One of the best helmets I’ve ever had was the now sadly unavailable Shark Evoline flip-front; Shark’s techno-update take on the classic up-and-over flip-front design. It was a more modern, more padded, quieter, and nowhere near as prone to steam up or get water droplets run down the inside of the visor version of the inspired design, and I had two or three of them over the years, all of which did sterling service – one protecting my head perfectly in an accident that could’ve proved fatal otherwise. Then, a wee while back, I noticed they’d quietly dropped the Evoline from their range, and was disappointed I’d not be able to get another.
Now, though, the spirit of the Evoline is back in an updated version of the helmet, renamed the OXO (no, I’m not sure why they’ve named it after a famous brand of stock cubes either…) which, name choice aside, is an excellent replacement for the older helmet. Made to the same exacting standards as their MotoGP helmets worn by Johann Zarco, Miguel Oliveria, and Raul Fernandez, it has an ingenious and ergonomic chin-guard system that allows a smooth and instant transition between open and full-face modes, and vice versa, with a simple movement of the hand.
With the chin-guard lifted, you get all the visibility and air-flow of a classic open-face helmet, plus a drop-down sun-visor to take the edge off the glare, and there’s a “P/J Lock” button that locks it back so that it can’t suddenly, during hard braking say, flip forwards obscuring your vision. And, with the ‘guard down, it locks in place to become a very safe full-face helmet for bad weather or higher speeds. The interior, like all good helmets these days, is removable and washable (who actually does that?), and there’re a number of included variants of cheek pads to get a perfect fit. There’re pockets for intercom system speakers so you can listen to music, or have the nice sat-nav lady on your phone talk to you, if you have a suitable head-unit. Once on it’s a comfortable fit (although at the time of writing I’ve yet to wear it on the bike cos it’s been absolutely feckin’ freezing since the beginning of the year), and the flip-release button’s easy to get to with gloves on, as is the sun-visor (which has five positions to help you keep the perfect view ahead), and the strap release.
What’s particularly attractive, at least to me anyway, is the fact that, finally, they sussed out that us mean n’ moody custom types don’t really want to stick our ‘eads in a stripy bucket, and offer the OXO in a choice of suitably dark colours (black, matt black, and matt green) as well as plain white and plain silver, and a range of restrained graphic options too. I, of course, opted for a matt black one because I’m nothing if not predictable… And very soon I’m hoping to the weather gets warmer enough (or at least above five degrees), so that I can try it out – I’ll update you as soon as I do!
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The Shark OXO comes in all the usual sizes, and in eight different colour options, and costs from £319.99 – get one from anywhere that stocks the Shark range or from Nevis Marketing’s website at www.nevis.uk.com
