I've been looking around for a helmet to replace my trusty Shoei X11 for a while now, but my oval head makes finding a helmet the fits properly a bit tricky. On a whim (and partly out of desperation), I popped into the Santa Clara Cycle Gear yesterday to have a look around. Once I got past the aisles and aisles and aisles and aisles of Bilt gear, I found where they've hidden the Arai and Shoei helmets. I went straight for the Arai Signet Q, as this appears to be the defacto standard for us oval-shaped heads. Sure enough, it fit very well but I've never really been an Arai fan -- those side pods on the face shield just don't do it for me.
About this time, Nate came up and asked me if I needed help (big to Nate - he truly knows his stuff about helmets). We got to talking about helmets and specifically what I was looking for, and he recommended I try the new Shoei GT Air. He explained that the GT Air is modeled after the RF1100, which is Shoei's most oval helmet. To my surprise, it actually fit me better than the Arai Signet Q! I wore it in the store for ~15 minutes, and not a hint of pressure or discomfort. Even my X11, which I've had for 5 years, was a good fit, but not a truly great fit.
Fit-wise, it came down to the Signet Q and the GT Air, but feature-wise the GT Air is in a league of it's own. This is Shoei's newest helmet, and it incorporates the internal flip-down sun visor from the Neotec along with lots of other cool gee-wizardry like an included Pinlock visor. OK, so in my hands on on my head, it seemed to be a fantastic helmet, but the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.
I got to put a few hundred miles on it today, and it doesn't disappoint! Here are some initial impressions:
- It's so much quieter than my X11 it's actually creepy. With earplugs in and face shield down, it's astonishingly quiet. It's obvious this thing is designed as a sport-touring helmet and not a race helmet.
- Ventilation is also very good. The top vent creates a pronounced flow of air along the top of the head when wide-open. It has three positions so you can control how much air you want, and all the vent openings are big enough to easily work with gloved hands and have a very positive clicking action when they're moved through their stops.
- The best feature, by far though, is the flip-down sun shade. I used a dark smoke shield on my X11, and always hated having to flip it up on shadier roads like parts of Eureka Canyon and Ice Cream grade to be able to see in the shade. The flip-up sun shade on the GT Air flips up and down very easily, while the clear face shield stays in place.
- Unlike the X11, the ear pockets on the GT Air are deep enough to accommodate speakers from a BT headset without putting pressure on your ears. Also, the position of the slider for the internal sun visor is supposedly optimized so that you can install a BT headset, and sure enough my Sena SMH10 fit perfectly and I was easily able to work the sun shade slider even with the Sena in place.
- The fit and finish, paint quality, liner material are all top-notch Shoei quality.
The optical quality of the face shield and internal sun visor are exceptional, with no signs of distortion even when both are down.
- It is NOT safe to use Plexus on the supplied Pinlock visor. It will haze over. (That's a $30 lesson learned).
- After several hours, no hint of any forehead hotspot. I can't remember the last time I rode without having a nice red spot on my forehead at the end of the ride.
So, my first ride impression is that this is a fantastic quality helmet with some great features. If you're an intermediate oval head looking for a world-class touring helmet, you should give the Shoei GT air a look. You may also want to pop over and talk to Nate at the Santa Clara Cycle Gear (I always like to recognize great service, especially when it's at a place that often gets trashed for its service).
About this time, Nate came up and asked me if I needed help (big to Nate - he truly knows his stuff about helmets). We got to talking about helmets and specifically what I was looking for, and he recommended I try the new Shoei GT Air. He explained that the GT Air is modeled after the RF1100, which is Shoei's most oval helmet. To my surprise, it actually fit me better than the Arai Signet Q! I wore it in the store for ~15 minutes, and not a hint of pressure or discomfort. Even my X11, which I've had for 5 years, was a good fit, but not a truly great fit.
Fit-wise, it came down to the Signet Q and the GT Air, but feature-wise the GT Air is in a league of it's own. This is Shoei's newest helmet, and it incorporates the internal flip-down sun visor from the Neotec along with lots of other cool gee-wizardry like an included Pinlock visor. OK, so in my hands on on my head, it seemed to be a fantastic helmet, but the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.
I got to put a few hundred miles on it today, and it doesn't disappoint! Here are some initial impressions:
- It's so much quieter than my X11 it's actually creepy. With earplugs in and face shield down, it's astonishingly quiet. It's obvious this thing is designed as a sport-touring helmet and not a race helmet.
- Ventilation is also very good. The top vent creates a pronounced flow of air along the top of the head when wide-open. It has three positions so you can control how much air you want, and all the vent openings are big enough to easily work with gloved hands and have a very positive clicking action when they're moved through their stops.
- The best feature, by far though, is the flip-down sun shade. I used a dark smoke shield on my X11, and always hated having to flip it up on shadier roads like parts of Eureka Canyon and Ice Cream grade to be able to see in the shade. The flip-up sun shade on the GT Air flips up and down very easily, while the clear face shield stays in place.
- Unlike the X11, the ear pockets on the GT Air are deep enough to accommodate speakers from a BT headset without putting pressure on your ears. Also, the position of the slider for the internal sun visor is supposedly optimized so that you can install a BT headset, and sure enough my Sena SMH10 fit perfectly and I was easily able to work the sun shade slider even with the Sena in place.
- The fit and finish, paint quality, liner material are all top-notch Shoei quality.
The optical quality of the face shield and internal sun visor are exceptional, with no signs of distortion even when both are down.
- It is NOT safe to use Plexus on the supplied Pinlock visor. It will haze over. (That's a $30 lesson learned).
- After several hours, no hint of any forehead hotspot. I can't remember the last time I rode without having a nice red spot on my forehead at the end of the ride.
So, my first ride impression is that this is a fantastic quality helmet with some great features. If you're an intermediate oval head looking for a world-class touring helmet, you should give the Shoei GT air a look. You may also want to pop over and talk to Nate at the Santa Clara Cycle Gear (I always like to recognize great service, especially when it's at a place that often gets trashed for its service).