Here at Motolegends we are not big on carbon helmets. Of course, they are lighter, but you will usually pay a huge premium to save maybe a hundred or so grams. Some people assume that, because MotoGP riders and Formula One drivers wear carbon-fibre helmets, they must be safer and more protective than composite helmets. But that is not the case. Carbon-fibre helmets are lighter; and that’s all.
But as long as somebody knows what they are buying, and why, that’s good enough for us. We will never upsell anybody from a standard C5 to a carbon one, but if you decide you want carbon, so be it.
But first let’s just recap on the C5. The C5 has been on the market for a couple of years now. It is in a different league to its predecessor, the disastrous C4. It is a good helmet. People like it. Bits don’t fall off it. It’s comfortable. It’s quiet. It doesn’t fog up unduly. The comms. facility is fantastic. And so on. The C5 has been a worthy competitor to the Neotec.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the C5 is the difficulty it presents in terms of getting a perfect fit. The situation is not helped by the fact that the C5 only comes in two shell sizes. We do, of course, applaud Schuberth for its decision to offer different thicknesses for the padding for the inside of the C5. But the fact that we can only offer custom fitting in three of the six sizes is disappointing. But, this aside, the C5 works. We have had a few minor quality-control issues, but nothing that causes undue concern. If the C5 fits you as it should, then it’s a great helmet.
Schuberth produce headwear for the military, for the emergency services, the police, and so on. But the company is particularly proud of its involvement in Formula One. All Schuberth's carbon helmets are made by hand by a small team of specialists in a dedicated facility. And it is indeed impressive, on one level, that you can buy a helmet in the shops that is produced by the same hands that make the carbon helmets for Formula One drivers. Each helmet shell is produced by one person who is tasked, inside four hours, to take the lazer-cut strips of carbon, intricately lay them within a carbon mould to create the shell, and then place it into the autoclave for curing. Given the technology involved, the expense of the materials, and the time it takes for a person to create a finished helmet, the price is perhaps not surprising. If one pays an extra £100 for a plain coloured Arai or Shoei to become one with a graphic, then the extra £500 for a carbon helmet made in this way perhaps doesn’t seem unreasonable. But we come at this from a different angle. What do you get from a thousand pound C5 that you don’t get from a £500 one? And in our view, the answer is not a lot really.
In the medium size, the C5 Carbon weighs 1460g.. And for a 22-06, flip which is prewired for comms., that is pretty impressive. That’s 200g. less than the standard helmet. Whether this will make much a difference to your average GS rider is another question.
Remember, nobody is pretending that the carbon model is more protective. Nobody is going to ever admit this, but one could be quite confident that the carbon helmet would be a tad noisier. And then there is the issue of the ‘talk distance’ on the comms.. Schuberth somewhat optimistically state 2 km for the standard helmet, but because the carbon shell acts as a barrier, they acknowledge that the talk distance on the C5 Carbon is just 700 metres. In both instances, we are talking here about best case scenarios.
But still, it cannot be denied that the C5 carbon is a work of art. The way the carbon panels are laid displays a level of artistry, and a mastery of this particular skill. The helmet does look beautiful. It’s an impressive bit of kit, and if this is important to you, then go for it. Why not?
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