schuberth j1 open face helmet.

[Jake]

For those who favour the open face helmet myself included -Thought I would run a few comments on this helmet as I recently bought one. Just released at the huge cost of £350.00 the helmet is an open face with jaw/face protector and dark flip down visor as well as main full visor. I covered over 500mile in winter weather yeterday(conditions from wind,rain and temps -1 degrees upto about 6 degrees test area Northern England to northern Scotland.) using this helmet.
Good Points: Very light and comfortable.
visor never at any time steamed up or visability was never affected by the weather. the helmet is very, very stable at all speeds (including 100mph motorway sections) the main visor will stay up at these speeds also and does not slam down nor does it catch the wind and pull the helmet around (this feature I found brilliant) the main visor when down gives almost as much wind/weather protection as wearing a full face helmet with the exception of a small amount of cold draught on the chin area. The visor has a reasonably high UV filter ability to protect you from sunburn as well. The vent system seems to be very good. The helmet sides fit further forward around the jaw area more than normal open face lids giving better protection as well as having a jaw protector loop that clips in to the sides of the helmet and loops around the face like a chin guard. This loop protector also tightens the helmet onto the head when its fitted. The flip down dark visor was great to use at this time of year where the low sun causes terrible visability problems and huge variations of light as you travel this saved using sunglasses and then having to compromise visability as light faded in woods, valleys and tunnels. Finish and fittings are excellent and a 3 year warranty is part of the deal. I find it a better helmet than my schuberth S1 full face lid by a huge margin.
The Bad bits: price - it is pretty expensive although replacement bits are pretty reasonable. Noise levels are more than I would expect for an open face helmet albeight schuberth claim they are lower than most full face helmets I found wind noise quite high. The area where your ears sit is a big void (apparantly to allow the fitting of radio equipment for police use) so I have had this area re-padded and this has reduced wind noise by about 50%. so its not bad now. Other bad points -none I can find.