Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Caberg Trip Helmet Arrived Today

Ordered on 21DEC and arrived here from Belfast, Ireland on 30DEC. Pretty fast, considering it had to sit in customs for a while.

The helmet fits me pretty good, at first my chin was slightly touching the chin bar (I thought), but its actually touching a rubber flap that goes below the chin to keep air out I believe. Good fit otherwise, snug but not too tight around the cheeks and temples.

The New and the Old, you can see how much more chin space the KBC offers

A View of the Sun Shade


The new helmet is 1lb 7oz lighter than my old helmet! LINK
Took me a while to figure out the fastening device the helmet uses instead of the traditional D-clip but after a few tries, easy enough. I am sure I'll get used to it.

Went out for a short ride to try it out, felt pretty good in the wind though it seemed to me to have more wind noise than my KBC FFR helmet. However, on the return half of the trip, I wore earplugs and wind noise was not an issue. I should, but sometimes don't, wear earplugs each time I ride; so this may help remind me to put the darn things in before riding.

No turbulence that I could feel at 80mph which is fast enough when on Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Beemer. On the return trip I hit some pretty strong headwinds that buffetted me a bit but I think any helmet would be hard pressed to deal with such winds.

The sun shade/visor slides into position easily enough and holds its position at points in between full up and full down. It leaves a space between the lower edge of the helmet opening and the bottom edge of the shade. I'd like it to go a little bit lower, say about an inch but it's something I'll have to get used to as well, still, it's better than it hitting my glasses!

Both Visors down

Just the sun visor down

Another inch would be perfect....

The sun visor, though a bit short when view from outside, works pretty good when seen from the inside of the helmet. The edge lines up just below the road/horizon line, giving one a clear unshaded view of the motorcycle's instruments.

My major worry had been how it'd fit me and it fits me well. I'll post more feedback as I get more riding time with this new helmet. There's a full review of it here: LINK with better pictures of the helmet itself.

I bought it from Kickstart Motorcycles in the UK. LINK. The Euro-Dollar exchange rate is favorable to US residents right now so you might want to take a look. The Caberg Trip is, as of today according to SHARP (LINK) one of only 12 helmets to achieve the 5 rating from a current total of 77 flip-up type helmets.

My old helmet, the KBC FFR only got 1 out of 5 in the SHARP ratings, which got me started on replacing it with this Caberg.

1 comment:

Jack Riepe said...

Dear Charlie6:

Good luck with the new helmet. I want a new Nolan this year, but I don't really need one and certainly don't want to spend the money.

Fondest regards,
Jack Riepe
Twisted Roads