Good heads deserve great helmets

Few decisions are agonized over by motorcyclists as much as helmet choices.  There’s color and type (full face, modular, shorty, off-road, touring specific, etc.), as well as construction material and features.  Women shopping for swimsuits struggle less to find the “perfect fit” than motorcyclists selecting a helmet.  Arai, supposedly, fits those with longer, more oval-shaped heads.  Round-shaped heads are better off with Scorpion, Nolan, Bell, or maybe Schuberth, I can’t recall, maybe it’s the reverse.  But when we find “the one” and it fits, it’s like trying to give a cat a bath to get us to relinquish that and buy new.  But to save our noggins, we need a new helmet every 5 years or so.

LaZer Monaco Carbon Fiber Modular Helmet

In the first few rides after buying my LaZer Monaco carbon helmet in 2014, I was in love. At $500 it was the most expensive helmet I’d ever purchased. It was the lightest modular helmet on the market, carbon fiber with a photochromic lens.  A significant and unanticipated safety feature of the helmet turned out to be its light weight. Toward the end of a long ride, even though tired, I was still turning my head and looking around, checking both directions at intersections. I sensed this may not have been the case with my heavier helmets.  The transitional lens freed me from having to worry about dark glasses, which ones fit comfortably under a helmet, and where to stash them when off the bike. My face shield automatically darkened in the bright sun and turned completely clear at night or on cloudy days.  Plus, because it was modular, I didn’t have to take it off every time I stopped for gas or just wanted to talk to another rider or get a drink of water.  But I had a problem.

Snell (a nonprofit organization focused on safety standards for helmets) recommends replacing a helmet after five years and I was in the red zone, two years beyond the discard date.  Interesting sidebar, the Snell Foundation was created in 1957 and named after Pete Snell, a sports car racer who died in 1956 of head injuries he received when his racing helmet failed to protect him.  A group of his friends, physicians, and scientists, got together and formed the group to promote research and education which eventually lead to the development of more effective helmets.

My new Klim TK1200 Karbon Modular Hemet

Most recently, every time I went for a ride, Maggie asked, “When are you getting a new helmet?”  So I began the process that is almost universally abhorred by myself and many of my friends – shopping. While on motorcycle errands over the past few months, I made it a point to wander over to the helmet department and try on the newest models.  I looked at Cycle Gear and RideNow.  Over the summer I had long wait times at GoAz in Scottsdale so spent lots of time looking at helmets there.  The new helmets were nice, but none had the combination I was looking for – super light, modular, transitional lens, and good looking. With a ride in Spain on the horizon, I went to the #1 go-to helmet place in Arizona, Helmet Center on Union Hills Road in Glendale. While they carry a lot of motorcycle gear and even service bikes, there is no one better than them at going through the latest options and perhaps most importantly, ensuring you have a perfect fit.  They are magicians.  Going through some catalogs we found a motorcycle helmet from the folks at Klim called the TK1200.  Most of us in this business think of Klim as the inventors of some of the best motorcycle jackets and pants on the planet, but not helmets. And yet, here it was – a beautiful carbon fiber, lightweight, modular helmet with a transition lens. I ordered it immediately and a few days later went back to check it out.  It turns out Klim teamed up with the company that made my original LaZer and improved it, all the while keeping the things I valued the most. I was in heaven.  The new helmet is the old LaZer Monaco but with better ventilation, an improved release system for the modular portion, and it now also goes back over the top of the helmet — a great safety feature.  They’ve also increased the amount of room in the front, which was one of the few things that I didn’t like about my old helmet.  Plus, its sold by Klim, with their extraordinary reputation for customer service.  It doesn’t get any better!

Thanks to the skilled folks at the Helmet Center, my new TK1200 also has my Cardo Packtalk Bold unit installed and functional.  Time for more great riding.

Look at the back of Klim TK1200 Karbon