Shoie Helmets

Well here I go for what it is worth. I have a couple months of riding under my lid, and though I would have liked to have ridden more, weather was a deterring factor.

So....here it is:


This helmet is certainly a lot smaller than the Sharke I was wearing before. The fit is quite tight. I thought that it would loosen a bit and maybe it has, but it is still tight. Maybe too tight around the cheeks. I understand that different cheek pads are available so I will have to look into that. What you don't see in the photo is a red flake in the paint. Nice touch. I think it is a sharp looking lid but then if I thought it was ucking fugley, I would not have bought it.



I like the clean look where the face shield meets the lid. None of those big ugly thingies showing on the outside of the screen. I ordered a smoked screen right up front. My eyes are kinda sensitive to the sunlight and I don't like wearing glasses. This screen could be a bit darker though. I still find myself squinting while facing south with the sun shining on a wet road. At first, I was having a bit of difficulty getting the shield off and on. I do change every day between the dark and clear as it is very late when I commute home. But that is just something one has to get accustomed to. It is getting better.



This little leaver is a neat touch. In one position, the face shield is drawn a fraction of an inch away from the gasket which allows air flow into the helmet to keep things a little cooler I suppose. One would think that it would help with the condensation as well, and maybe it does, but not enough. More on that in a minute. This lever is easy to operate even wearing quite heavy winter gloves. Another nice thing here is that should there develop a leak between the gasket and the shield, the gasket has micro adjustments to seal up those leaks. We will see how well that works in the future I am sure. Right now it is very weather tight.



The lid is very well vented which of course makes it quite noisy. But I guess that is a trade off. Stands to reason that the more ventilation you have, the more wind noise. I prefer lots of ventilation with the noise. I can always wear ear protection, and for that matter, usually do wear a music device. Speaking of which. I have a Garmin Zumno 660 with a Chatterbox speaker and mic set for my old Sharke. I am sure I can get the speakers to fit in the helmet, But I do not believe that there is any way I will ever get that mic to fit under the helmet. Regardless, I have found that though it is nice to have coms in your helmet, and the MP3, and Cell phone blue tooth capabilities are kinda neat and techie, they are not practical on rides on the highway. Far too much wind noise. SO to hell with the phone, and use earphones and an MP3 player in your pocket. The sound is far superior to the speakers in the helmet anyways. Going to be interesting to see how effective the ventilation is when the warmer weather comes along. I am assured that is going to happen.



Here's a look inside. The lid came with a breath deflector that is poor at best in my opinion. It comes no where close to being as good as the one supplied with the Sharke. And there is not a better one available, yet anyways, from Shoei. So if you ride in the type of weather I ride in, fogging of the screen is a real problem. And it certainly was with this helmet. I have worked on this issue quite a bit. Eventually, I removed the breath guard supplied and purchased an after market breath deflector and jimmied it inside. I met with considerable success but still not as good as the Sharke for this purpose



This photo shows the Shoei and the after market breath deflectors both installed for comparison. I don't use the Shoei. Also, on the Sharke, the breath deflector directed your breath right out a couple ports at the side of the helmet. This is something that Shoei should really look at doing as an improvement to their design on the next run of helmets.



Now here is a great idea. These tabs are there to make it so that EMTs can remove cheek pads to access your head without grinding and pulling on your neck. Pull the red tabs and the cheek pads come out...so they say. I haven't tried to remove them just in case, they are meant to be a one time removal thing. Sorry guys, I am not prepared to sacrifice almost a grand to see if it works. I wonder if most EMTs would be aware what these red tabs are for. So you EMTs out there, chirp in here. You can also see where the after market breath deflector sits. I had to cut away a fair portion of the bottom of the deflector though. Otherwise it jutted way down below the bottom of the lid. I don't have the chin curtain on in this photo. Actually I have not been using the chin curtain at all. I can't help but think it may hamper the escape of your warm breath on a cold wet day.



I have re-installed the chin curtain here. It goes on and off fairly easily so I will give it a go riding with it on. We will see if it has a detrimental effect on the fogging issue.

All in all though, I like this helmet so far. Are there down sides to it...yes there is. But the fit is great. I think it will be even better when I change the cheek pads. It is very stable on the head. And even though I did say there was wind noise, it is tolerable. My first helmet, a cheaper KBC, is a lot quieter, but it is a lot heavier and I suspect is going to be proven to be a lot hotter in the summer.



For some reason, Shoei thinks my name is DOT. Have no idea where they got that idea from.

 

Hey Long, isn't that the design you wanted a year or so back? Nice Randy!! I like!!

However, I must say for myself, that after spending the higher dollars on Arai and Shoei, I recently bought an Icon Allicance helmet for a mere $175.00 and this is actually the best helmet I've ever worn. The venting is really effective, and the fit is perfect!! No matter what Shoei or Arai I tried, I always had "hot spots". With the Icon, I feel like my head is in a barcalounger... no hot spots. And soundproofing? Wow, the padding contours around my fact all the way to just below the jaw bone, and I get almost no noise air noise in the helmet. That's not to say that this helmet will work for anyone else, after all, it is all about the shape of your head and your personal preference on fit. I just happen to be lucky and the fit on this less expensive helmet is perfect for me, so I get to save some bucks!!

 

When anyone gets popped for MSRP and a bunch of tax on anything, the first line of defense is to rationalize the purchase using unsupported technical shit with the implication that if it costs more it's mo bettah.

Thankee Jesus for not having too many harleydoods here to support this premise.

 

Agreed BB. The Pinto was a fine car. So was the Galaxi 500. The Vega had its market as did the Cadillac. Famous Grouse Blended Scotch has the same punch as Highland Park 25 year old single malt. I hear there is a 35 year old Highland Park out there to but that is too rich for my blood.

My intentions are to die broke...........

 

Thanks Karen. I have heard similar statements before. Matter of fact, I think Icon was specifically mentioned. And yes, every helmet does fit differently depending on the shape of one's noggin. I supposed I could have bought 4 or 5 lower cost helmets and experimented for the price I paid for this one for sure. Maybe, next time around, that is just what I will do.

But there were two very important issues for me to consider when I bought this one as when I bought the Sharke. I have neck issues, so weight is a huge concern. My HBC, which fits really nice, is, in the hand, only slightly heavier. But when worn, the difference is huge. And I really mean huge. So with that, if I want to be able to continue with the longer rides, unfortunately, I think I am stuck forking out the money for a competition style beanie box. And with the weather I ride in most the time, ventilation is vital. With the ventilation, comes the noise and unfortunately as well, lack of heat retention within the lid.

I think you have been riding longer than I so in time, maybe I will be able to experience more brands and will be lucky enough to find just the right one. Maybe that will be the next one. But by that time, I could be retired again, and living down there in Vegas where I don't have to worry about this shit weather. But I will come over and sip on some wine with ya.

 

Randy,

Never having owned any of those cars and not being a boozer, I will defer to your expertise. I did almost put a Northstar in my old Mercedes but the small block Chevvy is still running fine.

 

Now that has an affect on certain parts of my anatomy. Isn't it a shame that when they finally get something right, they throow it away. What can be more reliable than the 283 and more so the fine 327. Cept maybe that indestructable slant six

 

Not to worry about affectations. The physiological effect on the brain and liver are more in the fore.

The original smallblock Chev was a 265. The 327 was destined for the Pontiac. IMO stuffing a slant six into a Mercedes might be thought of as counterproductive, A better choice for a six hole would be a Ford six truck engine.

 

I just bought a brand new Shoei Qwest in solid greyish silver for $250 delivered off Ebay. It got very good reviews and am anxiously waiting for spring so I can try it out. I'll let you guys know how it is.

 

Our other randy one wears his around the house and I think took a shower with it on to test it out. Something to do before spring anyways.

 

I like my Shoei helmet also... I gave a quick review in the ride review for my Trumpet in another thread... Glad you like it.

One thing; careful with those tabs; one of mine is lose, and I have to snap it back into place, comes lose almost every time I pull the helmet off. It's more of a nuisance really, but for the money, it does pev me...

 

I wonder what Shoei would say if you were to contact them about that loose tab? I was in touch with Shoei when I first bought this lid to let them know I would be appraising the helmet and posting my opinions. Wanted to give them an opportunity to defend themselves should the need arise so they know where this thread is. The person I was in contact with seemd to be very receptive to our communications.

I suggest you make contact with them about this issue, cause yes, for what is paid for these lids, i should think they would send out parts to repair yours.

 

What they (Shoei) would say is what you want to hear and as soon as you hang up or sign off, the person on the other end puts you in the nutter file.

 

I prefer to take the optimistic approach. If works for me more often than it does not.

 

I too am optimistic they didn't put you in the nutter file. Lets see if we have this right. You rode down from BC to a known MSRP dealer, bought a helmet that needed to be ordered (in business this is called a "onesie") Paid Washington State sales tax on it when you didn't have to, rode down again to pick up your helmet, and then called Shoei and told them you were going to post exactly what about thier product?

Based on worldwide sales of all Shoei helmets do you really think you had an impact on that large corporation who pay folks to listen and then answer from a carefully written script? At least you didn't have to "press 1" and be informed your call may be recorded. (May??? LOL)

Then again, this whole exercise on your part might end in a Shoei "Randy" model. Hopefully if this comes about, Shoei will get the real color of the maple leaves right instead of Mountie red.. I have actually seen green maple leaves and this red thing may be just another government conspiracy driving the less aware citizens of Canada toward becoming a socialist state using symbolism as a tool.

 

Could you PM me your contact's info?

 

Well... 8 months later. And most of my riding has been in the pouring rain but finally some summer like weather has arrived.

I did have quite a problem with water getting into the helmet and the face shield fogging up. Shoei worked with me to find a solution to this. Through a lot of trial and error, I was able to pin point the leaks. They were not really leaks. The water was coming in through the vents above the shield. So this did create quite a problem. In the colder weather, you want to keep you head as dry as possible otherwise it is instant fogging of the inside of the shield.

Many e-mails were passed back and forth between myself and one of Shoei's tech advisers. I have to tell you all, I was very impressed with the contact and support I got from them. "My" issue was not resolved totally to my satisfaction but here is the nuts and bolts of it.

We discussed the leaking through the vents. Shoei was able to convince me that this helmet is a competition helmet and that the venting to keep one cooler, supersedes the keeping the rain out. They do ride in competitions in the rain, but that is not really that common I guess.

Shoei sent me their supplementary breath guard. It was very similar to the one I had bought and put in there. But that was very limited in success in keeping the inside from fogging up.

Shoei recommended I purchase a Pin Lock face shield. Someone here also suggested this. I had purchased a similar product a few years ago and was totally pissed at its failure to accomplish anything. So I resisted this. My position was that if Shoei was recommending this, then why wouldn't they just make all their face shield to be pin lock? I mean, for what I paid for this helmet, you would think they would at least, provide the shield with the pins right from the start and let the consumer decide of they need to dole out the money to buy the inserts. But regardless of this, I was not convinced in the slightest that this would work anyways.

So after riding in the torrential down pours for a few months and fighting with the fogging, I relented and went down to my favorite Skagit Power sports Shop and bought the Pin Lock shield.

Well I have put on about 20 pounds eating crow. I am very pleasantly impressed with the job it does keeping the screen clear of fog. Now, I can close off those vents and keep the rain and water out of the helmet, and the Pin Lock System keeps the screen clear.

The helmet has broken in quite nicely now. I love the fit. And now that it is getting warmer, by our standards here anyways, all the venting in the helmet have kept me cool, at least while I am moving. So, go back 8 months when I was about to buy a helmet. In hind sight, I would have done the same thing. Only bought the pin lock system sooner. But I still think the helmet should come with the Pin Lock Shield in the first place.

Cu-dos to Shoei for how they treated me.

 

Hi Randy,
does the Pin Lock shield come as a specific anti-fog shield or just tinted ones?
My Shoei has the lugs on the OEM shield but seems to defog reasonably well with just the breath guard installed. It only seems to fog up at low speed and I can crack the visor without flooding the helmet.
Thanks for your great repot too. It helps guys like me who have been away from the scene for a bit.
Cheers

 

I am surprised the folks a Shoei didn't suggest that you just stop breathing.

 

The original shield that came with my helmet did not have the pins for the pin lock system. I had to buy a brand new face shiled which was clear. I purchased two of the flexible inner shields, one clear one tinted. I have never used the clear inner shield as the tinted one is not that dark. I know that is illegal most places but not here. Mine fogged up really bad but then I suspect our temps are a bit colder than yours in the winter.