How to Choose a Motorcycle Helmet for Adventure Travel

dual-sport helmet street helmet or roll-on deodorant helmet what is the perfect adventure-style helmet so the dual sport helmet is really popular now but to understand whether this is the ideal helmet for you we really have to explore where this helmet came from so let's start by looking at the dirt world this is a dirt bike helmet and it is made strictly for riding in the dirt the dirt helmet has a very large visor on it mat visor sits very tight to the helmet across the top and it's very very long and generally has a little bit of a lip at the very end the purpose of that visor is so that when I have dust all over my goggles and I ride into the Sun I can tilt down just slightly and shade the goggles so I can see clearly so the large visor also protects me from rocks and dirt being kicked up by the rider in front of me so dirt helmets also have a very large opening for eye protection the only eye protection on a dirt helmet are goggles and they are ideal for sand and dust and things that blow all around your eyes but they require a lot of space dirt helmets are ideal off-road not so great on the street this visor that works so well offroad it captures the air and it pulls your head back when you're going down at speed these unregulated vents that work so well at low speeds can blow a lot of air through your helmet and cause a lot of noise as well and the only eye protection option you have is to wear full goggles all the time street helmets are ideal for higher speed riding so 30 miles an hour 50 60 miles an hour they have open ventilation now that regulates so you can shut it down and open it up they have aerodynamic design which makes them quieter and reduces neck fatigue street helmets have quick disconnect visors it's very easy to change the color or to pull it off for cleaning many have features with sun visors that drop down inside street helmets are perfect for the road but not so ideal for off-road this chin bar that's now shorter and tighter means when you're at low speeds off-road and you're panting you're breathing in your helmet and trapping a lot of heat it doesn't have a visor on it so the dust particles that collect on the shield all of those dust particles reflect the light and you can't pull down and shade them so you'll end up losing your visibility goggles work really well in sand and dirt because all the edges all the sides there's no way for dirt or dust to get into your eyes the goggles they don't work on street helmets modular helmets have all the features of a street helmet and they do this modular helmets lets you expose your face it's much more comfortable for people to interact with you means you can talk to a border agent when you come up to the border without removing your helmet in stopped traffic you can open them up and get maximum ventilation and they're very popular amongst riders of wear glasses so street helmets are great well if most of your adventure riding it's on the street but they also work well if you ride solo on gravel roads where you're not dealing with a lot of dust being kicked up by other riders finally the dual sport helmet like the dirt helmet the dual sport helmet has a visor built-in so when you come in to the Sun and you have all that dust on your shield you can tilt down and shade your shield and be able to see but different it has these large louvers this allows more air flow to go through so you don't catch that visor and it doesn't try to rip the helmet off your head it also has a larger chin bar on it so when you're going at lower speeds and negotiating those trails or more difficult terrain and you start huffing and puffing your helmet there's more air flow back in behind the chin bar like the street helmet the dual sport helmet now has a built in visor this helmet mine has a quick disconnect on the shield so I can remove that and I can use goggles when I need maximum protection for my eyes. it also now has regulated air flow for cooling and it also has an aerodynamic design on the helmet so that reduces neck fatigue dual sport helmets do tend to be louder than dedicated street helmets due to the extra visor and the airflow going over the helmet and although they do a very good job of regulating air flow you still can catch wind on this and it can kind of wear for some fatigue I wish I had a modular dual sport helmet for international travel color is another important consideration with choosing a helmet black is the most popular color of all helmets but a white helmet is five to six degrees cooler inside the helmet and a study in New Zealand showed 24 percent fewer collisions with white-helmeted riders over black-helmeted riders helmets are a complex topic and I've only scratched the surface here we talk about safety ratings EPS liner versus isolation rotation protection we can talk about visor types fit finish how clean they are inside the strap system you have on them the thing is there's a lot to consider so for me to make sure I always have the perfect helmet I have one for looking cool one for dual sporting one for the road one for the dirt and one one for international travel