Helmets Defog my helmet

regarding cracking the visor, I have dry eyes. The distortions, halos, ghosting etc, with the pinlock shield I mentioned in my original post were what I used to see without looking through any visor or lens, to the point that I couldn't drive at night. I was diagnosed about two years ago. I use Restasis and I have to wear special glasses when at the computer. So cracking the visor for a couple seconds every now and again is OK, but leaving it cracked dries my eyes out in a hurry and that's not good. BTW, when I first tried the pinlock, at night, and saw all those light distortions, my first thought was that it was my eyes (I still occasionally have a bad day), until I opened the visor and everything was fine.

I also have a Shoei breath guard that I have been using. It does seem to be a little effective, maybe delaying the fog until the temp drops another 5 degrees, but when it does start to fog it almost seems as though the breath shield is channeling my breath toward the bottom of the visor.

The light smoke pinlock insert doesn't have the distortions as bad as the clear one did (but they are still there), and it didn't fog on me on the way in to work this morning (38F), so maybe I'll stick with that for a while and see if I continue to get annoyed or ifI get used to the visual effects. The Respro insert looks interesting.
 
Just curious - how many Shoei owners DON'T know that the little black lever on the bottom left side of the faceshield will crack the screen open just a smidgen when you push down on it? (I used to not know but I do know now!!!)

Opens the shield just enough at the bottom to get air moving and help defog, regardless of shield, shield size, shield position, bike, bike speed, humidity, moon phase, sky color, color of bike, rain, no rain, wind, no wind... :p:
 
fiziks said:
regarding cracking the visor, I have dry eyes. The distortions, halos, ghosting etc, with the pinlock shield I mentioned in my original post were what I used to see without looking through any visor or lens, to the point that I couldn't drive at night. I was diagnosed about two years ago. I use Restasis and I have to wear special glasses when at the computer. So cracking the visor for a couple seconds every now and again is OK, but leaving it cracked dries my eyes out in a hurry and that's not good. BTW, when I first tried the pinlock, at night, and saw all those light distortions, my first thought was that it was my eyes (I still occasionally have a bad day), until I opened the visor and everything was fine.
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Ok, see, ya add little details like that and EVERYTHING changes - don't crack your shield then, regardless what DD tells you.. :duck:

:)
 
bkra13 said:
Just curious - how many Shoei owners DON'T know that the little black lever on the bottom left side of the faceshield will crack the screen open just a smidgen when you push down on it? (I used to not know but I do know now!!!)

Opens the shield just enough at the bottom to get air moving and help defog, regardless of shield, shield size, shield position, bike, bike speed, humidity, moon phase, sky color, color of bike, rain, no rain, wind, no wind... :p:
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Actually what it does depends on the helmet. The older ones like mine it does as you mention and just cracks the shield a little bit. Just enough to let a little air in to keep thing from fogging. This combined with a Clearview Large shield run at about mid point is enough that I really don't notice that the helmet is open.

On newer helmets like the RF-1100 the lever has been modified. Turn it one way and it cracks the seal a little to let air in. Turn it the other way and it does the opposite. It pulls the shield in to make a tighter seal on the rubber gasket. This is to be used in the rain to keep water from slipping into the helmet. kind of a cool idea.
 
Smash said:
Yep I tried respro's mask in my last helmet, a GMAX 68S. Worked great! No fog. Then, riding down the interstate it decided to detach from the inside of my helmet and suction onto my face like some sort of rabid octopus!! Couldn't breathe!! Haven't used it since... Should give it a try in my HJC.
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Yes, it is true that you must make sure the velcro stays properly seated. I do so before each ride, it isn't a set it and forget it item.

But, given the amount of attention it needs, I've not found anything better.
 
I tried to order one from Aerostich last fall. I never got anything or a response about it for a 5-6 weeks. I finally called them and they said it was on backorder. They couldn't give me an estimate so I just cancelled the order. Maybe they have them in stock again. This was last fall and it was on back order so long that the riding season was done. I did find it cheaper from Respro directly. I haven't bothered with ordering one yet though.
 
Smash said:
I think I bought mine directly from Respro, but I believe aerostich does have them in stock again.
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I think we were talking about them last year if I recall correctly. You actually followed through with getting one. I have just lived with having my visor cracked open. Oh well. Another reason I didn't get one is I was planning on getting a new helmet and wanted to see if that changed things. I should still do that.
 
sennister said:
On newer helmets like the RF-1100 the lever has been modified. Turn it one way and it cracks the seal a little to let air in. Turn it the other way and it does the opposite. It pulls the shield in to make a tighter seal on the rubber gasket. This is to be used in the rain to keep water from slipping into the helmet. kind of a cool idea.
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Doesn't really "suck it in" so much as simply lock it in place. This is used in high speed riding to keep the visor from opening on its own. Something my HJC used to do regularly.. very annoying to shoulder check and have the shield whip full open .. :eek:4:
 
bkra13 said:
Doesn't really "suck it in" so much as simply lock it in place. This is used in high speed riding to keep the visor from opening on its own. Something my HJC used to do regularly.. very annoying to shoulder check and have the shield whip full open .. :eek:4:
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Are you sure. The sales guy at Motoprimo was demoing the RF1100 to me when I was looking at them and getting fitted and he said it pulls it in while locking in place like you said. I thought I could see it get sucked in by the mechanism a little to form a tighter seal.
 
bkra13 said:
Just curious - how many Shoei owners DON'T know that the little black lever on the bottom left side of the faceshield will crack the screen open just a smidgen when you push down on it?
Click to expand...

The really old Shoei helmets don't have it at all. My first Shoei I got in 1985, I think. It was quite snug and had a button on the side that automatically dropped the shield. Quite expensive at the time. And it felt like it offered a lot more protection than the Bell Tourstars my Dad had. And he liked my Shoei so much he got one for himself. We had to ride up to Mpls to find a dealer that had one, him on a GL500 and me on my CM200T Twinstar. Note, just because a Twinstar can do 80MPH (downhill w/tailwind) does not mean you want to take it on the highway. Dad left me in the dust on more than one hill.

Are there any full face helmets that do particularly well battling fog?
 
fiziks said:
regarding cracking the visor, I have dry eyes. The distortions, halos, ghosting etc, with the pinlock shield I mentioned in my original post were what I used to see without looking through any visor or lens, to the point that I couldn't drive at night. I was diagnosed about two years ago. I use Restasis and I have to wear special glasses when at the computer. So cracking the visor for a couple seconds every now and again is OK, but leaving it cracked dries my eyes out in a hurry and that's not good. BTW, when I first tried the pinlock, at night, and saw all those light distortions, my first thought was that it was my eyes (I still occasionally have a bad day), until I opened the visor and everything was fine.

I also have a Shoei breath guard that I have been using. It does seem to be a little effective, maybe delaying the fog until the temp drops another 5 degrees, but when it does start to fog it almost seems as though the breath shield is channeling my breath toward the bottom of the visor.

The light smoke pinlock insert doesn't have the distortions as bad as the clear one did (but they are still there), and it didn't fog on me on the way in to work this morning (38F), so maybe I'll stick with that for a while and see if I continue to get annoyed or ifI get used to the visual effects. The Respro insert looks interesting.
Click to expand...
I have dry eyes too and luckily OTC TheraTears still works for me when it flares up. The Pinlock does say they are not to be used at night and indeed there are visual effects from outside lighting but there has to be some individual tolerance because they do not bother me. Maybe it is because I have worn glasses, clear or dark polarized progressive bifocals, for years and have dealt with stars, halos, and prismatic color shifts for a long time anyway. My ideal is to not use the Pinlock but when it is raining and/or humid I switch it out the standard clear for a clear Pinlock. Being able to see relatively clearly in those conditions outweighs the visual effects.
 
sennister said:
Are you sure. The sales guy at Motoprimo was demoing the RF1100 to me when I was looking at them and getting fitted and he said it pulls it in while locking in place like you said. I thought I could see it get sucked in by the mechanism a little to form a tighter seal.
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I was looking at mine this morning - there is just one little tab that slides against the visor detentes and stops them from moving up. Granted, this is on a Multitec, on some of their "racier" lids it may work differently, but I don't really see how one button can suck the visor tighter without all sorts of gear gimcrackery. It would have to operate on both sides of the shield or all round the perimeter.
 
fiziks said:
The really old Shoei helmets don't have it at all. True - this was aimed at newer Shoeis. And I wasn't trying to be a smart-donkey - recently we had a few guys on another ride that hadn't looked at the manual and had no idea what the button was for. It's not really instantly obvious what it does - looks more like a guide to help the visor slide down properly..

Are there any full face helmets that do particularly well battling fog? If they do well at battling fog, then they're probably pretty leaky, at least air-wise. Check out www.webbikeworld.com for their helmet reviews - you'll get as good a collection of comments as any, just be prepared to waste a whole lotta time on that site.
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My HJCs didn't fog as much as my Multitec, but they didn't fit as well either and they were very "windy" inside. The Multi flows more air from the vents than the HJCs, but behind the screen on my '03 at its highest setting, it fogs like crazy because of the lack of air flow in that pocket. Really not much you can do about that.
 
The only thing I can think of is that it has a cam action that pulls that one side tighter. This would lock it in place and in theory could pull the shield tighter against the seal. Even if it only pulled on one side. Maybe someone with an RF-1100 could chime in. I don't have one. I have an old Z-Two. It has the lever but only goes one direction to crack open the visor. Keep in mind that the Multitec is an older helmet than the RF-1100 so maybe it is a new feature.

I did a quick search and found this. It isn't worded quite well enough to tell exactly if it is just a lock or if there is something that pulls it a little tighter.

link to review this was taken from about half way down the article.
The face shield has just about everything necessary for a proper fit and function with strong detents, a firm feel and an excellent removal mechanism. The special Shoei lock on the left-hand side of the face shield can be flipped up to lock it shut tight when riding or flipped down to push the visor out very slightly for defogging.
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One could read into it in that since he did state that the visor is pushed out when it is cracked open that it might be pulled in when flipped the other way and locked into place. I don't know. Maybe it is a sales pitch. They did say just about this that they rode in some heavy rain and didn't get any leaking. No word on if they activated the lock though.
 
I think one of the challenges is that no two bikes have the same aerodynamics in terms of the air hitting the helmet. Look at the difference in air flow between a crotch rocket and a gold wing. A given helmet will perform night and day different in terms of fogging when going from one bike to the next. They can do what they can to help. I am glad Shoei did the lock to hold it open. I have never had a closed visor ripped open but I have had an open one slam shut on me. Each can be equally distracting and possibly dangerous in various situations.
 
I have an RF1000 and a Multi Tec and they share the same shield and locking mechanism. The little flip lever doesn't really snug the shield any tighter on mine - it only locks the shield down or cracks it open. The shields fit really snugly against the rubber weatherstrip on their own if adjusted to do that and they won't leak rain either which is good at keeping water off my glasses.
 
I use Shoei helmets and use the small lever to push the shield open to the first position which just cracks the visor a 1/4" or so.

I ride like this all the time in any weather and find the airflow on my face is real nice.

It is also not a problem in the rain and since it is always open slightly fogging is not an issue.

It does make the helmet noisier, but I ride with custom molded ear plugs so that is not a problem.
 
pinlock tested it on my old helmet. I installed it on a high humidity day. tested it in the house wearing the helmet and breathing up into the helmet to cause it to fog. used a hair dryer on low heat and lifted the lens away from the shield and forced the moisture out. tested it out worked great.... except my goggles fogged up instead. :eek::
 
Blue One said:
I use Shoei helmets and use the small lever to push the shield open to the first position which just cracks the visor a 1/4" or so.

I ride like this all the time in any weather and find the airflow on my face is real nice.

It is also not a problem in the rain and since it is always open slightly fogging is not an issue.

It does make the helmet noisier, but I ride with custom molded ear plugs so that is not a problem.
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My Shoei RF110 fogs worse than any helmet I've ever worn. My RF800 didn't have a problem.
 
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