Extremely cool helmet

[unixronin]

This is partly for my own future reference, and partly "Hey, this is a really cool helmet."  It's a Caberg Justissimo, now being imported into the US from Italy.  That externally-controlled fighter-pilot-style drop-down visor, in particular, is a really nice feature; it would completely eliminate the issue of finding sunglasses that (a) fit properly inside a helmet, and (b) can be put on and taken off with a helmet on without gouging grooves in your temples.

Caberg helmets are manufactured in Italy; they're being sold in the US by Motorcyclestyle.com and DesignerHelmets.com now that they're being imported and distributed under the Caberg name by Nichols Motorcycle Supply.  They were previously sold rebranded as the Mono X2 JAROW and distributed by ProtecQ, but ProtecQ's service was apparently the source of many complaints.  At significantly under $300, it's pretty reasonably priced, too.  Webbikeworld has a review here.  The word from a rider on the NEDoD list who owns one is that it's an extremely quiet helmet; the webbikeworld reviewer agrees, saying "it's quieter than many full-face helmets I've used, and it's definitely the quietest flip-up helmet I've tried."  The visor is pre-treated with an anti-fogging coating, and has five click-stop detents.  The lining is removable for washing.  The helmet is DOT approves and meets the European ECE 22-05 safety standard.  It comes in silver or metallic black, or titanium finish with silver graphics for about $30 more.

Comments

[smandal.livejournal.com]

http://helmetharbor.com/snell/snell.htm

If it passed both ECE's EN 22/05 and DOT's current standards, I think you can be fairly confident of the overall protection. Specifically, if I interpret the "coverage" prescriptions correctly, the DOT standard effectively tests the chin bar protection.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Enh. I dunno. Having just fallen off a motorcycle at 60 mph on the freeway two weeks ago, I'm extraordinarily wary of these flip up things. I just don't see how they could possibly be as stong as your standard integrated chinbar full-face helmets.

-Ogre

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Woah! I hope you are okay.

My intuition agrees that the flip-up faces might not be as strong as the unibody construction. But two counterarguments:

* These hinges on these flip-up helmets are quite beefy, with much more material than unibody helmets.

* Even if they are weaker, they might be strong enough. That is, if you are in a collision violent enough to cause a failure in the face of a flip-up helmet, you have other, yet bigger problems.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. It's in some ways the same argument as over helmet safety standards. It can be argued that there's no point in having a helmet capable of protecting your head from a crash so severe thet you're likely to have received other fatal injuries anyway, particularly if the cost of that extreme-case protection is your head actually absorbing more energy in less severe accidents.
As long as the modular is strong enough to protect you in an otherwise-surviveable accident, does it really matter whether it's fully as strong as a one-piece?

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much every bit as ok as it's possible to be after wrecking a motorcycle on the freeway in rush hour. I got off basically scot free. I was a lucky man, and I acknowledge that every time I talk about it.

I pretty much only had two bruises (right elbow and hip) and three patches of road rash (right knee, left knee, left elbow). No broken bones, didn't get hit by any other traffic, nothing.

The concern for me on these helmets isn't so much the hinges, as the locking mechanism. If the faceplate flips up, it can't protect you at all. So, I've always just been concerned about them coming undone at speed.

But yeah, there's always the fact that there can be other things to worry about more.

-Ogre