As I mentioned at the start of the "Spy vs Spy" thread, I was woefully unprepared for the three week trip BMW-K and I took to the Canadian Maritimes.  I generally try not to make any changes or try anything new before an important ride, but it just didn't work out that way this time.


One item BMW-K mentioned in his gear review in that thread was his Shoei Neotec helmet.  He loves that thing.  We had been discussing the relative merits of modular helmets for a while, and I'd been seriously considering buying one in general, and specifically for this trip.


I tried on his Shoei but in the immortal words of The Kids In The Hall (Canadians, by the way),


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Yes, it crushed my head.


Even though the typical Shoei shape works really well for me, the Neotec has a much rounder shape and it simply smashed my forehead to the point of actual pain, even though it was otherwise the right size.


Disappointed, I started looking around and found that Scorpion Makes a series of modular helmets.  The Scorpion FF shape fits me better than any other helmet, so I thought this might well be the answer.  I visited my local multiline dealer and tried on the AT950 (ADV style modular), which I didn't care for at all.  It fit well around the hatline, but squeezed my cheeks mercilessly.  Looking at reviews online, this is such a common complaint that Scorpion now offers lower profile cheek pads for this helmet.  Regardless, it wasn't the hat for me.


I also tried the newest model, the EXO-GT3000.  It has a nice interior feel and the shape was perfect, but it was loose on the lower half.  The helmet has an air bladder (a Reebok pump sort of thing) that I eventually gave up on after about 50 pumps or so with no apparent difference.  Maybe it works for some people, but it was just too fiddly with no real benefit, so I took a pass on that one.


The third helmet I tried was the EXO-GT920.  No pump, and not quite as nice a liner material as the 3000, but it fit just right.  As a bonus, it was cheaper than the others (roughly 1/3 the price of the Shoei!)
I liked it, so I bought it- with only a few days to go before we left for Canada.


I wore it on one 4 hour ride before we took off, and it didn't cause me any discomfort, so I figured it was good to go.  Or at least good enough, right?


Well, after wearing it all day, every day (but one) for three weeks, I can say that it is a far better helmet than I had even hoped it would be.
Of course, the convenience factor of not having to remove the helmet to take a drink or eat a quick snack is generally a good thing, but it's even better when conditions are terrible.  When it's raining, flipping up the full front of the helmet instead of just the visor means that the inside of the visor stays dry- a wonderful thing.  I was extremely grateful for this one feature on any number of occasions.


This is my first helmet with a drop-down tinted inner visor, and I will admit I was skeptical of the concept in general.  However, for this trip I thought it might be a real positive, since it means that I wouldn't have to change the face shield when it got dark.  I could simply flip up the internal visor and keep riding- and this is exactly what I did.  Using the flippy visor has not yet become second nature with me, I will admit.  Sometimes I wonder why it's so bright out, then realize it's because I'd forgotten to drop the visor.  More frequently, though, is the opposite. I'd go to remove the helmet only to realize the flippy was still down.  Minor annoyances, but well worth it as a tradeoff for the benefits.  There were several days when it was dark enough to warrant having a clear shield but then it would become brighter, making me want the smoked visor- only to have it darken again.  It would have been awkward to stop and change shields on a traditional helmet, but a quick hit on the slider and all issues are resolved.


The last modular helmet I had (ten years ago) was noisy and leaked in the rain.  This helmet is reasonably quiet and stays dry as a bone inside in heavy rain.  It also has a relatively svelte shell, so I don't feel like quite the bobblehead I did with my previous modular.  Very nice.


All in all, I suspect that this will become my go-to helmet for anything but trackways from now on out.  It's an good helmet even without the modular front and drop-down visor.  Adding those two into the mix makes it an excellent helmet.


As an interesting note, with my old modular helmet I generally removed it by opening the front, then simply sliding the helmet backwards- pushing face-first out of the front.  This Scorpion has a narrower front opening, so while I still can remove the helmet using this technique (developed so I didn't have to remove my glasses) it's a bit uncomfortable to so.  Not quite painful, but unpleasant enough that I gave up doing it that way.  Now I just remove it like any other FF helmet.


In this picture you can see the two vents (top and chin bar) open.  Also, you can just make out the dropped internal visor.


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The ventilation is acceptable, but far from the wind tunnel effect you get in the Scorpion FF helmets.  It was OK on the hot days on this ride, but we'll have to see how it does next summer here in sunny SoCal before I can confidently say it's well enough ventilated.



I should add this.  Here is the link to the Revzilla page for this helmet: http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/scorpion-exo-gt920-satellite-helmet