Mid-Life Rider

I’ve already mentioned my appreciation of non-Snell helmets. They’re just too damn hard. I have a brand new Arai Vector that I’m retiring after about a dozen uses for this same reason.

Suomy’s do a great job of internal venting. It’s nearly impossible to fog the screen. Ten points on that count.

Unlike the Extreme, changing the face shields is a low effort affair. Rotate and remove a metal dial on either side and the screen comes right off.

The helmet is all-day comfortable. This is obviously highly subjective, but I find that Suomy’s fit my head. The Extreme was tight but a perfect shape. The Vandal was just right out of the box.

I judge the Vandal to be averagely noisy. I haven’t ever worn what i would describe as a truly quiet helmet, but I would say this is towards the good end of the range. Still, ear plugs are a must. Without them, the howl at speed is unbearable.

The Vandal vents adequately on a hot day. If I was a full time desert rider I might look for something with more airflow, but I didn’t find myself bothered, even after hours in the sun.

This is not fault of Suomy’s, but someone please remind me not to wear an all-black helmet next time I spend days riding in the desert.

As much as I liked the shield system, I was constantly afraid of dropping the little metal locking disks. Visions of one rolling away and leaping over some cliff plagued me every time I changed screens.

While the helmet vents well, the top front vents are a bad joke. They’re controlled by small rotary dials that expose a hole drilled in the helmet. Turning the dial with bear hands sitting still was a chore that often required an implement. In gloves . . . forget it.

There is a long plastic pokey thing that sticks down from the d-ring. It’s for snapping the end of the strap to. Mostly it poked me in the neck, got hung up on my jacket collar, and generally was a nuisance.