| Author | Message | ||
     Roderick |
Monday was a windy day for riding. Coming up from the south and gusts were up to 30mph. It was a good day to have a real world experience for review of the new Roof Desmo. I have only the first generation Boxer and the new Desmo to compare. The Boxer was dropped several times, nothing too drastic, more like desktop height, and accidentally externally doused with gas once. Then I rode for about a full tank breathing gas fume. After my X1 was stolen and wrecked, I put the Boxer away, hoping I would have a chance to use it again. Now that I settled down in a house instead of a nomadic life in apartments, I got me an S1 and it has been a year since then. Over that no Buell time, Roof came out with a couple of Boxer evolved models: V8 and V8 Black Shadow. I never bought them but I can tell that each have at least improvements in the venting department, of which the original Boxer had none. When the temperature got over 85 F, even with the chin bar fully rotated to the rear and face exposed, it was hot under the helmet. The Desmo may came from the Boxer, but it definitely is a whole different animal from the Boxer and the later V8 versions. My size is medium, or 58 cm measured around the forehead. Given how much I read about sizing variability on motorcycle helmets, am lucky that both Roofs came just right for me.  Initial impression is that the Desmo is far superior in design and manufacturing than the original Boxer which I have for slightly over 10 yrs. Out of the box, the helmet was in its own cloth bag with a strap for carrying. A plastic bag containing two nylon rotating cam mechanisms and a small tool for changing them out. With how often I ride with the chin bar rotated fully aft and forward before hitting the freeway, it remains to be seen how durable these mechanisms will be. The overall shape is slightly more elongated than the Boxer's roundness mainly due to the redesigned rotatable chin bar, which the Desmo's have vents for cooling and for defogging. The Boxer's chin bar do not. The Desmo is also a bit wider and also because of the redesigned chin bar with the rotating cam mechanisms. Because of the redesign, the Desmo is heavier by 300 grams, or about 11 oz, over the Boxer. But I never noticed it while wearing.  Some people at work asked that with the chin bar rotated aft and riding that way causes any balance issues. I never had any with the Boxer even at freeway speed. Now same no issues for the Desmo. Some may think that riding with chin bar aft looks 'dorky'. I say the chin bar aft is far better than spikes, faux mohawks, or viking horns. For both helmets, riding this way is good up to about 50 mph before wind bleeding through the sides hit the eyes. Then it gets harder to see at freeway speed. The Desmo's fit was snug but not tight. No play with head turning. I still have to tuck up my ear lobes after I put it on. But something totally unexpected came in the test ride. At freeway speed, the chin bar touched my lips. Never happened with the Boxer. No pressure, just touching. Not annoying, at least not to me, but possibly for others. No contact with my lips at neighborhood street speed. Looks like the vent took up some volume. Standing still, I put just slight pressure on the outside and the chin bar touched my lips. A review by webbikeworld commented about this internal dimension issue... http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/motorcycle-helmet/r oof-desmo/
May be someone more handsome with a shapelier head would not be kissing the inside of the chin bar at freeway speed. There are no Roof dealers in the US for any potential buyer to test so this would be chancy.  Some Boxer owners complained that the visor impeded the chin bar's movement. Some had no problems. I belong to the second group. But as the image above showed, the gap between the visor and the chin bar on my Boxer is probably the reason why some Boxer owners have no problems rotating the chin bar. That gap made cool and cold weather rides really uncomfortable. It also said much about quality control in manufacturing of the Boxer. Roof fixed the problems with the Desmo. The chin bar is redesigned so that the visor sits in a groove instead of merely being behind the chin bar. But in order for the chin bar to rotate to aft, the visor must be unseated and this is where the rotating cam mechanisms comes in. The webbikeworld review have a video at time stamp 2 min showing the visor's movement in relation to the chin bar's movement. The Desmo's top and rear vents are huge improvements over the Boxer which have no vents at all. The top vents are opened by depressing them, then depress a button to close. I did not like the 'clack' that reverb-ed through the helmet when the vents snapped closed. I think it is just a bit unnecessarily loud. The rear vents have knurled levers to open/close them. May be difficult to use for large hands and was a bit difficult with gloves. The chin bar have two vents right in front like Darth Vader. Top for defogging and lower towards rider's face. They are independent of each other. The Boxer was bearable in the noise department but on windy days it often became uncomfortable. In crosswinds, it felt like I had banshees by my ears. On the first part of the test ride with the Desmo, I rode to get gas with the chin bar rotated aft. I wanted to hear the noise differences, if any. Roof definitely improved with the Desmo. May be the later V8 versions did better on the noise reduction as well. I never had any of the V8 versions so I do not know. But compared to the Boxer, the Desmo was a magnitude better. At the 5 mile 30-40 mph ride to get gas, on this windy day I actually heard much more of the engine's exhaust than with the Boxer. Noise for the Desmo was concentrated around the ears, same as the Boxer but the Boxer was much louder. Do not know about other helmet brands on noise but am confident that for the Roof this has to do with the rotating mechanisms which are by the ears. At freeway speed, overall noise was also lower than the Boxer.  The Desmo's chin straps are different. The Boxer's chin straps are of the car seat belt design for the latch. The Desmo's method with the teeth give a little bit better adjustment.  For the Boxer, to secure the chin bar in the forward position require pushing down a pair of snaps. For the Desmo, a pair of pins make locking the chin bar automatic and it felt very secured. To release the Desmo's chin bar the rider must push down/up or squeeze a pair of red buttons in front, then raise the chin bar. Overall, I am happy with the Desmo. I ordered from thebikerstore.uk. I contacted them to verify that they actually have the Desmo in stock. I watched the pound exchange rate for a few weeks and it was not going anywhere advantageous for me. Total was 341.66 GBP including shipping. They shipped on last Wednesday and it arrived on Monday. |
