I’ve spent the last few years testing helmets. Big name brands (Shoei and Schuberth). Lesser marques (AGV, LS2 and Ruroc). I’ve worn them through the cold of late November backroads in Canada and the high-speed autobahns of Germany in the heat of summer. In rain, wind and, on one occasion, hail. On multiple motorcycles and, in one case, on one motorcycle with multiple windscreens. I’ve even subjected my poor, unsuspecting wife to multiple skid lids, lest my noggin have some particular anomaly that prejudices conclusions. Here’s the most important thing I’ve learned:

The best helmet is the one that fits.

Not the one with the best ventilation system. Not the one with the oh-so-tricky, only-one-hand-needed-to-remove face shield. Ditto those tricky new clasps instead of traditional D-rings. Not even — I can hear the gasp! Horror! from the safety crowd — whether the next lid you’re shopping is ECE.22.06-approved rather than an older 22.05 version. And don’t even get me started on communications systems. The most important criteria, no matter what type of helmet you’re buying — full-face, race replica, modular or flip-back — is finding a helmet that fits. Now more than ever.

That’s for a number of reasons.

First off there’s the fact that any newer helmet — short of those stupid shorty things some nihilists find fashionable — is truly far superior technically than those of just a decade ago. All have far better vent systems than helmets of yore. More sophisticated energy-absorption layers, too. Hell, even a small brand like Ruroc has some Rheon D30-like cushions in between layers of EPS to create an even cushier boundary between you and whatever might want to inflict harm on your noggin. Some face shields are better than others — read the review starting on page 60 in this issue — but again, none are nearly disadvantaged enough to warrant being the buying decision.

The second reason that fit and comfort are the most important criteria is that, in my experience, they are both harder to come by than ever before. To wit:

In years previous — I’d say up until four or five years ago — I found it rather easy to find a comfortable skid lid. Pretty much any Shoei size large coddled my cranium like a well-fitting glove. Ditto Schuberths. Hell, my old E1 — which must be now a decade old and on its second set of inner pads — still fits like a bespoke Italian shoe. I don’t wear it much anymore —
helmet makers frown on using their lids for much more than five years — but keep it as a reminder that there was a time that I could just slip on
a lid right off the shelf and feel immediately at home. Indeed, in olden times, about the only brain bucket that I never managed to get comfy with was Arai, but that was because of the old oval/oblong conundrum.

No more. Finding a helmet that fits well of late has proven much more difficult. The reason I think this is so — and though this be only one man’s opinion, understand I’ve been stripping helmets right down to their EPS for three years now trying to figure this out —is because of communications systems. 

When communication systems first came out, they were add-on features to already-existing helmets. Some jury-rigged mounting was involved — often using Velcro — because they otherwise floated inside the helmet, the ear holes significantly larger than the speakers’ diameter.

No more. Earholes are now specifically sized for whatever comms system the helmet-maker is working with, some even having plastic inserts with special clips made for specific speakers. Others just carve the speakers’ hole out of the EPS. Whatever the case, helmet ear holes are getting markedly smaller. 

All of which is making ears — at least my ears — more uncomfortable. Ear plugs, once easily accommodated, are now pushed painfully into my ear canal. Ditto wireless earbuds which were, until recently, my favourite way to listen to music while riding. Sunglasses, once comfortable for all day riding, now pinch between my ear and skull if they have the slightest girth to their temples. And, lo and behold, until all this recent helmet testing, I never knew that my right ear is a couple of millimetres lower than the left. I know now because my right ear always hurts more than my left, there being less room for genetic mutations than there used to be.

Nor is there much salvation to be found in the many “custom”-fit inner liners — different sized cheek pads and head liners — manufacturers offer for their premium lids. Oh, they can make a helmet less uncomfortable. But I have yet to find one — and I have at least 15 sets of auxiliary cheek pads for the various helmets I have been testing — that transforms a truly uncomfortable helmet into a perfect fit. They are but foam, after all, and cannot make up for hard bits of EPS that don’t conform to your head’s specific profile.

My point is this. When you’re shopping for a new helmet, don’t just try it on for five minutes at your dealer. Wear for half an hour if they’ll let you. Better yet, find a dealer that professionally fits helmets. Or, go online and order a kit that specs out your head and compares it to charts for various helmet makers. Whatever the case, make sure it fits: Buying a helmet solely based on its “performance” criteria — the aforementioned ventilation, convenience of its chin strap, etc. — is no longer a guarantee of satisfaction. 

For the record, I’m living my own advice. I now have two go-to helmets. One has a slightly wonky face shield and the other’s paint is subpar compared to its competitors. But they both fit me better than helmets with fewer flaws and that, as I have been saying, is more important. Now more than ever.