{"id":3104,"date":"2018-10-04T10:17:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T09:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/?p=3104"},"modified":"2019-02-21T20:54:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:54:30","slug":"review-icon-airflite-helmet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/review-icon-airflite-helmet\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Icon Airflite Helmet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Just as we keep banging on about how good stealth riding\u00a0gear is, it\u2019s worth noting that an increasing amount of other\u00a0riding gear \u2013 the kind of stuff that you can\u2019t pass off as\u00a0anything else, be it gloves, boots or helmets \u2013 has got way\u00a0cooler, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This Airflite is a case in point.<\/p>\n

I spotted it on the Parts Europe stand at The Bike Shed\u00a0show in May, and was immediately attracted to it, and that\u00a0was a hell of an achievement as the last full face helmet I\u00a0wore was a first generation Arai Dual Sport and twenty-five\u00a0years ago, perhaps longer.<\/p>\n

It was in this hand-finished \u2018Quicksilver\u2019 colour with\u00a0a tinted visor \u2013 as was the Variant Pro \u2013 and it looked\u00a0like nothing else that I\u2019d ever seen. In fairness, so did the\u00a0Variant Pro with its weird plastic quiff, but that was more\u00a0obviously a dual sport and I couldn\u2019t see that looking right\u00a0on anything that I was likely to throw a leg over.<\/p>\n

The Airflite was a different matter though: a modern\u00a0aggressive look that would sit really well with a number of\u00a0new Softails \u2013 particularly the new Fat Bob, and possibly\u00a0even the Fat Boy, picking up on the massive amount of\u00a0aluminium in those new wheels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> The tinted visor certainly played a significant part: the\u00a0clear one it comes with is far more practical \u2013 especially as\u00a0the drop-down sun-visor visor inside is in dark smoke too\u00a0\u2013 but it doesn\u2019t have the same impact.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth mentioning what Icon\u2019s Quicksilver finish\u00a0is, because as far as I can tell, it is unique. It looks like\u00a0aluminium but only because it has a texture about it that\u00a0results from hand distressing \u2013 Icon calls it antiquing \u2013 a\u00a0silver paint before sealing it. Quite apart from every one\u00a0being different, it gives it a tonal richness combined with a\u00a0weird iridescence that conjures up metal to me, and it looks\u00a0worn in, which is in sympathy with my self-image.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very odd getting use to a full face again after so many\u00a0years in a Jet, not least\u00a0taking it off, having forgotten that the trick is to lift a full\u00a0face helmet vertically off your head, to avoid ripping your\u00a0ears off, but I\u2019ve learned that again now.<\/p>\n

And inside it, the world is a different place. Quieter in\u00a0terms of wind, and the brightness of a stunning summer\u00a0completely muted by a visor in a way that sunglasses can\u2019t\u00a0manage, and in this case with the added benefit of being\u00a0able to drop a second sun shield down inside and ride\u00a0straight into a setting sun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite so clever once the sun has dropped below\u00a0the horizon, however, which is when it\u2019s still useful to carry\u00a0a the clear visor in a bag secreted about your person \u2013 they\u00a0can be replaced very quickly without the use of tools \u2013 or\u00a0else a pair of clear riding glasses.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got to confess that there were times on the last\u00a0couple of days riding in baking heat across Germany and\u00a0the Czech republic when I wished I\u2019d been wearing\u00a0my open face lid \u2013 which had gone ahead with my\u00a0luggage \u2013 because it was so damned hot, but the\u00a0last fifty miles into Prague gave me plenty of time\u00a0to fully appreciate the benefit of the full face shield\u00a0as we rode through a monsoon. The water just ran\u00a0in torrents off the visor to the right and left without\u00a0the pain of \u2018aquapuncture\u2019 on my forehead between\u00a0sunglasses and helmet, regretting not wearing a\u00a0second tube or having to reposition the one that I\u00a0was wearing \u2013 to take more of the impact of heavy\u00a0rain at speed off those bits of my face not protected by beard.<\/p>\n

I\"\"<\/a>n fairness to the helmet, the venting within the shell does a good job\u00a0of getting air flow up inside the visor using a two-stage switch, as well as to your forehead via an additional pair of switchable fresh intakes,\u00a0before being drawn out through the exhaust ports at the back. And if you\u00a0can\u2019t get enough cool air in, the Airflite\u2019s removable moisture-wicking\u00a0HydraDry lining keeps any dampness to a minimum.<\/p>\n

I have yet to fit the Sena 20S to it \u2013 which shouldn\u2019t be too tough as\u00a0there are pockets for the earpieces \u2013 but that will be the first job after I get\u00a0back from the FDXR launch, for which it will be the perfect choice.<\/p>\n

Icon Airflite Helmet.<\/strong> Size: XS (53-54cm) \u2013\u00a03XL (65-66cm) \/\/\u00a0RRP: \u00a3228.69<\/h6>\n
Colours: Quicksilver;\u00a0Rubatone Black \/ Gloss;\u00a0Black \/ Gloss White \/ Red;\u00a0White Fayder \/ Red;\u00a0White Krom \/ Good\u00a0Fortune<\/h6>\n
Flite Shield in Dark Smoke;\u00a0Light Smoke; Yellow;\u00a0RST Silver; RST Gold;\u00a0RST Blue; RST Red; RST\u00a0Purple; RST Green; Clear<\/h6>\n
Drop Shield Visor in Dark\u00a0Smoke; Light Smoke; Yellow; RST Silver; RST\u00a0Gold; RST Red; Clear<\/h6>\n
partseurope.eu<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as we keep banging on about how good stealth riding\u00a0gear is, it\u2019s worth noting that an increasing amount of other\u00a0riding gear \u2013 the kind … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"REVIEW: Icon Airflite Helmet","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[85,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clothing","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-08-27-at-13.25.19.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yyfo-O4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3117,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions\/3117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/american-v.cso2w.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}