I’m sure everyone remembers this post detailing all of the motorcycle gear I picked up. Well, during my MSF Safety course, I noticed a lot of noise in the helmet at low speeds. It turns out, the chin air-vent was loose, broken actually. Despite never dropping or beating on the helmet so I tried to fix it myself….with super-glue. In retrospect, a terrible idea. Not only did the glue not work and the pieces were still loose, but when I put on the helmet, all I got was glue smell and feeling very light-headed.
I sent an email to Shoei support and they asked me to ship the helmet to them. I was told it could be a while before they get my helmet back to me. The thing is, the helmet was a demo-model at a store in Canada. I paid $350 USD for a $600 helmet that was missing a mouth guard, visor anti-fog layer and had a couple of scratches on the back. It was not disclosed on eBay that the air vent was broken. I had a feeling that the helmet would take a while to repair (if at all) and I was wary now to run this helmet as buying used was probably a bad idea.
I started shopping around for replacements. The issue is, I had a Sena 10U Bluetooth system that only works with the Shoei GT-Air. The two are linked so my options were slim. Buy a replacement GT-Air or lose the money I spent on the Bluetooth system.
sigh.
Well, I ended up just buying a new helmet and while the other unit came back, I now have two helmets which I guess isn’t a bad thing. I just sort of wish I had bought a new helmet from the start instead of a store demo unit.
Here’s the original helmet:
Shoei’s Repair Note:
The unit came back pretty fast, the air vent works just fine, there is some marring / washed out areas where I applied the super-glue but no more smell of it when I’m using the helmet. Shoei also did a safety inspection to make sure the helmet is in riding shape. Here’s the replacement Helmet:
…and here’s my motovlogging setup:
Overall, I like the old paint more but the red accent is kind of nice. The GT-Air is so quiet and insanely comfortable. Anyone wanna buy a very gently used GT-Air for $350?