Category Archives: Helmets

Review: HJC i30 helmet tested

IN A LINE
Another good looking and comfy polycarb open face full-visor with good sun visor actuation and OK venting.

WHERE TESTED
Around the UK and Morocco.

COST & WEIGHT
£111 for SuperBikeStore. New dark visor: £42. 1520g verified (L, 58-59). My head measures 58cm, fyi.

Great visibility, like all these styles of lid
Very comfortable for the price
Quiet compared to previous X-Lite
Looks cool; no naff graphics
Integrated sun visor actuates easily
Inexpensive
Easy to use chin ratchet clasp (not D-rings)
Velvety padding with pop fasteners comes out and refits easily for washing
Visor comes off/refits fairly easily for proper cleaning

Replacement visors from £50 rrp
After two years one side of the visor sometimes dislodges itself – new mechanism £20

REVIEW
There was nothing much wrong with my old X-Lite other than it was 10-years old in with the lining coming apart from too many hotel sink washes and the lever for the sun visor long lost.
I left it in Marrakech and back home narrowed it down to an HJC i30 which have been around for years too. I like the look of the i30 and in Large (58-59cm) fitted my head snugly without causing nausea, double vision, seizures or migraines.
For my sort of riding: slow speeds with frequent stops for photos, instructions or jotting; these open-face full-visor jobbies (OFFV) are ideal. All the preceding can be done without removal while a full face visor keeps the rain and bugs at bay. I don’t doubt there are quieter lids but now we have more types of ear plugs than toothpaste brands, that’s not so relevant.

Obviously venting is a moot point as it rushes up under the visor, but on top there’s an easily operated slider to get a little airflow around the top of the head. Tbh, in English or cool season Morocco temps, venting doesn’t add up to much but there are times I do detect its effect.
The sun visor slots down with little levering (too little in haptic terms) at the easily accessed lever on the LHS, and the main visor has a couple of indexed positions, but with me it’s either up or down.
I also like the ratchet chin strap; quick and easy to use with nothing dangling loose. The colour meets my approval too, though it is glossy, not matt as appears in some adverts.

I’ve worn it for several months in Morocco and it’s holding up well. The top venting doesn’t really make much difference; when it’s hot and you’re working hard you sweat like the Trevi fountain. But for washing the lining, the three sections of inside paddling come out and slot back in a lot more easily than my X-Lite. The whole lid can be hosed off for dust in a shower and soon dries.

As you can see, I had one of my very rare slow speed falls and badly scratched the side of the clear visor, but there was no other damage and it doesn’t affect forward vision. The sun visor still actuates solidly enough, so does the main one. It still amazes me how modern visors resist scratching indefinitely compared to the crap visors we had in the old days. I treated myself to a dark visor which in ever-sunny southern Morocco is easier on the eyes but costs 42 quid.

A few thousand miles in I’m happy with my HJC i30, but two years in I could do with a pair of new visors (rrp £50 each), and one side of the visor gets dislodged on some lifts, maybe following a drop or two. Don’t know if it’s the visor or the mechanism, but at least you can buy a replacement mechanism for £20 from the Visor Shop.

Tested: Bell Moto III review

Tested: X-Lite X551 GT Adv helmet review

Bell Mag 9 helmet review

1 Reply

See also
Airoh TR1
XLite X420 GT
Bell Moto 3
HJC i30 (2023)

Updated 2017

IN A LINE
Good looking, comfortable and cheap full-visor open face, but as usual, visor actuations can get problematic.

DESCRIPTION
Light, vented, full visor open face helmet with integrated sun visor and a short beak.

WHERE TESTED
Riding around SW USA on backroads and dirt roads. And a few trips in Morocco.

COST
Discounted to something like $75 delivered from motorcycle superstore. Original rrp was $169. Discontinued model; superseded by Mag Sena 9 at around $180.

PRO

Very comfortable for the price
Quiet compared to others
Looks cool; no naff graphics
Integrated sun visor is exceedingly useful
Inexpensive
Velvety padding has pop fasteners like an Arai, not cheap velcro

CON

Lifting main visor gets notchy
Sun shade visor lever sticks sometimes (probably dust)
Peak wants to be lower/longer to be an effect low-sun shade

REVIEW
I’ve always had a soft spot for Bell helmets from the era of Kenny Roberts flat tracking and my own Moto III (right). I’m sure glad I never had to crash in that old head brick, though!

Needing to save weight on the way to the US, I saw the new Mag Sena announced and liked the look of it, with its jaunty centurion-like anterior lip. It took me a while to work out there was a non-Sena (intercom system) available and that it had been around for years: the Mag 9.

Not only did the looks appeal, but it turns out to be one of the best lids I’ve had in years. At first I thought I’d bought a size too small; in the US what is labelled Large is usually a Medium in Europe – not unlike everything else over here in fact – from food to vehicles. So it was with the Bell; my much repeated head measurements lined up and the Mag 9 in medium was snug out of the box but now fits just right.

It may not look very ‘ay dee vee’ like the ubiquitous Arai XDs which come free with a GS12, but give me a lid without the in-your-face chin guard any day. For moto travelling in AM Zone (right) the advantages of an open face are well known. You can show your face to the peasants and the cops and generally get a better response as a recognisable human being, compared to the full-face spaceman image. And like I’ve said, for me the less I feel I’m wearing a lid the better. You can pay for the gas while wearing this – being Arai-d up might set off the alarms. Then you can add the fact that you can feed yourself on the move and scratch an itch. Outside of winter, for world travels, this is the helmet style for me.

The ‘ear pouches’ envelope the ears. I don’t wear them, but no need for ear plugs here; this is one of the quietest helmets I’ve had (though used mostly with a short screen and at low speeds). As for the vents, I’ve long believed these make little difference on the road and I’ve no reason to change that view with the 9.

The sun visor is such a handy feature as long as it’s kept clean. Shaded main visors are not so convenient for reading glaring satnavs or of course night riding; flip down the sun visor and you’re in business. I also like the dirt-bikeresque beak element on the Mag 9 for riding into low sun angles where no shady visor can help, but it’s not low enough to do that well. It’s something I see that Arai have on their CTZ (right), but, snakes alive, is that an ugly contraption for no less than $500.

The linings on the Mag are plush and cushy and pop out easily for a wash and the visors are easy to clean with the windscreen wipe stick you get by the pumps.

But, as with the Airoh and the expensive XLite, the sun visor actuation gets stiff; it usually seems to be a problem with leverage, although with the Bell it’s become more likely dust from the trail has jammed the lever and release mechanisms a bit. I’ve tried rinsing and may go for a full-on hose down to clean it out. The sun visor retracts with a nudge if necessary but lifting the main visor has become really notchy – don’t know what the problem is there. The racket it makes and effort needed doesn’t make it an enjoyable and slick manoeuvre.

I also recall I read reports that the Mag 9 suffered from the main visor not lifting high enough. I suppose that is true though you can tip the whole lid backwards to get it out of your eye line. Being out on the country, not riding in town, I usually have the visor down. I think it’s safe to retire my Airoh TR1 now; comparatively, it feels like wearing a milk crate.

After wearing it for a month on Morocco and four years use, in 2017 I left my Mag 9 in a dumpster in an industrial estate near Malaga. The visor was getting on a bit, the D-ring buckle seemed to loosen up easily, and the peak assembly was duct taped on after a few rough transits and very strong headwinds out of Tangier. It was starting to feel a bit cheap but I like the look and features and can safely say I got my $75-worth out of that lid.

X-Lite X402-GT modular helmet review

updated 2023

See also:
HJC i30
Bell Moto 3
Bell Mag 9
Airoh TR1

… full face visor protection without the ‘in your face’ visibility issues

I’ve never seen one in use but I’m a fan of the Airoh TR1 (now called a J106) modular helmet which came out in 2008. But as you can read in my updated review of it, I rather hoped someone would come along and make a plusher, less plasticy version with the same features. Well Nolan (above right, white), X-lite (upmarket brand of Nolan, left; black), Caberg and others did just that.

What is a modular helmet?
The way I see it, it’s a full-face lid with a removable chin piece, and specifically not one that hinges up ‘like a ferry bow door’ (left), as I say in my Airoh review. The appeal is you get the protection you want on fast roads, but can unclip and stash the small chin piece to have an elegant open face helmet with a proper visor for whenever it suits you: in town or on dirt tracks. I prefer open face any day but recognise the advantages of full face.

First impressions
I’ve only worn it for an hour (on an F650GS with a low Metal Mule screen), but first impressions are that it’s clearly better made than my £100 Airoh – and so it should be at nearly £300. Cushiness seems on a par with velvety Arais I’ve owned in the past, and although I wasn’t belting along motorways as I have been recently with the Airoh, it does seem quieter, which was the point of getting it.

Part of that must be down to the big, flat visor as on the Nolan N30, a less complex shape than the Airoh moulded visor so making less turbulence. That, and the much softer, enveloping interior puts it on another level. The noise is a bit like the inside of a cruising airliner; it’s there but not a deafening roar. I don’t use earplugs.
On the way back I removed the chin piece and stashed it (it detaches much more easily than the Airoh’s creaky, jam-prone fittings) and immediately recognised the full-viz appeal of open face, but with a crystal clear (for now) brow-to-chin visor. At <50mph there seemed very little extra noise.
Looks-wise I’d say the Airoh still takes the prize, probably because it’s smaller at the cost of having the sculpted chin piece a little too close to the mouth. Both helmets have the integral sun shade with drops down using a left side lever, but a quick try of the X-Lite’s sun visor today proved it was much clearer, quality lexan and came right down to the nose too, not halfway like the Airoh, although the leverage is a bit inadequate (see below).

Across Spain the X-Lite was fine considering I don’t use ear plugs. Once I got to Morocco I removed the chin guard (which soon got nicked), and was very comfortable using the helmet in open face mode. The visor cleaned easily without scratching, and coming back across Spain at higher speed and downpours, I didn’t miss the chin bar that much, it can exacerbate steaming up.

The dark visor was great too at times, though you do feel that the leverage on the slider is a bit short and it might fail one day (it did). Also it sure would be nice to have the ratchet clip or the Airoh than the old style double D-ring buckle.
The vents worked pretty well without contributing to the noise, with a sweaty head you can briefly feel the cooling effect.

As mentioned, the dark visor lever on the left has become stiff to the point that I feel it would break if pushed hard, so I just pull it down by hand. But very often when the low sun comes out it is handy to have it there rather than grope around for shades. I still don’t miss the chin piece, but do miss a peak for low sun angles. D-ring is a fiddle but I suppose could be modified. Best of all: it’s got the full face visor protection without a full face helmet’s poor visibility.
So there it is, X-Lite modular, a versatile touring and off-roading lid that means you can take it off less because it lacks the annoying ‘in-your-face’ element of a full face lid. Not as snazzy looking as the Airoh, but much better made and more comfortable too.

Updated 2018
Five years on I’m still wearing it for most trips. I gave up on a replacement chin guard but don’t miss it. I prefer the wide view over the dash and the road ahead, plus the easy flip up. Great for work too (jotting down notes, fiddling with camera or GPS while logging routes, but just noticed the slide-button for the sun visor (right) had broken off. 7/10

I recently bought a full face X-Lite 551 GT. Didn’t get on so well with that one.

In 2023 I replaced the X-Lite with an HJC i30.

Adventure Motorcycling Handbook

The Website of the Book