LS2 Vortex Modular Carbon Helmet

EricV

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Just got the helmet, wearing it inside the house to see if hot spots develop and trying to decide if I keep it or send it back. Size Large. LINK $399.98 from RevZilla.

Pics of fat guy wearing helmet with tags. Note that the red is just the protective stickers applied to the main visor and drop down sun visor:
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So here I sit, wearing the new Vortex helmet. Chin bar is close to the face. Closer than the FF386, but maybe about the same as the Valiant. If I push my chin out I can touch it against the chin bar. I'm no Jay Leno either. With the chin bar closed, I immediately noticed pressure on my jaw. Not a cheek pad issue. Not sure if this will fly or not. Not sure if there is room for a mic boom either. Snug for the mic for sure.

It has a different kind of material around the neck collar. Kind of a plastic wrinkled stretch band. I assume to keep as much wind noise out. Doesn't seem to bother me so far. At least it won't absorb water in the rain and seems to be a good seal around my neck.

The drop down sun visor is not as smooth as the old FF386. Slide lever for it is on the top left side of the helmet. Makes a springy clang when you put it down and a loud clack when you raise it. No big deal. Sun visor does have full coverage. Better than previous LS2s, and those were good.

Main visor has no solid notches for open positions. More like a soft notch. First one is about half open. Second one is full open. No just cracked sweet spot for a little extra venting in wet or cold conditions. Visor 'tab' that you would use to open/close the visor is dead on center of the visor. I'm used to it being to the side, but what ever. Noticed now that full closed has a distinct click. And is secure. Perhaps just open past that click will give some air flow? Perhaps fully closed will let less water in when riding in the rain?

Eyeglasses fit fine. No pressure on the temples. Long oval to mid oval fit seems ok so far. New helmet snug, but no hot spots so far after 20 minutes.

Chin bar flips open and closed fine. Seems to have a positive notch for open.

Chin strap uses the wide metal ratchet that all LS2 helmets seem to come with now instead of the narrower plastic ratchet my older FF386 helmets have that is more similar to the Schuberth strap.

60 minutes in. Not any worse than 40 minutes. But the hot spot above the center of my forehead is still there. Will see what it feels like tomorrow and see if I can decide what is new helmet fit Vs wrong fit for me.
 
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Tenman

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I wear an xlarge 7 5/8. I've had about 10 helmets or so. The only one that didn't give me a top of the forehead hot spot is the Arai Profile. I didn't think I would ever find a helmet that would fit my bus like head. They have changed the name of the long oval to the Signet I think.
 
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ballisticexchris

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That's a smart idea wearing it at home to check fit. It gives a lot more options for helmet choice. If I try on helmets and if they don't fit perfect right away they go back on the shelf. Needless to say it leaves me with very few choices....
 

Madhatter

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had a woman call me fat one time , im like 'so whats your point " now if she had said ,man you got a big head , that might have hurt my feelings . but sadly its true , another giant head ,nothing less than an xl for me..... great review eric , but how heavy is it ? had a woman tell me I don't look my age , I smiled and said thank you , the fat pushes out the wrinkles …. I got more...….
 

EricV

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I have had an Arai helmet in the past too. Great fit. Old man Arai was a hat maker that understood head shapes. Thus the reason Arai offers different shape helmets and always has. Sadly, they refuse to make a modular helmet for their own reasons.

You can't return helmets after you've worn them on the road, and for me, it takes at least 20-40 minutes to really tell if it's going to bother me or not. New helmet fit is so different from the 5 year old one that has gotten loose, etc.

The helmet is a size large and is supposed to weigh 3 lbs 1.5 oz from the LS2 web site. My digital postal scale says it weighs 3 lbs 7.8 oz with tags and stickers on it. By comparison my old LS2 FF386 after 5 years of wear weighs 4 lbs 7.4 oz (with Sena 20S mount, mic and speakers installed), on the same scale today. Less than a pound difference when you account for the Sena stuff.

Not sure how accurate the postal scale I have is.

After taking the helmet off yesterday I had a visible red area on the top of my forehead. I'll wear it for another hour today to see how I feel about it. Then decide if I want to spoon the EPS a little and live with it or send it back.

On the plus side, it's light. It mostly fits well. It has the features I am looking for - flow thru venting, modular design, drop down sun visor, works with the Sena 20S Evo comm gear I already have and it's an improvement over the last helmet.

On the negative side, it's black finish and I prefer white for less heat transfer and visibility. I may need to spoon the EPS to relieve the forehead pressure. I wear earplugs, but it remains unknown how loud it will be on the street at speed. Probably no worse than my old helmet, but I've never had a carbon helmet either so don't know if transfer noise will be an issue.
 

EricV

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I decided to keep the helmet. Installed the Sena 20S Evo w/o too much fuss. I decided to cut a slit in the neck skirt to slide the Sena clamp thru in order to allow the skirt to lock in place like it should. This worked well. The Sena is farther forward that it was on the LS2 FF386 since the drop down sun visor slider is located on top of the helmet instead of on the side edge.

Yesterday I took the wife out for a ride. Did about 220 miles with about 5 hours of riding. Stopped for an early lunch, then a antebellum mansion tour, then off to a place called French Camp that had some interesting history. Point was I got some breaks from the helmet and used those to tweak the EPS at the forehead a bit. The first hour and a half got to be pretty uncomfortable at the end. Just using my thumb, I compressed the EPS at the front a bit, working around the area I felt pressure at when wearing it. The helped a LOT.

After the next longer stint, I did a bit more work, moving the area out a bit and focusing on some specific hot spots. By the end of the day the helmet was not hurting me, but I did still have some redness on my forehead. I may smooth it a bit more with a spoon.

Venting is much better than the FF386. Noise is a little more at the top due to the vents. Quiets down when they are closed. Not annoying with ear plugs in, which is my norm.

You do notice the lightness over the course of the day. My neck is happier losing that half pound or so.

I somewhat expected the black carbon helmet to get hot in the sun. Mid to upper 80's yesterday with full sunshine. Much to my surprise, it never felt hot at all. I got a bit sweaty walking around the mansion and heading out on the bikes again the top vents really cooled off my sweaty noggin. The carbon doesn't seem to heat soak as much as a normal painted helmet when it's in the sun.

One feature I discovered by accident is that the flip has a lock on the left side. I was fumbling for the drop down visor, (no muscle memory for that location yet), and accidentally hit the lock with the chin bar flipped up. It prevents it from coming back down if you wish to ride with the chin bar in the up position. And it's very effective! I had to stop and take off the helmet to see WTF was going on. Simple metal slide latch that you can operate with gloves when you know it's there. There was no way that chin bar was coming down with the lock on. Once set allow movement again, it came down smoothly w/o issue.

At this point I'm quite pleased with the helmet. I suspect it will continue to break in nicely. I haven't had a need to install the included PinLock visor for rain. I usually buy a second visor to allow quick changes for the PinLock. I may do this, buying a tinted visor and installing the PinLock insert in the clear one for rain rides.

If you have questions or want a specific picture, just let me know and I'll do my best.
 

EricV

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Update - I've had the helmet for 5 months now and it continues to be comfortable and work well for me. I did get a tinted visor for it, and that's just awesome in the summer with bright, sunny days, but it's too dark for cloudy, overcast days. I have the pinlock insert installed in the clear visor and that helps a lot with fogging in the cold/wet. Under 40F I still get some fogging at stops, partly glasses and not the visor, but I think I need to install the chin skirt to improve that issues.

I haven't done too many long rides with this helmet yet. Off to NC last summer and some shorter rides plus local rides. No issues and I'm still happy with the purchase.
 
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