#helmet

Back in the timeline of my motorcycle sales career, I managed to piss off the Arai rep who serviced the dealership I worked for by ordering an AGV helmet after having already ordered an Arai through him. A young racer named Valentino Rossi was rampaging the 125cc GP class, and his helmet design was one of the coolest I’d ever seen. The AGV didn’t fit as good as the Arai and I had to pay full-pop instead of the bro deal the Arai rep was giving me, but I wanted Rossi’s design that bad. Years later, returning from San Francisco’s Halloween festivities to where my T595
Triumph Daytona was parked on some side street, I arrived to find my beloved Rossi AGV cut from the bike, only a dangling D-ring left to prove it once existed. I still hate whoever that guy was.

This guy, Dave Gasser of Canton, Ohio, did! That name by itself should’ve been enough to win the contest, but Dave also correctly guessed that the MO crew would pick the BMW S1000XR as overall winner of our epic going-postal up the-coastal adventure, and earned himself a new Arai XD4 helmet. How’d he do it?

You don’t see many Davida helmets around, not this side of the pond anyway. When I got the word I’d be off to ride the all-new Triumph Street Twin, first of the new Bonnevilles, it felt like the right time to sample one. Davida has been at it for more than 30 years on the Wirral (Peninsula) in the U.K., cranking out helmets the old-fashioned way.

Nope, the blue helmet pictured is the C3 Pro, which German helmet maker Schuberth has been making since 2013. We got to attend a fun little media gathering last night for Schuberth’s all-new E1 Adventure helmet, which Schuberth wants you to know all about. What they don’t want are any images of it released to the public yet. We’ll play along as if everything’s perfectly normal.

Sena has been on a tear, lately. The Bluetooth communication company threw down the gauntlet with the release of the Sena 20S Motorcycle Bluetooth Communication System, bringing class-leading features and ease-of-use to the helmet communicator market. Then, back in December, Sena jumped into the action-camera fray with its Prism Bluetooth Action Camera featuring a unique Bluetooth audio recording capability. It might seem logical to sit back and let these two products gather market share. Instead, Sena has released a product that combines many of the key features of the 20S and Prism into one package that checks in at $349 – significantly less than the 20S/Prism combo, even with the recently lowered Prism price.

With the AGV AX-8 EVO Naked, the Italian helmet brand is bringing a new look to the street market, one that caters to what it calls “new road-riders generation.” The AX-8 EVO’s shape appears round and featureless, and its ventilation ports are minimal. Its eyeport, however, is huge, and its chinbar tapers sharply from the cheeks to the chin, very similar to a dual-sport or off-road helmet. This isn’t a coincidence; when looking for inspiration for a new sport-touring oriented street helmet, AGV turned to its AX-8 DUAL EVO lid. Essentially, the Naked version strips the visor from the off-road helmet and calls it a day. A simple approach, but the result is this contemporary and modern-looking helmet.

Blessed is the helmet manufacturer with various interior shapes. Blessed was the old Signet model from Arai, and blessed is the new Signet-Q. If you’ve a Long Oval noggin and have had your skull compressed front to rear inside a helmet with a very round interior, you’ll never realize what a mere 5mm of stretch provides in terms of comfort until you own a Signet-Q.

Harley-Davidson’s 2015 technical MotorClothes line features a variety of new and/or upgraded apparel. We recently spent some time in the rain wearing Harley-Davidson’s two-piece High Tail Colorblocked Hi-Vis Rain Suit, and have been enjoying the warming massage of the Dual-Source Heated Jacket Liner. There’s also two new versions of the FXRG Triple Vent System Switchback jackets – one leather, one textile – a standard FXRG leather jacket, and FXRG Dual-Homologated and modular helmets.

For no particular reason, my personal moto-wardrobe has been devoid of a new Shoei helmet for quite some time. Evans gave the new-last-year RF-1200 a fair, if not glowing, review, so when the RF’s 2015 color schemes were released, I put in an order for a Terminus TC-9 model. I wore it for the first time on my way to San Diego for Shoei’s presentation of its new adventure-touring lid, the Hornet X2. When it rains it pours.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, and as long as you wait long enough, what’s old will eventually become new again. Right now, we’re seeing that trend in motorcycling, as models like the  Yamaha SR400,  Royal Enfield Continental GT,  BMW R nineT and  Ducati Scrambler all pay homage to days gone by. Then, of course, you’ve got those who simply refuse to let go of the past, buying 30-plus year-old motorcycles and making them their own. Hell, even the verbiage is making a comeback. Cafe Racer, anyone? Vintage motorcycling may be popular these days, but there’s one aspect of the past that should remain in the history books: safety gear. Helmets, specifically.

From the moment my first child was born, I began planning for the day that she would ask me to take her for a motorcycle ride. As a person who’s devoted over half of my life and the bulk of my career to motorcycling, I couldn’t imagine not sharing this activity with my children. However, my wife and I often have differing opinions (Since dealing with conflict promotes personal growth, perhaps this is why I married her.), so I figured it would be a good idea to discuss my hopes with her long before our girl popped the question.

OK, I’ll admit I was kinda bummed when I ordered this Icon Airmada Volare helmet. The name brought back painful memories. You see, when I was a dateless early teen, I was certain that it was caused by the 1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon I was forced to drive. Fortunately, the Airmada Volare suffers from none of the lovelife killing issues of my adolescent transportation. This helmet is neither boring nor boxy, and when I wear it, I don’t feel like my mother dresses me funny.

I don’t have any tattoos. Nothing against them, not even worried about needles. Nope, I suppose I’ve just never felt strongly enough about anything to have it permanently inked into my skin. Oh, I’ve come close before. For maybe the past eight years or so I’ve often had this recurring thought about inking myself with a design that pays homage to my Indonesian ancestry, but alas, I’ve never gone through with it. Whether it was a lack of funds, a change of heart, or simply putting it off, the design never made it onto my body.

One of the first helmets I ever owned was a Scorpion. I don’t even remember the model number anymore, but I remember I bought it because it was all I could afford as a poor college student. It fit fine when I tried it on at the store for a few minutes, but the honeymoon period quickly ended by the time I rode home from the store – the shell gave my intermediate-oval dome a massive pressure point directly on my forehead. To add insult to injury, after only a few months sitting on my shelf, the liner started coming loose and the rubber seal between the visor and the shell started to come off. In the end, the experience left me with a sour taste in my mouth, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve worn a Scorpion since … and still have fingers left over.

A girlfriend from years ago – the one who instead of toasting bread then spreading peanut butter on top to create a warm, tasty snack, would microwave the combination long enough to molecularly change the Jif Chunky into a soupy, burnt mixture of glop oozing down the sides of a rubberized slice of Wonder – mistook another person for me.