will value. My photographer Olivier had fallen in
love with his S-M10 too, and when Ricardo took
a brief try in one (over his usual Shoei VFX-W)
he was immediately impressed by the lightness
and comfort.
And you know, if RV is happy to wear one
– and he was seriously smoking it around
Milestone on his Yamaha YZ-F – who am I to
argue?
Head-to-toe
but the angle and the length of the visor is
well set so for 99% of users there should be
solid satisfaction on the account. The aperture
is good for any size of goggle (I wore Oakley
Airbrakes, one of the biggest frames on the
market) while still leaving space for airflow
to the face. Despite the generous aperture, a
relatively tall bridge across the chin bar meant
my nose did not go unprotected from Ricardo’s
roost (when I could hang onto him). I liked
that the nose protection is firmly moulded
too, so you don’t accidentally displace it as
you can on some helmets when settling your
goggles. The lining is soft and for those who
like audio aids to their riding the good news is
that there’s even a significant recess to allow
the comfortable placement of speakers (and
microphone).
Perhaps uniquely at this launch, I managed
to properly impact test the helmet, when I
twice washed the front out in deep sand. Each
time I made a neat pivot over the bars and
on the first occasion I managed to even clout
something hard (making a fair ‘clang’). Now this
is not exactly the ultimate test, but I’m happy
to say the helmet stayed nicely in position
and although there was some ringing in my
ears from that first one, there was no undue
damage to me or the helmet (save for a few
scuffs on the latter).
After four hours I was still comfortable in the
helmet – an aspect trail, rally and enduro riders
28 KIWI RIDER
So there we have it, one extremely well-
designed crash helmet – stylish too. And as said
at the beginning of this story, it’s coming at the
top end of the market, joining the other super
dirt helmets in the uppermost price range.
Pricing is $949.90 for the solid colours and the
‘Meta’ colour options.
And with the Supertech S-M10, Alpinestars
has completed what is now a head-to-toe
pledge of support and protection for the dirt
rider. From starting out as a boot manufacturer
55 years ago – and I was one kid who valued his
Roger De Coster / Victory boots as a schoolboy
scrambler – you could argue Alpinestars has
been very successful in its diversification. Only
this is more a case of intensification, taking
their ethos of best protection to every aspect
of moto life. And with each step, it’s always a
quality outcome.