Schuberth C5 Review

Travex

Lost is my destination.
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
832
Location
Western New York State
Some thoughts on the new Schuberth C5 helmet. My longest love affair with a helmet has been with the Shoei Neotec... The longest wearing, best fitting, most featured lid I’ve worn since leaving dirt riding. Although it’s passed it safest period I chose to stick with it as the Neotec 2’s fit was way too off the mark from the original version and anything from Schuberth had less than stellar ventilation and their fair share of bugs.

In terms of quality it was my intention to stick with either of those modular brands knowing a considerable wait could be in order. I did and it was.

Having ridden a couple or so weeks and a few thousand miles with the C5 and it’s integrated SC2 comm system I can offer the following:

Comfortable, in a German way. That’s to say a tad less plush than Shoei, yet in a way that doesn’t really matter. The Shoei’s always felt like more of a hug, while the materials and sizing in the C5 seem slightly less plush and a bit more utilitarian, but still very comfortable. The materials feel great. If I weren’t satisfied with the fit, the interior padding is such that it’s not only replaceable, but also configurable to a greater custom extent than is the Shoei.

Ventilation- Best I’ve experienced in a flip-up. Very effective 2-pos peak vent, standard and effective windscreen popout vent, and a new dual opening and very welcome chin vent. It bares adding that the lining configuration is such that the operation and immediate benefit from each vent is distinctly apparent, which I couldn’t appreciate more. The rear exhaust vent is constant-open, not adjustable, and waterproof.

The mechanicals are all straight forward, logically located, and simply operated with or w/o gloves. The feel of quality. No surprises, minimal adaptation. Nice to have lifter tabs on both sides of the main visor.

Visibility- Excellent as expected. Haven’t made it a point to do the metrics, but lateral visibility is ideal and from a visual aspect the helmet appears and feels very open and spacious. New visors are always a great thing and these are those and a tad more. Crystal clear vistas. Zero distortion.

Aerodynamics- Basing my opinion on noise, wind resistance, head comfort, and rain evacuation they’re outstanding. All day riding comfort, dryness, and rain evac win me over.

Buckle- Euro, deal with it.

Sound is as good to talk about as oil so I’ll just say I’m pleased.

Weight- See above.

Watertightness- Happened to be in the northern plains to test this out in the intense rain and wind they’ve been having and I was thrilled and left dry-headed by the experience. Excellent clarity, dryness, and antifog.

Granted, in very heavy rain anything will leak and get wet given enough time and the Shoei’s were too predictable on that point. The C5 is phenomenal in this respect. The visor’s upper edge is curved-in toward the helmet which alone reduces the air force and hydraulic ingress otherwise possibly present at that point with a straight edged visor.

Times of considerable rain for hours still had my head dry with no wet pads or visor drips. With Pinlock even when hot/humid or around dew point I never fogged. I wasn’t in or near freezing weather and believe 46° was as cool as it got.

Audio- Used a Cardo Freecom 4+ on the Shoei’s with Iasus XSound 3 speakers and could not have been more pleased. The C5’s SC2 audio system is a named-port of Sena’s top 50s unit which is well featured with slightly better voice recognition, and decent sound, but I’ll probably replace the slightly tinny speakers with the more bass-capable XSound 3’s... But I'll be waiting for those to return to pre-inflation prices first. The integrated modules appear barely noticeable, a plus in my book.

Installation is literally a snap. Speakers and antennae are already installed, so everything else is a click-in. 3 minutes maybe. I’m told no road or engine sounds are discernible on the phone while riding.

Complaints- Two. The first is the peak vent. Although very effective and tactile, it does have a small wind actuated high-pitched rattle in the closed position. Annoying and strangely juxtaposed against the helmet's overall quality.

The next is the closing of the main visor. Overall its detents and clicks are easily operable and well placed, but the left side of my visor will no longer click to lock just below the city opening. The right side is fine.

Now home, I’ll be contacting Schuberth to straighten these things out.

Overall, this helmet is the one I’ve been waiting for and it should be for the price. My only regret is that it isn’t available in Anthracite so I settled for silver.
 
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