One of the big rules you’ll hear when you get into motorcycling is “never buy a used helmet.” While that’s generally good advice, every person has to weigh their own personal risks/rewards. Because Schuberths are so very expensive, I took the plunge on a used one: I purchased a used Schuberth C3 (not “pro,” not “W”) from an acquaintance. She had purchased it and used it twice before, sadly, health problems forced her off a motorcycle for good.
I like this helmet. I don’t love it yet, but that’s where I’m going here. Helmet customization. Those of you who are Arai Signet loyalists know the first drill: back of a spoon to the forehead!
I can’t endorse purposefully compressing the hard foam inside your helmet. There’s that risk/reward scenario again — the more you compress the foam yourself the less compression it will offer your head in an accident. But without making a little more room for my oval skull the helmet was unwearable for more than 40 minutes. It didn’t take much compressing to make the helmet a comfortable fit.
The big problem I was having with this thing, though, is that I couldn’t breathe in it.
The chinbar on this helmet has a “chin curtain” which offers an excellent seal against wind, which means it fogs up my eyeglasses. Also, along my commute, in the sun, with the clear visor closed, I felt as though my face was in a greenhouse. I don’t like riding with the visor open, since I get sunburned very easily aaaaaand I don’t like bugs. The chin curtain holds onto the bugs that fly in through your open visor, until you can unlock the chinbar to evict them. Meanwhile they’re trying very hard to get out of there THROUGH YOUR FACE ooohkay no thanks.
There’s no easy information available on the web about this thing. I can’t be the only one ready to cut it off the helmet, can I?
So I start to pull at it, and I find bolts buried behind the hard foam of the chinbar.
The helmet is only slightly modified (ahem) and the chinskirt can be reinstalled pretty easily. I put the bolts back in.
A ride with the newly-customized helmet shows it moves a LOT more air and doesn’t suffocate me at stops, isn’t noticeably louder, does not argue with my comm system’s boom mic nearly as much as it used to, the chinbar is easier to close, and now I can ride with the clear visor closed all the time without cooking my face or fogging up my glasses. Big win!
