My most comfortable helmet is the cheapest one I've bought. That Hawk open faced helmet from Leatherup.ca is a simple device with barely any padding in it, yet I can wear it for hours without any pressure points. It's a flip down, open faced lid with a built in sun visor, but it solidified for me my preferred helmet type - the open faced, modern helmet. You can get out of the wind with the full face visor, or just use the sun visor and enjoy an unencumbered view of the road.
With the open faced thing in mind, here are my latest helmet dreams, but they ain't cheap (or easy to find in some cases):
ROOF HELMETS: Desmo
I've still got a huge crush on these French helmets that you can't get here. I'm going to have to take a trip to the south of France just to pick one up. The orange Desmo on the left has an A7 Corsair vibe to it that I dig. It still looks like the perfect helmet: an open faced helmet that can transform into a fully safetied full face helmet when needed without having to carry around bits and pieces with you.
Price? No idea, you can't buy them in North America and the former distributor hasn't been forthcoming with where to get the last ones in-country. These guys have it for €469 ($649CA), but then there will be shipping and customs fees. I'd be the only one I see on the road though.
SCHUBERTH: M1
Schuberth just came out with a new version of their open faced helmet. Once again, these aren't everywhere, but they are a heck of a lot easier to find than the Roof.
Compared to the French jeux de vivre in the Roof, you get some pretty German meh when it comes to style, though I bet its engineered to within an inch of its life.
Price? $680 from a trusted source, canadasmotorcycle.ca
NEXX HELMETS: X40 Vultron (!)
Wired did an article on these many moons ago. Also a modular helmet, but rather than the Roof's elegant hinge, you end up with a handful of bits when you want to go open face.
It still has a neo-tech look to it that I like, though their webpage is a bit of a pig (my laptop is in overdrive trying to make sense of it).
Price? Good question, NEXX Canada doesn't appear to offer the X40 for sale. You can find them for sale in the UK for £249.99 ($484CA), but you also facing those shipping and customs costs.
An open faced helmet that comes with all the bits and pieces to make a closed lid if you so wish. It also lets you live your Clint Eastwood Firefox dream.
The Soyouz is also made by a much better known and distributed manufacturer than some of the dodgier off-shore helmets I seem drawn to.
Price? $299 in Canadian dollars with free shipping and no customs surprises from motorcyclesuperstore, a trusted source who go over the top to make sure you're happy with your order. If they go on sale, I might not be able to help myself.
I made that order for Leatherup.ca even though I couldn't get a clear answer out of them about sizing on the jacket. I was told by their 'live' support that the jacket measurements were the outside of the jacket - which I've never heard of before. Why would I want to know what the outside dimensions of a jacket are? It's the inside dimensions that would fit me, why would I possibly care about the outside dimensions?
Anyway, based on the weird sizing I should be a small (I'm 6'3", 220lbs, a 46 chest and a 40 waist). My current jacket is an XL and the idea that I'd be a small seemed absurd. I tried looking around for alternate size descriptions and found another on ebay. That chart suggested I should be in a large, which still isn't where I usually look for a jacket but isn't as out of whack as a small or medium.
Inevitably, the large was too small. I could get into it, and I think it would have fit without the liner but it ain't no 42" waist. I've since sent it back for an XL safe in the knowledge that Leatherup.ca is very proud of their return policy. Having said that, it cost me $22 to return it, so this jacket is already getting more expensive.
The good news is that the jacket was a quality piece with excellent stitching, heavy duty zippers and a nicely finished liner and details; it felt like a quality garment. The helmet and gloves I got were both excellent. The gloves have solid build quality with nice leather and stitching, and the helmet has also exceeded my expectations being light, comfortable and offering a lot of options for venting. Both (gloves XL, helmet XXL) are perfect fits and follow normal sizing.
I'll let you know how the return process goes with the jacket, I'm hoping it's as effortless as they claim. If you want to save some headaches in trying to figure out their strange jacket sizings just go with what you'd normally go with. I get an XL jacket normally, I should have just trusted in that rather than the weird sizing charts.
update: I'm a week into the exchange and Leatherup.ca has been completely radio silent - no 'we've received your exchange' email, no, 'your exchange is in process email', no, 'your new jacket is on its way' email. After requesting information (twice), I've gotten no replies either. Everything may be proceeding, but it's like I sent that jacket back into a blackhole. Between that and the lack of information on sizing that got me into an exchange situation in the first place, I'd have to say that Leatherup.ca isn't very good at communicating. Well priced quality gear? Yep. A smooth, customer orientated ordering process? Not so much.
update again! Leatherup suddenly woke up on Saturday. I found a $600 motorcycle jacket at a garage sale for fifty bucks so I asked for a refund rather than an exchange on the returned cafe racer jacket and within ten minutes they'd ok'd the refund.
I'm happy with the kit I got, quality stuff at a good price, but their communications aren't great. I do a lot of ordering through work and the good companies (Amazon, Tigerdirect to name two) are constantly updating statuses and letting me know where they are in process. This can be automated, so I hope Leatherup goes that route. Having said all that, I'll order from them again.
My first year of bike gear had a certain style to it, it also happened to be the least expensive stuff I could lay hands on. After the no-name boots and pants I did a second round of gear buying as the summer began. The Alpinestar boots and Macna pants I got were next level, but this year I want to expand my kit to include a more traditional biker look; it's time for the leather jacket and an alternate helmet.
Since everything else is technicolour, textile and sport-bikey, I'm going for more traditional looking gear this time around. When I've eventually got more than one bike I'm hoping that a range of gear lets throw a leg over anything and go.
This time round I'm looking for an open faced helmet for the short commute to work and a leather jacket. My current choices were found on Canada's Motorcycle, Motorcycle Superstore and Leatherup.ca.
I've been looking for a classic motorcycle jacket that does the vertical stripe thing. That look is surprisingly hard to find. Short of going to a Pakistani garment manufacturer directly (along with the perils of ordering that way), they are surprisingly unavailable.
The flat black G-Max helmet is inexpensive and simple. The Shark Soviet looking helmet is cool and expensive. I've got gauntlet gloves and mesh gloves, but a pair of black leather gloves would be nice.
Since I started riding I've been finding that jeans are handy if I suddenly want to take the bike out. A leather jacket would be a causal but convenient way to quickly get out on two wheels. The full-on textile armoured jacket and pants still do the job for intentional longer rides, but for quick jaunts the leather and denim thing would mean just throwing a leg over a bike, not to mention not looking out of place on a more classic ride. Getting on a Bonneville with the textile race wear looks a bit out of place.
LLeatherup.ca's prices look reasonable too. If they get back to me about the weird sizing on that jacket, I'll be ordering shortly.
My most comfortable helmet is the cheapest one I've bought. That Hawk open faced helmet from Leatherup.ca is a simple device with barely any padding in it, yet I can wear it for hours without any pressure points. It's a flip down, open faced lid with a built in sun visor, but it solidified for me my preferred helmet type - the open faced, modern helmet. You can get out of the wind with the full face visor, or just use the sun visor and enjoy an unencumbered view of the road.
