Sunday, December 18, 2011

New Helmet: Skidoo Modular 2 Megatron

Mostly due to Chris Luhman's excellent review of the Skidoo Snow helmet he'd bought last year, and his continued enjoyment of this helmet this year....I went ahead and ordered me a similar one.

I received it a bit over two weeks ago and got a good initial workout with it during my snow riding the next day.

Here's pictures, from the vendor website, of the helmet itself:  LINK

 Here's a series of shots, showing off the helmet in its 
several modular positions.  

 The facemask makes one feel like a fighter jet pilot.  You are
however, completely incomprehensible if you try speaking with it on.

 I was, initially, not that wild about the yellow color scheme but it's 
starting to grow on me.

 Double-walled visor down

The sun visor is actually part of the clear visor, so you can't ride
with the visor up and the sun shield down.  Then again, it's a snow helmet!
Still, being able to drop down the sun visor without engaging the main visor would be nice!

Initial impressions:  Very snug fit, some pressure on the lower cheek bones after an hour of wearing it but I pressed in some of the foam and it should be OK.  Two weeks later, the fit's fit is nice and snug, no pressure points anymore.

I am sure it'll be easier with time and wear, but raising the visor does take distinct effort, as does closing the modular portion of the helmet and locking it into place.  This is especially true when wearing the rubber face mask, you learn to ensure the outlets are lined up correctly and use the thumbs to push them in slightly to ensure a smooth lock down with the chin bar.

It takes a little practice but unlocking the front chin bar is easy enough.  The chin strap ratcheting mechanism is a dream to use!

Once the chin bar is down, you do feel it putting pressure on the face mask, I guess it helps seal it to your face but it is taking some getting used to.  I tried riding in the cold without the face mask and the helmet does pretty good actually.  

With my small nose, I was having some leakage in terms of warm breath up into my glasses which was causing some fogging on my glasses.  To ensure good seal, I always push down a bit on the face mask.  I also added a little bit of weather-stripping foam material around the nose area.  Now, I can ride in sub-freezing temperatures and both the visor and eyeglass lenses remain fog-free.


So, pretty happy with the new helmet so far.  One thing I do different from Chris L is that I didn't bother to replace the paper filter that seats within the mask, I just let the breath condensation drip out of the mask when I arrive at my destination before I put the helmet away.

7 comments:

Gary France said...

Picture one - could you possibly look more unhappy?
Picture two - don't walk around like that, because you will scare the crap out of any nearby children.
Picture three - if you want to be given free money, walk into a gas station looking like this and they might just hand over their cash.
Picture four - very futuristic looking.
Picture five - reminds me of Darth Vader or the Stig.

Looks good, but a little too complex for me.

SonjaM said...

Yep, Darth Vader came to mind. I would get claustrophobia in this helmet for sure, I cannot even use a normal full face... so I am going to stick with my 3/4 bucket, and bundle up as good as I can.
Safe winter riding, Dom! And Happy Holidays!

Steve Williams said...

You should have had a few bottles of beer before making pictures like those. I've seen first hand your demeanor soften with a brew.

Pretty serious helmet rig. Ready for Antartica.

Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks

Low Buck Rider said...

Shaves years of you, must be the yellow.

Low Buck Rider said...

Shaves years of you, must be the yellow.

RichardM said...

The face mask is integrated with the vents in the helmet? Is there a mechanism for pre-heating the incoming air? I'm not in the market for a winter helmet but I have never seen one with a face mask before.

redlegsrides said...

Gary - that's happy, really.

SonjaM - actually, you can get storm trooper look-alike riding gear now....hmmm. And yes, it's claustrophobic till you get used to it.

Low Buck Rider...years off eh?

Richard. The mask outlets match vents in the chin bar/helmet. No mechanism for pre-heating the air but things get nice and "moist" inside the mask, so that's not a concern so far.