I wore Just1’s latest offering to the Adventure market for three whole days on the recent Suzuki Adventure ride.
I wore it in temperatures ranging from minus-seven to “I wish the sun would do its bloody job”.
I wore it in conditions that were chokingly dusty thanks to the drought NSW is having at the moment.
And I wore it on roads where its sensationally wide field-of-view showed me dizzying drops into huge ravines and thus incentivised me not to sail off the edge. This massive opening also made the helmet feel entirely not-claustrophobic. And that’s important for people like me. And there are a lot of people like me.
So for all of that, and for all its quality features, I am grateful.
It’s a great lid and a quality product.
Firstly, it looks boss-like, with sweeping angles and dominant vectors. It comes in matte black, and two other lesser colours I don’t much care for (matte white and grey), and it’s really quite clever.
You can wear it with the excellent visor. You can take the visor off and rock goggles. And you can take the peak off and go commando. Though why you would bother taking the peak off is a mystery. It’s a good peak and aerodynamically sound. On the transport sections I had the V-Strom up to about 165km/h and the peak did not become a windsock.
It’s also a relatively light lid (1400gm), and weight is fast becoming a governing factor for me when it comes to helmets. The lighter the better, every time.
It’s well-ventilated with one vent in the chin-bar and two above the opening – all of which can be closed when the temperatures drop or when the world becomes dust.
Once closed, the lid proved quite dust-proof. Sure, the crap still got in underneath the lid, but the visor and the closed vents kept much of it out of my eyes.
It’s got the Just1 emergency cheek-pad removal system, which I did not use because I did not fall off a cliff, and of course its lining is hypoallergenic and removable. Despite the cold, I did leech some fear-sweat into it, but I detect no vile odours coming from the lining just yet.
You can optimise the fit with two full-carbon outer shells and two inner shells, which is also a bonus.
I did find the visor fogged up easily, but I was panting like a blown horse when the terror gripped me, and it was cold. I then found if I just cracked the visor a touch, that went away. The fog, not the terror. That never really left me.
It uses the double-D-ring system on the chin-strap, and I felt the strap itself could have been a touch longer. Cold mornings and numb fingers meant I fiddled a bit trying to get it done up. But understand I am not possessed of a single gram of patience, am hugely ham-fisted, and the lid was new – hence the strap was stiff. Your experience may be entirely different. Helmets are like that. What works/fits for you will not work/fit for me, and vice-versa. And the fiddly-for-me chin-strap is just that – fiddly for me.
But it ticks the three most important boxes for adventure lids – great wide vision, wear-all-day-while-your-head-wobbles comfort, and rugged ride-that-big-arse-mountain good looks.
A bit like me, I guess.
PRICE: You’ll get five cents change from 600 bucks
Got to www.ficeda.com.au for your nearest distributor
Words by Boris Mihailovic