The Schuberth C2 Helmet

For years, flip up, or modular, helmets have helped define the archetype for BMW riders, particularly among the touring die hards. It's easy to understand why: many older riders wear glasses, and pivoting the chin bar up out of the way allows them to leave glasses in place when donning or removing the helmet. The flip lid also makes it easier to carry on a conversation while off the bike, and helps dispel that claustrophobic feel some people get from a full face helmet, at least while the chin bar is up. Schuberth invented the flip up in 1978, and shortly thereafter went on to market the idea through BMW motorcycle dealers as the System helmet. In addition to the flip up innovation, Schuberth also incorporated advanced aerodynamics (older riders may remember the golf ball like dimples in one generation of System helmets), integrated sun visors, venting, and push button buckles. Many said it was the perfect helmet, but others that tried them complained they were very noisy, especially at freeway speeds. That's been a deal breaker for me, as I've recently found the technology that lets me listen to music, radar detector, and GPS directions while riding, and the last thing I wanted to do was compromise the sound stage with a rattling, whistling helmet. My hopes were renewed when in early 2005 I started hearing rumors of a new flip up called the C2. It was to incorporate all of the best features of the current Concept line, and the engineers at Schuberth were supposed to have spent great effort in making it one of the most quite helmets available. Various posts around the web seemed to confirm the rumors, and when the initial demand dropped off to the point where prices became more reasonable, I decided to try one out.

The first thing I noticed when I put the helmet on was how tightly it fit. I wear a size medium in Shoei helmets, and before those a size 7 1/4 in Bell. I needed a size large in the Shuberth, as the medium was squeezing my head, and especially my cheeks, hard enough to be painful. With a size large the fit was still tight enough that my scalp moved with the helmet when I rocked it front to back and side to side, and there was no chance of the helmet lifting in the back. The cheek pads were still tight, something I'm hoping will ease as time goes on.

The next thing I noticed is how much outside noise is muffled by the helmet, especially with the chin bar down and the visor closed. The padding around the ear pockets is quite thick and presses firmly against the head and jaw, providing a very good acoustic seal. I could still hear spoken word quite well, but high frequency noises were very muted, a good sign for how it would behave in the wind.

Flip up helmets are notorious for being heavy, and at about four pounds the Schuberth is no light weight. But that's only a half pound heavier than my old Shoei ZII, and only about 5 percent of what a typical human head weighs (mine might weigh more since my friends say it's full of rocks!). I wasn't expecting to notice the extra weight of the Schuberth, and sure enough, I didn't. That's helped by the fact that the extra gear needed for the chin bar locking mechanism is located low on the helmet so there's less of a lever arm for it to exert forces into my neck.

Part of what makes the C2 so quiet is the excellent sealing under the visor, between the helmet and chin bar, and around the cheeks and neck. The C2 even has a little cloth curtain that slips under your chin as the chin bar locks in place (I've found it necessary to hold the curtain to the chin bar as I close the helmet to keep it from catching on my nose and chin). The curtain is removable (it's velcroed in place) for hot weather use. With all this attention to good fit, the seal is so good the helmet quickly becomes stuffy when I'm not moving and everything is buttoned up. Fortunately, Schuberth paid equal attention to the venting system on the C2. It's one of the best I've ever used, and is comprised of no less than five different components. The most obvious is the large brow vent located on the top of the helmet.

It's activated by a large slider, forward for closed, back for open (this strategy seems counter intuitive to me, and it would be more natural to have the vent open when the slider is in the forward position). In the closed position there is no discernable air flow over the top of my head, even on cold days. Open the vent all the way and there's quite a breeze running down the channels formed by the bars in the helmet liner. For use in really cold climates the liner can be removed and reversed to cover the channels all together, eliminating any chance of air flow. Clever. And of course the slider can be positioned anywhere between open and closed to regulate air flow as desired. I detected no water leakage from any of the vents while I was riding in the rain, even at freeway plus speeds. Negative pressure at the neck area helps extract air from inside the helmet, even when the top vent is closed. This helps keep the inside fresh, or as Schuberth says in their instruction manual, "as pleasant as possible".

The C2 has another vent at the front of the chin bar. It features rocker activation: push on the bottom to open it, push the top to close it (another example of negative control direction). Airflow is quite noticeable when the vent is open, but never enough to cause dry eyes or tearing as the airflow is directed up along the inside of the visor. Schuberth says that even when closed the vent admits enough air to keep the inside of the helmet fresh, at least when speeds are above twenty miles an hour and the helmet is in clear air flow. January in Northern California usually features morning temperatures in the thirties and low forties, often accompanied by fog. In these conditions I find it necessary to keep the chin vent open to avoid moisture condensation on the visor. The anti-fog coating on the visor is very effective in preventing the accumulation of white opaque deposits normally associated with visor fogging, but enough moisture will deposit to distort the image visible through the visor if some airflow isn't provided.

This brings us to the C2's stealth vent, incorporated into the visor pivot system. Cast into each side of the visor's clear plastic are thumb holds that can be used to slide the visor fore and aft on the pivot. In the aft position the visor seals perfectly against the helmet, but pushing the thumb hold forward pops the visor away from the helmet seal and allows air to flow across the inside of the visor. The open position allows more than enough air flow in around town traffic to keep the air fresh inside the helmet and let moisture out, but not so much that my face gets cold or my eyes water. At freeway speeds the air flow is still gentle, but the noise levels go up. No whistling, but enough of a roar to remind me to slide it shut. The visor moves easily, and the thumb holds are easy to find, even with gloved hands. Best of all, I've only needed to pop the left side to get all the ventilation I need, which keeps my right hand free to attend to the throttle.

The last venting system is that of the pivoting face shield. It features three detents between full open and sealed shut that fix the visor firmly in position. Even at freeway speeds with the helmet turned cross wise to the wind, the visor won't move from the selected position, a critical quality when checking over my shoulder during lane changes. In the lowest detent the visor does vibrate and shake at speeds over about thirty-five miles an hour, enough to be disturbing and remind me to shut it. That's probably a good thing, since bugs or stones traveling that fast would sting pretty good if they hit my face. If I feel the need for more air flow at that speed it's easy enough to pop the shield vent.

Schuberth was probably one of the first companies to abandon the traditional D-ring method of securing the chin strap, and the C2 takes that concept one step further by incorporating a pair of large luxurious pads under the push button buckle. I found it pretty easy to smooth the pads under my chin before positioning the straps and engaging the buckle. There's a very pronounced snap when the buckle engages so it's easy to tell when it's all done up. Unbuckling is just as easy: Just push the button and pull the straps apart.

The visor and the chin bar pivot around the same point, and as shown in the photo above, the visor doesn't drag on the helmet shell as the chin bar moves up. The chin bar lock is released by sliding the latch handle forward, a motion that requires firm pressure but not so much as to force the head to turn or to exert uncomfortable pressure on my neck. The latch is easy to find, even in the dark with gloved hands. The force applied to the lever also tends to lift the chin bar, which pops up as soon as the latches release. There's a latch at each side of the chin bar, each of which engages a pin anchored low on the helmet shell. The latches themselves are activated by bowden cables running from the latch handle to the latches, which helps explain the unusual thickness of the chin bar.

When it comes time to remove the visor on the C2 I'll need nothing more than my fingers to get the job done. First step is to rotate the center part of the pivot plate about forty-five degrees counter clockwise and then slide it forward.

At that point I can lift it off to reveal the end of the visor, which at that point is free to come off the helmet. Repeating these steps on the other side of the helmet allows removal of the visor.

As they say, installation is the reverse of these steps, but there's one little trick that helps a lot. That is to keep the visor slid to the front of the helmet when its slot is engaged on the mounting tabs, and then orient the pivot plate so that the little tip of the arrow is centered in the slot. It also helps to push the pivot plate down firmly as I slide it back to engage the mounting tabs.

Another carry over feature from previous Schuberth helmets is the information compartment located behind the chin bar on the right side of the helmet. The compartment contains a small piece of paper, upon which are printed instructions for safely removing the helmet. While I think this is a great idea, the construction of the compartment does little to protect the paper inside from rain, and though the paper in my helmet is still unharmed, my guess is that it won't be for long.

Donning and removing the C2 is greatly facilitated by the buckle and pivoting chin bar. I start with the chin bar up and grab a strap in each hand. I pull the straps outward to spread the bottom of the helmet, then slip it over my head. Then I use the back of my fingers to smooth the chin strap pads into place, and lastly snap the buckle together. I use a "Silky" type head liner to keep sweat and hair oil off the helmet liner, and to minimize interference between the Etymotic earbud wires and the helmet. There's plenty of room in the ear pockets for the earbuds, and I haven't noticed any undue pressure on my ears or the temples of my glasses from the liner. Just before I ride off I grab the center of the chin bar with my thumb inside, pushing the chin curtain to the front of the helmet, and pull down until I see the two red locking pins lower into the chin bar. Though a little bit of red shows on the pins when viewing from the outside of the eye port, I don't see anything but black when looking out and the pins are down. When they're up I not only see the red, but the pins stick up far enough to break the smooth line of the lower eye port boundary. I think it would be pretty difficult to ride away not knowing that the chin bar wasn't latched. Removing the helmet just means reversing the process: Pop the buckle, grab the straps and spread the helmet bottom while lifting. I'm still working on catching my head liner as the helmet comes off, since it doesn't want to stay stuck inside like it did with the old ZII.

Out on the highway the C2 really delivers on the comfort promised by all the features. With the visor down and sealed the ride is quiet. Very quiet. More quiet than the Shoei ZII it replaces, and the Shoei was one of the quietest full face helmets available when I bought it five years ago. Aerodynamics are another strong suit: There's no lifting or twisting, even when I'm looking over my shoulder. I have found, though, that visibility isn't as good when I'm looking over either shoulder. This is because the chin bar protrudes further forward on the C2, and when I turn my head it hits the shoulder pads on my Aerostich. This prevents me from turning my head as far as I'd like, and also pushes it up, both of which cause the chin bar to intrude into my field of view and limit my view to the side and behind. It's not a major concern, but I do find myself craning my neck and lowering my shoulder to see what I need to, a new habit that will probably be second nature in another week or two. In the forward direction, though, visibility is much improved. No more dipping my head to see the clocks: There's plenty of room above the chin bar to let my eyes do the moving. There also seems to be more room in the up direction, a good thing when I'm watching for street signs or high flying CHP!

For years I've used a piece of black electrical tape across the top of my visor to act as a sun shade, an especially handy feature when riding directly into the sun. Schuberth incorporates a space age equivalent into the C2 with a fully adjustable dark plastic sun visor, which is located in the brow of the helmet and is activated by a sliding button on the left side of the helmet. When I say fully adjustable I mean just that: It can be positioned anywhere from nose level to gone. My favorite sunny day place is about half way down, where it provides a filtered view of the road ahead and leaves the instruments bright and clear. Schuberth got the control direction right this time: Moving the button down lowers the visor, sliding it up retracts it. Images viewed through the sun visor are a little on the dark side for my tastes at what Schuberth says is an 80% tint, so I'll be looking into an optional 60% tint available in brown. The sun visor may present an opportunity for cost recovery, as I can probably pass on sunglass lenses next time my prescription gets updated. And it means no more stopping to swap glasses (or visors) as night descends, and no more blind groping through tunnels or desperate attempts to slide sunglasses down my nose so I can see over them.

To wrap this up, I believe that the C2 is the best helmet I've ever used. "Best" not only in terms of comfort and features, but in crash protection as well. In a recent Motorcycle Consumer News article (February 2004) Dr. Harry Hurt (yes, that Dr. Hurt) suggests that the more severe conditions imposed by Snell testing may actually be causing helmet manufacturers to design helmets with more rigidity than needed, resulting in higher G forces being transmitted to a rider's head in an impact. The more lienent, and some say realistic, standards from the DOT and the ECE (Economic Community of Europe), allow the liner to absorb more impact energy, possibly sparing the brain some damage. At this writing, the Snell Foundation doesn't have a test for flip up helmets, so the C2 meets the DOT and ECE requirements. To my way of thinking, that's a benefit, not a liability.

References:

Extreme Supply

Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine - Seven Flip Up Helmets Compared

WebBikeWorld - ECE 22.05 Motorcycle Helmet Standard

WebBikeWorld - Schuberth C2 Flip-up Motorcycle Helmet