Review: HJC 1/2 Helmet Kawasaki Vulcan 2

[RampRat]

Went out today to get a feel for the 1st time wearing the 1/2 helmet.

It was quite different compared to my full face HJC I've been wearing for the last 3 years.

The 1/2 helm is quite a bit lighter & sits lower on the head but at the same time is comfortable. Took a few miles to get accustomed to wearing it, vision was better and so was road noise surprisingly enough. I figured the exhaust would be louder, but that was not the case at all. Don't know why but for whatever reason the full face helmet makes the exhaust sound louder by a rather large margin. Was a real joy to pull a helmet on over the head while leaving the glasses on & not having to dork around with glasses at all. Left the zip in neck curtain in place as to see how I like it & it really was nice.

After ridding around town my stupid azz figured I'd zip out a county road and see what it felt like on a 2 lane highway. Now I was wearing jeans, boots and a T shirt and had originally planned to stay away from the highways/interstates.

Well, running into a 30mph head wind and cross wind the helmet had way less helmet bob and bounce behind the winds screen & I was really suprised at how smooth it was. Compared to the full face helm where my head is bouncing around like a bobble headed dog this helm fit so nice and low it hardly bounced & I could actually see better at highway speeds with the 1/2 helm & once again road noise was way less.

Got out to the I80 interchange and my stupid azz was having so much fun with a nice relaxing ride I figured why not take I80 back to town.

Big Mistake.

That 30+MPH cross wind was way worse out on the wide open interstate and the semi's made it even worse and once for about 10 seconds while passing a semi I thought I was going to go bfffffffff and see exactly how good the helmet would work in a 80 mph crash and what it would be like to ride in the back of an ambulance However, it did not happen & after I pulled the seat of the 1600 out of my puckered brown eye and managed to realize I needed to breath again things were not all that bad. It was just that one strong gust of wind going one way as the vortex off the semi was going another that caused me to pucker up somewhat.

Anywhoo, all through the ride on the interstate with all kinds of wind blowing all over the place the 1/2 helm had better visibility, way way way less head bob and movement while affording me to see better since the head was not bouncing around nearly as much. With the lighter weight my neck and head felt better & was not nearly as sweaty and never felt confined like I do in the FF one after a while.

Yes the 1/2 helm provides way less protection as I found out when the semi went blazing past me at 95mph (was running 75 and at 90mph I gave up trying to catch him) kicking up rocks and dirt pelting me & in a crash it would be much less protection.

All in all after about 2 hours of ridding in town, on back roads and interstate I'm really impressed with this helmet and extremly glad I got it.

Kawasaki Vulcan 2 (Black/Silver) 1/2 | Helmet Harbor

[nedley]

How about sizing? I too have an HJC full face. Did you find that you needed a smaller size when going to the 1/2 helmet?

[RampRat]

My FF is a XL and it's just a smidigen tight & leaves a red spot on da forehead.

Got a XL and it's just a tad loose, but I don't have any hair either & I think a L would have been a tad tight as other XL helm's I tried were tight to really tight.

Here is HJC's sizing chart:
http://www.hjchelmets.com/sizing_chart.htm

[NIGHTHAWK1]

I've got one of these for sale. It's only been worn twice. It's in great shape. Not a scratch on it. It's the gloss black finish, size large. I'll sell and ship to anyone CONUS for $75.00. Send me a PM or email at markpescod1@aol.com if interested. I can send some pics too.