A crashed helmet is a crashed helmet.  Once the EPS liner is compressed it stops being protective against impact.

Yes, wearing a damaged helmet is better than no helmet at all, but it's not something I would consider doing long term.  It may not be able to prevent a concussion.

im only wearing it on my ride to the dealership to get a new helmet

Just got this today (sorry for the dirty background, I'm at work):



Nolan N104 Absolute. It is replacing an N103 that I've been sporting for 7 years......I have to say it is SOOOO much nicer than the N103. It feels lighter, breathes better, sun visor operates smoother and is spring loaded, etc. Next payday I'll be getting a tinted visor for it, and I'm currently waiting for an "eBay special" bluetooth in the mail.

Quote from: Big Rich on April 25, 2017, 08:25:16 PM
Just got this today (sorry for the dirty background, I'm at work):

*snip*
Nolan N104 Absolute. It is replacing an N103 that I've been sporting for 7 years......I have to say it is SOOOO much nicer than the N103. It feels lighter, breathes better, sun visor operates smoother and is spring loaded, etc. Next payday I'll be getting a tinted visor for it, and I'm currently waiting for an "eBay special" bluetooth in the mail.

Drop down internal visor was top priory for my last helmet too.. don't think ill ever go back to a helmet where I have to carry a whole clear visor just encase it got dark! I just really wish I didn't get matte... did I say that already? Doh.. I really wish I didnt get matte.

Quote from: J_Walker on April 27, 2017, 12:04:02 AM

Quote from: Big Rich on April 25, 2017, 08:25:16 PM
... sun visor operates smoother and is spring loaded.

Drop down internal visor was top priory for my last helmet too.. don't think ill ever go back to a helmet where I have to carry a whole clear visor just encase it got dark!

I don't trust those, ever since crossing train tracks at night and having one flip down on me from the rough crossing, effectively blinding me.

But I like the idea for the convenience, especially since I'm mainly a commuter.  That's why I'm getting a Shoei RF1200 next.  Photochromic lens for the WIN!

Walker, it sounds to me like your matte helmet is a good candidate for a fresh paint job......

Watcher - the visor dropped down? That sounds like a failure of the helmet somehow. The visor on both my old N103 and the new N104 both take some leverage to get them to move. Heck the N103 visor would probably break the mechanism before it dropped unexpectedly.

Could have been.  Could have been when the visor was retracted it wasn't past the detent, this helmet didn't have one that was spring loaded, in that case it would have been user error.
Either way, I was lucky I didn't run into anything, all I could see for a couple of seconds was tail-lights.

Quote from: Big Rich on April 27, 2017, 01:42:43 AM
Walker, it sounds to me like your matte helmet is a good candidate for a fresh paint job......

Tell me what to paint it with that isn't gonna degrade any of the plastic, and I will... I'd love too

Quote from: Watcher on April 27, 2017, 09:44:57 AM
Either way, I was lucky I didn't run into anything, all I could see for a couple of seconds was tail-lights.

this one time, it was 3am, rain down poor couldn't see 10 feet in front of me, smoked visor, and every vehicle around me was doing 90mph... oh Florida.

Moving 1 point up the DfT points chart...

one of these:

after the takachi fell to bits on the way home from the supermarket a week ago. takachi...you won't really be missed all that much...

Drop down sunvisor is a bit too 'Top-Gun' but I can see the reason for it.

Edit: I take that back, the top-gun visor is fantastic.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread rather than make a new one.

It's new helmet day!  Or should I say "mew" helmet day?    (Keep scrolling down, you'll get it...)

Got my first Shoei, and in the spirit of "go big or go home" I went with an X-14.  Haven't ridden in it yet, spent the evening learning the ins and outs and just ogling it.  My tired Icon got a good deep-cleaning and tomorrow when it's all dried off I'll reassemble it and set it on a shelf.  It'll make a decent backup helmet so I don't want to just toss it like my last helmets, and rather than shut it away in a closet I might as well display it.
But this post isn't about my Icon, it's about my Shoei!

Omg you got onea those! It caught my eye in a recent email... prolly from Cycle Gear of course... VERY cool!!! I remember the price.....

Thumbs up from "The Cat Lady of Brandle Street" lol

Watcher, that Shoei is RAD. If it came in White/Blue instead of White/Red I would be all over that. Let us know how it feels while riding.

Lookin sweet watcher   I like those lines

wearing a Japanese marked/themed helmet, on an Italian bike. Please tell me you have a Harley jacket?!

Quote from: J_Walker on October 11, 2017, 10:51:38 AM
wearing a Japanese marked/themed helmet, on an Italian bike. Please tell me you have a Harley jacket?!

No, I have a Dainese jacket.

Yeah, it's decidedly Japanese.  But I don't like AGV, I wanted a Shoei, I wanted an X14, and of all the graphics I like the Marquez Motegi the best.

It IS a Japanese helmet, so I figure that's good enough, and the cat is a symbol of good luck/fortune so...   

Quote from: qcbaker on October 11, 2017, 05:41:13 AM
Watcher, that Shoei is RAD. If it came in White/Blue instead of White/Red I would be all over that. Let us know how it feels while riding.

The X14 does come in bunch of really cool blue designs, none of them were quite my style though.
I'll be sure to chime in on my thoughts after riding it, both initially and after some time.

Quote from: qcbaker on October 11, 2017, 05:41:13 AM
Let us know how it feels while riding.

Amazing!

I've worn it on the road for a grand total of about 45 minutes now and it's already made an incredibly positive impression.  How much of that is still "new toy syndrome" and how much will still be there in 10, 20, 100, 1000 hours of use remains to be seen, but so far here are the takeaways.

It's quiet.  I knew my Icon made a good amount of wind noise, but I never knew how bad it was until I rode in this Shoei.  Only had it up to about 60mph, but at that speed the wind noise is...  Well, it's still there.  But it sounds...  Distant?  Muffled?  Like, ok, the Icon was windy.  You could identify the source of the wind noise as being at the helmet.  A breeze blows by, you hear it, you pick up speed, you hear it, as you turn your head to check a blind spot you can hear the volume change and you can hear the source rotate, and it's not really IN your ears but it's at your head.  The Shoei sounds like...  Like you're sitting in your car on a windy day.  The wind noise is there, but it's not generated by any particular vent or crack that the air is using to enter the helmet, it sounds like the wind noise is just from the helmet being physically in the way of the wind, if that makes any sense.  It's almost surreal.  Sounds like the road around you and the engine are still clear and the wind sounds so much farther away.  Totally different world-view when riding.

Speaking of the wind, aerodynamically it's amazing!  There's this one valley I always ride through that often has a cross breeze, and in addition to pushing me and my motorcycle it tends to push my head.  This time when I hit that patch I reflexively moved my neck, but it resulted in my held tilting INTO the wind rather than just resisting it.  Turning my head to check a blind spot meets no kind of resistance or change in air pressure, which is odd considering the swept shape of the X14, and it makes the helmet feel WAY lighter on my head despite the X14 being about 100 grams heavier than the Airmada.  Never thought I really got any kind of wind buffetting around town in the Icon, but in the Shoei something felt inexplicably different.  Then I realized my head was just more stable, lol!  This also made the helmet feel lighter on my head, I think, since I wasn't using neck muscles to fight the wind.

Airflow is...  interesting.  The Airmada has basically 4 main vents:  Two chin vents that open directly through the EPS into your face, a nose vent that opens to the shield, an eyebrow vent that is directed straight through the EPS to your forehead, and a top diffuser that is channeled in some external ducts.  This does a decent job, you feel wind directly on your forehead and chin/mouth, and I never really felt excessively hot inside even on 110°F+ days of riding.
The X14 has a chin vent that opens into the cheek pads, a nose vent that opens to the shield, an eyebrow vent that appears to go straight through the EPS to the forehead, and the top diffuser which is channeled along the top of the EPS.  I can't feel any of these creating direct airflow on me, not even the eyebrow vent, but what I DO feel is the entire padding system cool down.  The cheeks feel cool, the liner feels cool, even the back of my head feels cool, and you can feel this temperature change as it happens.  I'll be sitting at a light and gradually warming the helmet via body-heat (head-heat?), then as I pull away I can feel the temperature of the pads drop noticeably.  Even more fun, after the helmet sat inside an air-conditioned building all day and the pads were saturated with cold air, and for the first mile or so the pads actually felt COLD when air was passing through them!
I dig it, I can't wait to see how this does in the dead heat of summer next year, and I expect it should be much more effective at keeping the wind OUT when winter comes around and I start closing the vents.

FOV is going to take some getting used to.  The X14 was specifically designed for the 3/4-full tuck, so it's actually rolled a little back on the head to give you better sight-line when leaned over.  The pads are actually adjustable to make it even more extreme, but I'll be leaving them in the most upright position.  Feels good on the bike, but my muscle memory from my Icon has me looking "up" and in the Shoei that places the sun directly in my eyes and cuts off my view of the speedometer.  Relaxing my neck a little to drop my chin down made it just about perfect.

Negatives so far: The breath guard hits the tip of my nose when installed, but I can learn to live with it, especially if it helps with fogging when it starts to get cooler out.  Otherwise?   

I mean, a negative could be that it was expensive.  But I can definitely see where all the money went.  This wasn't pieced together from "good ideas", this was engineered from the ground up with years of R&D sunk into it using the best possible materials and such.  $800 is a steal for this helmet, especially considering an X14 is the helmet that racers like Marc Marquez are using while an AGV Pista is almost twice the price (and I'm betting it isn't twice the helmet).


I dig it.  Much the same as with other things I once thought needlessly expensive (like Spyderco knives) I've metaphorically "seen the light" on Shoei.  So far it's pretty damn cool, and I'm very happy I bought it, and I'm wondering what else in the motorcycle apparel world I've been missing out on, lol!
If their flagship helmet is any indication the entire Shoei lineup is awesome, and has me thinking the $400 RFSR is a bargain at that price.

Speaking of weirdness,
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=dcTeWbTrB-KmjwTu45OIDg&q=spaceballs+motorcycle+helmet&oq=spaceballs+mot&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.1.1.0l3j0i22i30k1l2.2655.7953.0.10098.15.15.0.7.7.0.527.3267.0j5j8j5-1.15.0....0...1.1j4.64.mobile-gws-hp..0.15.2020.3..5j41j0i131k1.240.1zFSZodoP7U#imgrc=DImggJUZ6Z3RjM:
Aaron

Both my lids together.



I dunno, I might exchange that gold mirror shield for a silver mirror.  I just went gold without questioning it because my bike is yellow and the helmet has some gold/bronze on it, but I think a silver would look better.

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on October 11, 2017, 06:26:43 PM
Speaking of weirdness {snip}

I somehow found THIS on that link!

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on October 11, 2017, 06:26:43 PM
Speaking of weirdness {snip}

I somehow found THIS on that link!


[/quote]

I prefer a full face helmet, but that one I just might wear.

zombie thread!

picked up a chinese nenki 

it's ok.  Pretty light weight and comfortable.  Breathes well.  Shield sucks.  Major distortion in the middle,...