Helmet review: Shoei XR-1100

Shoei XR-1100 helmet, £299 (plain colours), £379 (graphics)
Miles covered/time: 18,000/nine months

What’s good? The sales assistant’s golden rule for buying a crash helmet is: If you’ve a ten-bob head then buy a ten-bob helmet.

• Save cash on motorcycle helmets

But nobody should put a price on their life and so, when it comes to wearing a helmet, only the best will do for me regardless of price.

Fortunately the Shoei XR-1100 I’ve been wearing for the past nine months only costs £299 in its original plain white, which for a premium Japanese-made helmet is bloody good.

Comfort is excellent – it fits snug all the way round the crown unlike European-made lids that hurt my forehead. Sound level is fine and the air vent system (chin, two on forehead, and four at rear) fires cooling air across the Franklin noggin on hot days.

Other cool areas are the spring-loaded visor mechanism that ensures a perfect visor seal and the lower rear plastic spoiler that saves the helmet getting scuffed when picking it up off the floor.

And I’m not worried about fogging up because it doesn’t happen with the excellent Pinlock insert in place – even if it isn’t in place the open front vent quickly clears breath-juice.

What’s not? The amount of stones getting flicked up, trying their damndest to chip the Rich-Art Concepts custom paint job.

So far the exquisite and noticeable finish has resisted stone-attack, one fall from a BMW HP2 fuel tank and a surprised partridge.

For £450 you too can have a unique one-off helmet paint design and be chuffed with the quality like me.

Contact: www.shoeiassured.co.uk, www.richartconcepts.co.uk
Rating: 5/5