will england :: motorcycle notes and tips
will england :: motorcycle notes and tipsGot my Schubert Monday. First ride was the commute in to work today. I'm moving up from a Shoei RF200 to the Concept. The retiring Shoei (except for passenger and loaner duty) is metalic blue, size L. The Schuberth was ordered in Monza "Fuck Me That's Red!" Red in a size XL. I converted my 7.5 Shoei to the EC Sizing (7.5 inches = 19.05 centimeters x 3.14 = 59.82) and ordered the XL 60/61. Needless to say, it's quiet a bit different. On initially seeing the helmet, I though the thing was easily twice the size of my Shoei. When I placed them side by side the differences because less evident. The area around the jaw and cin guard are much larger on the Schuberth whereas the area towards the back of the helment appear to be larger in the Shoei. I'd have to measure them to be sure. The Shoei fits nicely into my ten year old Bagman, the Schuberth fits snugly. The RF200 is easily half again as heavy as the Schuberth. New technology, dandy stuff indeed. As others have reported, the fit and finish are brilliant. The latching mechanism is better than I expected and gasket materials are first rate. Initially, this helmet looks like all the rest from the outside, but closer inspection reveals that this is screwed together, not just snapped and glued. The interior rivals the new 3 Series (whoa, was that thunder I just heard?) and it's even got that new car "smell"! Everything works as advertised and even managed to scare the crap out of my cat when I walked out of the bathroom with it on. The Schuberth is much quieter than the Shoei, and the Shoei is not a "loud" helmet. With the face sheild closed you get a little wind noise and that's pretty much it. The motorcycle engine and exhaust noises are muted and anything over 40 negates the sounds of the bike altogether. Wind noise is slighly less than the Shoei and it makes more a "whooshing" noise than the high pitched whistle the Shoei made. Moving the positon of the wind deflector on my K-RS might reduce the wind noise further. The vents work well, so well that I had to slighly close the interior fresh air vent to keep my eyes from drying out. The top vent is quiet and adjustable. The Shoei vents tended to cool the very front of your forehead and very little of the rest of your grape. The Schuberth venting felt like I had an ice pack planted on top of my head. The top vent is also infinitely adjustable so you can vary the amount of air cooling. This will come in handy especially when riding when the temp is changing during the course of a ride. I didn't get a chance to use the flip-down sun shield. I wore glasses today. In the Shoei, I couldn't get the glasses close enough to my face and there was a gap where the sun would go over the glasses and into my eyes. I can either get the glasses closer to my forehead in the Schuberth, or the Schuberth has a larger overhang in that area. In either case, the sun doesn't come over the top of the glasses. The view outward is amazing. I thought the Shoei helmet offered a good view. This one is fantastic. The chin bar sits lower that the Shoei so the vision downward and outward is better, and the periphrial vision is better, too. The helmet sits a little lower on my forehead so it may end up to be more comfortable in the long run. Time in the saddle will answer that one. During the course of the ride (rural roads, city streets and some freeway) I noticed that the helmet sat on my head better than the Shoei. The RF200 tended to push down in the front and lift in the back - worse with more turbulence (one more reason to hate minivans and SUV's). The Shoei would rattle and get batted around all over the place. The Schuberth seems much more stable. It feels like I'm going a lot slower than I was because I didn't need to "push" against the air at speed with my head. This is a pro and a con - Yes, my head is more stable and controlled, but I discovered that the turbulence and wind noise is how I "felt" the speed and turbulence. I found myself going faster in the same situations because it was more comfortable, but I found the found the bike getting knocked around a bit. It used to be that my head was the first thing that got shoved around by the wind. This morning it was the bike. So, an adjustment period is warrented. With all this raving, there is one point that I don't like. The chin strap is set further back in the helemt so it hits me about mid-chin-#2. Almost feels like I'm being choked a bit when I turn my head. Just one more reason to lose that extra 20 lbs, right? All in all, pretty nice lid. It's a keep. I order one for my bride and my friend Jeff (K75S), too. John Virnig '96 K1100RS
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