Product Review: Bell Vortex Flying Tigers Helmet

Motorcycle helmets are not something one replaces very often. Safety standards are periodically updated, but those happen so rarely that one can safely wait for the expiration of the helmet before making a change. Yes, for those of you who were not aware, motorcycle helmets come with an expiration date. It is the glue that bonds the EPS foam layer to the shell that, through exposure to the elements during riding, begins to break down and typically five years after production it is recommended that the helmet be replaced. For me, that date arrived earlier this year. My trusty Bell Star, that had served me well for some four plus years, was in need of replacement. Everything about the Star was fantastic, from the quality of the build to the real metal accents to the way it fit my oddly shaped head. The only thing that ever bothered me was the noise, which as a result of being designed to be a racing helmet was not as critical a consideration. So now that I was in need of a new helmet, I once again turned to the Bell line-up and selected a helmet I had been eyeing for a long while.

Allow me to introduce my brand new Bell Vortex motorcycle helmet.

Editorial: Learn to ride a motorcycle

A while back, I shared my thoughts on why I ride a motorcycle. For me, it is a part of my life that I embrace and enjoy. Getting to this point meant a lot of lessons learned and I wanted to share some of those lessons to help others who are interested in getting into motorcycling. Keep in mind that I am certainly no professional rider, just an enthusiast who loves to ride, but I hope some of the lessons I learned along the way can help others avoid making the same mistakes.

Lots of people have different ideas about how to approach learning to ride a motorcycle. Some people believe in the "throw you in the deep end" philosophy, which pretty much entails hopping onto a bike and figuring things out. Others feel like the "baby steps" approach is right and take forever to graduate from riding around in parking lots to actually hitting the streets. While no single approach is going to be best for every new rider, there are a few basic things that every person who is interested in learning to ride a motorcycle should think about when they are first starting out.

Innovation: Augmented Reality for the 2-Wheeled Lifestyle

Image courtesy of Indiegogo

As long as I have been a motorcycle rider, I have always thought that it would be awesome to be able to get some sort of a heads-up display that could project an image onto the visor of my helmet. The display could help track speed, gear, and possibly even provide directions if linked to a GPS unit or smart phone. Other functionality that we can already get with existing helmet communicators should be integrated as well, allowing hands-free calling via a Bluetooth connection to a mobile phone and also music playback. There have been a few solutions that have attempted to accomplish pieces of this, but none that provide a truly integrated experience that is safe and easy to use.

Lucky for me, LiveMap and Reevu are two companies looking to change the way we think about helmets.