Quote from: Spidey on February 12, 2009, 03:59:12 PM
If it helps, my personal experience has been that if an Arai fits your head well, a Shoei  generally won't.  The Shoei RF-1000 *may* be an exception.  Or I may just have a fubared noggin.  <retard smiley>

+2

arai's astral(? iirc) and the corsair fit me absolutely perfectly. and no pressure on my glasses, which was a massive factor of mine when fitting up lids

the shoei, even the 1000, had me stuck right in between sm and med. painfully tight vs. unsafely loose.


and, um, spidey... the status of yer noggin ain't news 

Plus the Shoei's seem to have more room up top, at the crown of the head. Smaller brained/skulled folks such as myself fit better into the Arai. Alien shaped heads (like Spidey's I guess  ) fit better into the Shoei.

The first helmet I tried fit perfectly (joe rocket 101 series - sz L), but now I'm wondering if that shape is similar to others. Any experience there?

Bottom line you've got to try it on. Icons are DOT and Snell approved so they meet the minimum safety standard.  I got a domain helmet because it fit perfectly. The bonus was how well it vented in the summer. the only helmet make I wouldn't recommend is Nolan. Fits well, nice lining but noisy as all get out and terrible venting!

I have the Alliance SSR rubatton helemt and love it.  The finish makes it hard to chip and it is way easier to clean than a gloss helmet.  It fits great and cools plenty.  I actually love Icon gear and don't really care if the brand is associated with squids.  I also have the perf and regular pursuit gloves and love them too.  I think the quality of Icon is awesome along with the style.   

I do have some reflective stickers (ninja stars of course) on mine to help make it more visible. 


+1 on Iron Pony.  I live about 5 minutes away from them and love their customer service and their prices are usually pretty cheap.  Can't say enough good things about New Enough though.

+1 on the Icon Pursuit gloves. My favorites.

I recently saw a pretty bad looking picture of gloves after a fall on the highway with those pursuit gloves. Made me rethink them. I still like many of icons gloves though.

I guess any glove at highway speeds is going to look pretty bad though. Se la vi.

Quote from: ducatitorrey on February 17, 2009, 04:23:28 PM
I guess any glove at highway speeds is going to look pretty bad though. Se la vi.

Not true.  I've crashed Helds repeatedly (and I do mean repeatedly) at serious speeds and never got down to skin.  Nor do I think I ever wore down a Held from a single crash.  They're good for a coupla crashes.  From what I've witnessed, the same is true of Helimot gloves.  I've seen mixed results with Joe Rockets and Alpinestars--sometimes they're fine and other times they fail.  darylbowden has a truly gruesome picture of his hand from when a pair of Tecknics blew apart.   Note:  this is just anecdotal, and is by no means gospel.  Just my experience.

Helmut, owner of Helimot, advocates changing out gloves every two years.  He may only be talking about folks who are at the track a lot and in the heat of summer, but he says the sweat from your palms deteriorates the strength of the leather so that you need to toss the gloves after a while (even if they look fine.).

Thanks, good to know

That's interesting to hear, Spidey. My Joe Rocket Gpx gloves were fine in a 50 mph crash, but like you said, results have varied with those and 50 is nowhere near track or highway speed.
Haven't crashed the Alpinestars yet 
Gonna have to look into getting a pair of Held's.

I am not a fan of Icon gear, EXCEPT, their boots. I commute wearing their Super Duty boots because they are comfortable, robust, cover the ankle, and don't look like I'm on my way to the track. They also held up to a medium speed 'get-off' where I ended up enjoying a west TN field "up close and personal"

For real rides, I'll put on some "real" boots, I have a pair A*'s, but I might compliment them with some Puma's.

As far as a Matte Black Helmet, most of the big companies make matte helmets. I had a Shoei in Matte and now I have it in metallic black.

I ended up getting a Shoei Rf-1000 in Matt Black, and the Icon Super Duty gloves. The gloves are weird, and i will be replacing them eventually. They are fine for now. Pinky is long.

Quote from: ducatitorrey on March 25, 2009, 10:06:29 AM
I ended up getting a Shoei Rf-1000 in Matt Black, and the Icon Super Duty gloves. The gloves are weird, and i will be replacing them eventually. They are fine for now. Pinky is long.

Now for a jacket and boots. I picked up a Joe Rocket textile jacket 2 years ago, and it's held up very well. also, don't discount the textile just because you live in the land of the wind chill factor. You'll be surprised how freakin' hot it gets when you're stuck in traffic in 75-80 degree air temps. The pavement reflects the heat right back onto you.

yep, looking at getting the Nero textile i think is what its called, from ducati. If not that, then maybe a cheap leather ($200)

I picked up the AGV Sport Scorpion Jacket for under 200.   I really like it and the color is flat black not shiny black leather.  Look around on ebay for them.  It has all the armor of more expensive jackets but is much more low key.  No racer boy status. Matches my helmet and gloves along with the bike perfectly.