt for an affordable helmet elsewhere, be sure to check that the budget helmet you’re looking at is DOT approved at minimum. It’s even better if the helmet meets the requirements for SNELL or ECE approval (they’ll usually have a sticker on the back saying as much).

Nothing beats the convenience of an open-face helmet for cruising, light touring, or just commuting through your town. If you happen to be riding a scooter while wearing an open-face helmet, you’re just living in the lap of convenience and pragmatism. Like any other helmet, open-face helmets come in all shapes and sizes (though not a whole lot of colors), so here we’ve gathered a few to tell you about. They are listed below in alphabetical order.

Big manufacturers rarely open up their factory doors to the inquisitive eyes of journalists, and when they do, it is typically to show off the state-of-the-art nature of their manufacturing process. Recently, Arai opened its factories for a host of international journalists to show how their premium helmets, which are seen around the world on the grids of the pinnacle classes of each respective motorsport category, are as much the product of hands-on craftsmanship as they are technological advancements. The reasoning behind this openness was the desire to show why Arai believes they make the best motorcycle helmets in the world. The tour was enlightening for all who attended because Arai had the opportunity to show how its long-held core philosophy about head protection affects almost every step of the helmet construction process. 

MO Tested: Arai Regent-X Review

MO Tested: Arai Ram-X Review

MO Tested: Arai Corsair-X Review

But really, we need to go back to Arai’s entry into the motorcycle helmet business to understand the brand. Hirotake Arai, the founder of Arai, was a motorcycle enthusiast and is the rider in the iconic Arai photo of him standing atop the Harley-Davidson with his hands casually stuck in his pocket – his tie jauntily flapping over his shoulder – as the bike travels across what appears to be a dirt field. Although he was by profession a hat maker, he was also a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast. Perhaps manufacturing things like construction helmets made him aware of the protection he lacked when riding. At the time, there were no motorcycle helmet manufacturers in Japan, and since the country was a closed market, helmets weren’t available from elsewhere. Because of his affinity for motorcycles and racing, Hirotake knew that riders and racers needed helmets. So, he set out to create them. With this act, he started the motorcycle helmet industry in Japan. 

If you’ve been on the fence about getting a new helmet, Revzilla’s got some closeout deals on AGV, LS2, and Bell helmets that are definitely worth your consideration. There are closeout deals on everything from half helmets to full-face race helmets. So whatever your helmet needs are, there is bound to be something in this closeout sale that will work for you. The selections below are just a small taste of what’s getting slashed. Be sure to click on the respective links to see the full closeout page for the respective brands.

You may remember a time when helmets were…helmets. Full-face, modular, three-quarter…they did the job but were kind of bland, monochromatic and didn’t have a lot of features we take for granted today. Features like dropdown inner sun visors, carbon-fiber shells or modular lids designed to be worn as either a full- or open-face. And then came Shark.

What Shark did – for the lucky few U.S. riders who could get their hands on one – was bring class-leading European design, fit and function to the marketplace at an affordable price. “We like to think of ourselves as outsiders, always thinking outside of the box,” says Shark. “Pushing the boundaries of the motorcycle helmet industry by offering unique designs and concept helmets which ensures only the highest level of performance and safety.”

Guess what month it is at MO? It’s geeaar month, sergeant. The kind of motorcycle gear you wear, that is, that makes life on your bike much more pleasant no matter the climatic conditions. No doubt there will be amazing breakthroughs in the future of which our feeble 21st-century minds can’t even conceive: I’m picturing a shoulder-mounted rocket-propelled drone that deploys in 0.001-second to lift you above and away from an imminent left-turning Buick hovercraft. For now, we celebrate the 10 best pieces of gear the human race has come up with so far. Some you wear, some carries the gear you might want to wear later, some just makes the ride way more enjoyable.

This motorcycle helmet sale over at Cycle Gear is a big one, including a ton of our favorite helmet brands including Arai, Bell, HJC, Shoei, and many more. Literally hundreds of offerings are up for grabs for discounts ranging from 15% to over 60% off, covering a healthy mix of styles from full-face street helmets to helmets for motocross and ATV/UTV riders as well. Solid colors, race replicas, and bold graphic helmets are all part of the equation as well, and a quick skim revealed that a number of HJC’s Marvel Comics series helmets ( Captain America, The Punisher, Iron Man, and others) are up for grabs for a reasonable 20% off. If you missed the info on the Revzilla End of Season Clearout sale we covered a few weeks back (it’s still on!), here’s another chance to save big on new gear.

As we roll into fall, you’re looking at primetime motorcycle gear shopping. With roughly half the continent reaching the end of riding season, motorcycle helmets, jackets, and other types of motorcycle gear are popping up on sale across the web. In particular, Revzilla.com has recently opened up a significant closeout sale featuring all sorts of gear from Dainese, Alpinestars, Icon, and many of your other favorite brands, with savings ranging from 20% to 65% off!