jay21112
Registered
Prelude:
At the beginning of this riding season I found myself sliding down the pavement at 70 mph. I learned 3 things from that experience. 1.) All roads are not racetrack quality. Most roads suck. 2.) Always wear full gear because although road rash leaves pretty purple scars - they hurt. 3.) KBC makes a damn good helmet. (I was wearing a VR-7 I think)
Post:
So I bought a new bike (Busa) and a new helmet. I was going to buy a $500 Shoei but I liked the looks of an HJC CL-14, and hell it was only $120. (Unfortunately I know now, you get what you pay for!) I used it and although it fit tight, the shell was huge and lead to spaceman disease. But that was fine, the problem that lead me to start this post was that I changed shields 3 times on this bad boy. When I changed it the 3rd time, the mechanism broke. The spring mechanism got all kinds of screwed up and when I took it apart to fix it (yeah like I was going to fix this thing without magnifying glasses, needle nose pliers, and the hand of god guiding me) that spring made a B-line for outer space. I got so pissed that I drilled a hole in the visor, threw a screw in there and put a cover on it. It looks fine now, and actually works fine too. (Pics below) But the point is that this thing crapped out on me after 3 changes. I thought helmets were made to switch the damn shields!
Moral:
You get what you pay for. My buddy has a HJC AC-11 which was $250 and he loves. Iv'e never worn it so I don't know, and I'm not knockin HJC. BUT I HAVE WORN A CL-14, and I can tell you that although it sound great at $120, the fact that after a couple of weeks you'll want another helmet negates the price. Although I liked my KBC I'm not playing any more and my next helmet will be a shoei. (Unless ROOF helmets start to become easily available here in the states because they look sick!)
Ok, my soapbox is over. Just don't give me guff saying I'm bashing HJC, because as a company they are probably great, but they make one product (CL-14) which I do think is crap (and hey, its ok to make crap products, as long as you put a big sticker on it that states !CRAP!)
At the beginning of this riding season I found myself sliding down the pavement at 70 mph. I learned 3 things from that experience. 1.) All roads are not racetrack quality. Most roads suck. 2.) Always wear full gear because although road rash leaves pretty purple scars - they hurt. 3.) KBC makes a damn good helmet. (I was wearing a VR-7 I think)
Post:
So I bought a new bike (Busa) and a new helmet. I was going to buy a $500 Shoei but I liked the looks of an HJC CL-14, and hell it was only $120. (Unfortunately I know now, you get what you pay for!) I used it and although it fit tight, the shell was huge and lead to spaceman disease. But that was fine, the problem that lead me to start this post was that I changed shields 3 times on this bad boy. When I changed it the 3rd time, the mechanism broke. The spring mechanism got all kinds of screwed up and when I took it apart to fix it (yeah like I was going to fix this thing without magnifying glasses, needle nose pliers, and the hand of god guiding me) that spring made a B-line for outer space. I got so pissed that I drilled a hole in the visor, threw a screw in there and put a cover on it. It looks fine now, and actually works fine too. (Pics below) But the point is that this thing crapped out on me after 3 changes. I thought helmets were made to switch the damn shields!
Moral:
You get what you pay for. My buddy has a HJC AC-11 which was $250 and he loves. Iv'e never worn it so I don't know, and I'm not knockin HJC. BUT I HAVE WORN A CL-14, and I can tell you that although it sound great at $120, the fact that after a couple of weeks you'll want another helmet negates the price. Although I liked my KBC I'm not playing any more and my next helmet will be a shoei. (Unless ROOF helmets start to become easily available here in the states because they look sick!)
Ok, my soapbox is over. Just don't give me guff saying I'm bashing HJC, because as a company they are probably great, but they make one product (CL-14) which I do think is crap (and hey, its ok to make crap products, as long as you put a big sticker on it that states !CRAP!)
