Rider Review: Nolan N43 Air Classic Helmet

[OldBoldPilot]

Last year a friend and I rode across the Mojave desert from Los Angeles through Utah and northern Arizona at the end of June. “Hot” is the word that comes to mind. Now think Shoei Multitec. Then think “really, really HOT”.

 

The Shoei is a wonderful all-around cool-weather helmet, but with a single top vent and a minimally effective chin vent it isn’t designed to be used in 100-degree weather. I resolved that I wasn’t going to repeat that form of torture this summer on our planned ride to Durango, Colorado. Enter Nolan’s innovative N43 Air Classic. To be clear, I am speaking not of the USA Trilogy version of the N43, which lacks the N43 Air’s raison d’etre – the top exhaust system – but the European version. You can see pictures of the helmet and a good review here.

 

Having purchased a number of helmets in the past from Designer Helmets in the UK (no affiliation), I ordered a matte black size Large on a Thursday and had it in my hands in Los Angeles the following Tuesday (Monday was a holiday in the U.S.). Price paid was US$309, including shipping.

 

The helmet comes with a helmet bag, a small packet containing instructions and a couple of plugs to fill the holes if you remove the chin bar, and a hard visor if you choose to remove the face shield and want a bit of a sunshade. Exterior finish was excellent. The liner wasn’t as plush as the Shoei liner but it was quite acceptable and, more important, it’s removable and washable.

 

The helmet seems to fit generally round heads, like mine. I’ve never had a Nolan before so I can’t compare it to older Nolans, but it fits about as comfortably as my Shoei Multitech, which is to say, quite comfortably. I usually wear a size L, but in the Multitech I wear an M as the modular seems to fit differently from the full-face models. I managed to try on an XL N43 Trilogy at a local dealer (they didn’t have an L in stock) and it was somewhat but not extravagantly big on me, so I took a chance in ordering the L-size N43 Air and it turned out to be the right decision.

 

As many of you know by now, one of the most interesting aspects of this helmet is its “presto change-o” character. The chin bar can be worn or not; the face shield can be on or off the helmet; you can use the visor or not; you can lower the integral sun shield or not. All in all, if you have trouble making decisions, this is not the helmet for you.

 

I took my first ride (220 miles) with the helmet in its stock configuration -- face shield and chin bar on – and plan to leave it like that. It should be said that I am riding a Harley with an 18-inch tall windshield (4 inches shorter and 2 inches wider than stock). I am 5’ 10” tall, and look just over the windshield. I started out on a 70-degree morning with the top vent and exhaust ports closed and the integral sun shield up. Absolutely no buffeting of any kind at 75 mph on the freeway, and less noise than I experience with the Shoei. I do wear earplugs at all times.

 

As the temperature rose, finally reaching 92 degrees, I opened the top intake and exhaust vents. Unlike the Shoei, which becomes rather noisy when the top vent is opened fully, opening the vent and ports on the Nolan caused no noticeable increase in noise or turbulence levels. It also didn’t lead to a perceptible change in airflow across the top of my head, whereas opening the top vent on the Shoei induces enough of a breeze to part both of the remaining hairs on the top of my head.

 

At first, I wondered what the big ventilation deal was. Then I realized that the large exhaust ports on the top of the helmet were sucking a huge volume of air up through the bottom of the helmet, cooling my head as it moved past without any turbulence at all. I would liken the Shoei's ventilation to sitting in front of a small fan, and the Nolan's to sitting in the middle of an air-conditioned room.

 

The face shield is odd -- oddly huge in that it comes down nearly to the bottom of the chin bar, and oddly wide in that it offers the widest field of peripheral vision I have ever seen on any full-face or even ¾ helmet. You still have to crank your head around when passing, but at my age every little degree of cranking saved is a blessing.

 

Another odd thing about the face shield is that it seems to be spring-loaded to the up or down position. There are no detents, and you can’t crack it open slightly or it will snap shut. My theory as to why Nolan went this route is that in any intermediate position the top edge of the shield interferes with the airflow into the top vent and out through the exhaust ports. Once I got used to the open-or-closed aspect of the shield I didn’t mind it, as the ventilation was so good. I did ride for a short stretch with the face shield in the fully open position and experienced no lift at all. In fact I experienced no helmet lift at any time during the ride. Optic quality seemed fine to these old eyes.

 

The internal sun visor was a challenge at first. As others have noted, it doesn’t seem at first to come down quite far enough, leaving the bottom edge in one’s field of vision. The combination of the bottom edge of the sun visor and the top edge of the windshield crossing one’s field of vision at almost the same point, at 75 mph, was initially a little disconcerting, not to say seizure-inducing.

 

But then an odd thing happened. When I got back on the bike after a rest at the halfway point of the ride, the helmet seemed to settle lower on my head, and I gave a little tug downward to the bottom edge of the sun visor. Together, the effect was to move the visor down to the point where it became quite comfortable to wear. And there is an advantage to the fact that it doesn’t come down further: I could see my handlebar-mounted GPS screen clearly for a change. Normally, the combination of sunlight and sunglasses washes the screen out, but now I could see it quite well as I was looking below the visor rather than through it. Of course, I do ride a Harley and there was some glare off the chrome tank trim...but I don’t expect any sympathy on that score.

 

A quick word about the removable chin bar. It is a bit flexible, and it's appreciably narrower than the chin bar on a full-face or flip helmet, meaning that you can actually talk to people while it's on -- it doesn't act as a barrier between you and the outside world. Since it was certified as a full-face helmet with the chin bar on, it must be sufficiently strong.

 

The helmet is not DOT-certified, apparently because of the exhaust port arrangement on top of the lid. It is, of course, fully certified in Europe and the UK, both as a ¾ helmet (without the chin bar) AND as a full-face helmet with the chin bar installed. Quite honestly, that’s good enough for me. I’m pretty sure that if I ride in a LEO-infested area wearing this helmet I won’t be the guy who gets challenged on headwear, except perhaps by fellow Harley riders. But since I’ve been riding Harleys and other bikes for almost 50 years, I’m not too concerned.

 

[flat_twin]

Nice write up on the helmet . I'm curious about why you chose a flat black colored helmet when the goal was staying cool? Even though styrofoam in the helmet acts as an insulator, every little bit counts eh?

 

[OldBoldPilot]

You're right of course. But hey, it's already a full-face helmet on a Harley. One is compelled to make at least some small concession to style.