MotoNews Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Published in: GearMany carbon fiber helmets were priced in the unobtanium category. Today, 400 to 600 dollars can get you a light-weight, well-built, feature-packed carbon adventure lid. While modern adventure style helmets tend to look similar, Scorpion’s EXO XT9000 Carbon series offers some features not found elsewhere and for a great price. We got a chance to see how well it does in the Himalayan mountains at Royal Enfield's Himalayan 450 junket. Are you pumped? If not, you could be! One of the XT9000's outstanding features is Scorpion’s pneumatic AirFit system bladders which lines the chin bars. A small red bulb located at the very front of the chin inflates them much like your old Reebok pumps (if you’re old enough to remember those). The air bladders apply pressure from about halfway down your jaw to just under your ears to make for a very customized fit. The pressure is released by a small metal valve located just to the left and below the pump bulb. To access these more easily, the chin skirt has a convenient cut for thumb access. My head and jaw are big and wide enough that it wasn’t necessary to inflate it to keep the helmet in place, but if you have a longer/narrower head, then this feature may be great for you. Also, years of use and abuse will generally flatten out the cheek pads, and the pump fit feature will help ensure you have a snug helmet through the life of your lid. The effectiveness of this feature comes down to head shape and size which is an important factor in choosing the right helmet. It doesn’t matter how much or little you spend on a helmet, if the shape is wrong, it can be painful to wear. Scorpion’s XT9000 “intermediate oval” head shape is a little bit longer front to back and should work with most riders in the US or Europe. If you have a rounder head, most commonly fit for HJC, Arai and Shoei helmets, it can still work but would recommend trying one on first. If you can't find one in a local retail store, many online retailers offer free returns, but just don't remove any tags or stickers! We really like the super deep air channels along the top of the liner. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of air flow access to the outside of the helmet except for two small chimney vents on the top and four larger exhaust vents clustered in the center rear. This isn’t a problem on cool days, but if you ride where it’s generally hotter than not, you’ll likely end up leaving your visor cracked open for more air flow. Speaking of visors, the XT9000’s visor is well built, clear and comes with a Pinlock insert so fogging up, even on near freezing mornings in the Himalayan mountains, wasn’t an issue. Although there are several smaller ratchet-like detent positions, I really would have liked a more positive feel to the detent positions. This is especially true in that “cracked open” spot where you can get some air flow without having the lower visor edge in the middle of your vision. That said, the visor is held firmly in place and didn't blow open or slam shut. The XT9000 is also electronics friendly. The oval chin vent gate can be replaced with an included flat camera mount. The pointy or rounded chins on motorcycle helmets makes it impossible to stick any flat shaped mount on the front, so having an adapter from the factory is very welcome. It installs with a small screw and has been strong enough to support our action camera with no issues. Internal channels help manage your communication system wires, but the speaker pockets could be a bit deeper. Other than that, the included chin skirt makes for a fairly quiet place to hold your in-helmet conversations or jam out to favorite tunes. The external shape includes a goggle strap channel across the back and is aggressive looking with or without the peak. When installed, the peak works very well and doesn’t give much, if any, head lift at road-legal highway speeds. It also doesn’t produce much noise or turbulence when turned to the hard left or right. Like the visor, removing the peak can be done without tools, gives the helmet a much cleaner profile and looks great as a street helmet with killer eye-port visibility. Last, but definitely not least, one of our favorite features of the XT9000 is its weight and balance. At under 4 pounds (we measured 3.45 pounds for size large) it’s incredibly light and mixed with thoughtfully designed aerodynamics, makes this a pleasure to wear all day. The light weight is especially appreciated when slapping all kinds of electronics on the shell. As an aside, it would be nice if someone designed a battery pack that would mount on the back of the helmet of offset the weight of a camera on the chin. With a street price of around 500 dollars, Scorpion’s EXO XT9000 adventure helmet is one slick looking, solid performing, feature packed helmet that checks a lot of boxes for a wide spectrum of riders. You can spend less for other helmets, but when you add the included accessories like camera mount, anti-fog pinlock, dark-smoke shield and ECE 22.06 safety rating, the value starts to add up. Is this my go to full-face helmet now for general use? It’s sure is and I’m pumped to put it on! MSRP $529.95 ScorpionUSA.com Pros – • Super light-weight and nicely balanced• AirFit pump and bladder system for custom fit• Great value for features, weight and build quality• Wide range of colors with lots of included accessories• Convertible and looks good with or without peak• Goggle strap friendly Cons – • Would like more positive visor detent positions• Forehead vent in the front would increase air flow Read more ...View the full article Link to comment
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