gary@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (gary w buchholz) (05/14/85)
I recently purchased the new top of the line Bell Helmet - the GT Royale. List price (as told to me by my Honda dealer) is $250 but, he was willing to give it to me for $200. I purchased it from Dennis Kirk for $184 (no tax, no shipping charges) Anyway, putting the helmet on brought back memories of the movie The Fly. The hemlet is gigantic - not as bad as a giant flys head but almost. One of the features of this helmet is that it has a removeable, washable inner liner. The problem is that this liner when installed rests against another styrofoam(sp) liner in the helmet shell. The result is a "styrofoam squeak" when the two surfaces rub together and this happens oftern enough as the fit is not at all tight. Another feature is the two position visor activated by a trigger mechanism. Press the trigger once and the visor cracks open, press it again and the visor flips all the way up. The problem is that the trigger is a hair trigger. nine times out of ten you will not be able to get the visor in the "cracked" position. It seems that its all or nothing. A third feature is adjustable venting. There are three positions - closed de-fog and full. De-fog blows air up to the visor. Full, according to the instructions, supposedly vents the inner lining. Looking at the helmet construction I couldn't imagine what this could mean. Needless to say, I sent the helmet back and purchased a Simpson 32 "Darth Vader". Plenty of venting, slightly poor perif. vision but better than a poorly vented squeaky flys head anyday. Gary