Those help seal off the helmet’s interior from the outside environment, blocking dust and debris from getting into your face an eyes and allowing you to have more say over ventilation by adjusting vents. Hey, it does lock the visor down very securely.Īnother thing Icon’s skipped is a chin curtain. There’s got to be a more elegant solution, but possibly not at this price point. They argue it’s simple and strong, which it is, but it’s also unnecessarily clunky, requiring a hand to stabilize the helmet while unlocking if you don’t want to push it up your forehead. The Airmada also continues to use Icon’s Monroe-style metal stud visor lock. That leads to some nice cooling, but earplugs will be a necessity on long rides or any time you’re planning on sustaining highway speeds for more than a short period. You can actually hear the air rushing through the top vents at highway speeds. With that visor seal issue resolved, the Airmada isn’t the quietest helmet in the world. It’s really the only area on the helmet where the cost is visible. Not a big deal for a tough guy like you of course, but still annoying. This is going to sound like a wimpy thing to say, but the levers you push with your fingers to pop loose the visor hurt every time you use them. It works, eventually, but with a frustrating clunkiness. What isn’t high quality is the quick-swap mechanism. In addition to visors that, in stock form, absolutely refuse to fog, that’s some serious quality for any price level. Icon employs a one-piece visor gasket that, when the visor seals to it properly, actually does an awesome job of sealing out wind and dust and other things you don’t want in your eyes. If the visor doesn’t seal completely to the gasket, all the way around, when closed, send it back for one that does. Our advice would be to order visors from an online retailer, which offers a no hassle return policy. A new black visor has recently totally cured that problem, but we’ve seen reports of whistling from owners of the helmet. The problem was apparently a batch of visors with the lock holes drilled just a smidge off. On both the smoked visor initially failed to seal completely to the gasket, leaving a gap for air to annoyingly whistle through. The second, black version is production spec. That first helmet was pre-production unit rushed to me in time for the Brammo Empulse ride, so I gave it a pass. The reason this review’s taken so long is that the helmet initially presented some problems with whistling. I’ve been riding in the Airmada (both High-Viz and black-on-black Stack graphics) since August. Of course, all those vents do create one concern: noise. Additional vents on each side of the chin are equipped with three-position internal switches. The brow vents are also extremely large, you can actually feel them blowing fresh air onto your forehead at speeds above 30 mph. The two main, top intakes on the Airmada are triangular in shape and well in excess of 10mm in diameter as a result. The minimum size for any of those vents is 10mm, which is typically considered a large vent on other helmets. There’s seven switchable inlets on the front and six static extractors at the rear. The two main-intakes are triangular in shape and considerably larger than the industry-standard 10mm.Īs you’d expect from a helmet with “air” in its name, the big deal here is ventilation. It’s not Schuberth SR1 tight, but it’s close. Oh, and that neck roll is super tight and secure, blocking out wind and holding the helmet very securely on your head. It also helps resolve the visual distinction between the large, tight neck roll and helmet’s shell. Visually reminiscent of a high-end basketball sneaker, it adds a welcome tactility and technical appearance to an area that typically becomes just frayed fabric. Wrapping the helmet’s base is a new, one-piece PVC neck roll cover. That’s then attached to the helmet using an all-new quick-release mechanism that should be easier and more durable than the company’s previous designs. Dubbed, “Icon Optics” (as opposed to the old “Pro Shield”) it adds 5 degrees of peripheral vision on each side. A lot of that newness is centered around the visor.
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