The new Shoei RF-1100's came in this week, so here is a little preliminary peek at the Shoei RF-1000 replacement. I own an RF-1000 also, even though it is several years old, and was due for a replacement. So I will try and compare it to my previous helmet.
I used an RF-1000 XL. This new RF-1100 is also an XL. The 1100 feels tighter on the cheek pads than the old one. They might have changed the standard pad size, or it just feels that way because it's new. Shoei makes different pad sizes for optimal fit.
It also smells good, which probably won't last long.
I have decided not to use a cap in this helmet, as the entire liner and cheek pads come out very easily for wash. I usually used a Schampa cap before.
I ripped the Autocom guts out of my Nolan and installed it into the RF-1100. Very easy to do, because you can hide cables and mike behind liner and cheek pads. I had to make a small notch in the wind curtain (see pic) to feed the Autocom cable out of the helmet. The cable / plug is secured using the cheek pad and gorilla tape against the hard shell.. I also used gorilla tape to place and secure the mike and mike arm behind the pads. This makes it very secure. The Autocom speakers are oblong, and won't quite fit into the round Shoei's speaker indents perfect. It is still a good secure fit using velcro behind the speakers. It is just not completely flush with the speaker indent. For other Autocom users: Place the speaker with the cord pointing forward. It will center the speaker better in the indent and give you a better sound.
The helmet comes with a chin curtain and a upper breath guard.
I took it for a first spin, and the initial impressions are as follows. Coming from an RF-1000, you can clearly feel how much bigger the shield opening is. It is quieter than the 1000 is. How much? I don't know. Hard to tell, but I would say about 25-30% as an estimate. It still gets noisier if you open the two front brow vents, just like the 1000. Did not hear any real difference opening and closing the 4 rear outlet vents. Neither did I hear a big difference in noise level by opening and closing the chin bar vent.
I felt a BIG difference in how effective the venting was from the RF-1000. This helmet is taking in a lot more air, particularly through the chin bar vent, but also through the brow vents. Very nice job, Shoei.
As usual from Shoei, the shield mechanism is working flawlessly. They have replaced the base plate with a slightly different system, where the shield is spring loaded into the shield gasket as the shield goes through the last shield detent and seals into the gasket. It is also easier to open with gloves due to a bigger shield tab on the left side if the shield. Taking the shield off is a job that takes 5 seconds to do. Just pull the retention tab down on each side, and the shield comes off.
The overall build quality of this helmet is very good. It feels very solid and rugged. I don't expect any surprises to surface later on.
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Sidenote: I bought some new, long underwear that was on sale at Cabelas, and decided to try it on the helmet test trip. The underwear is called Patagonia Capilene 4. Wow, extremely comfortable and warm.....check them out. I'll safe the full review for another time. You have to catch them one sale, because they're not cheap otherwise.
I used an RF-1000 XL. This new RF-1100 is also an XL. The 1100 feels tighter on the cheek pads than the old one. They might have changed the standard pad size, or it just feels that way because it's new. Shoei makes different pad sizes for optimal fit.
It also smells good, which probably won't last long.
I have decided not to use a cap in this helmet, as the entire liner and cheek pads come out very easily for wash. I usually used a Schampa cap before.
I ripped the Autocom guts out of my Nolan and installed it into the RF-1100. Very easy to do, because you can hide cables and mike behind liner and cheek pads. I had to make a small notch in the wind curtain (see pic) to feed the Autocom cable out of the helmet. The cable / plug is secured using the cheek pad and gorilla tape against the hard shell.. I also used gorilla tape to place and secure the mike and mike arm behind the pads. This makes it very secure. The Autocom speakers are oblong, and won't quite fit into the round Shoei's speaker indents perfect. It is still a good secure fit using velcro behind the speakers. It is just not completely flush with the speaker indent. For other Autocom users: Place the speaker with the cord pointing forward. It will center the speaker better in the indent and give you a better sound.
The helmet comes with a chin curtain and a upper breath guard.
I took it for a first spin, and the initial impressions are as follows. Coming from an RF-1000, you can clearly feel how much bigger the shield opening is. It is quieter than the 1000 is. How much? I don't know. Hard to tell, but I would say about 25-30% as an estimate. It still gets noisier if you open the two front brow vents, just like the 1000. Did not hear any real difference opening and closing the 4 rear outlet vents. Neither did I hear a big difference in noise level by opening and closing the chin bar vent.
I felt a BIG difference in how effective the venting was from the RF-1000. This helmet is taking in a lot more air, particularly through the chin bar vent, but also through the brow vents. Very nice job, Shoei.
As usual from Shoei, the shield mechanism is working flawlessly. They have replaced the base plate with a slightly different system, where the shield is spring loaded into the shield gasket as the shield goes through the last shield detent and seals into the gasket. It is also easier to open with gloves due to a bigger shield tab on the left side if the shield. Taking the shield off is a job that takes 5 seconds to do. Just pull the retention tab down on each side, and the shield comes off.
The overall build quality of this helmet is very good. It feels very solid and rugged. I don't expect any surprises to surface later on.
_____________________________________________________________________
Sidenote: I bought some new, long underwear that was on sale at Cabelas, and decided to try it on the helmet test trip. The underwear is called Patagonia Capilene 4. Wow, extremely comfortable and warm.....check them out. I'll safe the full review for another time. You have to catch them one sale, because they're not cheap otherwise.
. A little notch in the plastic on the curtain won't hurt.:biker:
I bought a pinlock system (shield & insert) for my rf1100 a couple of weeks ago and it works great. The pinlock system is worth every penny. I paid ~$75 (free shipping over $60) at 