Made me want to go helmet shopping now! People seem to like the X-lites. How are they for visor adjustment/replacement and can you get black visors (I never use anything else in summer)? I've always had Arais but never been a fan of their visor set-up, never seemed very satisfactory to me. I'd never buy a helmet online unless I'd tried one on first, though. Helmet buying always seems to me to be a little bit of a lottery; you can try a helmet on in the shop, and it can be fine, but you can't know for sure how it'l feel after half an hour's ride.
Visor fitting is easy. Push a buttons either side To remove & jobs done. Black visor is actually very dark green but looks black.
Actually encouraged me to pop to local bike dealers this morning. Of course with covid restrictions, not the ideal time for shopping. But I was allowed to try on a couple providing I wore a disposable paper balaclava, making me look like a crime scene investigator off the TV! No X-lites there unfortunately, but tried on an HJC RPHA which was decent, but needed a large rather than my usual medium. Perusing helmet comparisons online, notice that helmets seem to be divided into so many categories, sportsbike helmet, track helmet, etc. Hard to see that a 'track' helmet would be unsuitable for the road, other than noise which would be less of a priority. But I have always had Arais, which are generally thought to be quite noisy, before anyway. I always use ear-plugs. And if anything, I'd expect a 'sportsbike helmet' to offer the best vision when in a crouching position, which I would have thought would be good for a desmoquattro, even though I'm only 60 mph pootler these days! I'm a glasses wearer, and I've never owned a helmet with 'glasses grooves' so always managed without that feature, do they make that much difference?
My Arai is more comfortable than the XLite with glasses. Not that the X Lite is bad, just the Arai is exceptional in this area.
Well, you guys have persuaded me to part with my hard-earned for a X-lite. After a bit of ringing around, located one at a pretty big bike shop not too far away that I didn't know about. My old Arai must be a good five years old now. More to the point, it's an incentive to get some more use out of my bike.
Quick road test of new helmet today, as forecast is rain for the rest of the week. Slight pressure on temples, but to be expected with a new helmet I think, and no cause for concern. Dark green visor is fine, good field of view, and I agree the press-stud for the retaining strap seems more fiddly than my Arai. Very pleased overall.
First ride with this. Been years since I used a D-ring, but easy enough after the second go. Hardly feel I’m wearing it with the weight, fairly quiet, lovely fit (ok, it’s new!). Like it
I have a XLite 803 ultra carbon.........it’s really lightweight and lovely to wear. Only issue I have with it is the pop stud (once you’ve done up the D ring) is an absolute pain in the arse to fasten up. I’ve been told it gets easier once it’s been used a while but so far (after 4 months) it’s still a pain in the arse
I just got this Shoei NXR (size medium, jazzy "Zork" paintjob) last week and it weighs 1,350g with visor and pinlock. It's so quiet in comparison with the Shoei XR1000 it replaces and there's next to no lift when I look over my shoulder at motorway speeds. It wasn't cheap at £470 plus another £100 for the Spectra Fire Orange visor but I've had the XR1000 for 11 years so it should work out pretty good value. It's a fair bit cheaper online but we gotta support our local bike shops!
