Helmet for bigger dual sports

[Creekside]

Pardon the bad spelling and Grammer, this is tapatalk.

I busted my hjc road helmet in Colorado because the dust finally did in the mechanism for the shield. The problem I see with mx helmets is you'll freeze on the cold days on the road, and sleet and rain would not be nice on the face. But will work great following that giant dust cloud of faster riders. And road helmets just don't clean up well enough to keep the shield flip up mechanism working well.

The only answer I see like a last year's helmet like hjc"s cl 16 or 17 for 69$ to 135$. A throw away but safe. What say you?

[troy]

Last year, I picked up this popular dualsport helmet from Fly Racing. It tries to be a middle ground between a street and off-road helmet, and does a decent job of it. I think the helmet is very comfortable and relatively lightweight. Believe it or not, even with that visor, this helmet is smoother on the road than my HJC street helmet.

Here is a discussion about it.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=667916

The price is really great at only about $125. I can only assume the protection is adequate. Safety 3rd!

Fly Racing Trekker Adventure Touring/Dual-Sport Motorcycle Helmet


As for sizing, I wear size LARGE in HJC, and the LARGE Trekker fits me great except the cheeks are a smidge tight, but that's probably safer. I wore this helmet 2 Sundays ago all day for 510 miles and was very happy with it. (Note I've had more than one helmet that I've had to get rid of after wearing on a ride for 2+ hours because of discomfort.)

[Savage]

I have that same helmet and don't really care for it. I mean it's OK, but for comfort and sound, I like my cheap old Bell street helmet more. But for a DS, I'd rather wear my MX helmet and goggles anyday.
I guess its just personal preference.

[Creekside]

That was exactly the helmet I was thinking about! But I was figuring it would try to rip my head off at 80mph with that wing on the front. Those do fit pretty nice & I liked them up at Closeouts in smithville yesterday. Did fit just as good as the hjc's I guess. In the end I will probably get the hjc cl-17 and then get the Fly for 'Christmas". There are cheap replacement kits for the cl-16 and 17 shield mechanism I should order before it gets unusable and I bust it. $11 or so. Undo those 3 crappy plastic screws and swap them out before it starts seizing up from dust and the springs quick working well enough to keep it from popping off at speed and beating the side of my helmet until it leaves to find a new home in the grass.

Savage, if I lived out where you are, I'd do the same and forgo the half solution and get some real mx stuff, but I ride too much street even to the flint hills. At least I think so...never ridden with googles for two hours on the highway. Never ridden with googles ever for that matter.

[Savage]

You wouldn't think a dirt bike helmet and goggles are comfy on the highway, but to me they are. You get great airflow, yet your eyes don't get the wind, dust, bugs in them. Whereas the DS helmet allows too much air to bother my eyes. That and when I turn my head to the side at speed my dirt helmet stays right where it is, but my DS helmet wants to turn more. The DS helmets do look cool though. I was thinking about buying a better one to see if its better, but decided against it. Again, just personal preference.

[Harvey Mushman]

Try an Arai XD. A little pricey but you can custom fit the interior to fit like a glove. I bought one well used years ago and like it so much I bought another lightly used one off ADVrider. I still wear the old one all the time on both street and DS. I don't find the helmet lifts at speed. I usually don't exceed 70-75 on the highway. You can find nice used ones for sale on ADV or E-bay. There are a hanfull of lower priced helemts that are similar like the Fly and they are probably good as well. I like the verstility of the XD style of helmet.

[Bronco]

For off road riding I like a MX helmet w/ goggles, for street I like the way Shoei's fit my head so I have a X11 but with a SuperVisior (super-visor.com) attached which makes it the perfect all around helmet in my opinion. I have a Shoei DS Hornet I'm trying to sell because, in my opinion, the helmet is a lousy street helmet compared to my X11 (especially aerodynamically) and lousy dirt bike helmet compared to my Arai MX Pro (I know it's no longer made and old but it's my baby and I keep replacing interior parts when needed saving a fortune). The reason I don't like the Shoei DS for street is that if you wear it while riding a bike w/ no windshield the visor wants to rip your head off at highway speed and the reason I don't like it for dirt is the visor doesn't protect well against roost and during dusty conditions the front area fills up w/ dust unless you use the chin curtain. You can also greatly eliminate the dust problem w/ goggles on the DS but then you have to deal with goggles, the dust problem is again greatly reduced w/ the X11 using the factory chin guard which also really helps with wind noise at high speeds as well which you get big bike riding. As far as clean up is concerned, both the Arai and Shoei have fully removable liners so I wash them and then the shell thoroughly and blow out the shield mechanism on the Shoei with my air compressor blow gun attachment. My X11 is a 2008 model that has never been dropped or crashed in and I just replaced the entire interior for $125 so I have a new $6-700 helmet at a big discount. I'm not worried about the interior Styrofoam getting old at this point so the value in buying an expensive helmet with fully replaceable liners if a strong argument. I had a Shoei RF800 years ago that had a windshield mechanism fail but I just bought a replacement mechanism and installed it, problem solved. So for street and dual sport riding, unless the ds riding is really hard core single track w/ a few connector roads, my set up is the X11 with a SuperVisor and chin curtain. When the X11 does finally need replacement I'll look at another Shoei or Arai because of the fit, quality and availability of both interior and exterior replacement parts.

Bronco Steve

[Creekside]

That's a great idea, replace the insides of my old shoei too as a back up. I have worn it too much it's like a loose bucket on my head. As a back up. I probably should try a dual sport at highway speed for an hour or two and see.

[OverlandOdyssey]

I use Bilt's Explorer Adventure helmet. It looks a lot like the Fly helmet posted above. It has a shield, but it also has the integrated drop down internal sunvisor.It's nice for those days when you forgot your sunglasses or as a little extra boost when your sunglasses just aren't enough. I'm pretty sure you can still wear goggles with the shield up. I haven't ridden like that yet, but I did try it out at home and seemed to work fine. The peak doesn't catch the wind that bad but is noticeable when doing shoulder checks above 35-40mph. Biggest drawback is that it's loud. I wear earplugs anyway, so I don't really notice it. It's got the old style of dual d-ring strap. If the Fly has a ratchet strap, I'd probably go for it for that feature alone. As much as I like the integrated sunshield, the ratchet straps are worth it.

[Ed M]

I wear glasses and I'm thinking for one day DS rides I will wear my off-road helmet and goggles. But for a multi-day ride I'm considering a modular helmet from HJC. Anyone tried one of these Pros - cons??