SY-MAX II vs N-103 Helmet

I recently broke down an purchased an modular / flip up helmet. My old helmet was a Shoei full face but found having to deal with glasses and riding into the sun going to and from work I needed to find a better solution.

Initially I purchase the HJC SY-MAX II with the integrated sun visor. I'm blessed with a big head and I thought the XXL would fit me because my old Shoei is a XXL and is a little lose. Much too my surprise the HJC fit me like a XL and my chin was touching the front of the helmet.

I came across a real good deal on a Nolan N-103 on ebay and decided to give it a try because it had and integrated sun visor and had a good reviews. See more at the webBikeWorld video review.

A couple things about modular / flip up helmets for those of you who have not tried one. First, they are heavy. There is a pretty good article on helmet weights over at webBikeWorld. Second, they tend to be quite a bit nosier than full face helmets. Finally, for those of us who wear glasses you don't have to take off your glasses to take the helmet on or off.

With regards to the N-103, I think it is a much better helmet than the HJC SY-MAX but the Nolan costs about $150 depending upon where you shop. The N-103 will set you back about $359 at Helmet City while the HJC SY-MAX II is around $212 at NewEnough.com.

Additionally, the N-103 is bluetooth ready if you need that feature. Because of this it has built in recesses for speakers in the ears. I was able to easily mount my helmet speakers by snaping out the removable ear pieces and popping the speakers in the recessed area.

While both helmets have built in sun visors the mechanism for operating them are very different. HJC uses a top mounted button which is spring loaded and pops the visor back into the helmet. If you have the clear shield up it is ackward to raise the sun visor. The N-103 is mounted on the side of the helmet and having the clear shield up does not impact operating the sun visor. Also the N-103 mechanism is not spring loaded so the sun visor can be adjusted for rider preference while HJC offers only 2 lowered positions.

I am very happy with the Nolan and would recommend it to anyone seriously looking for a modular / flip up
helmet. The HJC SY-MAX II is not a bad helmet for the price you pay and is a good budget priced modular helmet.

Don,

I just moved to a Nolan N-103 from a Schubert C1 (since they are no longer imported here) and am pretty happy with the helmet. It is lighter than the Schubert so that's a plus. I too looked at the HJC helmets, but they did not seem as "rugged" as the Nolan, so I decided not to get one.

Two things with the Nolan that have not been on the plus side. 1) It is noisy. If you don't ride with ear plugs, your ears will be ringing in the end. And I had this issue while riding both an R1150RT and an R1100GS so it's not the bike. 2) If you ride in the dust a lot with the helmet, like I do, you will find the slides for both the visor and the front vents will start to stick. After a long weekend in the dust, I found that I could just barely get the visor to move down, and that was with a ton of force. I've since fixed this temporarily by spraying silicone on the lever, but it will probably come back next dusty ride.

Just my 2¢ on the matter. It is a good helmet and recommend it as a flip-up option.


Dan