We took the plunge and invested in the full Carbon Fibre Nexx X-Wed 2 Adventure Helmet.
At 12K for the carbon, it’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but experience has shown that you only get one head – so don’t scrimp on safety…
Nexx is, absolutely a change from our usual brands, we have Arai, Just 1, Scorpion, HJC, Suomy and Shoei adventure helmets stashed all over (remember, we have been doing this for a very long time), and they are all great choices but, helmets do have age limits, so it was time…
And besides, something new is always lekker.
This hand-made in Portugal ADV helmet meets and exceeds all international safety standards, so you have that piece of mind when you spend your hard earned cash.
It’s taken a while to get this all done because we wanted to do a proper long ride wearing the helmet in varying conditions.
A chilly winter morning ride from our spot in Bredell, out past Cullinan onto the freeway out to Magoebaskloof and back, arriving home in the dark provided just that opportunity.
The bike for the day was the Honda Trans-Alp, but we had two other road bikes along in the form of the Indian Scout and the BMW RS1250 and, as we often do, we swapped bikes through the day.
We are big carbon fibre fans and the helmet looks fantastic.
The helmet has a high-end look and feel to it. The vent clips are all smooth and positive. Visor actuation is smooth and lifting the visor to scratch your nose or whatever while you ride is via a lip on the left of the Lexan Visor.
We had no problem through the day, even with gloves on.
Fit and finish is impressive.
Carbon Fibre is light, so the helmet feels light on your head.
The Helmet is naturally comfortable and snug. Here’s a tip. Make sure that you get the correct size. It must not be loose, but a very tight helmet leads to headaches and fatigue. Talk to your dealer and they will advise.
The fitting mechanism is via a D-Ring and there is a press snap to hold the loose strap in place while you ride.
How much venting would you like?
It has venting on your chin, the top of your forehead and there are exhaust vents out back. And they work well at keeping you cool.
It’s heading into winter up here on the highveld and you always expect your visor to fog over a bit in the chilly mornings. This one didn’t.
We opened the air vents and viz was perfect throughout the day and into the late evening.
When the sun gets too bright, the drop down inner visor does the trick.
This one is actuated via a lever on the top left of the helmet. Once you are used to it, it’s fairly intuitive and easy to operate. A drop down is far more sensible than a tinted visor that buggers up your viz as soon as it gets dark.
It’s still warm on the highveld and temperatures climbed through the day. There is nothing more unpleasant than a sweat-drenched lid.
At the lunch stop, the interior was not soggy, actually still pretty dry, which tells you that the fibres and materials used in the liners do their job keeping a rider comfortable.
During our ride, we chopped and changed between bikes and I found myself on the Indian Scout. Because of time, I did not bother to remove the peak (that’s very simple and coverts your helmet to a road helmet quickly) – and despite this, there was not a whole lot of buffeting from the wind.
Aerodynamically, they have nailed it.
Behind an ADV screen it’s even better.
So. In a nutshell, we really like what we have experienced so far.
No, we haven’t tried all the fittings for Go-Pro’s or intercoms just yet, and we also have not fitted the pinlock, we just used the helmet as a helmet and – nothing worse than buyers remorse, we are really impressed and happy with the purchase.
Go and have a look at your dealer, it’s a great option and in terms of functionality, fit and useability, it’s right up there with the best on the market.
The X-Wed range sells from R9995.00
At good dealers nationally.