I set out on my motorcycle journey about a year ago and I chose the Shoei RF1100 as my helmet of choice. I browsed a local motorcycle shop for a few hours trying helmets on and checking out their features and I kept coming back to this one. Eventually I decided that there were none better than this one right in front of me. Being Snell approved on top of DOT also helped tip the scales for me.
The helmet offers 7 closeable vents for ultimate airflow and it comes with a chin curtain and breath guard. My only gripe was it came with only a clear visor and did not offer drop down shades like some newer helmets have nowadays. I looked at new visors and they are rather expensive coming directly from Shoei so I decided to just rock the clear until I needed to replace it…which didn’t take long.
I happened to crash while wearing this helmet only about a month after purchasing it.
It wasn’t super serious. I lowsided on a back road and I did slightly impact the helmet and drug it on the ground a bit. Than
kfully I slid mostly on grass and dirt and not asphalt. It did its job well protecting me and I only lost one vent cover and scraped the visor pretty bad.
I pulled out the padding and inspected the shell and did not see any damage so I decided to keep wearing the helmet mainly because I could not afford to buy another new one so soon. Yes I am aware if you wreck with a helmet and it is damaged you should get a new one…That’s on my list of things to buy! I ended up getting a good deal on a vent and a visor from a local shop, Assfault Junkies, for about the prize of one visor from Shoei directly. I went with the light smoke color and I’m very pleased with it. It doesn’t kill your night vision too much, but if you are on a road with no lighting you may have to run your brights to see well.
Overall the helmet is super comfortable to wear for long periods of time and fits well with my glasses. The noise level is rather loud with the vents open so typically I leave just the front ones open from day to day unless it is super hot outside.
I would recommend this helmet to people hands down and even convinced a friend of mine to pick one up when he was buying his first set of gear. It’s held up well even through a crash and it’s super comfortable. Who could ask for anything more?