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Quietest helmets?

15K views 52 replies 24 participants last post by  DarkNinja75  
#1 ·
What is the quietest helmet you have used, and give it a rating out of 10 (10 being the quietest)

HJC Fusion II CL-12 i think, 4/10 wind noise is noticeable at anything over 30 mph.
 
#2 ·
It's not my Vega Summit II (whole jaw portion hinges).
I'm using foam earplugs anytime I expect to go over 50 mph.

I still need to try my experiment with dense rubber carpet pad cut to fit the helmet ear cutouts.
 
#4 ·
I have a Z1R helmet( I don't remember the model, but it's the one found to be the safest by the Motorcylist Magazine article ) and always wear ear plugs, so it seems fine to me. I normally ride county roads at < 60 MPH so I can't give any high speed feedback. ninjamon
 
#5 ·
I have found that my Arai quantum is quieter than any others I have owned, or borrowed, like Shoei and similar. I know that that there must be others out there that are as quiet, or more so, I just haven't gotten one yet! I found it to be better ventilated than others, too. More choices out there all the time. it seems, and it's hard to keep track of them all.

I was told that five years is all the time your supposed to use a helmet, my Arai is four years old, so I better start looking for a replacement soon, I guess....
 
#6 ·
OK...

so today I decide to see if I can insulate some noise out of my helmet using waterproof anti-mold rubber carpet padding & electrical tape.

I took out the cheek & ear pads. Cut padding to tightly fit on both sides of each strap where it comes through the styrofoam helmet liner. Then covered the foam w/ the electrical tape.

Cut little bits of foam to fit inside the holes where the cheek pads snap in.
Cover any plastic & metal rivets with electrical tape to stop any air whistling through gaps.

Since there was extra room behind the ear pads I cut more carpet pad to fit behind them.
Result... the high pitch part of the wind noise was reduced but the remaining wind roar was still pretty loud. Near as I can tell by tilting my head/helmet at different angles at highway speeds the problem is the wind that blasts by the visor edges & travels forward between the helmet shell & pivoting jaw/visor.

Ducking down 4-5 inches below my modified windscreen really drops the wind noise. but that's not comfortable. So I either add a lip or extension to the windscreen or just keep using the foam earplugs for higher-speed trips.
 
#9 ·
Somebody out there with a better understanding please correct me, but wouldn't a helmet that blocks out a lot of wind noise also have poor venting? Isn't it pretty tough to stop the wind noise (bad) without also stopping the air (good), when wind is pretty much ... air? :)

I always wear earplugs when I'm taking the highway anywhere. $20 for a box beats of hundreds of pairs beats having to pay $400 for a super-ultra-high-tech helmet that would do this, even if one exists ... though I am curious if one does exist.
 
#10 ·
Septimus said:
Somebody out there with a better understanding please correct me, but wouldn't a helmet that blocks out a lot of wind noise also have poor venting? Isn't it pretty tough to stop the wind noise (bad) without also stopping the air (good), when wind is pretty much ... air? :)

I always wear earplugs when I'm taking the highway anywhere. $20 for a box beats of hundreds of pairs beats having to pay $400 for a super-ultra-high-tech helmet that would do this, even if one exists ... though I am curious if one does exist.
I think if the helmet companies would use sound absorption foam the helmets would be quieter.
But maybe that kind of foam is dense, closed-cell stuff that makes for a heavier helmet, and it seems likely that closed cell foam would not "breath" well so would feel hot &/or sticky.

Still, I wonder if SOME of the plastics/composites that are suitable for protection might be better at absorbing (not transmitting) sound then others. Plus certain molded-in textures &/or curved airflow patterns inside might cancel or scatter certain bothersome frequencies...

Guess I'd like to know if any helmet companies have actually researched such... you'd think the military would've done a lot of studies to find a way to reduce noice / stress for helo, tank, & air crews.

Then again, maybe they found ear plugs were the best bang for the buck. Either way...

Inquiring minds want to know.

Back to an article that I think was already offered somewhere here...
http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-helmets/helmet-noise.htm

also...
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/noj-quiet-rider/
http://www.isvr.co.uk/at_work/m_cycle.htm
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=220851

Scroll down a bit on this one... ear cups for pilot's helmets
http://www.oregonaero.com/p6971_2001.html
 
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#11 ·
MrSciTrek said:
OK...

so today I decide to see if I can insulate some noise out of my helmet using waterproof anti-mold rubber carpet padding & electrical tape.

I took out the cheek & ear pads. Cut padding to tightly fit on both sides of each strap where it comes through the styrofoam helmet liner. Then covered the foam w/ the electrical tape.

Cut little bits of foam to fit inside the holes where the cheek pads snap in.
Cover any plastic & metal rivets with electrical tape to stop any air whistling through gaps.

Since there was extra room behind the ear pads I cut more carpet pad to fit behind them.
Result... the high pitch part of the wind noise was reduced but the remaining wind roar was still pretty loud. Near as I can tell by tilting my head/helmet at different angles at highway speeds the problem is the wind that blasts by the visor edges & travels forward between the helmet shell & pivoting jaw/visor.

Ducking down 4-5 inches below my modified windscreen really drops the wind noise. but that's not comfortable. So I either add a lip or extension to the windscreen or just keep using the foam earplugs for higher-speed trips.
Try "shrugging your shoulders" up into the lower helmet area while riding and see if it makes a difference. I tried this and ahhhhhh, quiet. I found a lot of noise comes from wind passing around the open, lower area of the helmet. Unfortunately you can't ride around with your shoulders "shrugged" all day.
 
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#14 ·
ex_dsmr said:
i think the general rule of thumb is the more venting the louder the helmet. my quantum II gets alot of turbulance/noise right there where at the visor pivots.
Basically, yes. The Shoei RF-1000 is pretty quiet and has a few vents. The X-11 has a bunch of vents and their placing makes the helmet louder overall.
 
#15 ·
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Septimus wrote:
Somebody out there with a better understanding please correct me, but wouldn't a helmet that blocks out a lot of wind noise also have poor venting? Isn't it pretty tough to stop the wind noise (bad) without also stopping the air (good), when wind is pretty much ... air?

I always wear earplugs when I'm taking the highway anywhere. $20 for a box beats of hundreds of pairs beats having to pay $400 for a super-ultra-high-tech helmet that would do this, even if one exists ... though I am curious if one does exist.


I'm with you Septimus. It's hard to understand why motorcyclists will spend hundreds of dollars more for a helmet with less wind noise rather than just using earplugs(which we should do even with the quietest of helmets). Like you say, you can get a hundred pairs of foam earplugs for 20 bucks. I can understand trying to get better venting though. At any rate, I find that riding with earplugs is much more relaxing, so I'm not willing to pay big bucks for a helmet to reduce windnoise further. ninjamon
 
#18 ·
i got my agv clearance for $67 dollars and it is a much better helmet than a gmax it was $300 but on sale if you can get a better brand helmet than do it but to trust any piece of plastic just cause your to cheap to care about your head then do whatever racer i dont care! quality is what matters i dont see a single gmax or agv on any racers head
 
#20 ·
Re: the lastninja wrote: i got my agv clearance for $67 dollars and it is a much better helmet than a gmax it was $300 but on sale if you can get a better brand helmet than do it but to trust any piece of plastic just cause your to cheap to care about your head then do whatever racer i dont care! quality is what matters i dont see a single gmax or agv on any racers head

My opinion is that you don't see those helmets on racers because they're not willing to fork out the big advertising dollars like Arai, etc. Read the Motorcyclist article on helmet safety and you'll see that some of the less expensive helmets proved to be the most protective of your head. For some reason Arai, Shoei, and a few others did not participate in that study in spite of repeated requests by the magazine to do so. Bottom line is that the helmet manufacturers are not paying the racers for the endorsements...the motorcyclists who buy the helmets at those inflated prices are. Respectfully, imho. ninjamon
 
#21 ·
Correction on my previous post...Arai did supply a helmet for the Motorcyclist helmet safety article. Others who did too were:AGV, Fulmer, HJC, Icon, Pep Boys, Schuberth, Scorpion, Shark, Suomy, Vemar, and Z1R. So if you're in the market for a new helmet that article might be worth reading. ninjamon
 
#22 ·
ninjamon said:
Re: the lastninja wrote: i got my agv clearance for $67 dollars and it is a much better helmet than a gmax it was $300 but on sale if you can get a better brand helmet than do it but to trust any piece of plastic just cause your to cheap to care about your head then do whatever racer i dont care! quality is what matters i dont see a single gmax or agv on any racers head

My opinion is that you don't see those helmets on racers because they're not willing to fork out the big advertising dollars like Arai, etc. Read the Motorcyclist article on helmet safety and you'll see that some of the less expensive helmets proved to be the most protective of your head. For some reason Arai, Shoei, and a few others did not participate in that study in spite of repeated requests by the magazine to do so. Bottom line is that the helmet manufacturers are not paying the racers for the endorsements...the motorcyclists who buy the helmets at those inflated prices are. Respectfully, imho. ninjamon
All fine except you can find AGV gear on racers heads, too. ;)

Image
 
#24 ·
Love how light & comfy my suomy vandal is but it definitely wouldn't rank it as quiet. Guess its really a trade off on what you want most out of a helmet. I've been looking at the some of the shark helmets too(I love gear, perhaps a little too much...). A lot of times I will look at a site with user reviews(like kneedraggers) to get an idea of what other people think of the item then go find it on clearance wherever I can. Since I haven't actually worn a bunch of different helmets at high speeds, how much of difference is quiet vs not quiet? I'm assuming with wind blowing around your head like crazy they all have some noise. Is there a big range or is it just a couple of decibels?
 
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#25 ·
The Shoei RF1000 was specifically designed to be the quietest helmet on the market with touring/long distance riding in mind. The X-11 is louder than the RF-1000 and more expensive. That's because the X-11 has better ventilation and is more aerodynamic. I had a Cycle Gear executive (my boss's boss) compare the two. He said, "The RF-1000 is the quietest helmet on the market. Your ears will be ringing if you use it on the freeway, but that's what earplugs are for. In contrast, your ears will be ringing with an X-11 even with earplugs in."

Arai's are just straight up loud. The only reason I've ever heard of anyone buying a 2nd Arai was because of fit. Never noise level, never ventilation, never weight.
 
#26 ·
My HJC AC-10 is loud over 40mph. If I'm going to be in town zipping around at 30 mph then I dont wear plugs. If I know I"m going to be on the highway or back roads I use them, otherwise I can't hear for 20 minutes after my ride.

I've never had anything quieter so I can't compare, but the helmet is a large and is a little too big for my head. Under 30 I dont hear wind, but I do hear lots of engine noise so I know it's not sealing out noise levels very well.